Star-Spangled Smash: Music, McConaughey and Apple Pie at Record-Breaking Symphony Opening Night

Ann Ayre, Elia Gabbanelli and Alice Mao Brams in red, white and blue (photo by Jacob Power)

By Jeff Gremillion

Houston’s social and civic set marked America’s 250th the way this city likes to do it: with a marching band, a red carpet and a sold-out night at Jones Hall.

More than 450 guests turned out for the Houston Symphony’s Opening Night Concert and Gala, the black-tie kickoff to the 2026-27 season. Chaired by Joella and Steven P. Mach, the evening doubled as a patriotic pageant and a record fundraiser, bringing in more than $850,000 for the orchestra’s education, community engagement and artistic programs. ConocoPhillips underwrote the concert and served as lead corporate gala underwriter for the 40th consecutive year.

The night started at Lynn Wyatt Square, where champagne and Pantalones Organic Tequila — the label from Matthew and Camila McConaughey — met a Texas-sized entrance. The University of Houston Spirit of Houston Cougar Marching Band worked the pavilion, then led a processional across Louisiana Street and into Jones Hall.

Inside, Principal POPS Conductor Steven Reineke built a program around the American story. Grammy Award-winning mezzo-soprano Isabel Leonard shared the stage, and McConaughey, the Academy Award-winning Texas native, narrated Aaron Copland’s “Lincoln Portrait,” speaking Lincoln’s own words from letters and speeches. The rest of the bill stretched from George Gershwin to six living American composers, with composer Karen LeFrak in the house.

Swift dressed the rooms in understated reds meant to recall the poppy, the old emblem of remembrance. Preisler Productions handled the staging.

After the concert, the party moved to Corinthian Houston, where members of the Alexander Hodge Chapter of the Sons of the American Revolution greeted guests on the grand staircase and Rice University’s Fiammetta Quartet played. City Kitchen sent out Helen Corbitt’s chilled pea soup with jumbo lump crab, crème fraîche and mint, then a dual entrée of prime aged beef tenderloin medallions in red wine demi-glace with creamed spinach-stuffed tomatoes and pan-seared semi-boneless quail in country captain sauce, plus warm red bliss potato salad with smoked bacon and scallions. Lindy and John Rydman and Lisa Rydman Lindsey of Spec’s Wines, Spirits & Finer Foods poured the wine. Dessert was apple pie with vanilla ice cream and caramel.

The last word belonged to the Moores School Concert Chorale, which surprised the room with “Shenandoah” and “America the Beautiful,” led by Houston Symphony Chorus Director Anthony J. Maglione, and brought the crowd to its feet.

VIP guests included Khoa and Quynh Dao, Barbara and Pat McCelvey, Margaret Alkek Williams, John and Lindy Rydman, Sippi and Ajay Khurana, Betty and Jesse Tutor, Elia and Michael Gabbanelli, Ann and Jonathan Ayre, Beth Madison, Katie and Bob Orr, Tracy and Valerie Dieterich, Brigitte Kalai, Hallie Vanderhider and Bobby Dees, Cheryl Byington, Jacquie Baly and James Craig, Rini and Edward Ziegler, Yoonshin Song and Alex Sakerello, and Chris and Kristy Bradshaw.