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ROCO in SheSpace

Project,

Thanks to ROCO on the Go supporters:
Kathy and Ed Segner · Douglas and Cathy Selman · JoDee and Cliff Wright · Vivie O’Sullivan · Nancy Brown · Mary McBeth · Alexander, Bent, & Chi-Chi Johansen · Mary Ann and Mark Miller · Sharon Ley Lietzow · Mike Stude · Strake Foundation

Choose your own sound adventure while traveling! ROCO on the Go allows music lovers to listen to ROCO’s vast catalogue from anywhere! Each playlist features a different mood category of music to allow the listener to choose their mood.

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ROCO in International Festival USA

Blog, Project,

Thanks to ROCO on the Go supporters:
Kathy and Ed Segner · Douglas and Cathy Selman · JoDee and Cliff Wright · Vivie O’Sullivan · Nancy Brown · Mary McBeth · Alexander, Bent, & Chi-Chi Johansen · Mary Ann and Mark Miller · Sharon Ley Lietzow · Mike Stude · Strake Foundation

Choose your own sound adventure while traveling! ROCO on the Go allows music lovers to listen to ROCO’s vast catalogue from anywhere! Each playlist features a different mood category of music to allow the listener to choose their mood.

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ROCO in Houston Public Libraries

Project,

Thanks to ROCO on the Go supporters:
Kathy and Ed Segner · Douglas and Cathy Selman · JoDee and Cliff Wright · Vivie O’Sullivan · Nancy Brown · Mary McBeth · Alexander, Bent, & Chi-Chi Johansen · Mary Ann and Mark Miller · Sharon Ley Lietzow · Mike Stude · Strake Foundation

Choose your own sound adventure while traveling! ROCO on the Go allows music lovers to listen to ROCO’s vast catalogue from anywhere! Each playlist features a different mood category of music to allow the listener to choose their mood.

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ROCO in Baylor College of Medicine

Blog,

Choose your own sound adventure while traveling! ROCO on the Go allows music lovers to listen to ROCO’s vast catalogue from anywhere! Each playlist features a different mood category of music to allow the listener to choose their mood.

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ROCO in Asia Society Texas

Project,

Thanks to ROCO on the Go supporters:
Kathy and Ed Segner · Douglas and Cathy Selman · JoDee and Cliff Wright · Vivie O’Sullivan · Nancy Brown · Mary McBeth · Alexander, Bent, & Chi-Chi Johansen · Mary Ann and Mark Miller · Sharon Ley Lietzow · Mike Stude · Strake Foundation

Come along and relive ROCO’s Dust in Time Season 17 Connections Series concert featuring Huang Ruo’s A Dust in Time Passacaglia for Strings at Asia Society Texas Center, and also livestreamed at ROCO.org, Facebook, and YouTube. Structured similarly to a Tibetan sand mandala, the 60-minute uninterrupted musical meditation is slowly created live from the central essence point, expanding outward into colored fullness, then to be subtracted back to its origination. The cycle fulfills the spiritual journey of traveling from nothing (emptiness), to something (fullness), and back to nothing (emptiness).

ROCO in AIA Houston

Blog,

Choose your own sound adventure while traveling! ROCO on the Go allows music lovers to listen to ROCO’s vast catalogue from anywhere! Each playlist features a different mood category of music to allow the listener to choose their mood.

[ess_grid alias="playlists-v2"]

ROCO in AFM Local 65-699

Project,

Thanks to ROCO on the Go supporters:
Kathy and Ed Segner · Douglas and Cathy Selman · JoDee and Cliff Wright · Vivie O’Sullivan · Nancy Brown · Mary McBeth · Alexander, Bent, & Chi-Chi Johansen · Mary Ann and Mark Miller · Sharon Ley Lietzow · Mike Stude · Strake Foundation

Choose your own sound adventure while traveling! ROCO on the Go allows music lovers to listen to ROCO’s vast catalogue from anywhere! Each playlist features a different mood category of music to allow the listener to choose their mood.

[ess_grid alias="playlists-v2"]

Season 18 Announced!

ROCO News Releases,

Seven world premiere commissions outline ROCO’s 18th season, including a piece by Pulitzer Prize-winning composer William Bolcom to bring total commissions to 127
Adam Schoenberg serves as the season’s Composer-In-Residence
ROCO Concertmaster Scott St. John announced as second Artistic Partner with Mei-Ann Chen, taking on artistic planning with founder and artistic director Alecia Lawyer
Houston Youth Symphony partners with ROCO for final Albert and Margaret Alkek Foundation In Concert Series performance and masterclasses, and as ROCO Ushers (or Rushers) for the full In Concert series 



For 17 years, ROCO has fostered deep connections between musicians and audience members, and meaningfully brought our Houston community together, as only music can. 

Now, join us for an impactful 18th season entitled ‘Grateful’! We look forward to exploring even more ways to deepen relationships through music, as we welcome Concertmaster Scott St. John as Artistic Partner.

Joining current Artistic Partner Mei-Ann Chen, Scott St. John—who has served as ROCO’s concertmaster since 2012—will collaborate with Founder and Artistic Director Alecia Lawyer on programming. For ROCO’s 18th season, St. John will lead a “Conductorless” In Concert Series performance as concertmaster from the chair, and he’ll curate a chamber concert for the Unchambered Series at MATCH. He will also provide special chamber music coachings to the Houston Youth Symphony all season long, and we’ll finish the season with inviting members of the Houston Youth Symphony to perform with us side-by-side.

Underlining our season of gratefulness, our full chamber orchestra concerts are centered on themes of Family, Fortune, Friends, and Future. We’re also proud to share that all conductors of our In Concert Series will again be women: with Artistic Partner Mei-Ann Chen returning, and Delyana Lazarova and Michelle Merrill making their ROCO debuts!

With seven exciting new world premiere commissions, ROCO continues to engage living composers, adding to the repertoire. Premieres include a new guitar concerto by Michael Abels, featuring soloist Mak Grgic; a ROCO co-commission by Brian Raphael Nabors, as part of New Music USA’s Amplifying Voices program; a new work by Pulitzer and Grammy Award-winning composer, William Bolcom; and an orchestral piece by Juno award-winner Vivian Fung.

Our Connections Series will also feature our return to Heritage Society with our Musical Trick or Treat, as well as a salon at Rienzi with two new songs by Derek Bermel, based on texts by author Sandra Cisneros, and we’ll continue to take classical music to unexpected places with the return of favorites such as Yuletide Brunch & Brass at Houston Botanic Garden, and Beer & Brass at St. Arnold Brewing Company. We’ll also continue our collaborations with the Museum of Fine Arts Houston, and Asia Society Texas Center, in concerts curated by ROCO clarinetist Nathan Williams, and violinist Min-Jeong Koh. 

Our Unchambered Series, featuring ROCO musicians in self-curated intimate chamber concerts, will spotlight our Principal Bassoon Kristin Wolfe Jensen; Principal Trombone Thomas Hulten; and Concertmaster Scott St. John with violinist Pasha Sabouri, returning to MATCH (Midtown Arts & Theater Center Houston).

ROCO’s innovative QR Code project, ROCO on the Go, also continues to expand throughout Houston and beyond, to locations including Harris County Precinct 2’s parks, Houston Public Library, Baylor College of Medicine, University of Houston, Texas Southern University, and the 5th Ward Cultural Arts District. Reaching 27,000 scans of 250 codes placed in and around Houston, ROCO’s efforts emphasize the connection between music and every aspect of life, with playlists of music from past seasons available for free listening in every possible community.

As always, many of our concerts will be livestreamed and available to you anytime, anywhere for free, while we also invite all communities and ages into our musical conversation through programs such as ROCOrooters for kids, during and after some concerts.

As we emerge from the last couple of years, we find ourselves truly thankful for what we have, and what we get to create and experience through the global language of music. 

Of the season, Founder and Artistic Director Alecia Lawyer says, “I am personally full of so much gratitude to the Houston community and our worldwide livestream audience for being an integral part of ROCO. Saying ‘you complete us’ is exactly how we feel because ROCO making music is just the first part of this human equation. Thank you!”

ROCO 2022-23 SEASON

THE ALBERT AND MARGARET ALKEK FOUNDATION IN CONCERT SERIES

The Albert and Margaret Alkek Foundation In Concert Series, traversing themes of Family, Fortune, Friends, and Future, begins with the season-opener Family, performed at Miller Outdoor Theater on September 23, and at The Church of St. John the Divine on September 24, followed that evening by the annual ROCO Revelry Gala at Porsche River Oaks. Artistic Partner Mei-Ann Chen leads the orchestra in a widely varying program including Mariachitlán by Juan Pablo Contreras, featuring a mariachi band, the Vietnamese folk ballad Bèo dạt mây trôi, a world premiere guitar concerto by Michael Abels, and Beethoven’s Symphony No. 5.

On November 12, conductor Delyana Lazarova makes her ROCO debut in Fortune, featuring two ROCO world premiere commissions: William Bolcom’s Dedication, and Judah Adashi’s the sun begins to fade, along with Caroline Shaw’s Entr’acte for Strings, Adam Schoenberg’s Finding Rothko, and Haydn’s Military Symphony.

On February 18, Artistic Partner Scott St. John leads from the concertmaster’s chair in Friends, and also features as soloist on Samuel Coleridge-Taylor’s Keep Me from Sinking Down for violin and orchestra. Brian Raphael Nabors’ Upon Daybreak receives its premiere, co-commissioned as part of New Music USA’s Amplifying Voices Program along with four other orchestras, and completing the program are Dvorak’s Serenade for Strings, and Joachim Raff’s Sinfonietta.

On April 29, ROCO closes the season with Future, led by conductor Michelle Merrill in her ROCO debut, partnering with the Houston Youth Symphony for a side-by-side performance. Featured will be the premiere of a newly commissioned orchestral work by Vivian Fung, along with Louise Farrenc’s fiery Symphony No. 1, and Igor Stravinsky‘s Pulcinella Suite, closing with a look toward the future of classical music as the ROCO partners with the Houston Youth Symphony joins for a side-by-side performance, in Beethoven‘s overture to The Creatures of Prometheus.

UNCHAMBERED SERIES

This season’s Unchambered Series concerts will continue to be performed at MATCH (Midtown Arts & Theater Center Houston), curated by and featuring ROCO musicians, and presented in an intimate chamber music setting. The series begins on November 4th with a program by principal bassoonist Kristin Wolfe Jensen, featuring a premiere commission by Katherine Pukinskis, and Thomas Hulten, ROCO’s principal trombonist, will present a specially curated concert featuring works for brass on February 24. Concertmaster Scott St. John and violinist Pasha Sabouri close the series with music for strings, on April 1.

CONNECTIONS SERIES

ROCO’s Connections Series opens on October 20 at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, with Seen, a concert curated by ROCO’s principal clarinetist Nathan Williams and inspired by portraits and sculpture, presented in Brown Auditorium Theater and followed by a docent-led tour. A Musical Trick or Treat takes place on October 29, with ROCO soloists performing in the historic homes of The Heritage Society, as the audience travels house to house for a progressive concert. Yuletide Brunch & Brass celebrates the season with the ROCO Brass Quintet, held at the Houston Botanic Garden in December, and ROCO’s annual evening of Beer & Brass kicks off 2023, on January 12 at its traditional venue, Saint Arnold Brewing Company.

A House of My Own, originally scheduled for Season 17, will be presented on February 4th at Rienzi with two new songs by composer Derek Bermel and best-selling author Sandra Cisneros, based upon text from her novel The House on Mango Street, and performed by Cecilia Duarte. On March 23, Asia Society Texas Center will host From Here, There, and Nowhere, a chamber concert of works by Asian composers, curated by ROCO violinist Min-Jeong Koh.

CHRONOLOGICAL LISTING

September 23, 2022
Family | In Concert
Miller Outdoor Theatre

September 24, 2022
Family | In Concert
The Church of St. John the Divine

September 24, 2022
ROCO Revelry Gala
Porsche River Oaks

October 20, 2022
Seen | Connections
Museum of Fine Arts, Houston

October 29, 2022
Musical Trick or Treat | Connections
The Heritage Society

November 4, 2022
Kristin Wolfe Jensen, bassoon | Unchambered

November 12, 2022
Fortune | In Concert
The Church of St. John the Divine

December 2, 2022
Yuletide Brunch & Brass | Connections
Houston Botanic Garden

January 11, 2023
Beer & Brass | Connections
Saint Arnold Brewing Company

February 4, 2023
A House of My Own | Connections
Rienzi

February 18, 2023
Friends | In Concert
The Church of St. John the Divine

February 24, 2023
Thomas Hulten, trombone | Unchambered
MATCH

March 23, 2023
From Here, There, and Nowhere | Connections
Asia Society Texas Center

April 1, 2023
Concertmaster Scott St. John & Pasha Sabouri, violin  | Unchambered
MATCH

April 29, 2023
Future | In Concert
The Church of St. John the Divine

 

About ROCO

ROCO is a dynamic and innovative professional music ensemble that flexes from 1 to 40 players from all over the US and Canada, with guest artists from around the world. Performing intimate concerts in dozens of venues, ROCO’s musicians don’t just give concerts – they challenge preconceptions, create extraordinary experiences, and foster new relationships with audiences through the language of music.

ROCO’s debut album, Visions Take Flight, was recognized for a GRAMMY® Award for Producer of the Year, Blanton Alspaugh. Widely recognized for diversity in programming, a recent study from the Institute for Composer Diversity found ROCO is the number one ensemble in the US for performing the works of women and number two for performing the works of composers of color. Additionally, ROCO has the third-highest number of commissions in the United States and has premiered nearly 120 commissions from living composers. ROCO embraces technology, with free worldwide concert livestreams and real-time artist commentary via a smartphone app, as well as on-demand recordings of past concerts via popular music streaming services. A vital part of the community, ROCO concert DVDs are sent to nursing homes and hospitals to bring music to those immobile communities, and their music education/childcare program attracts multigenerational audiences.

Houston’s ROCO On the Go brings classical music into nature and beyond | Houston Chronicle

Media Features,

A brass quartet will debut composer Marcus Maroney’s ‘Interwoven’ at the Buffalo Bayou Park Cistern on Saturday.

ROCO concludes its 2021-22 season Saturday at a typically unorthodox location: the Buffalo Bayou Park Cistern. There, a brass quartet will debut composer Marcus Maroney’s “Interwoven,” a piece specifically designed to capitalize on the underground reservoir’s unique acoustics.

Steps away from the cistern lie the first examples of an innovative program that has since expanded across the city. Embedded at dozens of strategic locations around the park — and extending along the bayou all the way to Hidalgo Park, deep in the East End — are QR interfaces that link, via smartphone, selections from the local chamber orchestra’s vast library with anyone who happens to walk by.

Collectively known as ROCO On the Go, many of these QRs function as musical commentary to landmarks and other points of interest around the park. Some are droll, others more reflective. At the Waugh Drive bridge, where a colony of bats live, is a link to Turkish-American composer Erberk Eryilmaz’s “Flying Sirto,” which simply “sounds like a bat,” quips ROCO founder, artistic director and principal oboist Alecia Lawyer.

But next to the enormous word “Observe,” part of sculptor Anthony Thompson Shumate’s Monumental Moments series, is a QR link to 20th-century African American composer William Grant Still’s “Darker America,” a nudge “to make people think and observe what’s happening in our world,” Lawyer says. Others are equally evocative: Arnold Schoenberg’s “Varklarte Nacht” (transfigured night) at the Houston Police Officers Memorial, for example.

.

More Information:‘Interwoven’

When: Performances at 10 a.m., noon, 2, 4 and 6 p.m. May 7

Where: Buffalo Bayou Park Cistern, 105b Sabine

Details: Standby only; 713-665-2700; rocobackup.wpenginepowered.com

The project dates to “realizing everyone was trapped” by the pandemic, Lawyer says. With ROCO unable to perform for live audiences, her team began brainstorming ways to better utilize the wealth of recordings — more than 90 hours of music — the orchestra had stockpiled in its nearly 17 seasons. ROCO records all of its concerts, archives them in a “Listening Room” on its website and spends a good chunk of its budget to cover the publishing rights necessary to keep them online.

Once a digital marketing novelty that had been all but abandoned before the pandemic, the square-shaped avatars suddenly became invaluable to fields such as real estate, used-car sales and food service, where QR codes replaced restaurant takeout menus virtually overnight. Lawyer figured ROCO might be able to make them work, maybe somewhere outside, and reached out to a contact with Buffalo Bayou Partnership. Its first QR kiosks went online along the park’s trails in October 2020.

“I’m always looking forward and not backward, so it was really fun to go back and see the depth and richness of what was there,” Lawyer says.

Since then, ROCO has partnered with 10 other area organizations to sprinkle QRs around their facilities, a list that includes Harris County Precinct 2, Texas Southern University, Texas Children’s Hospital, The Menninger Clinic, Houston Botanic Gardens and ROCO’s home-base venue, the Church of St. John the Divine in River Oaks. The codes are not always as site specific as at Buffalo Bayou Park: Memorial Park visitors can choose between three playlists organized according to mood: Bold, Soothing, and Joyful. Lawyer says the staff at the Houston Arboretum & Nature Center is especially good about promoting their QRs, which match music to five different types of nature hikes.

The QRs simply link to a SoundCloud file in ROCO’s Listening Room. Once they’re up and running at a given location, ROCO staffers periodically visit the sites to check for missing and damaged codes; Lawyer says the program has expanded so much that one employee’s duties now largely consist of looking after it alone.

“There’s no end to this, and what I love is releasing this to other people’s creativity and other people’s ideas, letting other people have a say in how it’s manifesting,” she adds. “That’s what’s fun.”

ROCO On the Go recently expanded again to the Houston Public Library, where it distributed QR-affixed bookmarks to affiliated branches; and SPARK Parks, a network of school playgrounds that have been made available as community parks. Coming soon will be Baylor College of Medicine, the Fifth Ward Community Redevelopment Corporation, the Heritage Society at Sam Houston Park — part of Lawyer’s broader goal of ensuring ROCO provides “the soundtrack to Houston.”

“I guess what’s fun is (how) Houston can use us to show what Houston can produce, like the entrepreneurialism and the arts here,” she says. “It’s not just ROCO. It’s about our city and the arts that are here, and the businesses that are here, and the innovations that are here. You can use us to show that in a way that’s very different. That’s exciting to me, too.”

Chris Gray is a Galveston-based writer.

Source: Houston’s ROCO On the Go brings classical music into nature and beyond

ROCO at 18: A Season to be Grateful | Arts & Culture Texas

Media Features,

ROCO is everywhere. In its 18th season, this industry-changing chamber orchestra from Houston has reached well beyond the walls of the traditional concert space, laying down a vibrant and diverse soundtrack for an entire city.

Since the 2020 launch of its innovative collaboration with Buffalo Bayou Partnership, in which QR codes at specific landmarks along the trails were linked to music chosen from the ensemble’s 16 years of live performance recordings, ROCO has sought to expand this free musical offering to every part of the city. “Access is our number one value,” says Alecia Lawyer, Founder and Artistic Director of ROCO.

“What’s interesting is every next iteration has been different,” explains Lawyer. “The Houston Arboretum asked us to make a playlist for each of their five nature walks, delivered on their website and on their map.” The Houston Public Library will be distributing bookmarks with a general QR code to the ROCO Listening Room. Texas Children’s Hospital has QR access to ROCO’s mood-based playlists. Memorial Park and Houston Botanic Garden will have a combination of playlists and site-specific pieces.

Lawyer is happiest about the QR code signage in the Precinct 2 (Adrian Garcia) parks. Fifty-one parks, some in Houston’s most underserved neighborhoods, will have direct access to ROCO’s diverse playlists. “We are delivering music composed by women and black composers, and it’s not just one or two. We have over 30 pieces by composers of color. It’s exciting that this could be people’s first experience with any classical music ever, and it’s not Mozart at all.” It doesn’t stop there. “There’s no end to how we can manifest this in our city and frankly world-wide,” exclaims Lawyer. “I want to slap something on the next thing Elon Musk puts into space!”

Before blasting off into space though, ROCO is set to launch Season 18 here at home, putting a forte on the word “grateful.” The four main concerts consider what the ensemble is grateful for—family, fortune, friends, and future.

The opening concert on Sept. 23, 2022 at Miller Outdoor Theater, conducted by ROCO Artistic Partner Mei-Ann Chen, features Jose Longoria’s University of Houston Pumas Mariachi Band in a performance of Mariachitlán, Mexican composer Juan Pablo Contreras’ vibrant orchestral homage to the birthplace of mariachi. The concert will also include the beautiful Vietnamese folk ballad Beo dat may troi and a ROCO world premiere commission by black composer Michael Abels—a guitar concerto to be performed by Slovenian guitarist Mak Grgic. Beethoven’s fateful 5th Symphony rounds out the program.

What better place to gather with family than Miller Outdoor Theater, which will be celebrating its 100th Anniversary next year. “I wanted the concert to be about Houston,” reflects Lawyer. “Everything on the program shows Houston and the family that we are. We are grateful for that family.”

Bulgarian-born conductor Delyana Lazarova will make her ROCO debut on November 12 in a concert that features two ROCO world premiere commissions, Judah Adashi’s the sun begins to fade and William Bolcom’s Dedication.

ROCO Composer-in-Residence Adam Schoenberg’s 2006 work Finding Rothko, inspired by a group of paintings at MoMA by the singular American Abstract Expressionist, seems the perfect complement to Houston’s iconic black-hued Rothkos. The four movements, titled “Orange,” “Yellow,” “Red,” and “Wine,” are linked by a three-chord motif the composer has labeled “Rothko’s theme.” Later in the season, ROCO will premiere Schoenberg’s passion project, a companion piece to Copland’s Appalachian Spring, at the Rothko Chapel.

Perhaps the most significant and poignant moment will come when the ensemble performs William Bolcom’s Dedication, a piece the composer sketched for ROCO, but orchestrated by his student Edmund Cionek. Bolcom, one of the most influential and beloved American composers of his generation, is not composing very much, if at all, any more. From art songs to opera, ragtime to the avant-garde, the breadth of Bolcom’s oeuvre is immense. “We are so fortunate to have been able to commission perhaps one of the last works by Bolcom,” says Lawyer.

ROCO has announced long-time Concertmaster Scott St. John as its second Artistic Partner. He will be leading the orchestra for the Conductorless concert on February 18, 2023. As part of New Music USA’s Amplifying Voices initiative, which facilitates co-commissions by BIPOC composers, ROCO will premiere Brian Nabors’ Upon Daybreak, a work inspired by Maya Angelou’s poem “A Brave, Starting Truth.” Nabors’ piece imagines a world “without hatred and malice,” an utopian sound world that “engulfs the listener with abundant joy.”

Scott St. John will solo in Samuel Coleridge-Taylor’s beautiful setting of the well-known spiritual “Keep Me from Sinking Down,” for violin and orchestra. ROCO strings will shine in Dvorak’s Serenade for Strings and ROCO winds will star in Joachim Raff’s Sinfonietta.

The final mainstage concert of the season (April 29, 2023) looks to the future. A side-by-side performance with the Houston Youth Symphony (HYS) will open the concert. This new partnership with HYS goes beyond one concert. Young musicians will receive chamber music coachings throughout the year, and have the opportunity to connect with audiences at concert events through ROCO Rushers.

The concert will feature the world premiere of Anthony DiLorenzo’s commissioned work, based on Lois Stark’s visionary book The Telling Image: Shapes of Changing Times. “Lois Stark is a brilliant mind,” says Lawyer. “When I talk to her I see a vast universe in her eyes.” In the book, Stark argues that the shapes a society imposes upon its environment are indicative of the way it views the world. Stark crystallizes our collective history and future into shapes—web, ladder, helix, network, torus, reflecting on our search for pattern and meaning.

Works by two women composers, Vivian Fung and Louise Farrenc, completes the program. Dallas native Michelle Merrill, having most recently served as Associate Conductor of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, conducts. “We have all women conductors this season, again,” muses Lawyer. “It just happened that way. We have 8 women now on our team. The future is female.”

With a slew of ROCO Connections and Unchambered concerts in various Houston locations, Asia Society, Rothko Chapel, Rienzi, Heritage Society, MFAH, St. Arnold’s Brewery, MATCH and more, ROCO continues to have a strong presence in its hometown. But its reach is truly global. Live-streaming since 2013, long before the pandemic forced every performing arts organization to do so, ROCO is heard around the world. “We’ve had a quarter of a million views of our concerts just over the COVID pandemic,” says Lawyer. “And we’ve been streamed in every continent except Antarctica.”

—SHERRY CHENG

Source: ROCO at 18: A Season to be Grateful

ROCO in Houston Botanic Garden

Project,

Thanks to ROCO on the Go supporters:
Kathy and Ed Segner · Douglas and Cathy Selman · JoDee and Cliff Wright · Vivie O’Sullivan · Nancy Brown · Mary McBeth · Alexander, Bent, & Chi-Chi Johansen · Mary Ann and Mark Miller · Sharon Ley Lietzow · Mike Stude · Strake Foundation

ROCO in Houston Botanic Garden – weaving our music through the landscape, providing a soundtrack for Houston!

Join ROCO in our partnership with Houston Botanic Garden, and scan the QR codes placed throughout the Garden to experience an aural tour of flora, fauna, and weather, featuring music from our fifteen years of live performance recordings.

We took a playful approach to curation, pairing music with plants and gardens in both predictable and unexpected ways. Throughout the Global Collection Garden, many of our selections were chosen to align with the represented cultures and countries  and the composers’ ethnicity or experiences in those regions. In other areas of the garden, pieces were paired based upon physical attributes of the plants and the mood or style of the music. We’re honored to bring you this 360 degree multi-sensory journey in the Garden – tag us at #ROCOintheGarden to share your experiences!

ROCO - River Oaks Chamber Orchestra

 

 

 

 

1. The Rainforest 

2. Asian Hillside

3. Savanna

4. Tropical Heart

5. Mediterranean Garden

6. The Dewdrop

7. Confetti Garden

8. Arid Valley

9. Botanists’ Alley

10. Corner of Curiosity

11. Bamboo Forest

12. Pollinator Garden

13. Musical Notes Plant

14. Liss LaFleur, “Mother”

15. Spiraling Plants

16. Lina Dib, “Weather Station”

Welcome Back to Connection!

Blog,

Togetherness & Connection | ROCOMake a DonationDear ROCO Supporter,

Welcome back to connection!
[caption id="attachment_7515" align="alignright" width="400"]Violinist Mary Reed, Leslye Weaver, violinist Ben Grube
Mary Reed, violin; Leslye Weaver; Ben Grube, violin
Photo credit: Ray Kugler
[/caption]

As a ROCO supporter, you are the thread that ties us together, enabling us to weave music throughout Houston and beyond. 

Amidst an ever-changing world, ROCO continues to steadily grow, connecting audiences with classical music through personal relationships. We thrive on every opportunity to bring you closer to the musicians, conductors, and people who make up the fabric of ROCO.

Whether it’s providing free access to livestream performances worldwide or offering our music at a partner location for ROCO on the GO, we remain connected, bringing music to you where you are. 

Your generosity makes it possible for ROCO to continue forging a path for connectivity in our world.

Consider making a gift before the end of the year that supports our annual operating fund. With your help, we aim to surpass the many milestones set last season:

250,000 - the number of views of livestream performances lasst season

15,000 - The number of scans of ROCO on the Go QR codes

25 - Partnerships created through ROCO on the Go

 

Above all, your gift supports personal connection through classical music.

Thank you for joining this journey with ROCO!

The ROCO Team

Make a Donation

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