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ROCO on the Go: The Vannie E. Cook Jr. Children’s Cancer and Hematology Center

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

¡Experimente su propia aventura musical! ¡ROCO on the Go le permite a los amantes de la música escuchar el vasto catálogo de presentaciones pasadas de ROCO desde cualquier lugar! Cada lista de reproducción incluye una categoría de música diferente para que el oyente pueda elegir según su estado de ánimo.

Choose your own sound adventure! 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 on the Go: Harris County Precinct 2 Parks & Trails

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 on the Go: Texas Children’s Cancer and Hematology Center

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! 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"]

Support ROCO’s Newest Adventure!

Blog,

Dear ROCO Supporter,

Did you know you can access ROCO anywhere you go? Over fifteen years, with your incredible support, we have invested in performances, recordings and rights to music to enable you and so many others to have free access to our massive listening room anytime, anywhere. We have already been live streaming for seven years directly to your living room for free, plus all of our performances are available for free listening on all streaming platforms for you to enjoy wherever and whenever you want.

And now…we have launched our latest adventure:

ROCO on Buffalo Bayou: A Musical Scavenger Hunt

40 QR codes that point to pieces in our listening room, curated for stops along the trails that you can discover while walking or biking. The codes link to a huge variety of 15 years of live performance recordings, many of which are pieces that were commissioned by ROCO.

Immersive experiences like this are just the start! Your gift creates interactive listening opportunities that are free to access anywhere, shaping the future of classical music.

Will you consider making a contribution to support ROCO’s next adventure?

The road ahead is filled with musical discoveries. Help us to continue to weave music through the Houston landscape today!

Thank you!

The ROCO Team

 

ROCO on the Go is dramatically expanding in the next six months.

Committed partners include:

Texas Children’s Hospital Cancer & Hematology Centers

Harris County Precinct 2 Parks System

Menninger Clinic (mental health)

Houston Botanic Garden 

Texas Southern University

 Houston Arboretum

University of St. Thomas

Architecture Center Houston

Would you please consider supporting ROCO’s ongoing efforts to provide this unprecedented free access to our music?

Buffalo Bayou’s new soundtrack is heard in landscape thanks to ROCO | Houston Chronicle Preview

Media Features,

Allison Bagley, Staff Writer October 21, 2020Updated: October 22, 2020, 12:01 pm

Jill Jarvis has a goal of one outdoor outing a day with her four children.

Earlier this month, the local blogger added an interactive soundtrack to the family’s regular stroll along the Buffalo Bayou trails. The Jarvises parked as they always do near the Sabine Street bridge, setting off in search of ROCO’s new QR-coded musical stops along the bayou.

The local professional orchestra teamed with Buffalo Bayou Partnership to create a set list of 40 performance pieces, chosen for specific landmarks, points of interest and public art along the trails.

Following the mobile-optimized map, Jarvis and her children found their way to a small black placard at Down Periscope. Jarvis hovered her phone over the QR code and “Visions From Another World” began to play.

The kids spontaneously began to dance, she says, then ran to find the next QR code. Weaving through Vale-Asche Foundation Spring and Monumental Moments’ massive letters that spell out words such as “listen” and “emerge,” they made a game out of moving their bodies to different sounds, “which was sort of funny because that’s not usually what we do on our walks,” Jarvis says.

The hunt added a new element to their daily exercise, Jarvis says. “It made it more exciting, especially for the little kids who aren’t always up for the long walk. This was a good opportunity to do something fun away from crowds and in the sunshine.”

ROCO on Buffalo BayouWhen: Through Dec. 31

Details: rocobackup.wpenginepowered.com

OMG listen to this

For the new music installation, ROCO — formerly known as River Oaks Chamber Orchestra — tapped into its online archive of live recordings throughout the organization’s 15-year history.

Some of the pairings are playful.

For instance, at the Waugh Drive Bridge, where a bat colony is located, visitors will find the code for “Flying Sirto” by Erberk Eryilmaz, a Turkish composer who lives in Houston.

“There’s a lot of humor,” says ROCO founder and artistic director Alecia Lawyer of her team’s choices.

She thinks kids will get a kick out of the selection at the Lee and Joe Jamail Skatepark. Alexander Miller’s “ROCOmoji” is a song composed with a different emoji for each note, and he named the second movement “OMG.”

Lawyer’s children helped her pair the concerto, featuring sounds of the oboe and bassoon, with the municipal skateboarding park. “We use emojis in so many different ways that we understand instantaneously,” Lawyer explains, noting the range of emotions that emojis express, including greed, loneliness and anger.

“It’s a pretty special piece, actually,” says Lawyer, a Juilliard School grad.

For music stops that extend all the way to Hidalgo Park and Sesquicentennial Park, her team wanted to be “very specific” about choosing pieces that show the diversity of Houston. The selections include 13 of ROCO’s world-premiere works, making for a compilation that is “really, truly living composers and music of your time,” she says.

At “Spindle” at Fondren Foundation Meadow, visitors will hear “Anthem of Hope,” a piece ROCO originally performed in the aftermath of Hurricane Harvey, now repurposed, Lawyer says, in appreciation of the heroes of COVID-19.

“What I really love is the representation of not just Houston people but the zeitgeist of Houston and who we are as a city.”

At-home concerts

The trail is part of ROCO’s initiative to “reach people where they are now,” Lawyer says. This season, ROCO’s performances are livestreamed for free, and the children’s education programming, called ROCOrooters, has also moved online.

For each performance, children are provided with e-materials to use while they listen with their parents. A week later, a virtual class takes a deeper dive into select pieces. Recent classes have featured drum-making crafts and interactives that teach the fundamentals of rhythm.

Lawyer feels that music is vital during this time of crisis to help listeners of all ages process emotion.

“There are a lot of words that can’t be said right now, and people feel they can’t even verbalize what they’re feeling or what they need,” she says. “I’ve always felt that music is the groaning of the spirit.”

Allison Bagley is a Houston-based writer.

Source: Buffalo Bayou’s new soundtrack is heard in landscape thanks to ROCO

Houston’s ROCO teaches children how to listen to classical music | Houston Chronicle Preview

Media Features,

The chamber orchestra is getting children interested in the form with its ROCOrooters program.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="700"]Children attend a concert as part of ROCO's ROCOrooters program. Photo: ROCO Children attend a concert as part of ROCO’s ROCOrooters program. Photo: ROCO[/caption]

Chris Gray September 28, 2020 Updated: September 28, 2020, 5:14 pm

For proof, offers ROCO founder Alecia Lawyer, look no further than the chair of the organization’s board of directors.

“(His) kids started going to ROCOrooters when they were itty-bitty, and now they’re up in the balcony with him in junior high,” she says. “They’re reading a book while they listen, but I don’t care.”

With ROCOrooters, instead of hiring a babysitter, patrons at ROCO’s concerts — and frequently the musicians themselves — drop their kids off with Keisha Twitchell, who took over the program in 2016. Eventually, they will be escorted into the concert space to watch one or two of the pieces on the evening’s program.

Before (or sometimes after) that happens, Twitchell might teach the kids some rudimentary music theory, help them with a dance or art project, or, if possible — ROCO does a lot of world premieres — highlight a few examples from the pieces they’re about to hear. Much of it is centered around learning about the sounds different instruments make — “kids find that very exciting,” Twitchell says.

ROCOrootersWhen: 10 a.m. Oct. 3

Details: Free; rocobackup.wpenginepowered.com

Naturally, light refreshments are provided.

“I have a family, I want my children to learn more about the arts, and about music, and I would like to bring them to concerts but sitting through a very long, formal classical-music concert is a bit much for three wiggly boys,” says Twitchell, who also teaches music at Park Place Elementary in HISD.

“So to be able to have an option for them to come to part of it and hear music that is contemporary, engaging, and fun, and then go back and kind of decompress and talk about what they heard, what they saw, I think it really is a unique program in itself,” she adds. “I’m proud to work for something so innovative and unique.”

One especially memorable lesson for her came when ROCO performed the Háry János Suite by 20th-century Hungarian composer Zoltán Kodály. The piece generously deploys the cimbalom, a dulcimer-like folk instrument that can also be heard in the opening-title sequence to the 2009 film “Sherlock Holmes.”

“The lesson plan I created we looked at images, we listened to some sound clip examples, (and) we looked at other traditional instruments from some other surrounding European countries, because they’re not the same instruments you see and hear about all the time,” says Twitchell.

She also made up a “stompy” dance to accompany the piece, she adds.

All of the above is what goes on during normal times, however. Now that ROCO will be doing their entire upcoming season virtually, Twitchell has been preparing to create a series of videos that outline similar concepts as her in-person lessons. They will be posted on Saturday mornings following selected performances in ROCO’s In Concert and Unchambered series; the first goes up Oct. 3.

One idea Twitchell has hit on so far is to illustrate the connections between music and literature.

“My mom’s a librarian and I grew up reading, so music and literature and poetry always seem to just make sense together,” she says. “The concert is all about music and light and color, so I plan on bringing ‘My Many-Colored Days’ by Dr. Seuss and having them move with color and talk about color and emotions, and how all of these things just kind of come together.”

When it comes to discussing ROCO’s many brand-new pieces — which kind of put her on the spot from an educator’s standpoint — Twitchell says she’s looking forward to telling her students things like “this piece was written the year you were born,” or perhaps linking the music with kid-friendly current events such as the space program. She’s also glad to see so many female composers represented in the orchestra’s repertoire.

“I studied as a French horn player in college and it was all dead white guys, so it’s really neat to listen (to) and see other women,” she says. “It’s very inspiring to see such an upcoming field in classical music, which tends to celebrate music that has gone on way before us.

“As beautiful as that music is, and as much as I love it, it’s so amazing to see and hear music happening in my day and age, and to share that with young children,” she adds.

Something else Twitchell hopes to get across in her videos is the idea that anyone can be a musician, whether or not they can afford expensive lessons.

“They can be their own musician as long as they just give it a try,” she says. “So for them to have the confidence to create their own music, and that music can help them find calm in otherwise chaotic moments in their lives — those are the things that I want my students to take home.”

Chris Gray is a Galveston-based writer.

Music in the Air — This ROCO Gala Breaks New Ground in Virtual Fun | PaperCity Magazine

Media Features,

A Most Original World Premiere

BY // 09.28.20
[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="599"]ROCO rehearses at the Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion in The Woodlands ROCO rehearses at the Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion in The Woodlands[/caption]

 

Planning virtual fundraising events is no easy task and honestly not very promising on delivering interest. That said, meeting the challenge in style over the weekend was ROCO (previously known as River Oaks Chamber Orchestra) which aired its live performance from Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion in The Woodlands. It was a first in many ways.

ROCO, which presents performances across the city in such diverse locations as Saint Arnold Brewery, Rienzi  and Holocaust Museum Houston, made its debut in the open-air pavilion. All 40 members of the orchestra participated in the prelude to the 16th season, which due to COVID-19 will be virtual.

Guests viewed the Revelry-themed evening from their homes while feasting on a scrumptious dinner courtesy of Berg Hospitality Group restaurants — Annie Cafè & Bar, B&B Butchers, B.B. Italia— with the menu created by renowned chef Robert Del Grande. Accompanying wine was procured through personal recommendation of Mike Muna and through Dionysus Imports. And top end donors received at-home decor from Swift + Company.

The concert featured the world premiere of Jessie Montgomery’s Starburst,Debussy’s Claire de Lune, and the overture to Fauré’s Masques et bergamasques. These were excerpts from the live streaming of the opening concert of the season, which followed on Saturday night.

“It was a critical element for us to incorporate live performance into the evening,” ROCO founder and artistic director Alecia Lawyer said. “Because we’ve been live streaming for years and recording since we started 15 years ago, it was the only way to invite our guests into what we truly do, making classical music fun, lively and completely accessible.”

Two super nova philanthropists in the city’s arts world, Kelley Lubanko and Leigh Smith, chaired the evening that saw participation by 250, many of whom joined together at various homes for viewing dinner parties. Taking bows as honorees were John Bradshaw, recognized for his role in advancing ROCO’s reputation as an elite arts organization, and retired Houston Ballet principal Lauren Anderson, who was presented the second annual Wildcatting in the Arts Award.

After the live stream, guests transitioned to virtual Zoom tables and were joined by ROCO musicians. The night concluded with a recorded performance of ROCO’s signature piece, the triumphant “Anthem of Hope” composed by Anthony DiLorenzo and commissioned by ROCO.

Among those dining out across the city and applauding ROCO musicians were Stephanie and Frank Tsuru, Phoebe and Bobby Tudor, Kelli and John Weinzierl, Susan Whitfield, Nancy Allen, Betty Hrncir, Julie and Stephen Chen, Cabrina and Stephen Owsley, Duyen and Marc Nguyen, Isla and Tommy Reckling, and Drew Helmer with Salil Deshpande.

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="599"]5. Chris and Kristy Bradshaw ROCO virtual gala Chris & Kristy Bradshaw[/caption]
[caption id="attachment_6807" align="aligncenter" width="1024"] Duyen & Marc Nguyen[/caption]
[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="599"]10. Ali and Frank Donnelly ROCO virtual gala Ali and Frank Donnelly[/caption]
[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="599"]ROCO virtual gala Kevin and Kate McGrory, Stephen and Julie Chen, Valerie Dietrich, Ting Bresnahan, Marian McCarty Kevin and Kate McGrory, Stephen and Julie Chen, Valerie Dietrich, Ting Bresnahan, Marian McCarty[/caption]
[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="599"]11. Shawn Stephens, Jim Jordan ROCO virtual gala Shawn Stephens, Jim Jordan[/caption]
[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="599"]12. Phoebe and Robert Tudor ROCO virtual gala Phoebe and Robert Tudor[/caption]
[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="599"]ROCO performing at the Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion ROCO performing at the Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion[/caption]
[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="599"]3. Kelley and Stephen Lubanko ROCO virtual gala Kelley and Stephen Lubanko[/caption]
[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="599"]2. Leigh and Reggie Smith ROCO virtual gala Leigh and Reggie Smith[/caption]
[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="599"]ROCO virtual gala Alicia and Lance Smith enjoying their fully virtual evening and food delivered by Berg Hospitality Alicia and Lance Smith enjoying their fully virtual evening and food delivered by Berg Hospitality[/caption]
[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="599"]ROCO performing at the Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion, bandoneon soloist Richard Solist ROCO performing at the Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion. Bandoneon soloist, Richard Scofano.[/caption]
[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="599"]ROCO virtual gala Floral Decor delivered to Top Tables by Swift + Company ROCO virtual gala Floral Decor delivered to Top Tables by Swift + Company[/caption]

Source: Music in the Air — This ROCO Gala Breaks New Ground in Virtual Fun | PaperCity Magazine

Houston’s ROCO: definitely not your parents’ chamber orchestra | Houston Chronicle Preview

Media Features,

With its emphasis on new technology and diverse programming – ranging from a work by a Public Enemy producer to an Aztec folk tale – the orchestra is ahead of the cultural curve.
Chris Gray September 22, 2020Updated: September 23, 2020, 3:16 pm
ROCO’s leader thinks classical music could use more of the Williams twins, the Indiana brothers who have rocketed to YouTube fame thanks to their first-listen critiques of classic pop and rock songs, most famously Phil Collins’ “In the Air Tonight.”

“I’m completely obsessed, and I love it because they’re so open,” says Alecia Lawyer, who founded the former River Oaks Chamber Orchestra in 2005. “They’re completely open to receiving whatever they’re hearing.”

Lawyer, an oboist, relishes the unconventional. Lately she’s been making cardboard cutouts of donors for Friday’s all-virtual ROCO Revelry kickoff gala. She estimates her variable-size orchestra has performed in at least 30, and perhaps as many as 50, venues across the area, including Holocaust Museum Houston and Saint Arnold’s Brewery.

During their upcoming season, which begins Sept. 26, that list will expand to the Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion and, eventually, the Lynn Wyatt Theater in MFAH’s brand-new Kinder Building.

ROCO: Starburst

When: 5 p.m. Sept. 26

Details: Free at rocobackup.wpenginepowered.com

The new season, dubbed “Color and Light,” will also tack on several more world-premiere compositions to the nearly 100 works which, according to its website, ROCO has commissioned since its inception. The most recent study by the Institute of Composer Diversity, based out of the State University of New York at Fredonia, places ROCO in the upper echelon of U.S. orchestras regarding the freshness and diversity of its repertoire.

During last season, according to the study, 73 percent of ROCO’s programming was written by living composers, as well as 32 percent by female composers and 27 percent by composers from underrepresented racial and ethnic backgrounds. Cultivating long-term relationships with living composers obviously has its upside.

As Lawyer says, “You can’t Zoom with Beethoven.”

Additionally, thanks to the largess of ROCO’s sponsors and donors, the orchestra is able to meet the necessary performance-rights and licensing fees that enable it to archive its performances of these composers’ works on its website.

“It’s really vital for living composers to have access to their performances (of their works),” she adds. “I feel like it’s going to be able to hopefully show how we already are thriving in the digital space.”

ROCO has already been livestreaming most of its concerts for seven years, so its ease with technology will come in handy this season. Each concert in its three series — In Concert, Unchambered, and Connections — will be held without a live audience and streamed free to the public. That decision may have been forced on the orchestra by the pandemic, but Lawyer prefers to see it as an opportunity to reach an even greater number of people.

“I just feel like things needed to shake up, and I’m sad that it’s this kind of way,” Lawyer says, “but I do see there’s some real potential to really show the vibrancy of the arts in a way that hasn’t been done before.”

This season’s world premieres include Argentinian-born composer Richard Scofano’s concerto for the accordionlike bandoneon, centerpiece of the “Starburst” season opener; a Day of the Dead-inspired piece by Kerwin Young, a member of Public Enemy’s production team the Bomb Squad; and Indian American composer Reena Esmail’s “The History of Red,” set to a text by the Chickasaw poet Linda Hogan. A triptych from this season’s composer-in-residence, Alyssa Morris, will include a work based on the children’s book “Musicians of the Sun,” which is adapted from an Aztec folktale.

Keying off a recently discovered recording of hers at MFAH’s decorative-arts house museum Rienzi (a frequent ROCO venue), February’s Connections concert will be devoted to the music of Margaret Bonds. The late pianist and composer became the first Black woman to perform with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra in 1934 and later frequently collaborated with Langston Hughes.

A big part of ROCO’s game plan is to destigmatize contemporary classical music, which is often wrongfully written off as “inaccessible.” But in an age when many 20- and 30-somethings have no idea who Mozart was, or think that Bach is still alive (the shocking results of a UK survey last year), Lawyer sees a chance to restore some pizzazz to an unnecessarily esoteric art form.

“It’s really just about ‘let me present music to you that I’m so passionate about that when I play it you’re going to receive something, even if it’s something you don’t like,’” she says of ROCO’s approach.

And it is OK to not like something, she emphasizes.

“I think if people feel like they have permission to not like it and not know why — they can’t explain it because they don’t have the verbiage — it’s fine; they don’t have to know why,” she says. “I think if you get that permission, you feel like you can receive something in a different way.”

Just like those Williams twins. Somebody ought to send them some ROCO livestreams.

Chris Gray is a Houston-based writer.

Source: Houston’s ROCO: definitely not your parents’ chamber orchestra

ROCO on Buffalo Bayou

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 on Buffalo Bayou – weaving our music through the landscape, providing a soundtrack for Houston!

 

Explore forty stops along the trails of the Buffalo Bayou Partnership, with ROCO providing the soundtrack to its landmarks and public art. Just scan the QR code and you’ll be taken to a page corresponding to each landmark or art piece, with a paired music selection from ROCO’s fifteen years of live performance recordings, curated by the ROCO team. #ROCOBuffaloBayou

ROCO - River Oaks Chamber Orchestra“We can now physically weave our music through our community, providing a soundtrack for Houston! ROCO has always offered our recordings for free listening, and now you can also enjoy the wonders of Buffalo Bayou while on a musical scavenger hunt.” – Alecia Lawyer, Founder, Artistic Director, and Oboist.

To locate the QR stops, please see the Google map below. If viewing on a mobile device, you may need to download the Google Maps app. You can also hear the music we’ve paired with each landmark by scrolling below the map, but we encourage you to visit the Bayou and find the QR codes in person!

1. Shepherd Gateway

2. Hildebrand Foundation Meadow

3. Scurlock Foundation Overlook

4. Jackson Hill Bridge

5. Reflect – Monumental Moments, Anthony Thompson Shumate, 2015

6. Green Tree Nature Area

7. Zane and Brady Carruth Overlook

8. Carruth Bridge

9. Houston Police Officers’ Memorial

10. Passage Inachevé, Linnea Glatt and Francis Thompson, 1990

11. Explore – Monumental Moments, Anthony Thompson Shumate, 2015

12. Vale-Asche Foundation Spring

13. Stone seats near Open Channel Flow

14. Lee and Joe Jamail Skatepark

15. Down Periscope, Donald Lipski, 2015 at Brown Foundation Lawn

16. Buffalo Bayou Park Cistern

17. Hobby Center Bridge- North

18. George HW Bush Monument at Sesquicentennial Park

19. Lunar Cycle Lighting at Sesquicentennial Park

20. Allen’s Landing

21. James A. Baker III Monument at Sesquicentennial Park

22. Hobby Center Bridge South

23. Stainless Steel Canoes John Runnels

24. Pause – Monumental Moments, Anthony Thompson Shumate, 2015

25. Nau Family Pavilion

26. Shady Grove, Tim Bailey, 2002

27. Sandy Reed Grove

28. Spindle, Henry Moore, 1969 at Fondren Foundation Meadow

29. Jane Gregory Garden

30. Listen – Monumental Moments, Anthony Thompson Shumate, 2015

31. Tolerance, Jaume Plensa, 2011

32. Johnny Steele Dog Park

33. Emerge – Monumental Moments, Anthony Thompson Shumate, 2015

34. Wortham Foundation Grove

35. Waugh Bat Colony

36. Jackson Hill Bridge South

37. Lost Lake

38. Beth Yeshurun Cemetery

39. Observe – Monumental Moments

40. Feldman Gateway

Like what you hear? Check out our Listening Room for more! ROCO’s music is available Anytime, Anywhere through our site and on streaming platforms such as such as Apple Music, Amazon Music, Spotify, Google Play, Pandora, and more. Check out our mobile app for upcoming concert information!

Season 16 Announced!

ROCO News Releases,

ROCO’s 16th season features illuminating musical collaborations exploring global soundscapes, presenting ten commissions, in three series of concerts showcasing the ensemble’s flexible model.
New works include a nature-inspired triptych by Alyssa Morris, a concerto for bandoneon (a Latin-American bellowed instrument) by soloist Richard Scofano, a vocal work by Reena Esmail based on Chickasaw poetry, a piece by Anna Clyne honoring Beethoven’s 250th birthday, and a deeply personal chamber work by Milad Yousufi, telling the story of his journey to America.
ROCO continues to revitalize how audiences experience classical music with performances in partnership with unique organizations across the Houston community, and concerts livestreamed to the world.

 

For the past 15 seasons, ROCO has shown our true colors – shining a light on underrepresented voices, weaving music through the unique spaces of our Houston community and beyond, and commissioning over one hundred new works.

This fall we’re delighted to brighten your world anew, as we all come together again for our 16th season – Color and Light! ROCO has been a pioneer in livestreaming concerts since 2013. We are so thankful to you, our audience and patrons, for your enthusiasm and engagement as we go fully virtual this year. With multiple safety measures in place for our artists, we will be presenting a full season of concerts across our three series, all offered for free via livestreaming. These livestreams will be presented in partnership with many of Houston’s beloved cultural institutions.

Working with living composers has been a part of ROCO’s mission from the very start, and in Season 2020-2021, we will perform ten new works we’ve commissioned, including eight in partnership with orchestras across the world.

This season’s In Concert series, built around these premieres, will take audiences on an illuminating journey through global soundscapes, celebrating nature and culture through creative collaborations. Our composer-in-residence this season, Alyssa Morris, will write a triptych of pieces for our flexible model including a work for wind sextet, a work for solo instrument, and a work for chamber orchestra based upon an Aztec tale, serves as an anchor.

[caption id="attachment_6022" align="alignleft" width="195"]ROCO Artistic Partner and Guest Conductor, Mei-Ann Chen Artistic Partner Mei-Ann Chen[/caption]

On the podium, we are both thrilled to have ROCO Artistic Partner Mei-Ann Chen back to kick off the season, and to welcome faces both new and familiar, with conductor Ward Stare making his ROCO debut and Brett Mitchell returning.

Our Unchambered series, showcasing ROCO musicians in self-curated chamber concerts, will feature an exciting new partnership with the Museum of Fine Arts Houston and Nancy Littlejohn Fine Art, inviting our wide range of musical colors to mingle with masterpieces of art and vibrant acoustics.

The Connections series will continue to take music into new and unexpected places in repeat collaborations with MFAH Rienzi, Holocaust Museum Houston, and the return of our Musical Ofrenda celebrating Día de los Muertos with MECA@TBH.

With our season going virtual all year, we have created new offerings for ROCOrooters. Our wonderful music teacher, Keisha Twitchell, will prepare material for ROCOrooters ahead of our In Concert and Unchambered livestreams so you can watch as a family. The following Saturday, she will present a thirty minute interactive program delving deeper into the previous weekend’s music.

“Even though Season 16’s theme of Color and Light is very timely, it has been our intent before this unprecedented time of social distancing,” says Alecia Lawyer. “While our musicians can continue to connect us all digitally, we greatly look forward to being in person with you to share the power of our language of music and be in relationship with you once again.”

ROCO 2020-21 SEASON

IN CONCERT SERIES

[caption id="attachment_6564" align="alignright" width="300"]ROCO Commissioned Composer and Guest Artist, Richard Scofano Richard Scofano, playing the bandoneon[/caption]

Season 16 Starburst Concert Logo

ROCO’s In Concert series, which showcases the full 40-piece orchestra in livestreamed performances, lifts off September 26, 2020 with “Starburst”, sparkling with musical light and energy, conducted by ROCO Artistic Partner Mei-Ann Chen. Richard Scofano, composer and soloist on the bandoneon (a Latin-American bellowed instrument), features in the world premiere of his new work La Tierra Sin Mal (The Land Without Evil), and additional works include Jessie Montgomery’s brilliant Starburst; Fauré’s Masques et bergamasques; Beethoven’s Creatures of Prometheus; Debussy’s Clair de Lune; and Kodály’s Dances of Marosszék.

[caption id="attachment_6680" align="alignleft" width="240"]ROCO Commissioned Composer, Anna Clyne ROCO Commissioned Composer, Anna Clyne[/caption]

Season 16 Oceans Concert Logo

The series continues on November 14, with “Oceans”, a nature-inspired program featuring the orchestra – conductorless! Celebrating Beethoven’s 250th birthday, the concert will feature a new work by Anna Clyne for strings, Stride. Rounding out the program are two classics – Beethoven’s Quintet for Piano and Winds, Op. 16, and Debussy’s paean to the sea, La Mer – as well as Coleridge-Taylor’s Nonet and Bolcom’s Ghost Rags.

[caption id="attachment_6562" align="alignright" width="209"]ROCO Season 16 Composer-in-Residence, Alyssa Morris Composer-in-Residence, Alyssa Morris[/caption]

Season 16 Shadows Concert Logo

On February 27, 2021 ROCO will explore the interplay of light and dark in “Shadows”, built around a commission by Alyssa Morris, Tlapalli Tlahuilli – based on the children’s book “Musicians of the Sun” and featuring ROCO’s principal winds as soloists. Led by conductor Ward Stare in his ROCO debut, the livestream also features Patrick Harlin’s Shadow Dancer, Haydn’s Symphony No. 101, “The Clock”, and concertmaster Scott St. John in Luigi Dallapiccola’s Baroque-inspired work, Tartiniana Seconda.

[caption id="attachment_6566" align="alignleft" width="300"]ROCO Commissioned Composer, Reena Esmail Commissioned Composer, Reena Esmail[/caption]

ROCO Season 16 Flamenco Concert Logo

The season concludes with livestreamed flair on April 24, 2021 in “Flamenco”, featuring the world premiere of The History of Red, a co-commission by Reena Esmail based on a text by Chickasaw poet Linda Hogan, with soprano Kathryn Mueller as soloist. Conductor Brett Mitchell makes his return to ROCO, also leading the premiere of Quinn Mason’s Princesa de la Luna for harp and strings, Samuel Barber’s Knoxville: Summer of 1915, Errollyn Wallen’s Photography, and Carlos Surinach’s flamenco for orchestra, Ritmo Jondo.

UNCHAMBERED SERIES
Museum of Fine Arts Houston logoThe ROCO Unchambered series will once again highlight our musicians and the distinct musical colors they offer through self-curated programs at the Museum of Fine Arts Houston and Nancy Littlejohn Fine Art. The series starts on October 17 with “Love Notes”, featuring oboist Spring Hill, flutist Rebecca Powell Garfield, and harpist Laurie Meister. On February 13, “Kaleidoscope” next features principal oboist Alecia Lawyer, principal flutist Brook Ferguson, and principal bassoonist Kristin Wolfe Jensen, in a program including the world premiere of a wind sextet by Alyssa Morris. Finally, on March 6 it concludes with the ROCO Brass Quintet in “Blackbird”, presenting contemporary and classic favorites.

[caption id="attachment_6563" align="alignright" width="257"]ROCO Commissioned Composer, Milad Yousufi Commissioned Composer, Milad Yousufi[/caption]

CONNECTIONS SERIES
ROCO’s Connections series will continue to take classical music outside of the concert hall and into unique spaces across our community through creative collaborations. On November 1st we’ll welcome the return of our Musical & Literary Ofrenda from MECA@TBH, celebrating Día de los Muertos and presenting the world premiere of a trio commission by Kerwin Young, Coming Forth by Day.

The series also makes its return to Rienzi on February 4, for a chamber music celebration of the music of Margaret Bonds, one of the most prolific Black, female composers, curated by and featuring pianist Howard Watkins, with bass-baritone Timothy Jones. Wrapping up, ROCO is honored to again partner with Holocaust Museum Houston on March 11 for a chamber concert featuring a commission by Afghan composer Milad Yousufi, titled My Journey to America.

CHRONOLOGICAL LISTING

September 26, 2020 Starburst | In Concert
October 17, 2020 Love Notes | Unchambered
November 1 2020 Musical & Literary Ofrenda | Connections
November 14, 2020 Oceans | In Concert
February 4, 2021 Celebration of Margaret Bonds @ Rienzi | Connections
February 13, 2021 Kaleidoscope | Unchambered
February 27, 2021 Shadows | In Concert
March 6, 2021 Blackbird | Unchambered
March 11, 2021 Journey to America | Connections
April 24, 2021 Flamenco | In Concert

 

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 100 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.

ROCO offers ‘Hope’ in a socially distant era | Preview – Houston Chronicle

Media Features,

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="700"]Alecia Lawyer with oboe. Photo by Jon Shapley Alecia Lawyer, founder and artistic director of ROCO Photo: Jon Shapley, Houston Chronicle / Staff photographer[/caption]

The chamber orchestra, a pioneer in streaming performances, has gone online with Anthony DiLorenzo’s ‘Anthem of Hope.’

Andrew Dansby April 3, 2020 Updated: April 4, 2020, 9:04 am

With orchestra musicians scattered all over the country, ROCO knows how to operate remotely. But last week the 39-member ensemble attempted a particularly complicated task: to perform “Anthem of Hope,” Anthony DiLorenzo’s four-minute composition from 39 different locations.

“This is how we’ve always done it,” says ROCO founder, artistic director and principal oboeist Alecia Lawyer. “We have musicians from all over, but we still feel connected.”

Lawyer and Brooks Cruzen of the Houston-based Blueprint Film Co. spent time last Monday sketching out an idea: Each ROCO member would record video of them performing their parts of the piece of music. They sent the pieces to Cruzen, who spent about 40 or 50 hours assembling all the material into a quite moving piece of sound and vision.

“We had the piece already, it’s become a calling card of ours,” Lawyer says.

ROCO commissioned the piece by DiLorenzo as a response to the city’s recovery after Hurricane Harvey. They’ve since made the sheet music for it available, too.

“I want it to be free to the world,” Lawyer says. “I would love for it to become something global, like the Coke commercial.”

The presentation of “Anthem of Hope” certainly reminds of the old soft-drink ad: Cruzen makes space for each ROCO performer as they play their part of the piece. As the song evolves, performers fade in and out . Visually it’s mesmerizing, and sonically it’s remarkable given the musicians weren’t together. Conceptually it’s a hopeful piece of art at a time when the coronavirus has shut down art and entertainment and left people homebound. The video can be seen on YouTube and ROCO.org and there’s also a time-lapse video of the production that can be seen on YouTube as well.

[caption id="attachment_6535" align="aligncenter" width="960"]Composite of ROCO musicians individually recording Anthem of Hope: Houston Strong. Photo credit to Blueprint Film Co. Houston’s ROCO and Brooks Cruzen of Blueprint Film Co. assembled a performance of  “Anthem of Hope” by Anthony DiLorenzo through 39 different cell phones. Photo: Blueprint Film Co.[/caption]

“Even though they’re not in the same room, it still has this power,” Cruzen says. “And it speaks to their talents. They’re such incredible musicians. The first time I put the 39 tracks together and hit play, I was amazed at how impressive the performance was, even with them separated like that. It’s testament to how talented and dedicated they are.”

Lawyer and Cruzen hatched the plan on March 23. Twenty-four hours later, all 39 musicians had sent their videos. Three days after that the video was complete.

“It was a little tedious to align 39 tracks properly,” Cruzen says. “But they’re were also no retakes. Each of these was the first video they sent. Which is pretty incredible.”

ROCO — formerly the River Oaks Chamber Orchestra — has been on the front end of using technology to further its music, both for rehearsals and in delivering music to potential listeners. The group celebrated its 15th anniversary last year, and has been streaming concerts for three years.

So the process of trying to reach listeners during a period of social distancing came easily. “Without realizing it,” Lawyer says, “ROCO has been positioned for this for years. We were prepared to flatten the curve.”

A fan of old-school science fiction, Lawyer is eager to see what other ways ROCO can push ahead, “like ‘Star Trek’ with a holodeck,” she says laughing.

For the time being, though, she’s engaged in getting DiLorenzo’s music out there in hopes that it can — once again — offer some comfort during a fraught and tumultuous time.

andrew.dansby@chron.com

Source: ROCO offers ‘Hope’ in a socially distant era

ROCO ahead of the corona curve with an emphasis on streaming

Media Features,

 

 

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="700"]ROCO In Concert at The Church of St. John the Divine Chris GrayMarch 23, 2020Updated: March 24, 2020, 12:48 pm. ROCO (formerly the River Oaks Chamber Orchestra) in concert. Photo: Blueprint Film Co.[/caption]

Long before audiences were forced to stay home, the Houston orchestra was deep into streaming.

Long before anyone heard of “flattening the curve,” Houston’s ROCO was ahead of the curve.

With the Covid-19 pandemic forcing Americans to seek entertainment and cultural enrichment on the Internet, the potential — and necessity — of streaming live performances has jumped front and center. Entertainers like Bono and John Legend have serenaded followers from their posh living rooms; New York’s Metropolitan Opera is plumbing its Live in HD archives nightly; and Willie Nelson switched his annual Luck Reunion from his ranch’s open-air backyard to a few studio stools.

Even Houston cover-band favorite Beetle put their weekly happy-hour gig on Facebook Live.

However, ROCO — formerly known as River Oaks Chamber Orchestra — began live-streaming its concerts three years ago, under considerably different circumstances.

“The word is access: how to get people the most access, the easiest possible way, to what we do,” says founder, artistic director and principal oboist Alecia Lawyer of her original motivations.

As she likes to say, “access makes the heart grow fonder.”

Although it may seem counterintuitive, putting the group’s performances online for free has actually resulted in attendance at ROCO’s real-world concerts going up, she explains.

“It’s just been a way to engage, and also to not have to tour,” Lawyer says. “We don’t need to physically go places; we have the ability to reach through the screen and grab you with our music.”

Lawyer got an early taste of our new reality earlier this month in New York, when she appeared with pianist Simone Dinnerstein and her Baroklyn ensemble on an all-Bach program at Columbia University. The performance was closed to the public at the last minute, but because the room had been outfitted for live-streaming, it created what Lawyer calls “partially an intensely intimate experience and at the same time a vastly expansive one.”

“To me, my audience is always personal, especially since at ROCO we leave our house lights up so we can see our patrons [and] make it a shared space,” she adds. “However, to have not just a dark hall but an empty one made all of us hyper-focused on our own intricate interactions.”

According to Brian Frye of Blueprint Film Co, the Houston-based production company that handles ROCO’s live-streaming, more groups like Lawyer’s are regarding this technology as a crucial tool to help grow their audiences. (Starting this season, the Houston Symphony began streaming selected concerts as well.)

“Arts organizations can reach people further away but also locally, for those who can’t make the event,” he says. “Attending the event in person is hands-down the best experience but with the technology we have today, it still makes for an enjoyable event.”

Although any new ROCO performances are off the table until the epidemic is under control (the remaining three concerts of their 2019-20 season have been canceled), the orchestra has begun live-streaming past shows at 2 p.m. Sundays through its website (rocobackup.wpenginepowered.com/live) and Facebook Live.

Additionally, Lawyer’s ensemble has accumulated an archive of more than 50 concerts, available anytime on their site’s “Listening Room” page. Recently they became the first classical group added to MyMusicRx, a site that suggests appropriate music according to the user’s desired mood. ROCO also maintains a healthy presence on other platforms including YouTube, Spotify, Pandora, both Amazon and Apple Music, and classical-only app Idagio.

Lawyer hopes all this will be more than sufficient to tide listeners over until such time as ROCO can resume playing live. Luckily, there’s a lot to dive into.

The concerts span ROCO’s maiden concert in November 2005 — featuring Rossini’s “Italian in Algiers” overture, Elgar’s “Chanson de Nuit,” and Schubert’s Symphony No. 5 — through this past February’s “Beauty is in the Eye” offering, which included Mozart’s “Masonic Funeral Music” in C minor and “Between the Earth and Forever,” composer Kevin Lau’s concerto for the erhu, a traditional instrument sometimes called a Chinese violin.

Additionally, staff members have compiled three different playlists, each featuring hours of music. One includes stalwarts like Bach, Haydn, Mendelssohn, and Ravel; the other includes works by female composers including Fanny Mendelssohn (Felix’s daughter), Lisa Bielawa, Jocelyn Morlock, Reena Esmail.

Many of those women’s works were commissioned by ROCO; other world premieres make up a third list. Lawyer says Anthony DiLorenzo’s post-Harvey fanfare “Anthem of Hope” was performed 27 times by various Houston groups in the year after the hurricane. She calls it “ROCO’s calling card.”

Another popular commission is Alexander Miller’s “ROCOmoji,” a five-part suite with each movement based around a different emoji, which the composer, Lawyer notes, “considers the hieroglyphics of our time.”

However, “probably everyone’s absolute favorite,” she adds, is 2018’s “Checkmate,” gaming composer Maxime Goulet’s musical recreation of the famous 1986 chess match between Russian grandmaster Garry Kasparov (represented by solo pianist Lara Downes) and the IBM computer known as “Deep Blue” (represented by the orchestra). Kasparov lost, but not before a pitched battle.

Offers Lawyer, “the intricacy of this composition staggers my mind.”

As news of social distancing and self-quarantine began to spread, Lawyer says she went out and bought a jigsaw puzzle for the first time in 25 years, an activity generations stuck in close quarters can do together. She hopes ROCO’s streaming concerts might fulfill a similar need to connect — utilizing music’s power to bring people together even when a horrific disease is forcing them to stay apart.

“I think live-streaming is another way to pull people around the old radio [like] back in the day,” she says. “Live-streaming can not be as remote as it sounds. It can actually bring the family unit together, too.”

Explore ROCO’s Listening Room at rocobackup.wpenginepowered.com/performance-archive and rocobackup.wpenginepowered.com/live.

Source: ROCO ahead of the corona curve with an emphasis on streaming