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.
ROCOrooters is more than just a novel approach to child care. It’s a kid-facing classical-music program that doesn’t talk down to youngsters, hoping instead to nurture them into lifelong fans.
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.
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.
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.
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…
River Oaks CO achieves liftoff with premiere of celestial erhu concerto Mon Feb 10, 2020 at 11:42 am By Steven Brown When the River Oaks Chamber Orchestra commissioned Kevin Lau to write a concerto for erhu, the two-stringed Chinese instrument, he sidestepped the obvious approach. Rather than seek inspiration in the music or culture of…
ROCO isn’t playing around — and they’ve got the street cred to prove it. Fresh off releasing its debut album, Visions Take Flight, ROCO’s recording producer Blanton Alspaugh earned a nomination from Grammy voters in the “Producer of the Year, Classical” category. The album was conducted by the Houston-based chamber orchestra’s artistic partner Mei-Ann Chen, and the gratitude marks Alspaugh’s ninth nomination in the category and his 22nd nomination overall.
History isn’t always so rosy, but it tends to bend toward hope…The Holocaust is no exception to this record, and it provided the backdrop for ROCO’s upcoming concert Hope for Beauty.
Alecia Lawyer is the Founder, Artistic Director and Principal Oboe at Roco, a professional music ensemble with players across the US and Canada. Alecia joins us for this discussion to walk us through her inspiring journey of graduating from Julliard, owning a studio of 8 students to finally becoming the founder of a professional music ensemble.
Following the orchestra’s opening concert, “Time for Hope,” more than 260 guests moseyed to the country club ballroom where members of the orchestra were seated at each table, making for musically-inspired dinner conversation.
In an age when advocacy has revolutionized female empowerment, ROCO travels back in time to give voice to the voiceless — generations of women who lived largely unheard and largely unknown.
