Meet ROCO, the orchestra that might be Houston’s most risk-taking arts group – Houston Chronicle

Alecia Lawyer is having a pretty typical weekday. A fundraising breakfast at 8:30 a.m. A rehearsal. A donor lunch, a tour of a new venue, then a couple more donor events. “Then maybe dinner.”

Lawyer, who is fond of reminding people she is not a lawyer, is a walking (sometimes running) example of the eternal hustle that goes into running a nonprofit arts organization. The founder, artistic director, and oboist of ROCO, the Houston chamber orchestra currently celebrating its 20th anniversary, she’s a cheerful blur of proselytizing and planning, fundraising, hosting and performing. She conducted this interview from her parked car, ready to spring into her next duties. She’s all ROCO, all the time, planting with the vigor of a nonprofit arts Johnny Appleseed.

“The last time I bought a car, they actually offered me a job,” she says. “But it’s not a hustle, and it’s not a sell. It is matching people’s resources with their passions. They understand that we’re about systemic change. We’re not just about concerts. We’re about truly layering partnerships and connectivity and ways to amplify everyone in Houston around music. That is the mission: To shape the future of performing arts, of what this could be.”

Those are big words, but ROCO also puts up big results. They have performed 150 world premieres, and have been live streaming concerts since 2013 in all seven continents (“We didn’t have to chip a penguin in Antarctica,” Lawyer said). They are the second-most prolific commissioning group in the U.S., and No. 2 in the world when it comes to programming women composers and composers of color. They’ve had more than 350 broadcasts on American Public Media’s classical music show “Performance Today.” They make a point of starting early – 5 p.m. – and finishing in time for you to get dinner, get home, and get the kids to bed.

ROCO performs four concerts every season with the 40-strong core orchestra at The Church of St. John the Divine on River Oaks Blvd — including the Saturday program that includes Delyana Lazarova conducting the Texas premiere of Clarice Assad’s ”Evolution of AI” (and, for the more tradition-minded, Beethoven’s “Symphony No. 7”) – and at other venues, including Miller Outdoor Theater and the Brockman Hall for Opera at Rice University Shepherd School of Music.  But they’re constantly playing breakout shows all over the city, at parks, schools, and other venues, many of which you wouldn’t usually associate with classical music.

A recent Saturday night brought ROCO to the historic Deluxe Theatre in the Fifth Ward. A crowd notable for its diversity in age, ethnicity, and formality of wardrobe watched visiting composer and violinist Nicole Cherry, from the University of Texas San Antonio, duet with ROCO concert master Scott St. John in a show focused on the London-based 19th-century Afro-European violinist George Bridgewater. The program also included works by composers ranging from Beethoven to Duke Ellington.

It was Cherry’s first time performing with ROCO, but she’s long been a fan.

“I see them as a benchmark for what nonprofit arts organizations can aspire to be,” she said. “To me, ROCO embodies the spirit of innovation while honoring history—creating connections between people, artists, and the art itself in a way that reignites passion for the craft. Performing with them is a dream artistic collaboration.”

Creative, accessible programming is at the heart of ROCO’s mission. The March 6 Make Some Noise! event at Padre’s Wine Bar will invite audience members to try their hands at various instruments (Lawyer describes it as “an adult instrument petting zoo”). On April 11, ROCO will perform live scores to Buster Keaton’s “The General” (1926) and Disney’s “Silly Symphony: Music Land” (1935).

Lawyer grew up in the East Texas town of Van (“it’s pronounced ‘Vay-an,’ she jokes), and played on her high school drumline. She studied oboe at Southern Methodist University. On an early-‘90s trip to New York with her fiancé (now husband), she ended up at Lincoln Center and saw the Juilliard building.

“It was a Sunday and the door said, ‘We’re not open, do not come in’,” she said. “So I went in.”

Once inside, she asked if she could audition for oboe. It turned out another potential oboe player had canceled, and Lawyer took that spot for later in the week. That’s how she made it into Juilliard.

It’s a wild story, but it somehow makes sense. Lawyer is very good at opening doors, and bringing music to people where they live (or even where they don’t live: she has grown fanatical about displaying ROCO QR codes all over Houston. Again, Johnny Appleseed).

The end goal is both simple and audacious.

“We are taking you on a tour of your city through music,” Lawyer said. One concert, one venue at a time.