We’re back with another installment of ROCOInsider to preview this season’s first ROCO Unchambered concert, Mind Games! This week we chatted with composer Richard Lavenda, ahead of Saturday’s premiere of his most adventurous piece yet – Pathfinder, which incorporates audience input to help influence the piece’s direction in the moment. Have you ever listened to…
ROCOInsider: Q&A with Checkmate’s Maxime Goulet
To kick off Season 14, we are excited to take you behind the scenes of ROCO In Concert: Checkmate with the first installment of ROCOInsider – a series featuring a sneak peek into the varied artistic and technical elements involved in the production of a ROCO concert.
Greta Rimpo, our Director of Marketing & Communications, had a chance to sit down for a Q&A with composer Maxime Goulet ahead of Friday’s premiere of Checkmate, his “Chess Game for Piano and Orchestra”.
Houston’s ROCO focuses on Works by Women | Arts+Culture Texas
Alecia Lawyer, the River Oaks Chamber Orchestra’s artistic director, introduced the idea discreetly last fall: She and two other musicians devoted a program on the group’s Unchambered series entirely to works by female composers. This season, Lawyer and ROCO are going big with the theme.
Employment Opportunity – Director of Development
ROCO is seeking a high energy, self-motivated, and creative candidate for the position of Director of Development. More information can be found HERE.
The inspiring songs of the ‘Nightingale’ at ROCO | Houston Chronicle
In Kevin Lau’s work, the smallest details are examined with microscopic precision. The Canadian pianist delicately shapes each musical phrase, each moment of harmonic color, while dedicating equal attention to establishing a cohesive sound that ties the piece into a whole.
Season 14 Announced: Subscribe Today!
The 14th season from the innovative Houston-based professional music ensemble features ten world premiere commissions, and a commitment to diversity that sees them presenting a female composer, conductor, or soloist on every concert. New pieces include a musical chess match between piano and orchestra, a tribute to Turkish wrestler Koca Yusuf, a chamber work where audiences vote on their phones to influence the direction of the performance, and many more.
River Oaks Chamber Orchestra serves up a wild and engaging musical feast | Texas Classical Review
A Houston punk rock legend front and center at a classical concert, a virtuoso concertmaster, a stellar bass-baritone singing nursery rhymes and tombstone epitaphs, and three world premieres. Throw in a couple of Dvořák’s Legends and the rarely heard Wood Notes by William Grant Still, and we have a strange brew of a program that surprised and engaged.
‘Love’ is unleashed in conductorless concert | Houston Chronicle
Like a ringmaster leads a circus, conductors direct classical music concerts, presenting various acts or compositions while serving as an intermediary between the audience and the performers.
But the show must go on, with or without, and River Oaks Chamber Orchestra is here to prove it’s possible to have a concert without a conductor, with the return of its annual conductorless concert this weekend at the Church of St. John the Divine.
The Hates’ Christian Kidd Honored in ROCO Commission Legendary Love | HoustonPress
Chicago-based composer Dan Visconti laughs at the idea that some might think that, because of his training and profession, he only listens to classical music. You know, when he’s not locked away in some ivory tower decked out in a white wig, quill pen scribbling away with frenzied genius.
This is the story of The Hates. And it’s a love story. | Houston Chronicle
The band’s most pronounced impression was made in Houston, but fans of ’70s punk reveled in the regional variety the form offered.
One such fan is Dan Visconti, a classical composer who recently composed “Legendary Love,” a piece of music inspired by Christian and The Hates that the River Oaks Chamber Orchestra will premiere later this month.
Shaping the Future: ROCO Connects Through Commissioning | Arts + Culture TX
The numbers are in: 76 world premieres (33 for the full chamber orchestra and 43 for its flexible chamber ensembles), 36 composers commissioned—these are astounding numbers from the Houston-based River Oaks Chamber Orchestra (ROCO), now in its perpetually forward-looking 13th season.
‘Peter and the Wolf’ Ventures into the Houston Zoo | Houstonia
“For a generation of a certain age, this is the first classical music piece any of them heard,” says Alecia Lawyer, the artistic director for the River Oaks Chamber Orchestra (ROCO) about Sergei Prokofiev’s Peter and the Wolf. It’s a familiar and beloved symphonic fairy tale, often used to introduce children to the instruments in the orchestra.
