Season 18 Announced!

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.