ROCO is Houston’s professional chamber orchestra that flexes from 1-40 musicians in main event performances throughout Houston and livestreamed for free to the world.
Click the orange play button below to listen to the music (without narration, and with bell prompts to cue the page turns) composed by Kevin Lau that accompanies The Nightingale, published by ROCO, with illustrations by Amy Scheidegger Ducos. Learn more about the book, or listen to other versions of the music here.
ROCO is a dynamic and innovative professional chamber orchestra that flexes from 1 to 40 musicians from all over the US and Canada, with guest conductors from around the globe. With over 128 world premieres to date, ROCO is one of the most prolific commissioning organizations in the US. A study in 2019 by the Institute for Composer Diversity found that ROCO was the #1 ensemble in the US performing works by women and #2 for composers of color.
ROCO’s debut album, Visions Take Flight, was recognized with a GRAMMY® Award for Producer of the Year, Blanton Alspaugh.
ROCO is known for shaping the future of classical music and has been called an “arts disruptor” and “trailblazer.” Performing in dozens of venues, ROCO concerts are livestreamed for free to a worldwide audience. Audio recordings are regularly broadcast nationally on American Public Media’s Performance Today show and are available for free listening in ROCO’s own Listening Room as well as all popular music streaming services.
The innovative and sector-changing ROCO on the Go! initiative weaves music through the community with QR codes that are planted in parks, hospitals, and schools throughout Houston, pointing to recordings from their vast listening room of past performances with over 30,000 scans, providing access for all.
