Video Library Tag: Commissions/Rescores

ROCO's Unchambered series featured a musical tasting menu of string quartets, curated by ROCO concertmaster Scott St John, in "Morsels", from November 2, 2019.

Joined by ROCO violinist Min-Jeong Koh, co-principal violist Matthew Dane, and principal cellist Richard Belcher, Scott took the audience through a program telling his own coming-of-age story as a musician, with featured works ranging from the Baroque up to the brand-new. Pieces by Mozart, Dvořák, Hindemith, Webern, Busch, and a world premiere commission by composer Robert Maggio, displayed the evolution of the string quartet.

A world premiere ROCO commission, the title "thirty-two summers" refers back to when composer Robert Maggio and Scott St. John first worked on a piece together, when Scott was studying at Curtis in Philadelphia, and Robert was studying composition at the University of Pennsylvania. This began a long friendship of further collaboration, leading to this work.

ROCO welcomed back conductor JoAnn Falletta, as the full 40-piece chamber orchestra shined in works of luminous orchestral color and creativity, including three premieres! Glimpse a vision of paradise in the third and final movement of Composer-In-Residence Richard Danielpour’s Symphony in Three Movements After the Divine Comedy of Dante Alighieri, then experience the bold sounds of Conni Ellisor’s consortium-commissioned A Woman Without Apology, and dance to Astor Piazzolla’s Tangazo—an edgy tango, then delight in the Texas premiere of Richard Strauss’ Ariadne auf Naxos Symphony-Suite, a chamber arrangement of his comic 1912 “opera-within-an-opera”.

Bold musical expression, inspired by the human experience, takes center stage in “OUTSPOKEN”— featuring the full 40-piece chamber orchestra on November 2nd, at The Church of St. John the Divine. Led by GRAMMY-winning conductor JoAnn Falletta, be captivated by the world premiere of Jonathan Leshnoff‘s No Grit No Pearl, a ROCO-commissioned work celebrating resilience, and Juan Pablo Contreras‘ vibrant Alma Monarca, another world premiere co-commissioned by ROCO—honoring his family and the tradition of Día de los Muertos.

Violinists Scott St. John and Brian Lewis feature in John Novacek‘s spirited showpiece, Three Rags for two violins and orchestra, and the evening wraps up with the Texas premiere of Franz Schubert’s Death and the Maiden, reimagined by Andy Stein, ushering the journey into a realm beyond.

ROCO’s In Concert series opened on September 23 and 24 with “Family” at Miller Outdoor Theatre and The Church of St. John the Divine! Artistic Partner Mei-Ann Chen led the orchestra in a program inspired by community, family, and hope, honoring Houston’s cultural diversity.

Featured was the signature ROCO commission "Anthem of Hope" by Emmy Award-winning composer Anthony DiLorenzo, commissioned in response to the resilience shown by the city of Houston following Hurricane Harvey's devastation. Composed in just a few days, this work received its premiere less than a month after the storm, at ROCO's opening concert of the 2017-2018 season.

In ROCO's spirit of collaboration, this work was made free to perform, with numerous performances by other area organizations over the 2017-2018 season.

The extraordinary was experienced as ROCO’s milestone 20th season opened with “REMARKABLE” – featuring the full 40-piece chamber orchestra in three world premieres plus a new twist on an out-of-this-world classic, presented at Miller Outdoor Theatre on September 27th, hosted by guest emcee Fred Child of American Public Media’s Performance Today.

Under the dynamic direction of Artistic Partner Mei-Ann Chen, the concert featured the ROCO-commissioned world premiere of John Wineglass‘s Cityscapes in a new version for chamber orchestra, enhanced with immersive, panoramic video of Houston, shot by Houston First and edited by BEND Productions. Then, we headed to the stars with the world premiere ROCO commission Constellations by Viet Cuong, ROCO’s Season 20 Composer in Residence, spotlighting “constellations” of ROCO musicians as soloists in each movement. Gustav Holst‘s vivid tour of our solar system, The Planets, completed the galactic journey – featured in a new rescoring by Jim Stephenson, with stunning original animation by James Templeton.

One of Houston’s coolest people (named to Houston CityBook’s 2023 Cool 100), Korean-born and locally-based composer Nicky Sohn’s music has been described as “dynamic and full of wonder”, playing elegantly with rhythm and harmony, drawing inspiration from keen observation of the world around her.

We were delighted to work with Nicky on a new commission, “Colors of Life’s Garden”—celebrating the 25th anniversary of Rienzi’s founding as a house museum, and the cycle of life found within its stunning 4.4 acre gardens.

Premiered on January 27, 2024, this work was part of ROCO’s Connections Series concert "BLOSSOMS", performed at The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston's Rienzi, featuring musicians Alecia Lawyer, oboe; Milena Pajaro van de Stadt, viola; and Audrey Andrist, piano; and also including works by Charles Loeffler, Rebecca Clarke, Margaret Bonds, and Alyssa Morris.

The extraordinary was experienced in ROCO’s milestone 20th season-opening concert “REMARKABLE” – featuring the full 40-piece chamber orchestra in three world premieres plus a new twist on an out-of-this-world classic, recorded live from The Church of St. John the Divine on September 28th, 2024. Under the dynamic direction of Artistic Partner Mei-Ann Chen, we headed to the stars with the world premiere ROCO commission Constellations by Viet Cuong, ROCO’s Season 20 Composer in Residence, spotlighting “constellations” of ROCO musicians as soloists in each movement. Mark Buller‘s powerful ROCO commission John the Revelator pays tribute to ROCO’s home venue of The Church of St. John the Divine, and Gustav Holst‘s vivid tour of our solar system, The Planets, features in a new rescoring by Jim Stephenson.

ROCO's Season 16 Unchambered series opened with “Love Notes,” a nature-inspired program of beauty, respite, and reflection, featuring flutist Rebecca Powell Garfield, oboist Spring Hill, and harpist Laurie Meister, broadcast from the galleries of Nancy Littlejohn Fine Art. Featured artwork is by artist Christina Nicodema, from the exhibit "Mayfly".

Opening the concert was the world premiere of a ROCO commission by Karim Al-Zand, "Dance Interlude for Two Oboes and English Horn", featuring Alecia Lawyer and Spring Hill, joined by Erin Tsai, oboe.

Recorded live at Nancy Littlejohn Fine Art, Houston, Texas, October 17, 2020

Videography by Blueprint Film Co.

ROCO's 19th season continued February 24 with "SUPERSONIC", as conductor Delyana Lazarova returned, leading the full chamber orchestra in a high-octane program brimming with dynamic energy! Jessica Meyer’s Go Big or Go Home–a work “written from a place of self-realization, empowerment, and celebration of how joyous life can be”, featuring blues guitar phenom Clay Melton and his band, was given its premiere in a new arrangement for chamber orchestra, joined by the U.S. premiere of Composer-In-Residence Richard Danielpour’s “Voci dal Purgatorio”, a journey to rebirth – the second movement of his Symphony in Three Movements After the Divine Comedy of Dante Alighieri. An alluring work by Bulgarian-British composer Dobrinka Tabakova, Fantasy Homage to Schubert, plus Elfrida Andree’s colorful, lyrical Symphony No. 2 in A Minor, completed the program.

The Houston Youth Symphony also returned as special guest, with a side-by-side performance of Franz Schubert’s richly textured and emotionally laden Overture in the Italian Style.

ROCO’s In Concert series, showcasing the full 40-piece orchestra, opened on September 25 with “Bursting at the Seams” at The Church of St. John the Divine, and livestreamed at ROCO.org, Facebook, and YouTube.

Conducted by ROCO’s Artistic Partner Mei-Ann Chen, the concert featured the world premiere of the first movement of Maxime Goulet’s Ice Storm Symphony, Turmoil, telling the story of Canada’s historic, devastating 1998 ice storm, and also featured the world premiere of Marcus Maroney’s OK, Goodbye. for flute, viola d’amore, and chamber orchestra, inspired by the melting of the Icelandic Okjökull glacier, and highlighting soloists Matt Dane and Christina Jennings. Sharing our joy to be back in performance with you, Michael Abels’ Delights & Dances and Domenico Cimarosa’s “Il Maestro di Cappella” Overture completed the program, with a surprise - the opening of Beethoven's "Pastoral Symphony"!

ROCO’s 17th season Albert & Margaret Alkek Foundation In Concert Series closed on April 23 with “Tying Up Loose Ends”, live at The Church of St. John the Divine.

Conducted by Rei Hotoda in her ROCO debut, the program centered around the world premiere of ""Plumes"" for large chamber orchestra by Composer-In-Residence Derek Bermel based on J. Henry Fair’s photography collection “Industrial Scars”—capturing the beauty and destruction of industrial and human impacts on our planet—and also included Viet Cuong’s percussion concerto Re(new)al, and a new work by Cynthia Lee Wong, ""In a Blink of an Eye"", commissioned as part of ROCO’s FIFteen Project.

The extraordinary was experienced in ROCO’s milestone 20th season-opening concert “REMARKABLE” – featuring the full 40-piece chamber orchestra in three world premieres plus a new twist on an out-of-this-world classic, recorded live from The Church of St. John the Divine on September 28th, 2024. Under the dynamic direction of Artistic Partner Mei-Ann Chen, we headed to the stars with the world premiere ROCO commission Constellations by Viet Cuong, ROCO’s Season 20 Composer in Residence, spotlighting “constellations” of ROCO musicians as soloists in each movement. Mark Buller‘s powerful ROCO commission John the Revelator paid tribute to ROCO’s home venue of The Church of St. John the Divine, featuring organist Steven A. Newberry, and Gustav Holst‘s vivid tour of our solar system, The Planets, featured in a new rescoring by Jim Stephenson.

ROCO was honored to partner with the Holocaust Museum Houston marking the recent reopening of their expanded new building, for “We Were the Music” – a chamber concert featuring the world premieres of two ROCO commissions by Bruce Adolphe, part of his season triptych in tribute to women musicians of the Holocaust.

Dedicated to Holocaust survivors Anita Lasker-Wallfisch and Alice Herz-Sommer, "We Were the Music" and "Music Is a Dream" by Bruce Adolphe were joined on the program by the music of Hindemith, Zemlinsky, and Chopin, plus a rare, unpublished work by Italian composer and teacher Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco. The premiere of the next commission in ROCO’s FIFteen Project, "S'Brent" by Houston composer Isabelle Ganz, rounded out the evening.

Featured ROCO musicians are founder, artistic director and principal oboist Alecia Lawyer; principal cellist Richard Belcher; and pianist Mei Rui.

Recorded live at Holocaust Museum Houston, March 5, 2020, with videography by Blueprint Film Co. and audio editing by Andrew Bradley.

Presented in collaboration with Holocaust Museum Houston, ROCO performs the world premiere of Milad Yousufi’s quintet “My Journey to America”, a co-commission with ROCO and the Winsor Music Consortium—a musical memoir telling the story of his own journey, from his birth and childhood in Kabul, Afghanistan, to the experience of becoming a refugee in New York City, and finding success as a musician.

Featuring musicians Alecia Lawyer, oboe; Maureen Nelson, violin; Suzanne LeFevre, viola; Courtenay Vandiver Pereira, cello; and Chelsea De Souza, piano.

ROCO’s 17th season In Concert series continued February 26, 2022 at 5:00 pm Central with “Canvasing the Earth” at The Church of St. John the Divine and also livestreamed at ROCO.org, Facebook, YouTube, and A440.

Conductor Sarah Hicks led the orchestra in her ROCO debut, featuring three world premieres, including the orchestral version of "Earth" by Aaron Jay Kernis, featuring tenor Nicholas Phan, reflecting upon the fundamental environmental crisis of our time.

Commissioned by the League of American Orchestras with the generous support of the Virginia B. Toulmin Foundation, Leanna Primiani’s "Neither men nor money validate my worth" also received its world premiere, honoring survivors of human trafficking, and was accompanied by images from The New Abolitionists. Completing the program was the world premiere of Jonathan Leshnoff‘s fanfare "Score" and Mussorgsky’s classic "Pictures at an Exhibition" in a special presentation, with accompanying images from the collections of Museum of Fine Arts, Houston.

Bold musical expression, inspired by the human experience, takes center stage in “OUTSPOKEN”— featuring the full 40-piece chamber orchestra on November 2nd, at The Church of St. John the Divine. Led by GRAMMY-winning conductor JoAnn Falletta, be captivated by the world premiere of Jonathan Leshnoff‘s No Grit No Pearl, a ROCO-commissioned work celebrating resilience, and Juan Pablo Contreras‘ vibrant Alma Monarca, another world premiere co-commissioned by ROCO—honoring his family and the tradition of Día de los Muertos.

Violinists Scott St. John and Brian Lewis feature in John Novacek‘s spirited showpiece, Three Rags for two violins and orchestra, and the evening wraps up with the Texas premiere of Franz Schubert’s Death and the Maiden, reimagined by Andy Stein, ushering the journey into a realm beyond.

ROCO's 19th season continued November 11th with INFRARED, spotlighting the full chamber orchestra in a program featuring more than the eye can see—including two radiant world premieres commissioned by ROCO.

Conductor Johannes Debus made his ROCO debut, leading “Nell ‘Inferno”, the blazing first movement of Season 19 Composer-In-Residence Richard Danielpour’s "Triptych (Symphony in Three Movements After the Divine Comedy of Dante Alighieri)", and Brazilian-American composer Clarice Assad’s colorful "Ode to Carmen Miranda".

Missy Mazzoli’s "Sinfonia (for Orbiting Spheres)" goes galactic, comprised of “…music in the shape of a solar system, a collection of rococo loops that twist around each other within a larger orbit”, before Mendelssohn’s Symphony No. 1 with its fiery opening brings the listener back to earth, in time for Mozart’s delectable Divertimento, KV 136—a work written simply to entertain.

ROCO’s In Concert series, showcasing the full 40-piece orchestra, opened on September 25 with “Bursting at the Seams” at The Church of St. John the Divine, and livestreamed at ROCO.org, Facebook, and YouTube.

Conducted by ROCO’s Artistic Partner Mei-Ann Chen, the concert featured the world premiere of the first movement of Maxime Goulet’s Ice Storm Symphony, Turmoil, telling the story of Canada’s historic, devastating 1998 ice storm, and also featured the world premiere of Marcus Maroney’s OK, Goodbye. for flute, viola d’amore, and chamber orchestra, inspired by the melting of the Icelandic Okjökull glacier, and highlighting soloists Matt Dane and Christina Jennings. Sharing our joy to be back in performance with you, Michael Abels’ Delights & Dances and Domenico Cimarosa’s “Il Maestro di Cappella” Overture completed the program, with a surprise - the opening of Beethoven's "Pastoral Symphony"!

ROCO’s Connections Series continued on February 10, 2024, as we celebrated collaboration in “Simple Gifts,” bringing us to a new location at Rothko Chapel!

Led by conductor Delyana Lazarova, Aaron Copland’s iconic tone poem Appalachian Spring, heard in its original 13-piece version, inspired the ROCO-commissioned world premiere of James Stephenson’s Persephone with solo dancer, with original choreography by Marlana Doyle, founder of Houston Contemporary Dance Company. Jennifer Higdon’s quintet Celestial Hymns, inspired by stained glass windows, rounded out the program.

ROCO’s 17th season Albert & Margaret Alkek Foundation In Concert Series closed on April 23 with “Tying Up Loose Ends”, live at The Church of St. John the Divine.

Conducted by Rei Hotoda in her ROCO debut, the program centered around the world premiere of ""Plumes"" for large chamber orchestra by Season 17 Composer-In-Residence Derek Bermel, a ROCO commission based on J. Henry Fair’s photography collection “Industrial Scars”—capturing the beauty and destruction of industrial and human impacts on our planet. Thanks to the National Endowment for the Arts for supporting Derek Bermel's residency!

ROCO’s 17th season Albert & Margaret Alkek Foundation In Concert Series closed on April 23 with “Tying Up Loose Ends”, live at The Church of St. John the Divine.

Conducted by Rei Hotoda in her ROCO debut, the program centered around the world premiere of ""Plumes"" for large chamber orchestra by Composer-In-Residence Derek Bermel based on J. Henry Fair’s photography collection “Industrial Scars”—capturing the beauty and destruction of industrial and human impacts on our planet.

The program also included Viet Cuong’s percussion concerto ""Re(new)al"", inspired by types of renewable energies and featuring soloists Craig Hauschildt, Ksenija Komljenović, Todd Meehan, and Doug Perkins, plus a new work by Cynthia Lee Wong, ""In a Blink of an Eye"", as part of ROCO’s FIFteen Project.

ROCO's Season 12 “In Concert” series came to a close with “Double Trouble”. The concert was led by conductor Steven Jarvi, with Scott St. John returning as concertmaster. The orchestra premiered another newly commissioned work on this concert - Alexander Miller’s ROCOmoji, which explores emotion through sound 😃. ROCO flutist, Brook Ferguson, was also featured in this concert, performing Saverio Mercadante’s Concerto for Flute in E-minor.

ROCO was honored to partner with the Holocaust Museum Houston marking the recent reopening of their expanded new building, for “We Were the Music” – a chamber concert featuring the world premieres of two ROCO commissions by Bruce Adolphe, part of his season triptych in tribute to women musicians of the Holocaust.

Dedicated to Holocaust survivors Anita Lasker-Wallfisch and Alice Herz-Sommer, "We Were the Music" and "Music Is a Dream" by Bruce Adolphe were joined on the program by the music of Hindemith, Zemlinsky, and Chopin, plus a rare, unpublished work by Italian composer and teacher Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco. The premiere of the next commission in ROCO’s FIFteen Project, "S'Brent" by Houston composer Isabelle Ganz, rounded out the evening.

Featured ROCO musicians are founder, artistic director and principal oboist Alecia Lawyer; principal cellist Richard Belcher; and pianist Mei Rui.

Recorded live at Holocaust Museum Houston, March 5, 2020, with videography by Blueprint Film Co. and audio editing by Andrew Bradley.

ROCO’s principal flute, Brook Ferguson, featured as soloist and curator on “Force of Nature”, presented December 8, 2018, at MATCH (Midtown Arts and Theater Center Houston). Showcasing nature-themed music for flute, oboe, cello, and piano, the program included Michael Gandolfi’s Geppetto’s Workshop, and a new ROCO commission by Stephanie Ann Boyd – Sapien.

ROCO’s 17th season In Concert series continued February 26, at 5:00 pm Central with “Canvasing the Earth” at The Church of St. John the Divine and also livestreamed at ROCO.org, Facebook, YouTube, and A440.

Conductor Sarah Hicks led the orchestra in her ROCO debut, featuring three world premieres, including "Earth" by Aaron Jay Kernis, featuring tenor Nicholas Phan.

Honoring survivors of human trafficking, Leanna Primiani’s "Neither men nor money validate my worth" also received its world premiere, accompanied by images from The New Abolitionists.

Completing the program were the world premiere of Jonathan Leshnoff‘s fanfare "Score," and Mussorgsky’s classic "Pictures at an Exhibition" in a special presentation, with accompanying images from the collections of Museum of Fine Arts, Houston.

ROCO's 19th season Albert and Margaret Alkek Foundation Series kicked off with SEISMIC, an opening concert of epic proportions, featuring the full 40-piece chamber orchestra led by Artistic Partner Mei-Ann Chen in two ROCO-commissioned world premieres and an exhilarating tale of love, intrigue, and adventure, presented at Miller Outdoor Theatre on September 29th, and at The Church of St. John the Divine on September 30th.

Anthony DiLorenzo’s ROCO commission Tectonal, featuring AI text-informed animation by composer and artist Cynthia Lee Wong and based on the acclaimed book The Telling Image by renowned documentary filmmaker Lois Stark, compels the audience to rethink, re-hear and re-visualize how they view the world. ROCO’s commission The Nightingale by Kevin Lau—recently released as our first-ever children’s book, premiered in a new scoring for full chamber orchestra—then the evening closed with a journey to the exotic lands of The Arabian Nights in Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov‘s ravishing symphonic suite Scheherazade.

ROCO’s Connections Series returned to the Asia Society Texas Center on October 20 presenting “Rise Up”— an evening of thought-provoking new chamber works and dialogue spotlighting the ongoing fight for women’s rights and equality, in the U.S, Iran, and around the world.

Artistic Partner Mei-Ann Chen led an ensemble of thirteen female ROCO musicians in the world premiere of Breaking the Veil by Grammy-winning Season 19 Composer-In-Residence Richard Danielpour and a new scoring of Texas-native composer Quinn Mason‘s ballet The 19th Amendment—performed along with members of Houston Contemporary Dance Company, premiering new choreography by Founding Artistic and Executive Director Marlana Doyle.

Inspired by the current uprising and historic struggles of Iranian women seeking equal rights and freedom, Grammy-winning composer Richard Danielpour’s Breaking the Veil honors his family’s Persian heritage, and is dedicated to his mother Mehri Danielpour Weil, an Iranian sculpturist.

Quinn Mason’s ballet The 19th Amendment, in the composer’s words, “not only depicts the struggle of obtaining the right to vote, but contemplates the effect that passing of the 19th amendment has had on our current generation”.

Narrated by Alecia Lawyer
Illustrations by Amy Scheidegger Ducos
Adapted from Hans Christian Andersen

ROCO's 19th season Albert and Margaret Alkek Foundation Series kicked off with SEISMIC, an opening concert of epic proportions, featuring the full 40-piece chamber orchestra led by Artistic Partner Mei-Ann Chen in two ROCO-commissioned world premieres and an exhilarating tale of love, intrigue, and adventure, presented at Miller Outdoor Theatre on September 29th, and at The Church of St. John the Divine on September 30th.

Anthony DiLorenzo’s ROCO commission Tectonal, featuring AI text-informed animation by composer and artist Cynthia Lee Wong and based on the acclaimed book The Telling Image by renowned documentary filmmaker Lois Stark, compels the audience to rethink, re-hear and re-visualize how they view the world. ROCO’s commission The Nightingale by Kevin Lau—recently released as our first-ever children’s book, premiered in a new scoring for full chamber orchestra—then the evening closed with a journey to the exotic lands of The Arabian Nights in Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov‘s ravishing symphonic suite Scherazade.

The extraordinary was experienced in ROCO’s milestone 20th season-opening concert “REMARKABLE” – featuring the full 40-piece chamber orchestra live from The Church of St. John the Divine, on September 28th, 2024.

Gustav Holst‘s vivid tour of our solar system, The Planets, featured in a new rescoring for 40-piece chamber orchestra by Jim Stephenson, with accompanying original animation by James Templeton, all commissioned by ROCO. Thanks to our partner Ion Concert Media, whose revolutionary Museik software enabled the animation to be synced in real-time to the performance—James Templeton's stunning animation is now also available as part of their presentation library, for use by ensembles worldwide: https://www.ionconcertmedia.com/collections/all/products/the-planets-templeton

Under the dynamic direction of Artistic Partner Mei-Ann Chen, we headed to the stars with the world premiere ROCO commission Constellations by Viet Cuong, ROCO’s Season 20 Composer in Residence, spotlighting “constellations” of ROCO musicians as soloists in each movement. Mark Buller‘s powerful ROCO commission John the Revelator paid tribute to ROCO’s home venue of The Church of St. John the Divine, featuring organist Steven Newberry. and Gustav Holst‘s vivid tour of our solar system, The Planets, features in a new rescoring by Jim Stephenson.

Conductor Delyana Lazarova made her ROCO debut on November 12th in a concert inspired by fantasy and fortune, leading the full chamber orchestra in two ROCO-commissioned world premieres, including William Bolcom‘s Dedication, orchestrated by Edmund Cionek, and Judah Adashi‘s the sun begins to fade, as part of ROCO’s FIFteen Project.

Also featured were Finding Rothko by Adam Schoenberg, ROCO’s Season 18 Composer-in-Residence, inspired and accompanied by the visionary abstract paintings of Mark Rothko, along with Caroline Shaw’s elegant Entr’acte for strings, and Mozart's joyful overture to The Marriage of Figaro. Completing the evening is Joseph Haydn’s Symphony No. 100, also nicknamed the “Military Symphony,” for its vivid second movement musically depicting battle.

On November 13, ROCO’s Season 17 In Concert series marched on with “A Stitch in Time” at The Church of St. John the Divine and also livestreamed at ROCO.org, Facebook, and YouTube.

Conductor Jeri Lynne Johnson made her ROCO debut, leading the Texas premiere of Mark Adamo’s Last Year for cello and orchestra, featuring ROCO Principal Cellist Richard Belcher, with each movement representing one of the four seasons. Winding up the program are Hilary Purrington’s FIFteen Project commission Threshold, and Jonathan Peters’ Arthropod Suite—accompanied by images from the Houston Museum of Natural Science and Houston Arboretum & Nature Center.

ROCO’s Albert and Margaret Alkek Foundation In Concert series continued with a celebration of “Friends”, on February 18 at the Lucian and Nancy Morrison Theatre at Brockman Hall for Opera – Rice University!

This concert truly showcased the orchestra, as the ensemble performed conductorless, with Artistic Partner and Concertmaster Scott St. John leading from the chair. Underlining themes of friendship and hope, the concert featured the premiere of Brian Raphael Nabors‘ Upon Daybreak, a ROCO co-commission as part of New Music USA’s Amplifying Voices initiative, inspired by Maya Angelou’s poem “A Brave and Startling Truth,” along with Antonin Dvorak’s early favorite Serenade for Strings, Joachim Raff’s vivacious Sinfonietta, and the overture to the opera Jery und Bätely by Ingeborg von Bronsart. Completing the program, the resilient African-American spiritual Keep Me From Sinking Down spotlighted Scott St. John, in Samuel Coleridge-Taylor’s powerful orchestral setting featuring solo violin.

ROCO was honored to partner with the Holocaust Museum Houston marking the recent reopening of their expanded new building, for “We Were the Music” – a chamber concert featuring the world premieres of two ROCO commissions by Bruce Adolphe, part of his season triptych in tribute to women musicians of the Holocaust.

Dedicated to Holocaust survivors Anita Lasker-Wallfisch and Alice Herz-Sommer, "We Were the Music" and "Music Is a Dream" by Bruce Adolphe were joined on the program by the music of Hindemith, Zemlinsky, and Chopin, plus a rare, unpublished work by Italian composer and teacher Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco. The premiere of the next commission in ROCO’s FIFteen Project, "S'Brent" by Houston composer Isabelle Ganz, rounded out the evening.

Featured ROCO musicians are founder, artistic director and principal oboist Alecia Lawyer; principal cellist Richard Belcher; and pianist Mei Rui.

Recorded live at Holocaust Museum Houston, March 5, 2020, with videography by Blueprint Film Co., and audio editing by Andrew Bradley.