Houston

Jake Heggie visited the Smithsonian Institution a few years ago for a performance of his Iconic Legacies, a song cycle evoking four U.S. first ladies.

Back in 2009, the music entrepreneurship movement was gathering steam and start-up ensembles were popping up everywhere.

Houston’s ROCO chamber orchestra has introduced so many new works, and featured so many composers and performers from diverse backgrounds, that its founder sees no point in reciting the numbers.

Mario Aschauer, Founder and Artistic Director of Houston’s newest early music ensemble Harmonia Stellarum Houston (HSH), likes to take road trips to look at organs.

Reflecting on a milestone 20 years at Ars Lyrica Houston, Founder and Artistic Director Matthew Dirst took a moment to look back at the beginning. “It hardly seems possible,” says Dirst. “It was a kitchen table kind of organization. It essentially grew out of a nucleus of musicians that I had put together to play programs on some local church series.”

Houston’s DACAMERA swings back into action this fall with a program dubbed “Awakenings.” It sets up the group’s new season in more ways than just chronologically.