A FRESH TAKE: DACAMERA’S SEASON EXPLORES NEW WAYS OF LOOKING AT OLD THINGS

As Artistic Director Sarah Rothenberg pulled together the repertoire and artists for DACAMERA of Houston’s 2026-27 season, she came across composer Gabriella Smith’s notes on her work for string quartet Carrot Revolution, in which she envisioned the piece as a celebration of the spirit of fresh observation and of “new ways of looking at old things.” “It just set off a light bulb in me that this is so much of what DACAMERA does,” recalls Rothenberg. “We embrace the great traditions of classical and jazz music and keep those traditions alive by finding fresh context for the world we live in now.” This idea became a way of framing the entire season, 19 concerts across genres featuring song cycles, hymns, folk music, improvised music, as well as fresh takes on centuries-old forms such as the string quartet, piano trio, and piano quartet.

A star-studded opening night (Oct. 13, 2026) features the incomparable opera diva Joyce DiDonato as poet Emily Dickinson in Kevin Puts’s theatrical song cycle Emily—No Prisoner Be. The unconventional Grammy and Emmy-winning string trio Time For Three performs as the backup band, putting their creative virtuosity on display. The Houston connections of Joyce DiDonato, who came out of the Houston Grand Opera Studio and Kevin Puts, whose opera Silent Night was a great success at HGO, makes the evening even more special. Rothenberg thinks this unique re-imagining of the poetry and life of one of America’s fiercest poets is the perfect way to kick off the season. “Emily Dickinson is someone who always seems new and fresh. Her poems could have been written yesterday.”

Pianist Igor Levit will be making his first Houston appearance (Nov. 10, 2026) as part of his Beethoven sonata cycle world tour. “Levit is an exciting artist who brings his own intellectual capacity, his astounding technique, and his awareness of the world [to the music],” says Rothenberg. “He’s not just playing. He’s inventing.” The deep insights and fresh interpretations Levit brings to Beethoven’s sonatas won him Gramophone’s 2019 “Artist of the Year.” Rothenberg points out that “Beethoven’s music was radical in its day and is still radical today.”

Two chamber music concerts in February by DACAMERA favorites Horszowski Trio (Feb. 8, 2027) and Danish String Quartet (Feb. 19, 2027) showcase the spirit of continuity and reinvention. Horszowski Trio will open their program with Beethoven’s Trio in C Minor, Op. 1, No. 3, a piece so daring at the time that Haydn told Beethoven not to publish it because he thought the public would not understand it. Also on the program is the Houston premiere of Charles Wuorinen’s last work, composed for the Horszowski Trio, as well as pianist Rieko Aizawa’s own arrangement of Schoenberg’s Op. 19 piano pieces. DACAMERA has had a long relationship with Wuorinen, and Rothenberg performed the Schoenberg pieces at the Menil last year. “I like that kind of continuity,” she says. Aizawa’s reimagining of Op. 19 explores new colors, even adding flashes of percussion to enhance the magic.

The Danish String Quartet’s program begins with American composer Gabriella Smith’s brilliant Carrot Revolution, which became the inspiration for the season’s theme. Smith takes the 250-year-old genre of the string quartet, as well as older influences from Bach, Gregorian chant, Georgian folk songs, and Celtic fiddle tunes, and creates an utterly compelling and electrifying work. The centerpiece of the program is Shostakovich’s powerful String Quartet No. 14, and the concert will conclude with a very personal statement from the ensemble, their signature arrangements of Scandinavian folk songs. “To me this is very much a program for now,” adds Rothenberg.

One of the main anchors of the season is the Houston premiere of David Lang’s poor hymnal, to be performed at the Rothko Chapel by the Grammy Award-winning chamber choir The Crossing (Feb. 16, 2027). Rothenberg remembers hearing the world premiere of this work in New York City several years ago. “I was so moved by its message of kindness, which seemed incredibly radical. And the simple fact of an a capella choir singing. It is very, very powerful.” Lang collected texts from sources as diverse as the Old Testament, Gandhi, and Tolstoy to create a hymnbook for today.

Two genre-defying concerts in the spring exemplify the adventurous spirit of DACAMERA. Superstar vocalist Cécile McLorin Salvant returns to Houston with Book of Ayres (March 27, 2027), collaborating with two other DACAMERA favorites, Baroque flutist Emi Ferguson and master improviser Sullivan Fortner, to breathe new life into ancient ayres, bridging early music and jazz/blues. “Salvant has a vocal ability that is astounding,” says Rothenberg. “All three of these artists are highly creative and beyond genre.

The Houston premiere of native Houstonian Susie Ibarra’s 2025 Pulitzer Prize-winning work Sky Islands (April 19, 2027) will take place at the spectacular Ismaili Center. Sky Islands weaves the vivid sound world of the Philippine rainforest with themes of climate change and biodiversity. Collaborating with the Talking Gong trio and guest trumpeter-composer Amir Elsaffar, the group will also premiere a new work that crosses genres of jazz, improvisation, Filipino, and Middle-Eastern traditions. Similar to performing poor hymnal in the Rothko Chapel, a place known for reflection and social justice, Sky Islands needed an unusual space for the artists to move through. There will be plants and musical ecstasy.

Rothenberg will perform in two concerts this season. Morton Feldman at 101 will be presented in conjunction with the Menil Collection exhibition Terry Winters: Vitalized Geometry (Jan 28, 2027). “I’ve really developed a relationship with Feldman over the years,” says Rothenberg. “I find real solace in Feldman’s long sense of time and slowness.” The program features Feldman’s last work, his piano quartet. The other program, From Mozart to Mazzoli (April 3, 2027), will feature the world premiere of a newly commissioned piano quartet in honor of Sarah Rothenberg by today’s buzziest composer, Missy Mazzoli (Breaking the Waves, Lincoln in the Bardo), paired with Mozart’s Piano Quartet in G Minor, the first major work in that genre.

This season’s superb jazz lineup includes the Joshua Redman Quartet, the Houston debut of Makaya McCraven and the highly experimental jazz artist Chief Adjuah, the Linda May Han Oh Quartet with Oh as bandleader, and much more.

“Part of DACAMERA’s mission is to bring major artists and talents to Houston,” says Rothenberg. “I love it when they develop real relationships with the city and become known here.” She is also very proud of the DACAMERA audience. “I want the artists to love playing here as much as I want the audience to love the artists. Every time the artists walk off the stage, they say ‘you have such a great audience!’ The jazz people say it. The classical people say it. It’s a very special vibe.”

—SHERRY CHENG