Defining Home: Da Camera’s 30th Season
Da Camera has flourished because of the entrepreneurial spirit and open-mindedness of its hometown of Houston, as general director Sarah Rothenberg will readily tell you.
Music
Year of the Woman: Ars Lyrica’s Upcoming Season Celebrates Artful Women
It's the first time Matthew Dirst, Founder and Artistic Director of Houston's leading early music ensemble Ars Lyrica, has programmed an entire season of music focusing on women.
From punk rockers to presidents: The rebels at ROCO announce new season
The conductor nearly chickened out. Planning the concert that will open the River Oaks Chamber Orchestra’s 2017-18 season, Vladimir Yampolsky suggested a rarity: the Symphony No. 2 by Kurt Weill of Threepenny Opera fame. Then he wavered.
Jazz on/in/and Film at the MFAH
In a year, a very small number of “jazz films” can or will be released — there’s just (unfortunately) not that many to be made. So, during Jazz on Film, a yearly festival curated by Peter Lucas, now in its fifth year, there are some repetitions from previous years.
On Key and Offbeat: Austin’s Lone-Star Station KMFA Turns 50
When it comes to Austin’s 50-year-old radio station, KMFA Classical 89.5, it’s almost better defined by what it isn’t than what it is.
Victoria Bach Festival: A New Era
For one week each June, the picturesque South Texas city of Victoria, population 65,000, rolls out its red carpet and welcomes some of the finest professional musicians from around the country to take part in the Victoria Bach Festival (VBF).
Texas Early Music Project Bridges Past and Present
Iberian monophony, Notre Dame polyphony, Medieval mystery plays, Renaissance madrigals, Baroque operas, French virelai, Spanish villancico, Italian frottola, Scottish ballades, Sephardic love songs, and much more—early music encompasses a dazzling wealth of forms and styles.
Soli Chamber Ensemble Concludes Season Under the Ligurian Sun
The shift may not have been conscious, violinist Ertan Torgul says, but he sees it clearly. After 20-plus years of performing new music, San Antonio's Soli Chamber Ensemble is gravitating toward composers who bridge genres —mixing the classical tradition with jazz, rock or whatever else resonates with them. To them, music is music.
Fire & Water: HGO Triumphs with Götterdämmerung
Houston Grand Opera has done it! The realization of Richard Wagner's epic Ring Cycle, the single most challenging and monumental artistic undertaking in the opera company's history, culminated with full force in the cathartic fourth and final installment Götterdämmerung (Twilight of the Gods).
Houston Welcomes New Music Ensemble Loop38
Traditional tunes, rhythms and harmonies played no role. Instead, the chamber ensemble offered up an ever-shifting soundscape of shimmers, glimmers, rustlings and wisps —Finnish composer Kaija Saariaho’s salute to the Northern Lights.
Nameless Sound Brings Amina Claudine Myers to Houston
Usually, when we introduce an artist in a piece of writing, we write “singer” or “composer” and then their name, but the list of things Amina Claudine Myers does and has done is too extensive to be filed under one, two, or even three labels.
Pop Culture Invasion: ROCOmoji for the Win
Savvy concert goers can count on ROCO (River Oaks Chamber Orchestra) to keep up with current cultural trends.