We took an office poll, and here are our team's favorite ROCO Commissioned World Premeires, compiled to brighten your day during this difficult time!

ROCO Team Favorites - Commissions

ROCO is the number one programmer of women composers in 2019-2020.

Works by Women

This playlist features performances by ROCO of works by Black composers, including some commissioned work and world premieres.

Works by Black Composers

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 lead the orchestra in a program inspired by community, family, and hope, honoring Houston’s cultural diversity. Juan Pablo Contreras‘ Mariachitlán takes you to the colorful streets of the composer’s birthplace in Jalisco, Mexico, featuring a mariachi band, and the traditional Vietnamese folk song Bèo dạt mây trôi, tells the story of longing to be reunited with missing loved ones. Grammy-nominated guitarist Mak Grgic featured as soloist in the world premiere of Borders, a ROCO-commissioned guitar concerto by Michael Abels (composer for the films NOPE, GET OUT, and US), echoing themes of strife and healing. Ludwig van Beethoven‘s dramatic Symphony No. 5, nicknamed the “Fate Symphony,” wraped up the evening, reminding us that our fate can be in our own hands, encouraging us to write our own stories.

ROCO In Concert: Family

For ROCOC's debut album, it was important for the selection of works to be a collaborative process. We surveyed our musicians and asked them to select their favorite pieces from ROCO's repertoire over our first twelve seasons. Given our long history of commissioning, it was not surprising that five of our then fifty-eight world premiere commissions rose to the top. The recording session were originally scheduled for August 2017 in the Texas Hill Country, just outside of Houston. Unfortunately, Hurricane Harvey struck just days before, resulting in an eight month delay of the project. The sixth piece, Anthem of Hope: Houston Strong, commissioned in honor of the resiliency of the Houston community in the wake of the storm, was added to complete the story of the album.

ROCO: Visions Take Flight

ROCO's 16th season concluded with livestreamed flair on April 24, 2021 in “Flamenco”, featuring the world premiere of "The History of Red", a co-commission by Reena Esmail based on a text by Chickasaw poet Linda Hogan, with soprano Kathryn Mueller as soloist. Conductor Brett Mitchell made his return to ROCO, also leading the world premiere of Quinn Mason’s Princesa de la Luna for harp and strings, and completing the program are Samuel Barber’s Knoxville: Summer of 1915, Errollyn Wallen’s Photography, and Carlos Surinach’s flamenco for orchestra, Ritmo Jondo, accompanied by live dance from the company Solero Flamenco.

Quinn Mason, Princesa de la Luna (Princess of the Moon)

Errollyn Wallen, Photography

ROCO’s Season 17 Connections series continued November 19th, presenting Huang Ruo’s A Dust in Time: Passacaglia for Strings at Asia Society Texas Center, and also livestreamed at ROCO.org, Facebook, and YouTube, featuring the ROCO String Quartet, including musicians Scott St. John, violin; Sandy Yamamoto, violin; Lorento Golofeev, viola; and Shino Hayashi, cello.

Structured similarly to a Tibetan sand mandala, the 60-minute uninterrupted musical meditation is slowly created live from the central essence point, expanding outward into colored fullness, then to be subtracted back to its origination. The cycle fulfills the spiritual journey of traveling from nothing (emptiness), to something (fullness), and back to nothing (emptiness).

Huang Ruo, A Dust in Time

Ruth Gipps, Seascape Op. 53

Ngo Hoang Quan, Bèo dȧt mây trôi

Michael Abels, Borders - II. Lively

Michael Abels, Borders - I. Austere, melancholy

Juan Pablo Contreras, Mariachitlán

Anthony DiLorenzo, Anthem of Hope

THE NIGHTINGALE - NARRATION

ROCO's Season Eight Opener boasts exotic works by Reena Esmail (Teen Murti for String Orchestra), Huang Ruo (Folk Songs for Orchestra), Bela Bartók (Second Suite, op. 4), and Benjamin Britten (Serenade for Tenor, Horn, and String Orchestra). With the esteemed Mei-Ann Chen conducting, and joined by soloists Zach Averyt, tenor, and Danielle Kuhlmann, horn, ROCO Celebrates Asia was performed September 28, 2013, at The Church of St. John the Divine, Houston, TX.

Esmail, Teen Murti For String Orchestra

Ruo, Folk Songs For Orchestra, II. Love Song from Kang Ding

Experience the gorgeous tonal palette of the violin through colorful chamber works featuring strings and winds, including Robert Schumann's lush, romantic Piano Quintet in its entirety, Reena Esmail's string quartet Zeher (Poison)—based on Hindustani raags, a world premiere commission by Alyssa Morris, and works by Bach, Bartok, Leclair, and more.

Featured musicians with Scott St. John are Audrey Andrist, piano; Eva Burmeister, violin; Aloysia Friedmann, viola; Shino Hayashi, cello; Alecia Lawyer, oboe; Katie Hart, oboe; and Spring Hill, oboe/English horn.

LeClaire, Trio Sonata In F - 3rd Movement

ROCO violinist Min-Jeong Koh curates a personal, meaningful program of works by Asian composers, accompanied by her sister Bo Yon Koh on piano—musically telling their stories of immigrating from Korea to embracing their new home in the United States.

Traditional Korean Tune, Arirang

ROCO kicked off its 19th season 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 The Church of St. John the Divine on September 30th.

Anthony DiLorenzo’s ROCO world premiere 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. Go on a flight of fancy in ROCO’s commission The Nightingale by Kevin Lau—recently released as our first-ever children’s book, and heard in a new scoring for full chamber orchestra—then head to the exotic lands of The Arabian Nights as Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov‘s symphonic suite Scheherazade whisks audiences away through ravishing, vibrantly orchestrated scenes.

Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, Scheherezade  IV. Festival At Bagdad

Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, Scheherezade  III. The Young Prince   The Young Princess

Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, Scheherezade  II. The Story Of The Kalendar Prince

Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, Scheherezade  I. The Sea   Sinbad S Ship

Kevin Lau, The Nightingale

Anthony DiLorenzo, Tectonal

ROCO’s 2014-2015 Season Opener, Once Upon A Time, takes the audience on the whimsical journey through Benjamin Britten’s Suite on English Folk Tunes, Op. 90, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s Symphony No. 41 in C Major, K551, “Jupiter”, and the suspenseful L’Italiana in Algeri Overture (The Italian Girl in Algiers), by Gioacchino Rossini. Led by conductor Victor Yampolsky and concertmaster Brian Lewis, the concert was performed September 28, 2014, at the Church of St. John the Divine, Houston, TX.

Rossini, L'Italiana in Algeri Overture (The Italian Girl in Algiers)

ROCO’s annual conductorless concert featured works in which the orchestra is subdivided. Concertmaster and violin soloist Scott St. John lead the ensemble in the commissioned world premiere of Marcus Maroney’s Concerto for Orchestra (composed in the style of Bartok’s Concerto for Orchestra, which divides the orchestra into pairs), as well as Haydn’s Symphony No. 6 (characterized by multiple duets within the larger piece). The program was completed by Vaughn Williams’ Lark Ascending, featuring Scott St. John, and Bartok’s Rumanian Folk Dances. Performed February 13, 2016, at The Church of St. John the Divine, Houston, TX.

Haydn, Symphony No. 6 in D major, "Le Matin", IV. Finale: Allegro

Haydn, Symphony No. 6 in D major, "Le Matin", III. Menuet and Trio

Haydn, Symphony No. 6 in D major, "Le Matin", II. Adagio - Andante - Adagio

Haydn, Symphony No. 6 in D major, "Le Matin", I. Adagio - Allegro

“Sliding Into Home” brought ROCO's 2015-2016 In Concert series to a close with a world premiere performance of Servant of Peace, the newly commissioned trombone concerto by Dorothy Gates. ROCO's principal trombonist, Thomas Hultén, performed the work, which was led by guest conductor, Victor Yampolsky. Also featured on the concert were Honegger’s Symphony No. 4 and Schreker's Chamber Symphony. Performed on April 9, 2016, at The Church of St. John the Divine, Houston, TX. 

Gates, Servant of Peace - Concerto for Trombone and Chamber Orchestra, III. The Truth

Gates, Servant of Peace - Concerto for Trombone and Chamber Orchestra, II. The Cup

Gates, Servant of Peace - Concerto for Trombone and Chamber Orchestra, I. The Road

ROCO launched its 2016–2017 season with a program entitled “Dance Like No One’s Watching”. Mei-Ann Chen conducted, Scott St. John returned as concertmaster, and Chester Englander soloed on cimbalom in the "Song" and “Intermezzo” from Kodály’s “Háry János Suite”. The program also featured Fanny Mendelssohn’s Overture in C Major, Mikhail Glinka’s Kamarinskaya, and Dmitri Shostakovich’s Ballet Suite No. 2 for Orchestra. Performed September 24, 2016, at The Church of St. John the Divine, Houston, TX.

Mendelssohn, Overture in C major

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 this concert, performing Saverio Mercadante’s Concerto for Flute in E-minor. Rounding out the program were Gustav Holst's Green Brook Suite and Arnold Schoenberg's Verklärte Nacht. Recorded April 1, 2017, at The Church of St. John the Divine, Houston, TX.

Miller, ROCOmoji - Concerto Grosso for Double Reeds, IV. 🤑

Miller, ROCOmoji - Concerto Grosso for Double Reeds, III. 😍

Miller, ROCOmoji - Concerto Grosso for Double Reeds, II. 😯

Miller, ROCOmoji - Concerto Grosso for Double Reeds, I. 😔

Helping Houston heal from Harvey, ROCO premiered a new fanfare, commissioned in response to the city's resilience. Emmy Award-winning composer, Anthony DiLorenzo, has written a fanfare honoring the strength, caring, and courage the Houston community showed the world, both during rescue efforts in the immediate aftermath of Harvey, and now in the city's recovery. In keeping with ROCO's passion for collaboration, more than 20 other performing arts groups will also perform this piece throughout the 2017-18 season as a thread of music tying the city together. If you are interested in performing the work, please visit rocohouston.org for details.

Anthem of Hope: Houston Strong

Continuing its 13th season, ROCO presented “Courageous Catalysts”, featuring a new commission by Michael Gandolfi. The new work, entitled "Houston: September 12, 1962", celebrated the 100th birthday of President John F. Kennedy and the courage of people who fight for change. Conducted by Michael Stern, the program also included Jean Sibelius’ Symphony No. 7 in C major, op. 105, the composer’s final published symphony, and Bruce Adolphe’s I Will Not Remain Silent, a violin concerto inspired by the life of German-American rabbi and civil rights leader, Joachim Prinz. Throughout the concerto, the violin, played by ROCO concertmaster and featured soloist, Scott St. John, represented the voice of Prinz, while the orchestra represents opposing forces – Nazi Germany in the first movement and America during the Civil Rights era in the second movement. Performed November 11, 2017, at The Church of St. John the Divine, Houston, TX.

Sibelius, Symphony No. 7 in C major, op. 105, I. In einem satze (in one movement)

Concertmaster Scott St. John lead from the chair during ROCO’s annual conductorless concert. "Legendary Love" was the name of the concert, as well as the title of another world-premiere commission – a classical piece by Dan Visconti honoring Christian Kidd, lead singer of the Houston-based ’70s punk rock band, The Hates. The performance also featured two new commissions by Houston-based composer, Mark Buller – "Nursery Rhymes" and "Tombstone Songs". Two movements from Antonin Dvorák’s "Legends" paired with "Wood Notes" by William Grant Still, who was heavily influenced by Dvorák’s call to American composers to find their own unique voices. "Mazurek", also by Dvorák, featured St. John as soloist. Recorded February 11, 2018 at The Church of St. John the Divine, Houston, TX.

Still, Wood Notes, I. Singing River (Moderately Slow)

For ROCO's debut album, it was important for the selection of works to be a collaborative process. We surveyed our musicians and asked them to select their favorite pieces from ROCO's repertoire over our first twelve seasons. Given our long history of commissioning, it was not surprising that five of our then fifty-eight world premiere commissions rose to the top. The recording session were originally scheduled for August 2017 in the Texas Hill Country, just outside of Houston. Unfortunately, Hurricane Harvey struck just days before, resulting in an eight month delay of the project. The sixth piece, Anthem of Hope: Houston Strong, commissioned in honor of the resiliency of the Houston community in the wake of the storm, was added to complete the story of the album.

Visions Take Flight

DiLorenzo, Jabberwocky

Bermel, Murmurations, II. Gliding Over Algiers

Bermel, Murmurations, I. Gathering At Gretna Green

For ROCO's debut album, it was important for the selection of works to be a collaborative process. We surveyed our musicians and asked them to select their favorite pieces from ROCO's repertoire over our first twelve seasons. Given our long history of commissioning, it was not surprising that five of our then fifty-eight world premiere commissions rose to the top. The recording session were originally scheduled for August 2017 in the Texas Hill Country, just outside of Houston. Unfortunately, Hurricane Harvey struck just days before, resulting in an eight-month delay of the project. The sixth piece, Anthem of Hope: Houston Strong, commissioned in honor of the resiliency of the Houston community in the wake of the storm, was added to complete the story of the album.

Esmail, Teen Murti

Al-Zand, Visions From Another World, III. The Spinning Ballerina

Al-Zand, Visions From Another World II. Funeral Cortege Of The Silkworm

For ROCO's debut album, it was important for the selection of works to be a collaborative process. We surveyed our musicians and asked them to select their favorite pieces from ROCO's repertoire over our first twelve seasons. Given our long history of commissioning, it was not surprising that five of our then fifty-eight world premiere commissions rose to the top. The recording session was originally scheduled for August 2017 in the Texas Hill Country, just outside of Houston. Unfortunately, Hurricane Harvey struck just days before, resulting in an eight-month delay of the project. The sixth piece, Anthem of Hope: Houston Strong, commissioned in honor of the resiliency of the Houston community in the wake of the storm, was added to complete the story of the album.

Al-Zand, Visions From Another World, I. Ronde Fantastique

ROCO’s Seventh Season was “a fusion of cultures and generations". The Season Opener featured Guest Conductor, Mei-Ann Chen, conducting Martinů’s Toccata e due Canzoni, Mozart's Symphony No. 40, and Finzi’s Let Us Garlands Bring, performed with baritone soloist, Timothy Jones. The performance also included works by Kernis and Balentine. Performed at The Church of St. John the Divine, Houston, TX, on October 22, 2011.

Kernis, Too Hot Toccata

ROCO’s In Concert series, which showcases the full 40-piece orchestra, kicked off at The Church of St. John the Divine on September 28, 2019, with “Time for Hope”, a concert built around a world premiere by Lisa Bielawa entitled “Centuries in the Hours”, sung by mezzo-soprano Laurie Rubin. The text for the work comes from a collection of personal writings by American women of the 18th-20th centuries whose life circumstances rendered them historically invisible. The concert also highlighted ROCO’s first-ever Artistic Partner, conductor Mei-Ann Chen, who will be returning each season for spirited collaborations. Chen led the orchestra in the program, which also included works by local Houston composers Alejandro Basulto and Mark Buller, as well as Desmond Ikegwuonu and Franz Joseph Haydn. Recorded September 28, 2019 at The Church of St. John the Divine, Houston, TX.

Ikegwuonu - Na So E Be

ROCO's first-ever Valentine's Concert featured conductor Tanya Ratner, as well as concertmaster, Brian Lewis, and principal oboist, Alecia Lawyer, in Bach's Concerto for Violin and Oboe, BWV 1060. Laven's Beyond the Odyssey, Fauré's Pelleas and Melisande Suite, op. 80, and Copland's Appalachian Spring, Suite for 13 Instruments rounded out the program, which was performed at The Church of St. John the Divine, Houston, TX. February 11, 2006.

Bach, Concerto for Violin and Oboe, BWV 1060, I. Allegro

Featuring its own principals as soloists, ROCO’s season three Conductorless! concert featured Enescu's Decet for Winds, Holst's St. Paul's Suite, and Prokofiev's Classical Symphony, op. 25. The concert was performed on February 2, 2008, at The Church of St. John the Divine, Houston, TX. 

Holst, St. Paul's Suite, III. Intermezzo - Andante con moto

ROCO’s In Concert series continued with “Beauty is in the Eye” on February 8, 2020. The performance featured the premiere of a new concerto by Kevin Lau for the erhu, a traditional Chinese stringed instrument. The concerto was performed by Andy Lin and conducted by Christopher Rountree, who was making his ROCO debut. Also featured were William Grant Still’s tone poem “Darker America”, exploring themes of sorrow, hope, and prayer, and works by Jean-Féry Rebel and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.

Mozart, Maurerische Trauermusik (Masonic Funeral Music) in C minor, K. 477

Gustav Holst, Brook Green Suite, II. Air

ROCO’s In Concert series, which showcases the full 40-piece orchestra in livestreamed performances, lifted off September 26, 2020 from the Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion with “Starburst”, sparkling with musical light and energy, conducted by ROCO Artistic Partner Mei-Ann Chen. Richard Scofano, composer and soloist on the bandoneon (a Latin-American bellowed instrument), featured in the world premiere of his new work La Tierra Sin Mal (The Land Without Evil), and additional works included Jessie Montgomery’s brilliant Starburst; Fauré’s Masques et bergamasques; Debussy’s Clair de Lune; and Kodály’s Dances of Marosszék.

Debussy, Clair de Lune (arr. Luck)

ROCO's fully live-streamed 16th season continued on November 14, 2020 from The Church of St. John the Divine with “Oceans”, a nature-inspired program featuring the orchestra—conductorless! The concert featured the U.S. premiere of Stride, a new work by Anna Clyne for strings. Rounding out the program was a classic - Debussy’s paean to the sea, La Mer - as well as Coleridge-Taylor’s Nonet in F minor, a selection from Bolcom's Ghost Rags, and a surprise piece - Piazzolla's Histoire du Tango, but for Flute and Marimba!

Coleridge-Taylor, Nonet in F Minor, Op. 2, IV. Finale. Allegro vivace

Coleridge-Taylor, Nonet in F Minor, Op. 2, II. Andante con moto

ROCO is a Houston-based professional chamber orchestra known for its wide repertoire and engaging performances. ROCO.org

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