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’s 2013-2014 Season Finale, ROCO Celebrates France, featured Alastair Willis, conductor, and Kristin Wolfe Jensen, bassoon soloist. The concert showcased an all French program of François Devienne’s Concerto No.4 for Bassoon and Orchestra, Claude Debussy’s Petite Suite, Jacques Ibert’s Divertissement, Carter Pann’s The Extension of My Eye (Le Tombeau d’Henri Cartier-Bresson), and Lambert’s Aubade Héroique. Performed April 5, 2014, at The Church of St. John the Divine, Houston, TX.

Pann, The Extension of My Eye (Le Tombeau d'Henri Cartier-Bresson)

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,  V. 😡

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.

Anthony DiLorenzo, Anthem of Hope: Houston Strong

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.

Visconti, Legendary Love (In honor of Christian Kidd)

The Season 13 "Unchambered" series concluded April 8, 2018, at Midtown Arts and Theater Center Houston (MATCH) with "Magical Inspirations". ROCO violinist and concertmaster, Scott St. John, was the featured artist for this program, and was joined by clarinetist Nathan Williams and composer/ pianist Kevin Lau. In addition to Korngold’s gorgeous Much Ado About Nothing Suite, Kevin Lau created a new Disney-inspired work based on Hans Christian Andersen’s "The Nightingale". Original illustration commissioned from Amy Scheidegger.

Lau, The Nightingale for Violin, Clarinet & Piano

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

Anthony DiLorenzo, Jabberwocky

ROCO’s In Concert series, which features the full 40-piece orchestra and live-streamed performances, kicked off September 22, 2019 with the world premiere of Maxime Goulet’s Checkmate, a chess game for piano and orchestra based on the legendary 1996 match where IBM’s “Deep Blue” computer defeated reigning world champion, Garry Kasparov. The piano part (played by the singular Lara Downes) represents Kasparov while the orchestra plays the part of Deep Blue. ROCO principals, Kristin Wolfe Jensen, bassoon, and Nathan Williams, clarinet, were the featured soloists on Mendelssohn’s Concert Piece No. 1 in F minor, op. 113. Conductor Paul Watkins, cellist with the Emerson String Quartet, led the program (which also included a piece from his brother, British composer Huw Watkins). Martinů's Sinfonietta La Jolla rounded out the program.

Goulet, Checkmate: A concerto for piano and orchestra

The all-female-composer program “Queen of Hearts” continued the In Concert series on November 17, 2019, with ROCO favorite Mei-Ann Chen at the podium. Solitaire, a world premiere commission by Heather Schmidt for violin solo, featured ROCO concertmaster Scott St. John, and Ruth Gipps’s Seascape, and Louise Farrenc’s Symphony No. 3 round out this program.

Heather Schmidt, Solitaire for violin solo

Travel around Europe by rail with “Ticket to Ride,” beginning with Jim Stephenson’s musical tribute to miniature trains, ROCOmotive. Conductor (see what we did there!) Brett Mitchell steered the proceedings in his ROCO debut, taking audiences on a tour to England and Germany with Ethel Smyth’s The Wreckers, Poland with Wojciech Kilar’s Orawa, France with the Saint-Saëns Cello Concerto No. 1, featuring Richard Belcher, ROCO principal cello, as soloist, and finally to Austria with Mozart’s Symphony No. 35, “Haffner”. Recorded February 23, 2019 at The Church of St. John the Divine, Houston, TX.

Stephenson, ROCOmotive, V. Little Red Caboose

Stephenson, ROCOmotive, IV. DuPont Oil Tanker

Stephenson, ROCOmotive, II. Great Northern (blue coal car)

Stephenson, ROCOmotive, I. Engine CPRail

Travel around Europe by rail with “Ticket to Ride,” beginning with Jim Stephenson’s musical tribute to miniature trains, ROCOmotive. Conductor (see what we did there!) Brett Mitchell steered the proceedings in his ROCO debut, taking audiences on a tour to England and Germany with Ethel Smyth’s The Wreckers, Poland with Wojciech Kilar’s Orawa, France with the Saint-Saëns Cello Concerto No. 1, featuring Richard Belcher, ROCO principal cello, as soloist, and finally to Austria with Mozart’s Symphony No. 35, “Haffner”. Recorded February 23, 2019 at The Church of St. John the Divine, Houston, TX

Stephenson, ROCOmotive, III. Box-car: Dr. Pepper

ROCO’s Season Four Finale featured Grammy-nominated guest conductor, Alastair Willis, and the world premiere of Carter Pann’s Mercury Flute Concerto, which was commissioned by ROCO especially to showcase the talents of ROCO Principal Flutist, Christina Jennings. Also on the program were Haydn's Symphony No. 44 and Shostakovich's Chamber Symphony for Winds and Strings, op. 83. Performed at The Church of St. John the Divine, Houston, TX, April 18, 2009.

Pann, Mercury Concerto, I. Opening Movement

Pann, Mercury Concerto, II. Contemplative

Pann, Mercury Concerto, III. Finale

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

ROCO Team Favorites - Commissions

ROCOreplay