DACAMERA ANNOUNCES VIRTUAL FALL SEASON

Sarah Rothenberg and Tyler Duncan performing A Stranger I Arrive, A Stranger I Depart_Photo by Ben Doyle

Highlights include original commissioned livestreams, a new virtual series with the Menil Collection, premiere broadcasts of archival DACAMERA concerts and more

DACAMERA, a Houston-based presenter of chamber-music and jazz concerts, announces its fall season of virtual programming, including live streamed concerts, a new series with the Menil Collection, premiere broadcast streams of archival DACAMERA concerts with new introductions and more. With the exception of the new Hearing Color, Seeing Time series presented with the Menil, virtual content will be available to the general public for one week and to DACAMAERA members for two weeks. All virtual concerts are free with registration at dacamera.com.

As the ongoing pandemic continues to preclude in-person concerts, DACAMERA will engage audiences from Houston and beyond with virtual programming representative of the organization’s wide definition of chamber music, which ranges from classical to jazz to music beyond genre.

DACAMERA will continue to present new concerts this season with a series of virtual performances filmed from venues throughout the country, with pre-concert virtual artist receptions available for DACAMERA patrons. Featured performers include:

• Miguel Zenon and Luis Perdomo from The Jazz Gallery in New York: Alto saxophonist Miguel Zenón is a multiple Grammy nominee, a Guggenheim and MacArthur Fellow and one of the most influential saxophonists of his generation. A member of Ravi Coltrane’s Quartet for ten years, pianist Luis Perdomo is a founding member of the Miguel Zenon Quartet and has recorded on three Grammy-nominated albums: Coltrane’s In Flux, Zenón’s Esta Plena and Alma Adentro: The Puerto Rican Songbook.
• Conrad Tao in recital at Tanglewood in Massachusetts: The multi-talented young pianist will present an electrifying recital with Beethoven’s Tempest Sonata at its center, surrounded by compositions of Ruth Crawford Seeger, Tania Leon, Felipe Lara, David Lang and Tao himself.
• Anthony McGill and Gloria Chien in recital at Mechanics Hall in Massachusetts: Recently chosen for the Avery Fisher Prize for his work in the Black Lives Matter movement, clarinetist Anthony McGill serves as the principal clarinet of the New York Philharmonic—that orchestra’s first African-American principal player—while maintaining a dynamic international solo and chamber music career. Pianist Gloria Chien has been praised by the Boston Globe as one of the Superior Pianists of the Year. Recent collaborations include performances with Daedalus String Quartet, the Jupiter String Quartet, Marc Johnson and more.

Tyler Duncan and Sarah Rothenberg with A Stranger I Arrive, A Stranger I Depart: A performance of Franz Schubert’s Wintereisse, featuring Sarah Rothenberg on piano and Metropolitan Opera baritone Tyler Duncan. Schubert’s stunning song cycle tells the story of a solitary wanderer without shelter. The recital will be followed by a discussion about Schubert’s work in the context of the worldwide refugee crisis.

This season, DACAMERA introduces Hearing Color, Seeing Time a new series of virtual performances presented in partnership with the Menil Collection. Pianist and DACAMERA artistic director Sarah Rothenberg has been creating interdisciplinary programs connecting music, art and literature throughout her career.  In this new series, Rothenberg will bring viewers inside the galleries of the Menil for performances and discussions of music and art, allowing audiences to experience unexpected connections between the way we listen and what we see. Installments will include:

“Hybrid Vigor: Frankenthaler and Ravel”: A live performance from Rothenberg of Maurice Ravel’s sensuous Une barque sur l’ocean, paired with a viewing and discussion of a major painting by Helen Frankenthaler.

“Music and Time: Feldman in the Ancient Galleries”: Rothernberg’s performance of American composer Morton Feldman’s last piano work, Palais de Mari (1986), surrounded by objects from the same era that inspired Feldman’s composition.

The world premiere of archival DACAMERA performance “Cy Twombly and Music”:  This recital by contemporary music star Claire Chase is filmed at The Menil Collection’s Cy Twombly Gallery, a Renzo Piano-designed building dedicated to the iconic artist’s work. Chase’s program includes works by Felipe Lara, Marcos Balter, Suzanne Farrin, and a world premiere by Erik Ulman, who developed an unusual friendship with the painter through years of correspondence. The concert will be followed by a virtual artist talk with Ulman and Chase, discussing Twombly’s work with Sarah Rothenberg.

DACAMERA began its new online series, Visions of a Century, with the October 3 streaming of Marilyn Nonken and Sarah Rothenberg’s performance of Olivier Messiaen’s Visions de l’Amen. Throughout the season, DACAMERA will present premiere broadcast streams of archival concerts. These broadcasts of DACAMERA’s critically-acclaimed, multidisciplinary productions illuminate connections between music, art, literature and contemporary thought and have never been available to view until now. Confirmed dates include:

• Steve Reich’s Different Trains performed by St. Lawrence String Quartet: St. Lawrence String Quartet originally performed Reich’s groundbreaking Different Trains for DACAMERA audiences in April 2018. Presented with original synchronized video, the program interweaves live and pre-recorded string quartet with sounds of trains, whistles, sirens and recorded voices from the American past and fragmented memories of Holocaust survivors. The premiere broadcast stream will be available Friday, October 30.
• Tyshawn Sorey’s Perle Noire: Rising-star soprano Julia Bullock finds inspirationin a legendary singer’s story— Josephine Baker: A Personal Portrait, conceived by Peter Stellars. The premiere broadcast stream will be available Friday, December 11, with new music and arrangements for the International Contemporary Ensemble by celebrated composer and multi-instrumentalist Tyshawn Sorey and texts by poet and 2016 MacArthur Fellow Claudia Rankine.

This season, the organization introduces new membership program with benefits including virtual cocktail hours, extended access to online events, priority access to purchase tickets for live concerts and more. Membership packages begin at $100. To learn more about the membership program and sign up, visit www.dacamera.com.

DA CAMERA 2020/2021 SEASON CALENDAR

For full details and schedule updates, please visit www.dacamera.com.

Miguel Zenon and Luis Perdomo Live
October 16, 2020, 7 p.m.
Livestreamed on dacamera.com from The Jazz Gallery in New York

Hearing Color, Seeing Time: DACAMERA at the Menil Collection
“Hybrid Vigor: Frankenthaler and Ravel”
Tuesday, October 20, 2020, 7 p.m.
Livestreamed on dacamera.com

DACAMERA Archival Performance: Visions of a Century
Steve Reich’s Different Trains performed by St. Lawrence String Quartet
Friday, October 30, 2020, 7 p.m.
Livestreamed on dacamera.com

Conrad Tao in Recital
November 10, 2020, 7 p.m.
Livestreamed on dacamera.com from Tanglewood in Lenox, Massachusetts

Hearing Color, Seeing Time: DACAMERA at the Menil Collection
“Music and Time: Feldman in the Ancient Galleries”
Tuesday, November 17, 2020, 7 p.m.
Livestreamed on dacamera.com

Anthony McGill and Gloria Chien In Recital
November 21, 2020, 7 p.m.
Livestreamed on dacamera.com from Mechanics Hall, Massachusetts

Hearing Color, Seeing Time: DACAMERA at the Menil Collection
“Cy Twombly and Music”
December 8, 2020, 7 p.m.
Livestreamed on dacamera.com

DACAMERA Archival Performance: Visions of a Century

Tyshawn Sorey: Perle Noire
December 11, 2020, 7 p.m.
Livestreamed on dacamera.com

DACAMERA Archival Performance: Visions of a Century
A Stranger I Arrive, A Stranger I Depart
December 21, 2020, 7 p.m.
Livestreamed on dacamera.com

To receive updates on all season programming, please visit www.dacamera.com, and sign up for the DACAMERA newsletter here.

About DACAMERA

DACAMERA’s mission is to produce and present concert experiences with a commitment to quality and innovation that broadens the audience for chamber music and jazz. From its founding, DACAMERA’s varied programming has consisted of chamber music in its broadest definition including both classical music and jazz, bringing highly acclaimed local, national and international artists together in inspiring productions.

Committed to the creation of new work, DACAMERA has commissioned and premiered more than 30 new works in 30 years, many of which continue to be performed around the world by leading musicians. Commissioned composers include Kajia Saariaho, Jason Moran, Vijay Iyer, and Matthew Aucoin, among others. DACAMERA has received numerous national awards for its creative programming concepts, and its original productions have been hailed in national press as “trendsetting” (Time Out New York), showing “unusual care and intelligence” (New York Times) and for their “ingenious thematic idea… brilliantly used” (The Washington Post). These productions have been presented at Great Performers at Lincoln Center, the Barbican Centre, The Kennedy Center, and other major international venues. Their concept CD, Rothko Chapel: Feldman-Satie-Cage, released on the ECM label, has also received international acclaim.