ROCO, a leader of innovative, cross-cultural creations, continues to create accessibility and musical interest with technology

ROCO, the 19-year-old Houston-based, dynamic professional chamber orchestra that flexes from 1 to 40 players, has added a few notches to its technological belt. Having embraced technology and the opportunities it offers for expanding connections in the community through music since the beginning, ROCO is pleased to announce its latest forays into technology and classical music.

This week, a project initiated by ROCO founder Alecia Lawyer will be introduced and run by American Composers Orchestra (ACO) as a collaborative effort among ROCO, New Music USA, and American Composers Forum (ACF) under the umbrella of ACF’s “Anatomy of a Commission” initiative. An expansion of ROCO’s Commissions, Rescores and Premieres Database (located on the ROCO website) that ROCO created to offer resources for those looking for composers of various backgrounds, the new National Co-Commissioning Hub will take the concept forward in its natural evolution – providing an epicenter for orchestras, composers, and funders to discover, initiate, and/or join co-commissions throughout the U.S. The Hub will be managed through a page on the American Composers Orchestra’s website.

With ROCO a leader in the commissioning field with over 130 premieres, Ms. Lawyer expounds upon ROCO’s philosophy of connection: “Music is all about community, and that extends to creating works of music. With community there is collaboration, and an added strength from being more than one through co-commissioning – this allows not only for new works to be more easily introduced into the canon, but it makes new music more affordable, and even more importantly, guarantees more than one performance of the composer’s music. ROCO has been a champion of new music since day one, and I am excited ROCO can continue to be a convener for further access to living composers and help create a new resource for collaboration and new music for our industry.

“We have included technology in our work since the beginning and continue to embrace the opportunities it provides to deepen relationships in our community, and to create unique and exciting new works and programming opportunities.”

This coming fall, ROCO opens its 2023-24 season (details to be announced in the near future) with 12 commissions, co-commissions, rescores, and premieres. Having livestreamed all concerts for free to the world since 2013, the opening concerts of their 19th season on September 29th and 30th will also be available through free livestreaming and feature the world premiere of a commission by Anthony DiLorenzo, Techtonal, based upon the book The Telling Image, by Lois Stark with animation by Cynthia Lee Wong. Ms. Wong is using visuals inspired by human evolution, combining AI animagion with real-life photos and footage, in the creation of the animation to be premiered along with the music performance. The concert, led by Artistic Partner Mei-Ann Chen, also includes the re-scored world premiere commission of Kevin Lau’s The Nightingale, originally a piece for trio and narrator, now expanded for full orchestra. The original trio version was released as part of a technology-inclusive children’s book with QR codes to the music with and without narration, as well as a Braille version.

A year from now, on June 7, 2024, at the League of American Orchestras 2024 Conference, ROCO will premiere the winner of its recently announced Earshot Call for Scores, a program through ACO, that will involve female composers (winners will be mentored by the likes of Jennifer Higdon) at a 10:00 AM concert held at the Kinder HSPVA Theatre. The concert will be free to attendees and League members and open to the public with ROCO’s regular Pay What You Wish ticketing model. As is ROCO’s tradition, the concert will also be livestreamed through its website and on multiple streaming channels such as Facebook, YouTube, YourClassical, A440.live, and others.

 ROCO has invested in performances, recordings and distribution rights for 18 years, allowing the organization to provide free digital access to 1,000s of tracks of past concerts - first through its Listening Room and livestreamed performances. 

Images of ROCO on the Go at Memorial Park; commissions Checkmate and Pathfinder in concert; LiveNotes

The first orchestra in the nation to launch an accessible, interactive listening program involving QR code technology - ROCO on the Go further expands accessibility to classical music with a city-wide immersive initiative utilizing QR interfaces that link, via smartphone, to curated pieces and playlists from the Houston-based chamber orchestra’s vast library of live concert recordings. The program allows for free listening experiences for anyone who visits the over 139 parks, schools, and medical facilities engaged in the partnership.Launched in September 2020, ROCO on the Go has over 38,000 scans of 287 codes placed in and around Houston. ROCO’s efforts emphasize the connection between music and every aspect of life, using recordings from past seasons creating mood-based playlists for many partners and individually curated playlists for others, available for free listening in every possible community. Enabling instant connection to music in non-traditional spaces, ROCO on the Go continues to expand throughout Houston and beyond, with hopes to reach communities across the country over the next decade. Current locations include Buffalo Bayou Park, Harris County Precinct 2 parks, Memorial Park Conservancy’s running paths, Houston Public Library, Texas Southern University, and the 5th Ward Cultural Arts District. 

This past spring 2023, ROCO presented a new use of QR code technology highlighting the 19-year-old ensemble's leadership in cross-cultural innovations and focus on education and human connections with its first-ever book project, The Nightingale, based on Hans Christian Andersen's classic fairy tale. A transformation of the 2018 Disney-inspired commission by composer/pianist Kevin Lau, with adapted text also by Lau, and full-color illustrations by Amy Scheidegger Ducos, The Nightingale is an interactive children's book merging literacy, art, music, and technology into a shared communicative experience. Readers customize their experience by choosing different versions of the music through one of three QR codes: music with narration read by Miya Shay of Houston's ABC13 News; instrumental only, with bell prompt; and instrumental music without prompts. The book is believed to be among the first of its kind in the classical music world with its unique presentation of music via technology.

As one of the first U.S. ensembles to implement real-time, musician commentary through synced info-delivery technology in 2015, ROCO began a grant-funded collaboration with LiveNote’s forerunner, "EnCue by Octava" (developed by Linda Dusman and Eric Smallwood of University of Maryland Baltimore County). The ensemble then moved on to “LiveNote” (developed by Drexel University in partnership with The Philadelphia Orchestra) - part of Instant Encore’s mobile app package when it became available in 2018. In use until last year when Instant Encore dropped the program, ROCO is currently in the midst of developing its own open-source program code and will be bringing back the real-time app capability in the 2024-25 season. Principal Percussionist Matthew McClung has become the primary voice of the app over the last few years through his “Matt’s Musings,” taking a humorous approach to telling stories behind the music.

Technology is found in ROCO commissions as well. In 2018, ROCO presented the commissioned world premiere of an interactive work by Maxime Goulet called Checkmate, based upon one of the real chess matches between Garry Kasparov and the computer Deep Blue. Goulet composed a leitmotif for each piece on the chess board and composed the music to underscore the movements of the actual match. An animation company was commissioned to build the game to be played in real time on screen above the orchestra through QLab technology; a technician advanced the individual movements of the animated match along with the music, instead of the musicians laying down the piece over a pre-recorded video.

Another commission, Pathfinder by Richard Laveanda, was written in the style of “choose your own adventure” books by incorporating audience input via cell-phone voting to help influence the piece’s direction in the piece. The audience determined the order of the 5-minute work by voting digitally, creating an entirely new work each of the three times the piece was played during the performance.  Next season, ROCO will premiere a yet to be titled co-commission by Clarice Assad involving AI technology through an A-Frame and TC Hellicon processor that melds electronic music and acoustic music. Assad, who performs in the work, will be in the role of "the machine."

ABOUT ROCO
A trailblazing, 21st century ensemble, ROCO embraces technology for the purpose of connection. Offering three different concert series, and performing intimate concerts in dozens of venues, ROCO creates extraordinary experiences and fosters new relationships with audiences via the language of music. Through the regular use of technology and with over 130 world premieres to date, ROCO is one of the most prolific commissioning organizations in the US.

 Known as “the most fun you can have with serious music,” ROCO was founded in 2005 by oboist and Juilliard graduate, Alecia Lawyer, who, after multiple experiences in other musical start-ups, recognized the need for a sustainable and thriving model that would focus on authentic connections between musicians and audiences. Her work of “Wildcatting in the Arts” has expanded through a vibrant and multi-talented team that has made ROCO known for its dedication to living and diverse composers, multigenerational audiences, and free access to classical music for all. Learn more at https://roco.org

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Laura Grant, Publicist
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