Feb 24: Houston's ROCO Premieres New Arrangement of Jessica Meyer’s Go BIG or Go HOME

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 
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Houston’s ROCO Performs World Premiere
Chamber Orchestra Arrangement of
Composer Jessica Meyer’s Go BIG or Go HOME

The Church of St. John the Divine
Saturday, February 24, 2024 at 5:00pm

"Knife-edge anticipation opens on to unexpected, often ecstatic musical realms, always with a
personal touch and imaginatively written for the instruments." – Gramophone Magazine

www.jessicameyermusic.com
 

Houston, TX (February 8, 2024) – On Saturday, February 24, 2024 at The Church of St. John the Divine, Houston’s ROCO will premiere the new chamber orchestra arrangement of Jessica Meyer’s high-energy, rock-infused work Go BIG or Go HOME, which was written for this ensemble. Known for her “fierce-edged playing” (The New Yorker) and works described as “other-worldly” (The Strad), Meyer is an award-winning composer and violist whose passionate musicianship radiates accessibility and emotional clarity. In her notes on Go BIG or Go Home, she writes that the piece was composed “from a place of self-realization, empowerment, and celebration of how joyous life can be.”

ROCO will perform the piece as part of its Supersonic program, also featuring vibrant works by Elfrida Andrée, Richard Danielpour, Franz Schubert and Dobrinka Tabakova. For Go BIG or Go HOME, ROCO will be joined by blues guitarist Clay Melton and his band. Danielpour’s piece, Symphony in Three Movements After the Divine Comedy of Dante Alighieri: Voci dal Purgatorio, makes its U.S. premiere, while Tabakova’s piece, Fantasy Homage to Schubert, makes its Texas premiere. The Houston Youth Symphony performs side-by-side with ROCO for Schubert’s piece, Overture in the Italian Style D. 591. The performance will be live-streamed at roco.org/live/.

Go BIG or Go HOME originated as the last movement of Meyer’s string quartet Get into the NOW, commissioned by the GRAMMY-nominated PUBLIQuartet in 2017. Meyer first adapted the work as a standalone piece for the Nu Deco Ensemble in Miami, crafting the arrangement to reflect the unique energy and flavor of the city. The composition combines hints of funk, bluegrass and Latin music, driven along by groove, virtuosity, and moments of improvisation that make space for musicians to put a personal signature on the piece. A full orchestra version was featured on a nationwide tour through Carnegie Hall’s Link Up program, and a wind ensemble version was premiered in September 2023 as part of a national consortium. In December 2023, “The President's Own” United States Marine Band premiered the full symphonic band version of the piece at the Midwest Clinic.

Performance Details
Saturday, February 24, 2024 at 5:00pm
ROCO In Concert: Supersonic
The Church of St. John the Divine | Houston, TX
Tickets: Pay-What-You-Wish; $35 suggested
Link: roco.org/performances/in-concert-supersonic/
Live-stream: roco.org/live/

Program:
Elfrida Andrée – Symphony No. 2 in A minor
Richard Danielpour – Symphony in Three Movements After the Divine Comedy of Dante Alighieri
Voci dal Purgatorio [U.S. Premiere]
Jessica Meyer – Go BIG or Go HOME  [World Premiere Arrangement]
Franz Schubert – Overture in the Italian Style D. 591
Dobrinka Tabakova – Fantasy Homage to Schubert [Texas Premiere]

Delyana Lazarova, conductor
Jessica Meyer, composer

About Jessica Meyer
With playing that is “fierce and lyrical” and works that are “other-worldly” (The Strad) and “evocative” (The New York Times), Jessica Meyer is an award-winning violist and composer whose passionate musicianship radiates accessibility and emotional clarity. As a solo performer, she is internationally renowned for creating a virtuosic orchestral experience through a combination of viola, voice, and loop station, and recently performed in the premiere of her long awaited viola concerto during the 2022-2023 season in New York City.

Since the start of her composition career in 2014, at age 40, Meyer’s compositions have viscerally explored the wide palette of colors available to each instrument while combining techniques inspired by her experiences as a contemporary and period instrumentalist. Meyer’s first composer/performer portrait album, Ring Out (Bright Shiny Things, 2019) debuted at #1 on the Billboard Traditional Classical Chart. Her second album, I long and seek after – adapting powerful works of poetry by female and underrepresented writers – is due out March 2024. In fall 2023, Meyer was appointed to the Viola and Chamber Music faculty of the Manhattan School of Music.

Highlights of Meyer’s 2023-2024 season include four world premieres, among them: In the Path of Totality, written in honor of the April 2024 total eclipse, commissioned and premiered by fivebyfive in the Rochester Museum and Science Center Planetarium; and with a gift for burning, commissioned and premiered by the Brooklyn Art Song Society during its New Voices Festival 2024: Departures III. A third world premiere work, Sisters of Charity, was commissioned by the Bronx Arts Ensemble in honor of the recent decision by the nuns resident at the College of Mount Saint Vincent to wind down their 200-year-old order. A new work commissioned by the National Organists Guild for trombone and organ – Strong Arms to Hold Back the Dark – also makes its world premiere. In addition, the 2023-2024 season brings the New York premieres of two works: A Passage Between Earth and Sky, performed by NOVUS NY, and Avenue of the Giants, performed by the Dorian Wind Quintet. “The President’s Own” United States Marine Band premiered the full symphonic band version of Meyer’s work Go BIG or Go Home at the Midwest Clinic in Chicago.

During the 2022-2023 season, “The President’s Own” United States Marine Band performed an extensive Northeast tour of Meyer’s first symphonic band work, Press On. Other season highlights included Meyer’s performance as viola soloist in the world premiere of her own work, GAEA: Concerto for Amplified Viola and Chamber Orchestra, at Columbia University’s Miller Theatre. The season also brought world premieres of Spirits and Sinew by Hub New Music, Avenue of the Giants by the Dorian Wind Quintet and Because I Will Not Despair by In Mulieribus and the Portland Youth Philharmonic.

Meyer’s compositions have been premiered by acclaimed vocal ensembles Roomful of Teeth and Vox Clamantis, the American Brass Quintet, PUBLIQuartet, Sybarite 5, NOVUS NY of Trinity Wall Street, cellist Amanda Gookin, the St. Lawrence String Quartet, and the Lorelei Ensemble. She has also undertaken key collaborations with The Juilliard School and the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, which commissioned her work A Far Cry. She has received multiple commissioning awards from Chamber Music America and the New York State Council on the Arts. Meyer’s orchestral works have been performed by the Phoenix, North Carolina, Charlotte, and Vermont Symphonies, by the Nu Deco Ensemble in Miami, at Tanglewood, and around the United States through Carnegie Hall’s nationwide Link Up program.

Drawing from wide-ranging influences including Bach, Brahms, Delta blues, Flamenco, Indian Raga, and Appalachian fiddling, Meyer’s solo music written for loop pedal takes audience members on a journey through joy, anxiety, anger, bliss, torment, loneliness and passion. Her solo shows have been featured at iconic venues including BAMcafé in NYC; the Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh; and Sunset/Sunside in Paris.

Meyer is also known as an inspirational educator. Her workshops have been hosted by The Juilliard School, the Curtis Institute of Music, Lincoln Center, Carnegie Hall, and numerous other institutions including major universities.

Meyer received her BM and MM in Viola Performance from The Juilliard School. She lives with her husband, clarinetist Benjamin Fingland, their teenage son, and their black cat Ninji in the Bronx. Learn more at www.jessicameyermusic.com.

*Photo Credit: Titilayo Ayangade

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