Notes on the Staff

Unapologetic energy: Houston musician wins a major international award

A few minutes in, the virile whirlwind that's Kris Becker's Piano Sonata No. 1 leaves one breathless, the incessant surge of cascading riffs capturing the dexterity of the Houston-based performer/composer who can't easily be categorized as belonging to only one genre of music.

The 50-page score reveals writing that resembles the arpeggiated passages found in the Well-Tempered Clavier preludes of J.S. Bach. The first movement, titled What you thought, and what is, opens with a syncopated groove that blossoms with tense sustained melodies floating atop an unsettling rumble — as if the love child of Chopin and Liszt erupted in a spastic, bipolar tempter tantrum. Allusions to heavy metal, experimental jazz and 1970s hard rock abound, but, according to Becker, that wasn't on purpose.

He just happened to be listening to music by Black Sabbath, the Mahavishnu Orchestra and McCoy Tyner while working on the sonata.

Listen to What you thought, and what is to below:

The other three movements — titled Not to keep you waiting, Against all better judgment and Reconciliator — form a subconscious story arc.

Becker coined his mishmash of classical structures and popular inclinations "nu-classical," but not in the traditional sense of executing one style in another one's framework. Becker's nu-classical is a genuine blend that results in a sound that seems not to be associated exclusively to conventions of the past. Rather, it reinvents what it means to fuse these elements synergistically.

"Compositionally speaking, I aimed to be intellectually rigorous while viscerally enjoyable and relatable," he says. "Lots of muscularity is required in technique and mind to render a fitting interpretation, and an unapologetic energy."

"From him, I learned everything that galvanized my musicianship, they way I produce my sound, the way I approach performance, the way I work on my artistry."

The composition recently earned accolades from the IBLA Foundation, an organization that hosts an annual competition for pianists, singers, instrumentalists and composers in Italy. The 2013 IBLA Grand Prize results ranked Becker as the highest scoring composer. The foundation also awarded Becker with a Most Distinguished Musician title and a special mention for his sonata. The honor comes with a national concert tour, which includes a stop in Carnegie Hall in New York.

"The recognition is a fantastic boost to my burgeoning career," Becker tells CultureMap. "I've been fortunate to receive national attention for my work, but to receive an international endorsement is a huge confidence booster. It's an indication of how my work comes across, especially when it was evaluated in the company of compositions that are scored for larger musical forces.

"It validates what I am doing."

Prior to crafting his four-movement work, which had previously won the 2012 National Federation of Music Clubs Emil and Ruth Beyer Composition Award, Becker had collected hundreds of musical ideas. Voice memo recordings of little snippets and improvisations filled his iTunes library. In 2011, he resolved to make sense of all these concepts in a large-scale piece that was designed to be big and extremely difficult to play. Becker sketched most of the first movement over the course of a couple of weeks in his apartment, but without an acoustic piano. Due to space restrictions and noise concerns from his neighbors, the Piano Sonata No. 1 was conceived on a Yamaha keyboard.

The rest of the sonata was scored relatively quickly the following year. In 10 days, Becker, influenced by adrenaline and endorphins from a strict exercise regiment combined with some health setbacks — a period he describes as an elevated state with highs and lows — finished his sonata in time to submit it to the National Federation of Music Clubs for consideration. Becker dedicated the piece to his piano teacher Robert Roux, who's a professor at Rice University's Shepherd School of Music.

"To say that Robert was my piano teacher sounds so dry and childlike," Becker says. "He taught me how to make music. From him, I learned everything that galvanized my musicianship, they way I produce my sound, the way I approach performance, the way I work on my artistry.

"I don't dedicate any of my works unless the occasion arises. It was fitting to dedicate this early work in my catalogue to the man who brought me to Houston."

Becker's Piano Sonata No. 1 was commercially released as part of his Expansions album. The score is available online and the music can be purchased on iTunes and CD Baby. In January, Becker plans to release the sonata as a music video.

Pianist composer Kris Becker coined his blend of classical structures and popular music "nu-classical."

Courtesy Photo Facebook

Pianist composer Kris Becker coined his blend of classical structures and popular music "nu-classical."

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Best March Art

9 new art museum and gallery exhibits opening in Houston this month

Ernesto Neto, SunForceOceanLife (installation view), 2020, crocheted textile and plastic balls, the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Museum purchase funded by the Caroline Wiess Law Accessions Endowment Fund

As spring returns so does a flowering of biannual, annual, and biennial art festivals and events this month. Art blooms indoors in Houston's favorite museums but also on the city's streets, parks, and even waterways. Lots of immersive art invites viewers to journey into the picture.

The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston gets contemplative, and the Menil Collection displays some rare recent gifts. If that’s not enough art for one month, FotoFest celebrates a big anniversary, and the yearly “Night Light” art party heads downtown.

“Global Visions – FotoFest at 40” programming across Houston (March)
Marking four decades of photographic arts and education programming in Houston, this 2026 FotoFest looks back on key works and themes from the 20 previous biennials between 1986 and 2024. With participating art galleries and museums around the city offering special photography exhibitions over the next several month, FotoFest will feature more than 450 artists from the United States and 58 countries. Curated by FotoFest co-founder and former artistic director Wendy Watriss and FotoFest executive director Steven Evans, with co-curators Annick Dekiouk and Madi Murphy, “Global Visions” will explore some of the previous festival themes including geography, identity, war, ecology, and social change, while also celebrating FotoFest’s global reach and impact. Look for auctions, tours, conversations, art walks, and workshops as part of the programming.

“Buddha/Nature: Five Dialogues on a Shared World” at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (now through May 10)
Ancient and contemporary art converse in this extraordinary new exhibition at the MFAH that explores key teachings of Buddhism centered on how we engage with the natural world. The exhibition is organized crossed five thematically focused galleries, including Samsara, Impermanence, Karma, Compassion, and Awakening. Each gallery features one of five ancient Buddhist sculptures from the Xuzhou Collection, a private collection of Buddhist masterpieces, along with works by international and Texas contemporary artists.

“This exhibition brings ancient Buddhist sculptures into dynamic dialogue with contemporary art,” explains Hao Sheng, consulting curator to the MFAH and organizing curator of the exhibition. “These sacred objects take on new resonance when paired with modern works that explore fundamental questions about existence and harmony. As we witness shifts in our natural environment, we are invited to reflect on the impact of our collective choices in order to achieve a deeper understanding of our place within a changing world.”

“Blooming Wonders: A Celebration of Spring” at Artechouse (now through May 31)
The Houston venue that acts as a greenhouse for art, science, and technology to grow together, Artechouse, brings back this hit exhibition from last year.To explore themes of growth, renewal, and sustainability, “Bloom wonders” showcases several dynamic installations, including “PIXELBLOOM: Timeless Butterflies,” a 270 degrees projection space that puts visitors in the middle of a butterfly cloud. Audiences journey with a flock of butterflies into an immense garden of flowers. In another immersive space, “BloomFall: Through the Infinite” guests enter an mirrored infinity room full of shifting floral dimensions. The installation, “Akousmaflore et Lux” creates a very different type of garden where plants transform into musical instruments. “Clay Pillar” invites visitors to sculpt new forms using clay and a little help from an AI program.

“Ernesto Neto: SunForceOceanLife” at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (now-September 7)
Immersive art gets elevated as the MFAH brings back this commissioned installation that had museum goers walking on air. Looking something like a giant starfish or spiral galaxy from underneath, Ernesto Neto’s singular work floats above almost the entirety of Cullinan Hall in the Caroline Wiess Law Building. One of the largest crochet works to date by Neto, the sculpture consists of yellow, orange, and green materials hand-woven into a myriad of patterns and sewn together in a spiral formation. Visitors can enter this rising labyrinth and wander through different sections filled with soft, plastic balls underfoot that move with each step. Once they reach the center of work, they might pause to view the piece from within the art and reflect on their own journey through “SunForceOceanLife.”

“Ernesto Neto created this site-specific piece as a tribute to the life-giving forces of the sun and the ocean. Inspired by crochet, which he learned from his grandmother, the piece transforms this traditional Brazilian craft into a massive, enveloping structure that engages the body and the mind,” remark Mari Carmen Ramírez, Wortham Curator of Latin American Art on the return of the monumental installation.

True North 2026 along Heights Boulevard (now through December)
Once again, art grows on the Height Boulevard esplanade with this annual outdoor sculpture exhibition sponsored and partnered by the nonprofit Houston Heights Association. The outdoor show features the latest work of some stellar Texas and Houston artists, including Hans Molzberger, Suzette Mouchaty, James D. Phillips, Roger Colombik, Mark Nelson, Robbie Barber, Jim Robertson, Keith Crane/Damon Thomas. Since the artists don’t always install their sculptures on the same days, True North is always an artful excuse to make time for a walk along the boulevard to see what new work has popped up. This beloved tradition is once again thanks to an all-volunteer team, along with the Houston Heights Association in cooperation with the City of Houston Parks and Recreation and Public Works Departments and the Houston Mayor’s Office of Cultural Affairs.

"Rebel Girl" and “The Vanguard” at Houston Center for Photography (March 12-April 12)
Just a few days after International Women’s Day, HCP continues their historic commitment to championing women’s photographic careers as they present two exhibition exploring the complexities of female identity. “Rebel Girl” exhibits the work of Luisa Dörr, Selina Román, and Jo Ann Chaus, artists whose work challenges convention while questioning stereotypes and illuminating the evolving roles and perceptions of women today. For “The Vanguard,” HCP executive director, Anne Leighton Massoni, went through their archives and selected the work of 20 trailblazing women who exhibited at HCP within its first 20 years. Taken together their work illustrate the diversity of women’s artistic visions and creativity.

“The Gift of Drawing: Cy Twombly” at the Menil Collection (March 27-August 9)
Perhaps as a nod to the Menil Collection being the home of the only permanent retrospective exhibition of 20th century pioneering artist, Cy Twombly’s, work, last year the Cy Twombly Foundation made an extraordinary gift of 121 of Twombly’s drawings to the institute. Now art lovers around the world will get to see some of that landmark gift, as the Menil Drawing Institute presents this exhibition featuring 30 of those works. Covering three decades of the artist’s activity, from the 1950s to the 1980s, the show will feature work created by Twombly’s use of a broad range of materials, from graphite to oil paint; techniques such as drawing and collage; and themes that are fundamental to his entire practice, such as classical antiquity, eroticism, and nature. Some highlight of the exhibition will be a series of lush and unrestrained landscapes from 1986 that verge on pure abstraction; two untitled works from 1970 that are related to the artist’s “blackboard paintings” on view in Cy Twombly Gallery; and Narcissus, 1975, a collage of paper, with oil, charcoal, and wax crayon on paper. None of these works have been exhibited in the U.S. before.

“Night Light” at Allen’s Landing at Buffalo Bayou Park (March 28)
The annual free festival of video art along Buffalo Bayou moves west this year from its usual setting along the industrial and residential landscapes of the Buffalo Bayou East trails to Allen’s Landing in downtown Houston. The concrete bridges and underbellies of the major city freeways that emerge from watery bayou depths become the canvases for three site-specific installations from some of Houston most innovative video and multidisciplinary artists. Co-presented by the Aurora Picture Show and Buffalo Bayou Partnership “Night Light” puts the spotlight on new works from artist, designer, and engineer, Corey De’Juan Sherrard Jr.; video, installation, and performance artist and Rice professor, Kenneth Tam; and award winning collaborative duo Hillerbrand+Magsamen. And it wouldn’t be an outdoor Houston event of any kind without food, so expect a lively night artisan market hosted by East End District and BLCK Market at East River featuring local vendors and food trucks plus tunes from DJ Gracie Chavez.

Bayou City Art Festival Downtown at Sam Houston Park (March 28-29)
Downtown Houston continues to sprout art everywhere, as the last weekend in March also heralds the biannual Bayou City Art Fest in Sam Houston Park. Showcasing art from 250 creators from around the country, the festival always brings a wide selection of paintings, prints, jewelry, sculptures, and functional art at all price levels. Fest goers also have the opportunity to meet the art makers and hear the stories behind the art. This year’s featured artists is Lijah Hanley, a digital photographer from Vancouver, WA who first found his place behind a camera lens when he was 13. Along with a day of art, a ticket includes live music all day long on two stages, roaming performers, exciting kids areas with interactive crafts, and culinary arts demonstrations.

$Ernesto Neto, SunForceOceanLife (installation view), 2020, crocheted textile and\nplastic balls, the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Museum purchase funded by the\nCaroline Wiess Law Accessions Endowment Fund$