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    A Chamber of Possibilities

    Naked classical music: Your guide to Houston's intimate side

    Joel Luks
    Aug 22, 2011 | 3:55 pm
    • Yuja Wang
    • WindSync
      Photo by Roman Ponomariov
    • Apollo Chamber Players
    • Sharon Isbin and Mark O'Connor
    • Clarinetist Nathan Williams
      Photo courtesy of Nathan Williams

     Editors Note: We've asked Houston arts leaders and CultureMap contributors to pick the jewels from Houston's upcoming arts season — the events that they don't plan to miss. Here's what's on listings editor Joel Luks' don't miss list:

    There's no better way to get to know a musician's artistry than through chamber music. Don't get me wrong. I am completely for the power, volume and scale of a full-sized 80-piece symphony orchestra — throw in a chorus and you have a musical army of Texas proportions.

    But the minute nuances that elevate an instrumentalist to a musician to an artist come to the fore in the more intimate classical music format. From as little as one musician to the more popular string quartet to the wind quintet and other configurations, chamber music has something for everyone.

    Think of chamber music as naked classical music. There is very little in between the listener and the performer's interpretation. No note is lost. Nothing can hide.

    We tend to think of chamber music as serious. Could that be the fault of the label itself? Chamber sounds antiquated, stoic, formal. But at its roots — growing up from an accompanying art form during the Renaissance to an established genre in the Baroque period — chamber music was indeed the music of friends. For nearly 200 years, it was the period's answer to a leisurely home activity.

     

      Think of chamber music as naked classical music. There is very little in between the listener and the performer's interpretation. No note is lost. Nothing can hide. 

    It wasn't until the technological advances of the 19th century — when instruments emerged with richer, louder sounds and bigger presence — that the art form immigrated to the concert stage.

    Today, you can engage in a myriad of different concert experiences in chamber music. If you are the modern traditionalist, an onstage performance may be your cup of tea. If you are the artistically-curious, a more intimate setting may strike your fancy. Or, if you are the inquisitive social type wanting to get up close and personal — real close and personal — you can opt for an interactive structure where performing artists turn into your beer drinking buds.

    This fall, the Houston art scene has lots to offer you. To help plan ahead, here are my suggestions:

     Houston Grand Opera Studio Recitals at Rienzi

    What's not to love about combining the energy of emerging opera stars and the opulent (yet comfortable) setting of Rienzi? These series of recitals continue in European Decorative Arts wing of the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston.

    The Houston Grand Opera Studio assembles the most promising young singers from across the globe. This program helped propel the careers of mezzo Joyce Di Donato, soprano Albina Shagimuratova, baritone Liam Bonner, soprano Rebekah Camm and baritone Scott Hendricks, among a large army of divas and divos.

    It doesn't really matter what they are signing. You can say, I knew them when, or I heard them here, years later.

    After each concert, there are usually bites and cocktails, during which concert goers can enjoy the exquisite outdoor areas at Rienzi.

    The first program of the 2011-12 season is Friday, Sept. 30 and Saturday, Oct. 1 at 7:30 p.m.

     Jerusalem String Quartet presented by Houston Friends of Chamber Music

    This concert will mark Jerusalem Quartet's Houston debut with Houston Friends of Chamber Music. Run primarily by volunteers with one staff member, this nonprofit is a perfect example of what can be done when passions are alive.

    The repertoire spans from the classical period with Mozart's String Quartet No. 15 in D Minor, travels to the rich sonorities of German romanticism courtesy of Brahms String Quartet No. 2 in A Minor, landing also in the dual style of Shostakovich's String Quartet No. 11 in F Minor.

     Tuesday, Oct. 11 at Shepherd School of Music's Stude Concert Hall.

     Pianist Yuja Wang presented by Society for the Performing Arts

    Remember the days of cute little Midori and Sarah Chang? We've been watching Chinese pianist Yuja Wang since she was young enough to wear princess dresses and don pig tails. She was as much of a bad ass then as she is now.

    At 24 years of age, she has performed under the most discerning batons and received a Grammy nomination for Best Instrumental Soloist Performance — without orchestra — in 2010. Though her repertoire for her Houston solo recital — also without orchestra — has not been finalized, that won't deter me from saving the date.

     Wednesday, Oct. 12 at Jones Hall.

     River Oaks Chamber Orchestra (ROCO) principal clarinetist Nathan Williams in recital at Gremillion & Co.

    I credit ROCO for revolutionizing the way classical music is presented in Houston. Always engaging while keeping its artistic integrity, ROCO formats allow listeners to get into the music. Concerts have a social component and an element of surprise.

    We first met Williams prior to his performance of the Copland Clarinet Concerto. His control is sublime. His sound? Like butter. If there could be a clarinet rock star, Williams would be it.

    On Sunday, Nov. 13, he will be featured in the orchestra's recital series, also marking the beginning of a partnership with Gremillion & Co.

     Guitarist Sharon Isbin and violinist Mark O'Connor presented by Da Camera of Houston

    The duo should not need an introduction. Isbin is a virtuoso across genres sailing through avant-garde, traditional and more popular art music with relative ease. The guitar, in her hands, is a toy. O'Connor is equally comfortable in folk, classical or jazz style. The pair together is a force to be reckoned with.

    What happens when classical artists — who have an understanding of harmonic and structural form — dabble in folk music? Sometimes, they fall short if they do not internalize the music's spirit. But not Isbin and O'Connor. They get it and use their traditional training to add sophistication to O'Connor's Appalachia Waltz and the Strings and Threads Suite.

     Friday, Nov. 18 at the Wortham Theater Center.

     Local chamber ensembles: Apollo Chamber Players and WindSync

    It would be difficult to narrow down just one concert from these two ensembles. The Apollo Chamber Players have earned a reputation for presenting rarely heard music that explores where classical and folk genres meet, usually creating their own interpretations that show off the players' individual strengths. Hear them at the 9/11 Memorial Concert on Saturday, Sept. 10 at 7 p.m. at University of St. Thomas, or catch them at the Inaugural Concert of the Houston Heights Orchestra— where the ensemble is in residence along with WindSync — Saturday, Oct. 1 at 7 p.m.

    Though all members of WindSync wind quintet stem from traditional classical music backgrounds, there is nothing traditional about the way the troupe operates. Keep an eye out for the group's Classical Revolution concerts — in bars with beer and wine. They will also perform alongside Apollo at the Heights Orchestra concert.

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    news/arts
    series/state-of-the-arts-2011

    Best July Art

    Where to see art in Houston now: 9 fun new exhibits opening in July

    Tarra Gaines
    Jul 9, 2025 | 4:30 pm
    ​Artechouse presents "Blooming Worlds"
    Photo courtesy of Artechouse
    Artechouse presents "Blooming Worlds"

    Art blooms in our world class museums but also on our city streets this July. From exhibitions featuring traditional paintings and sculptures to high tech immersive and interactive shows, we’re weaving art into the best of summertime fun and dreaming up beautiful new artistic creations all over Houston.

    “Town Meeting 1978-2028” at Art League Houston (now through July 20)
    Pioneering Houston-based interdisciplinary artists Nick Vaughan and Jake Margolin continue their decades-long project to create new and sometimes monumental artworks in response to little-known pre-Stonewall queer histories. For this latest exhibition, the duo explore a more recent and influential piece of Houston history, “Town Meeting I,” the pivotal convening of 4,000 LGBTQIA+ Houstonians at the Astro Arena in 1978. For this show at Art League, they’ve used their “wind drawing” technique of stenciling unfixed charcoal powder on paper and blowing it away, leaving a ghost-image. Using archival images of “Town Meeting I” as the bases of their stenciling, the finished “wind drawings” highlight the ephemerality, beauty, and loss of queer histories. In addition to these new works, Vaughan and Margolin hope to inspire, facilitate, and develop programming in 2028 to commemorate the 50th anniversary of “Town Meeting 1.”

    “Fragmentos de un sueño que yo también soñé (Fragments of a Dream I Also Dreamed)" at Art League Houston (now through July 20)
    “Every house is a body, and every individual body is a house full of memories and hopes,” says award-winning Venezuela born, Chicago-based artist, Jeffly Gabriela Molina, of her artistic focus. Molina’s fragmented, layered, and figural compositions explore that idea of home and memories. Delving into memories and stories, these figurative compositions, depicting people and relationships, fluctuate between stories of the present, past, and future. Taken together, the works in “Fragmentos de un sueño” aim to visually capture the feelings of vulnerability, nostalgia, and hope embedded in the experience of many immigrants. Art League notes that Molina’s pieces emphasize optimism over hardship, specifically addressing the longing for a home that no longer exists while striving to create a new one.

    “Every Fiber of Their Bodies” at Art League Houston (now through July 20)
    Working with natural fibers such as linen, paper collage, and hand-spun paper yarn made from calligraphy paper and book pages, textile artist Lin Qiqing weaves stories ofhuman relationships, gender, immigration, and language. As the title hints, the labor-intensive weaving process brings thematic depth to the images of bodies depicted in the pieces. The woven pieces also make connections to the natural world, as when Lin crumples then smooths handmade mulberry paper to resemble human skin, or when she uses handwoven fiber to mimic the body’s movement. Lin process includes research and experimenting with natural materials to explore themes of the internal human struggle for existence and our interactions with the world around us.

    “Annual Juried Exhibition” at Archway Gallery (now through July 31)
    For the 17th year, the artist owned Archway Gallery celebrates Houston artists with its juried exhibition of area artists who are not members of the space. This year’s exhibition is juried by Project Row Houses founder and MacArthur "genius" fellow, Rick Lowe. The acclaimed artist and social activist has selected work from over 35 area artists representing a diversity of medium and styles. Sales from the exhibition will go to Houston’s Brave Little Company, the theater company for Houston’s kids and their gown ups.

    “Foyer Installation: René Magritte” at Menil Collection (now through August 3)
    After a critically acclaimed trip to Australia, some of our favorite Belgian-born Houstonians are back home. Yes, the Magritte paintings have returned to the Menil Collection after taking a star turn in a monumental Magritte retrospective at Sydney’s Art Gallery of New South Wales. Now the Menil is celebrating their return with a special installation in the main building foyer. The Menil Collection owns the largest collection of work by René Magritte outside the artist’s native Belgium, and this display focuses on a core group of paintings from the 1950s and ’60s that truly represent Magritte’s status as a master creator of impossible painted worlds and an icon of the Surrealist movement. The paintings were purchased within a couple years of their making by the museum’s founders, John and Dominique de Menil. They represent and important part of 20th century art history, as the de Menils became Magritte’s biggest champions in the United States, helping to shape the artist’s reception and reputation in the postwar American art world. Stop by to welcome them home and slip into their enigmatic wonder.

    “Blooming Wonders” at Artechouse (now through September)
    The latest immersive exhibition from the Houston venue that brings art, science, and technology home together, Artechouse, lets the flowers blossom. The exhibition contains several dynamic installations, including “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. Another immersive piece, “Infinite Blooms” takes audiences on a journey through an endless digital forest of cherry blossoms. The installation, “Akousmaflore et Lux” creates a very different type of garden where plants transform into musical instruments. “Clay Pillar” by Interactive Items / Vadim Mirgorodskii invites visitors to sculpt new forms using clay and a little help from an AI program. Note that “Blooming Wonders” runs simultaneously with the rock ‘n’ roll exhibition, “Amplified” with “Wonders” open during the daytime.

    “Weci | Koninut” at Avenida Houston (now through September 1)
    Houston is a place for big dreams, and this wondrous outdoor exhibition near George R. Brown Convention Center gives us the space to do so. Created by First Nations artists Julie-Christina Picher and Dave Jenniss, this interactive installation weaves together visual arts, Indigenous storytelling and sensory technologies in the form of six immense sculptural dreamcatchers. Each of these dreamcatchers are unique and represent one of the six seasons from the Atikamekw culture, an Indigenous people in Canada. Activated by people passing by, the dreamcatchers come to life with lights, sounds, and story, making the whole installation truly interactive. “Weci | Koninut” creators say that they want the installation to offer a total immersion experience for visitors, to create a moment where nature and dreams converge. Each piece offers a place for the public to slow down, sit, reflect, and yes, dream.

    New Murals in the East End and Midtown (ongoing)
    We could spend days viewing all the new murals painted across town, just in the last few years. But in honor of summer outdoor art viewing, we thought we’d spotlight two noteworthy new additions to our city-wide gallery of murals. As part of his major exhibition last spring at the CAMH, Vincent Valdez worked with San Antonio muralist Rubio and local students to create “Memoria, Memory.” Dedicated to his mother Theresa Santana Valdez (1947–2020), the vivid mural on historic Navigation Boulevard features her favorite bird and flower. Over in Midtown, check out “Stellar Illumination,” the latest installation in the city’s Big Walls Big Dreams mural series. Created by Robin Munro, also known as Dread, the seven stories high “Illumination” depicts a celestial scene of an astronaut gazing at Earth from space.

    “The Weight of Place” at Anya Tish Gallery (July 11-August 23)
    This group exhibition will explore themes of memory and the emotional, psychological, and physical landscapes memories can evoke. The will showcase three contemporary Texas-based female artists: Megan Harrison, Marisol Valencia, and Lillian Warren. While these artists work in different mediums–including large-scale paintings, mixed media works, and elegant porcelain sculptures–they are inspired by personal reflection and nature to create artworks that reflect on the ways we hold onto the past through sensory experience.

    “In Residence: 18th Edition” at Houston Center for Contemporary Craft (July 12-June 27, 2026)
    This annual exhibition celebrating the Center’s Artist Residency Program reaches it’s big 18th anniversary. Over the many years, the residency program has supported so many emerging, mid-career, and established artists working in all craft media. The program gives them a space for creative exploration, exchange, and collaboration with other artists, arts professionals, and the public. Now arts and craft lovers will get a chance to see the culmination of that work with this exhibition featuring pieces in fiber, clay, copper, and found objects by 2024-2025 resident artists Prerata Bradley, Stephanie Bursese, Atisha Fordyce, Nela Garzón, Gbenga Komolafe, Gabo Martinez, Preetika Rajgariah, Macon Reed, Jamie Sterling Pitt, Adam Whitney, and Dongyi Wu.

    “My Texas” at Our Texas Cultural Center (July 27-August 22)
    Award winning, Russian-born photographer, Anatoliy Kosterev, chronicles his personal exploration of Texas with photographs he took around the Lone Star State. The photos offer extraordinary views of Texas, from our dynamic cities to dramatic and sometimes lonesome landscapes. Kosterev’s photographic style blends science and technology with an artistic eye. He puts those two perspectives into practice when documenting all facets of life in Texas. Using HDR, drone imaging, macro photography, and traditional camera methods, he captures a diversity of subjects from quiet human moments to vast landscapes to delicate close-ups of insects and flowers.

    \u200bArtechouse presents "Blooming Worlds"
      

    Photo courtesy of Artechouse

    Artechouse presents "Blooming Worlds."

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