New World Approach

Tech music: Divisi Strings replaces sheet music with iPads for everything fromGaga to Etta

Will play for iPad. Divisi Strings uses technology to deliver seamlessperformances.
At Rienzi's Punch Party: The 18th Century Imbiber, listeners were intrigued bythe string quartet's setup.
Photo by © Michelle Watson/CatchLightGroup.com
Without iPads and music, the additional investmen was upwards of $800.

It's the perfect techie-toy for Internet consumption. The iPad is the preferred tablet of choice for pre-slumber browsing, leafing through the Sunday edition of the New York Times or watching a chick flick in the comfort, and privacy, of your own bathtub.

But for Divisi Strings, which has dominated Houston's market for event music, Apple's marvel is its answer to the age-old problem of filing, organizing and playing from endless pages of sheet music for the myriad of events during which the ensemble performs every week.

The string quartet showed off its 21st-century approach at Rienzi's Punch Party: The 18th Century Imbiber Thursday night. Playing through selections by Lady Gaga, Michael Jackson, Usher, Journey, Katy Perry, The Beatles and Etta James, the group affixed a lovely, chic and sophisticated milieu to the exploration of historic libations and 18th-century sustenance. The audience was intrigued.

Look ma, no hands!

The ensemble outfitted each musician with an AirTurn Page Turner (on sale at TheGigEasy starting at $124.95). The Bluetooth-equipped foot pedal allows absolute control. One foot-switch turns pages forward, another backwards. The matching iPad stand completes the sleek setup.

Aside from electronic sheet music and iPads, Divisi invested upwards of $800, which included forScore 3 music reader for iPad, an app which stores thousands of pages in just about 1.5 pounds.

"We started using this technology last month and it has helped us keep many pieces and songs organized," violinst Tony Sanville says. "It has also created a new visual aspect and a technological element that is very intriguing to people. They want to know exactly how it all works."

The members prepare a playlist ahead of time. Without any physical page turns, the musicians can deliver a seamless performance with little or no silence between pieces or songs. For the listener, it means more music and less waiting.

"It really revolutionizes not only the way the patrons view you but also what the ensemble is capable of doing," Shelli Mathews, Divisi Strings' founder and manager, says. "With Ampd Quartet (our pop music ensemble), most of what we play is based on open forum requests. We hated saying, 'Oh, Man! We didn’t bring that one.' Now, everything is just a click away."

"My iPad — because I am the leader — is the hub so I personally have about 3,500 selections," Mathews continues. "In a pinch, we are able to Bluetooth selections to each other’s iPad. So if someone is missing something, I can send it over to them within seconds."

There's only one issue. Remembering to charge the iPads.

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Jobs report

Texas clocks in as No. 7 best state to find a job, new report says

Photo by The Jopwell Collection on Unsplash

It's easier to find a job in Texas than in nearly any other state.

If you’re hunting for a job in Texas amid a tough employment market, you stand a better chance of landing it here than you might in other states.

A new ranking by personal finance website WalletHub of the best states for jobs puts Texas at No. 7. The Lone Star State lands at No. 2 in the economic environment category and No. 18 in the job market category.

Massachusetts tops the list, and West Virginia appears at the bottom.

To determine the most attractive states for employment, WalletHub compared the 50 states across 34 key indicators of economic health and job market strength. Ranking factors included employment growth, median annual income, and average commute time.

“Living in one of the best states for jobs can provide stable conditions for the long term, helping you ride out the fluctuations that the economy will experience in the future,” WalletHub analyst Chip Lupo says.

In September, Gov. Greg Abbott announced Texas led the U.S. in job creation with the addition of 195,600 jobs over the past 12 months.

While Abbott proclaimed Texas is “America’s jobs leader,” the state’s level of job creation has recently slowed. In June, the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas noted that the state’s year-to-date job growth rate had dipped to 1.8 percent, and that even slower job growth was expected in the second half of this year.

The August unemployment rate in Texas stood at 4.1 percent, according to the Texas Workforce Commission. Throughout 2025, the monthly rate in Texas has been either four percent or 4.1 percent.

By comparison, the U.S. unemployment rate in August was 4.3 percent, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. In 2025, the monthly rate for the U.S. has ranged from 4 percent to 4.3 percent.

Here’s a rundown of the August unemployment rates in Texas’ four biggest metro areas:

Austin — 3.9 percent
Dallas-Fort Worth — 4.4 percent
San Antonio — 4.4 percent
Houston — 5 percent

Unemployment rates have remained steady this year despite layoffs and hiring freezes driven by economic uncertainty. However, the number of U.S. workers who’ve been without a job for at least 27 weeks has risen by 385,000 this year, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported in August. That month, long-term unemployed workers accounted for about one-fourth of all unemployed workers.

An August survey by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York showed a record-low 44.9 percent of Americans were confident about finding a job if they lost their current one.

This story originally was published on our sister site, InnovationMap.

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