DACAMERA Announces 22/23 Season, Highlighted By WP Of Kendrick Scott's UNEARTHED

DACAMERA, the Houston-based presenting and producing organization, announces programming for its 2022/2023 season, encompassing both jazz and chamber music.

The upcoming season includes the world premiere of Unearthed by noted jazz drummer and composer Kendrick Scott, a Houston native. This evening-length, multidisciplinary presentation is inspired by the Sugar Land 95, 95 African American individuals who were buried in an unmarked grave in Sugar Land, just southwest of Houston, between 1878 and 1911. Their remains were discovered in 2018 when the local school district broke ground on a new facility. Archeological investigations established that The Remains belonged to inmates at the Bullhead Convict Labor Camp, part of a state-sanctioned convict leasing system in Texas that lasted into the 1910s.

To explore this tragic chapter of Houston's history, Scott joins forces with the Harlem String Quartet, pianist Gerald Clayton, saxophonist Walter Smith III, bassist Joe Sanders, poet Deborah D.E.E.P. Mouton and visual artist Robert Hodge. Unearthed premieres on May 12, 2023 at the Wortham Theater Center.

Other season highlights include the regional premiere of Osvaldo Golijov's genre-defying Falling Out of Time, performed by members of the Silkroad Ensemble, inspired by Israeli novelist David Grossman's book of the same title, and the first-ever Texas performance of the Paris-based Ensemble Intercontemporain, founded by composer Pierre Boulez and conducted by Matthias Pintscher. A full schedule of performances appears below.

The 2022/2023 season opens on Friday, October 14 at Cullen Theater, Wortham Theater Center with the much-anticipated DACAMERA debut of violinist Gil Shaham with his longtime collaborator, pianist Akira Eguchi in works by three linked generations of Romantic composers: Schumann, Brahms, and Dvorák. Shaham's flawless technique and inimitable warmth have earned him numerous accolades, including the Avery Fisher Prize, a Grammy Award and Musical America's "Instrumentalist of the Year."

DACAMERA's longstanding collaboration with The Menil Collection continues this season with performances from a diverse and exciting selection of artists: pianist Jeremy Denk performs Bach's revered masterpiece The Well-Tempered Clavier; acclaimed Finnish string quartet Meta4 in their latest project, Pola(r)kreis: Drifting North; and Grammy Award-winning jazz pianist Sullivan Fortner in a solo performance featuring his trademark mix of traditional and soulful sounds. DACAMERA will also co-present a free concert with the Menil Collection in the Walter Di Maria exhibition gallery for composer and pianist Michael Harrison's Revelation: Music for Just Intonation, in conjunction with Jeremy Denk's performance The Well-Tempered Clavier.

In addition, on February 28, 2023, Artistic Director and pianist Sarah Rothenberg will be joined by cellist Sonia Wieder-Atherton at the Menil Collection in music by Bach, Beethoven, Ustvolskaya, and Mahler.

Other events in DACAMERA's chamber music series include the Julliard String Quartet, whose concert includes a new work by celebrated young composer Tyson Davis; baroque band Ruckus in collaboration with acclaimed English-American flutist Emi Ferguson in a joyous romp through some of Bach's most playful and transcendent works, with new arrangements of Bach's flute sonatas and keyboard preludes; the high-octane Tetzlaff-Tetzlaff-Vogt Trio performing Schubert and Tchaikovsky; and pianist Emanuel Ax, playing works by Schubert and Schumann in his long-awaited DACAMERA debut.

DACAMERA's jazz series includes the Branford Marsalis Quartet, led by three-time Grammy winner, composer and saxophonist Marsalis; Guggenheim and MacArthur Fellow alto saxophonist Miguel Zenón; the return of vocalist Cécile McLorin Salvant with an eight-piece band; and jazz bassist Christian McBride with his Philadelphia-inspired, piano-less quartet, New Jawn.

On Monday, February 27, 2023, DACAMERA and INPRINT will present a night of poetry and music at the Menil Collection in honor of the late poet, essayist, and translator Adam Zagajewski, with pianist Sarah Rothenberg, cellist Sonia Wieder-Atherton, and eminent poet Edward Hirsch. TRUE LIFE: A Celebration of Poet Adam Zagajewski will feature music by Bach, Chopin, Shostakovich, Schubert, and Mahler, interwoven with readings of Zagajewski's work - including his newest book, TRUE LIFE, to be released posthumously in February of 2023.

Says Sarah Rothenberg, Artistic Director of DACAMERA, "It is with great excitement that we announce our very ambitious 2022-23 season, representing a quintessentially DACAMERA diverse line-up of international performers and ground-breaking creators in a unique series of concerts. There is a powerful theme of memory that runs through our multi-disciplinary offerings - a program of music and poetry celebrating Polish poet Adam Zagajewski; Osvaldo Golijov's 'mesmerizing' Falling Out of Time, based on the acclaimed book by David Grossman; and the world premiere of a new DACAMERA original production, Unearthed, commemorating the Sugar Land 95 convict laborers through jazz, poetry and visual art, created by a Houston triumvirate of drummer/composer Kendrick Scott, poet Deborah D.E.E.P. Mouton, and artist Robert Hodge.

"With this season, DACAMERA once again commits itself to seeking new connections between music and the world we live in, bringing inspiration, discovery and transcendent beauty into the concert hall."

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