Da Camera Announces Its 2019-20 Season; Comic Opera, Chamber Music and More

Da Camera of Houston announces its 2019/2020 season, which features a lineup spanning a multitude of styles and genres.

"Da Camera's 2019-2020 season explores an extraordinary range of music, from great composers of the past to living composers who are breaking new ground today," said Sarah Rothenberg, Da Camera artistic director. "We welcome veteran performers like jazz guitarist John Scofield, Imani Winds and the Los Angeles Guitar Quartet, and up and coming artists including pianist James Francies, mandolinist Avi Avital and harpist Bridget Kibbey. We celebrate the 250th anniversary of Beethoven's birth in concerts by the renowned pianist Richard Goode. We present a particularly rich focus on women composers and performers, from soprano Abigail Fischer portraying chef Julia Child in Lee Hoiby's Bon Appetit!; to my new project A Woman's Life: The Diary of Virginia Woolf; to the four extraordinary young women of the Aizuri Quartet; to Bang on a Can composer Julia Wolfe's Anthracite Fields, evoking the lives and struggles of coal miners in Pennsylvania. In a delightful coincidence, we feature three winners of the prestigious Pulitzer Prize in Music: Julia Wolfe; the late Dominick Argento, composer of the song cycle From the Diary of Virginia Woolf; and Caroline Shaw, whose latest songs will be performed by the young bass-baritone Davóne Tines in his Da Camera debut."

The 2019/2020 season opens on Saturday, Sept. 21, with Bon Appetit!, a spectacular evening of surrealist and culinary musical delights. The program features the renowned Imani Winds performing Maurice Ravel's Le Tombeau de Couperin; acclaimed American bass-baritone Ryan McKinny in his Da Camera debut performing Francis Poulenc's delightfully absurd Le bal masque; and soprano Abigail Fischer as Julia Child in Lee Hoiby's Bon Appetit!, a comic operatic take on the chef's 1970s television program.

Other chamber music concerts include A Woman's Life: The Diary of Virginia Wolf, featuring Jennifer Johnson Cano, mezzo-soprano, and Sarah Rothenberg, piano, performing a concert of two song cycles that depict radically different views of women's lives in the 19th and 20th centuries; the Brentano Quartet returning for the premiere of a new string quartet by composer Matthew Aucoin, co-commissioned by Da Camera and Carnegie Hall; the multifaceted Los Angeles Guitar Quartet, one of America's premier instrumental ensembles, performing a new work of haunting melodies and rich harmonies composed for the group by Pat Metheny; and pianist Richard Goode in an all-Beethoven program to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the composer's birth.

Da Camera's jazz series presents a signature mix of jazz greats and emerging artists, including jazz guitarist and composer John Scofield in his long-awaited first performance on Da Camera's stage; the Blue Note Records 80th Birthday Celebration, featuring recording artists James Francies (piano), Kandace Springs (vocals, piano) and James Carter (saxophone); Grammy Award-winning saxophonist Branford Marsalis; the return of Cuban drummer Dafnis Prieto with his latest project, Dafnis Prieto Big Band; composer-pianist Vijay Iyer with his powerhouse sextet; and the return of three-time Grammy Award winner Cécile McLorin Salvant.

Da Camera continues its series of intimate concerts at the Menil Collection with performances by Quartetto di Cremona, marking their Houston debut with a program of rarely heard Italian music for string quartet; Avi Avital, mandolin, with Bridget Kibbey, harp, in a program of new arrangements of Johann Sebastian Bach and folk tunes from Spain, Hungary and Armenia; and pianist Jeremy Denk with a recital of Bach's The Well-Tempered Klavier.

This season, the organization introduces its Presto Ticket Initiative, which gives members of underserved communities greater access to Da Camera's live performances. For each concert in the 2019-2020 season, a block of free and discounted Presto tickets will be available via local partners including nonprofits, schools and community centers.

Subscriptions for Da Camera's 2019/2020 season are on sale now. To purchase tickets or to request a season brochure, please visit www.dacamera.com.

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