Hailed as “reliably adventurous” by the Washington Post and “perennially thoughtful” by The New Yorker’s Alex Ross, DACAMERA is internationally recognized as a leading producer and presenter of chamber music and jazz, committed to bringing its audiences transformative musical experiences. Presenting an annual subscription series in Houston’s downtown Theater District and at The Menil Collection, DACAMERA brings the world’s leading artists to Houston, and continually evolves new and meaningful ways of presenting music.

Under the artistic direction of pianist Sarah Rothenberg since 1994, DACAMERA programs create connections among musical genres, art forms and ideas; between people and places; between the past and the present. The diversity of its commissioning history reflects the organization’s values, with almost 40 new works from such composers as Matthew Aucoin, Shih-hui Chen, Gabriela Lena Frank, Vijay Iyer, Jason Moran, Tobias Picker, Kaija Saariaho, Wayne Shorter and Charles Wuorinen.

The 2022–23 season closed with the premiere of Kendrick Scott’s DACAMERA-commissioned Unearthed, memorializing the Sugar Land 95, which critic Nate Chinen called “a work of searing emotional power and elegant musical flow.” The 2021–22 season saw the premiere of composer Tyshawn Sorey’s Monochromatic Light (Afterlife). A finalist for the 2023 Pulitzer Prize in Music, it was commissioned with Rothko Chapel in celebration of the Chapel’s 50th anniversary. In the spring of 2024, DACAMERA presented the world premieres of Earth Tones by Etienne Charles and Music for New Bodies by Matthew Aucoin and Peter Sellars, as part of the Unsilent Spring weekend exploring music and our changing planet. Music for New Bodies went on to be performed at The Aspen Music Festival and School, and has upcoming performances in New York and Los Angeles.  

An early innovator in interdisciplinary performance, DACAMERA’s Music and the Literary Imagination series, conceived and directed by Sarah Rothenberg, was presented by Great Performers at Lincoln Center from 1995 to 1999, with subsequent performances presented by The Kennedy Center (Washington), De Ijsbreker (Amsterdam), Bard Summerscape, Barbican Centre (London), and across the U.S.; and Moondrunk, hailed as “the birth of a new genre,” inaugurated Lincoln Center’s New Visions series.  Recent original productions include A Proust Sonata, The Diary of Virginia Woolf and In the Garden of Dreams; as well as Jason Moran’s Holed Up and Kaija Saariaho’s Sombre, both commissioned by DACAMERA.

DACAMERA’s Education and Community Initiatives have received national attention for its Young Artist Program, a professional development program for outstanding musicians that emphasizes community advocacy and brings Young Artist-teachers into classrooms, introducing music into STEM and humanities lessons. Free community performances include Stop, Look and Listen! concerts at The Menil Collection, with music curated for the changing art exhibitions; A Little Day Music, the city’s longest-running free series; jazz concerts at Discovery Green; and, in 2018, Beethoven for All, presenting the complete Beethoven string quartets throughout Houston in free performances.

DACAMERA produced recordings include a critically-acclaimed disc on the prestigious ECM label, featuring Morton Feldman’s Rothko Chapel and works of Satie and John Cage; and an all-Kaija Saariaho disc on Ondine featuring the DACAMERA-commissioned Sombre. Previous recordings include Heartsounds: The Chamber Music of George Tsontakis on Koch and chamber works by Charles Wuorinen, including the DACAMERA-commissioned Ashberyana, on Naxos. Another DACAMERA commission, Tobias Picker’s Quintet, performed by Sarah Rothenberg and the Brentano String Quartet, appears on the 2014 CD Invisible Lilacs on Tzadik.

The recipient of numerous awards, DACAMERA was awarded three of the National Endowment for the Arts’ coveted American Masterpieces: Three Centuries of Artistic Genius grants. A three-time winner of Chamber Music America/ASCAP’s Adventurous Programming Award, in 2007 DACAMERA was chosen by its peers to receive the CMAcclaim National Award in recognition of the organization’s “significant and lasting contribution to the cultural life of its region.” Critically acclaimed by The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Chamber Music, Time Out/New York, Inside Arts and The Washington Post, The New Yorker praised DACAMERA’s 20-21 streaming series as one that “that stands apart from the virtual crowd.” The Houston Chronicle describes DACAMERA as “a Houston gem with a unique niche in the city’s milieu of performing arts.”

OUR VALUES

Excellence

DACAMERA has become synonymous with quality; the common denominator of our diverse activities, on stage and in the community, is excellence.