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OUR VALUES

Excellence

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

MILESTONES

1987 – Organization founded by violinist Sergiu Luca 

1988 – First concerts at Wortham Theater Center’s Cullen Theater and The Menil Collection

1988 – First outreach series, A Little Day Music, begins, going on to serve tens of thousands of students, seniors and downtown workers with free concerts

1991 – First grant received from National Endowment for the Arts

1993 – DACAMERA becomes Houston Theater District organization, joining Alley Theatre, Houston Ballet, Houston Grand Opera, Houston Symphony, Society for the Performing Arts and Theater Under the Stars

1994 – Pianist Sarah Rothenberg becomes Artistic Director

1995 – DACAMERA Jazz series inaugurated with vocalist Abbey Lincoln and trumpeter Roy Hargrove

1995 – First production in Music and the Literary Imagination series, Marcel Proust’s Paris, has Houston premiere and is presented in New York as part of Lincoln Center’s Great Performers series

1995 – DACAMERA offices move to 1427 Branard location

1996 – Working Capital Reserve Fund established

1996 – Meet the Composer grant received for commissioning of George Tsontakis’s Meditations at Perigee

1996 – St. Petersburg Legacy presented by Great Performers at Lincoln Center

1997 – Flowers of Evil, Kafka’s Vision and The Musical World of Thomas Mann presented by Great Performers at Lincoln Center

1997 – Marcel Proust’s Paris presented at Washington, D.C’s Kennedy Center

1998 – Marcel Proust’s Paris presented as part of Cervantino International Festival in Guanajato, Mexico

1998 – Surrealism presented by Great Performers at Lincoln Center

1998 – Music/dance theater program Moondrunk premieres at Wortham Theater Center

1998 – Revenues first exceed $1 million

1998/1999 – Music and the Literary Imagination series presented by De Ijsbreker Series in Amsterdam and Maastricht, The Netherlands

1999 – Moondrunk opens Lincoln Center’s New Visions series to sold-out houses at New Victory Theater; American Theater hails as “birth of a new genre”

1999 – DACAMERA Endowment Fund established

1999 – St. Petersburg Legacy presented at London’s Barbican Centre as part of the BITE Festival

1999 – Chamber Music America/American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP) Commendation for Original Programming Concepts

1999 – Education and Outreach department formally established with a grant from Wortham Foundation

2000 – DACAMERA embarks on a one-year partnership with Marian Anderson String Quartet and Texaco Foundation’s Early Notes program to bring chamber music residencies to six rural communities throughout the Southwest

2001 – Community Residency Project with Project GRAD brings Marian Anderson String Quartet to two schools in Houston’s Near North Side for two years

2001 – DACAMERA concerts begin to be regularly broadcast on National Public Radio’s Performance Today

2002 – Creation of Epigraph for a Condemned Book, a solo piano/multimedia performance project, co-commissioned with Yale Repertory Theatre, the University Musical Society of University of Michigan and Krannert Center for the Performing Arts.

2003 – Community Residency Project with Ying Quartet brings chamber music to the workplace at Shell Oil and BMC Software, with support of Heartland Arts Fund

2004 – Community Residency with Miró Quartet brings ensemble to local corporations and organizations including The Salvation Army and the Chinese Community Center

2004 – Community Residency Project with Brentano String Quartet and Writers in the Schools exploring music and poetry with young students, made possible by Chamber Music America

2004 – DACAMERA recording, Heartsounds: Music of George Tsontakis, issued on Koch International Classic label, made possible in part by grant from Aaron Copland Fund

2006 – Community Residency Project with JazzReach features Metta Quintet master classes, student concerts

2006 – Community Residency Project brings Imani Winds to Houston Independent School District schools, with support from Chamber Music America

2006 – Stop, Look and Listen! free family series at The Menil Collection begins

2007 – The String Quartet in America: Then and Now: symposium and master classes with Juilliard String Quartet and others at Rice University’s Shepherd School of Music, marking the quartet’s 60th anniversary. Performance of Bartók quartet cycle at The Menil Collection.

2007 – Chamber Music America/ASCAP Award for Adventurous Programming

2007 – CMAcclaim Award from Chamber Music America, for significant contribution to the cultural life of our region.

2008 – The Music of Charles Wuorinen released on Naxos label, with support from Aaron Copland Fund and National Endowment for the Arts

2008 – Community Residency with So Percussion

2009 – Community Residency with Chiara String Quartet

2009 – Young Artist Program providing professional development and performance opportunities for emerging chamber music and jazz musicians established.

2009 – In partnership with KUHF, DACAMERA introduces podcast of live concert recordings.

2010 – Community Residency with Ben Allison Band.

2010 – DACAMERA receives three major grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, the largest cumulative grant from the federal agency in Da Camera’s history

2010 – Earth Day Jazz in the Park, sponsored by Waste Management and Whole Foods Market, brings student jazz ensembles to Miller Outdoor Theatre on Earth Day, 2010.

2010 – DACAMERA production Chopin in Paris, featuring pianist and Artistic Director Sarah Rothenberg, goes to Gilmore Keyboard Festival in Michigan, co-presented by Fontana Chamber Arts

2011 – DACAMERA begins annual series, Da Camera JAM at Discovery Green, bringing local and national jazz artists to the downtown park for four concerts celebrating Jazz Appreciation Month.

2011 – World premiere of a Tobias Picker’s Piano Quintet: Live Oaks, commissioned by DACAMERA

2012 – DACAMERA announces 12/13 25th Anniversary Season with world premieres by Kaija Saariaho, Pierre Jalbert and Richard Lavenda, the new original production Sarah’s Rothenberg’s In the Garden of Dreams and the first-ever Houston cycle of the Shostakovich string quartets, performed over two seasons by the Jerusalem Quartet.

2012 – DACAMERA marks the centennial of composer John Cage with a MUSICIRCUS at the Menil Collection featuring the Meehan/Perkins Duo, mezzo soprano Isabelle Ganz, percussionist Allen Otte and student ensembles from around the state of Texas. The event marks the beginning of a residency with Meehan/Perkins Duo, celebrating the lives and music of John Cage and Steve Reich.

2013 — World premiere of Kaija Saariaho’s Sombre, commissioned by DACAMERA.

2014 — Completion of historic Shostakovich String Quartet cycle by the Jerusalem String Quartet; first time complete cycle performed in Houston

2014 — World premiere of Vijay Iyer’s Piano Quintet, co-commissioned by DACAMERA.

2014 — Surpassing the original fundraising goal of $500,000, the Artistic Development Fund established in 2013 reaches $514,000. Fund provide the essential seed money for ambitious artistic initiatives, including commissions, recordings, residencies, original productions and new media initiatives.

2014 — Jason Moran: Homecoming multi-year residency kicks off with September visit to Houston by the pianist and composer. Year 1 of residency includes world premiere of DACAMERA-commissioned Holed Up: The Rauschenberg Project.

2015 — DACAMERA releases two new recordings, Rothko Chapel on the ECM label featuring Morton Feldman’s masterpiece of the same name, and Kaija Saariaho: Let the wind speak on the Ondine label, featuring the Da Camera-commissioned Sombre.

2015 — At the invitation of the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, DACAMERA programs four evenings of music in the spectacular Spiegeltent at Bayou Bend.

2016 — DACAMERA moves to current office and music center at 1402 Sul Ross, expanding to offer a rehearsal room for visiting artists, staff and Da Camera Young Artists.

2016 — DACAMERA awarded $50,000 Cultural District Project grant by the Texas Commission on the Arts, supporting significant cultural tourism projects, including arts programming that will attract visitors from 50 miles or more outside Houston.

2016 — World premiere of Sarah Rothenberg’s A Proust Sonata, an original production exploring the life and work of the great French author.

2016 – DACAMERA announces that it has received a $1.64 million bequest from the estate of James K. Schooler, the largest gift in the organization’s history.

2016 — Jason Moran Homecoming Residency continues with school visits and community events including Meet Me at MacGregor, part of Counter Current 16, presented by residency partner the University of Houston Cynthia Woods Mitchell Center for the Arts.

2016 — DACAMERA presents the world premiere of The Colorado, a documentary with live original music by Paola Prestini, John Luther Adams and others, exploring water, land and survival in the Colorado River Basin.

2017 – Jason Moran Homecoming Residency concludes with school visits, the Thelonious Monk tribute In My Mind: Monk at Town Hall, 1959 and a free concert at Discovery Green with Jason Moran, Chris Walker and Denardo Coleman.

2017 – DACAMERA presents Beethoven for All: The complete Beethoven string quartet cycle in free concerts throughout 30th Anniversary 17­­­–18 season.

2018 – The original production A Proust Sonata has its New York premiere in a co-presentation with French Institute Alliance Francaise (FIAF).

2018 – Sarah Rothenberg celebrates 25 years as DACAMERA’s Artistic Director

2021 – DACAMERA receives critical acclaim from The New Yorker for a streaming series “that stands apart from the virtual crowd”

2021 – DACAMERA expands its offerings with the inaugural Houston SUMMERJAZZ weekend

2022 – Premiere of composer Tyshawn Sorey’s Monochromatic Light (Afterlife), commissioned with Rothko Chapel in celebration of the Chapel’s 50^th anniversary, with extensive national press coverage in The New York Times, The New Yorker and the Washington Post and on National Public Radio.

2022 – DACAMERA presents the complete Beethoven String Quartet cycle, performed by Elias String Quartet in chronological order over 6 concerts at The Menil Collection and Hobby Center