DJ Sun, the Loveletter Orchestra and Notables Like Poet Outspoken Bean Present UH Spectacular

DJ Sun, the Loveletter Orchestra and Notables Like Poet Outspoken Bean Present UH Spectacular

DJ Sun will perform with a large cast of musicians at UH's Moores Opera House, in a production supported by the Blaffer Art Museum and a grant from the Cynthia Woods Mitchell Center for the Arts.

HOLLAND-BORN, HOUSTON-based DJ and producer DJ Sun has been spinning, creating and otherwise proselytizing for groove-centric soul, jazz and electronic music since the early ’90s, and the respect he enjoys from artists across the city’s creative landscape is immeasurable. On Saturday, July 23, at Moores Opera House at UH, DJ Sun will be joined by a handful of those artists — including drummer Chris Dave, rapper Fat Tony, bassist Tim Ruiz, astrologist Jasmine Richardson, singers Louis Morales and Khaili Sam-Sin, Houston Poet Laureate Outspoken Bean and a 14-piece orchestra conducted by Marlon Chen — to bring his new studio album Loveletter to life before a live audience.


Pianist, singer and trombonist Henry Darragh is also on board, creating transcriptions of the music on Loveletter which is primarily electronic, and realized with DJ Sun’s “instrument of choice,” the Akai MPC-1000 sampler. The concert event is presented by the Blaffer Art Museum at the University of Houston with the support of an Innovation Grant awarded by the Cynthia Woods Mitchell Center for the Art.

Bean will perform two original poems with musical accompaniment by the Loveletter orchestra. The first, a “break-up” poem he says is also a “love letter” to himself is titled “The Wreckage.” The second poem, “Black Royal,” is “a love letter to Black American royalty,” which Bean originally read in his recent one-man show Poetraits at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston.

Outspoken Bean, Houston's poet laureate

Khaili Sam-Sin

Fat Tony

“These two poems mean a lot to me,” says Bean, who and juggles the demands of not only being the city’s poet laureate and recently producing this year’s Black is Primary Juneteenth Festival for POST Market. “I’m honored to be a part of this. I want to make this time count, for sure!”

The musical inspiration for Loveletter is, not surprisingly, eclectic and very hip, with sonic references to French New Wave film and ’60s soul. DJ Sun also describes the album and concert event as “a reminder to slow down and enjoy the moment,” something Bean admits he has some trouble doing. “Man, I wish I did more of that!” says Bean, who writes, walks and exercises in an effort to give fidelity to the moment. “It’s hard to do that in a Capitalistic country.”

Art + Entertainment
Fall Philanthropy Report: Children’s Assessment Center Touts ‘Healing’ for Child Abuse Victims

What is your mission? The Children’s Assessment Center (The CAC) provides healing services to over 6,300 child sexual abuse victims and their families each year. We offer forensic interviewing, family advocacy, mental health services, medical care, and court services at no cost. We facilitate community outreach and prevention training to raise awareness about child abuse in our community and how to keep children safe. Last year, we provided prevention training to over 35,000 community members, including 23,500 children in schools.

Keep Reading Show less

Lady Stephanie Kimbrell, Cory McGee, and Butler Studio artists, Ani Kushyan, Alissa Goretsky and Elizabeth Hanje (photo by Michelle Watson)

ALL OF THE top performing arts organizations in Houston have now officially opened their 2024-2015 seasons, now that Houston Grand Opera has bowed with a stirring performance of Verdi’s Il trovatore at The Wortham followed by a lavish al fresco dinner in a tent on the plaza out front.The Houston Ballet and the Houston Symphony held their own grand opening night festivities earlier in the fall.

Keep Reading Show less
Art+Culture

Photo by Lynn Lane

HOUSTON GRAND OPERA’S second fall repertoire production is Gioachino Rossini’s Cinderella. The colorful, commedia dell'arte-inspired production opens Friday, Oct. 25, and stars Grammy Award-winning mezzo-soprano Isabel Leonard — a breathtaking brunette beauty, even when doused in soot — in bel canto role of Angelina, known to her mean step-sisters as “Cenerentola.”

Keep Reading Show less
Art + Entertainment