Famous Daughter — Whose Book Inspired the Awards-Season Darling 'Maestro' — Toasts Houston Music Org

Emily Jaschke
Famous Daughter — Whose Book Inspired the Awards-Season Darling 'Maestro' — Toasts Houston Music Org

Alecia Lawyer, ROCO Founder, and Jamie Bernstein

A SPECIAL GUEST attended Houston-based chamber orchestra ROCO’s annual holiday gathering. Jamie Bernstein, the daughter of composer Leonard Bernstein, attended the festive evening, which coincided with the release of the talked-about movie Maestro, starring Bradley Cooper as Leonard. (Cooper just received a Golden Globe nom for the role.)


Guests were excited to check out ROCO’s new home in the Edloe Forum, a beautiful and acoustically sound venue off of Buffalo Speedway, where they enjoyed light bites by Soren Pederson and vino courtesy of Gil Family Estates.

Jamie recently authored the book Famous Father Girl: The Intimate Memoir of Growing Up Bernstein, which inspired the motion picture. She participated in a conversation about the intersection of music, culture and creativity, and also gamely fielded questions during a lively Q&A following her presentation.

Another highlight of the evening was a performance by pianist Dehner Franks, who played his arrangements of West Side Story tunes.

Amy Gibbs, Beverly and Bill Coit

Toni Oplt and Ed Sneider

Beth Wolff and Jennifer Jacks

Carlos Ramos and Mark Sanders, Winnie and Edwin Sy, Larry Lawyer

Sonja Massak, Craig Miller, Bret Hammett and Diana Woodman

Edloe Forum

Steve Wyatt and Joyce Echols

Michael and Marcia Feldman

Dehner Franks

Kristie Peterman, Jane Johnson, Anite Jenson

Lori Gobillot, Mikey Brock, Ted Gobillot

Parties

Alonso, inset, and her acrylic-on-canvas painting 'Birds'

BASED IN HOUSTON, Cuban-American painter Erika Alonso is a self-taught, self-described “painterly painter,” with a playful and very idiosyncratic take on abstract expressionism, mark making, and automatism, where the artist works quickly and intuitively, relying upon the subconscious to guide the artistic process. Her work can be found in numerous private collections across the United States and Europe, including that of beloved Houston collector and art fanatic Lester Marks. On Friday, Sept 8., from 7-9pm at Lanecia Rouse Tinsley Gallery, Alise Art Group's Art House presents Alonso’s solo exhibition Birds Are People Too (And Other Thoughts . . . ).

Keep Reading Show less

Nik Parr and The Selfless Lovers

THE WORD “FUNK” has been around a long, long time. In the mid-1950s, New Orleans drummer Earl Palmer popularized the word as a musical term when he instructed musicians on recording dates to “play a little funkier.” In his book Flash of the Spirit: African and Afro-American Art and Philosophy, historian Robert Farris Thompson goes back even further, and traces the origin of the word “funky” to the Ki-Kongo word lu-fuki, meaning “positive sweat,” an olfactory term used to praise an individual for the integrity of their art.

Keep Reading Show less