Alecia Lawyer was inspired to found the River Oaks Chamber Orchestra in much the same way Noah was inspired to build his ark. "Really, I think God just put the idea in my head," she tells us. "With Noah and the ark, God said, 'You know it's going to rain a little bit; you might want to build an ark.' Noah didn't know how it was going to turn out, but he built the ark. I didn't know how this was going to turn out, but it seemed the right thing to do."
Lawyer, the group's artistic director as well as principle oboist, wanted ROCO to be different from other chamber groups, which usually have a single leader and plan programs around composers or musical eras. "I had been part of three other orchestras and I wanted to try it basing everything on the musicians. Over the years, I had worked with some really great people, including people I met at Juilliard. I wanted this orchestra to be about the people. And once you focus on the people rather than some esoteric concept, it's a very organic process."
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