The Score | Musical Scavenger Hunt

During the pandemic, as everyone sought ways to spend time outdoors, the ROCO ensemble in Houston, Texas came up with a musical scavenger hunt. The Buffalo Bayou flows along the Houston waterfront, with a trail system running alongside. From September to December, ROCO collaborated with the nonprofit Buffalo Bayou Partnership to create a soundtrack: 40 different site-specific audio streams, accessed via QR codes along the waterfront. The music came from ROCO recordings, and highlighted the bayou’s landmarks and public art. Musical works included Flying Sirto by Erberk Eryilmaz at the Waugh Bat Bridge, Brad Sayles’s Buffalo Bayou Suite near John Runnels’s steel canoe sculptures, and the second movement of Alexander Miller’s ROCOmoji (a Concerto Grosso for Double Reeds), titled “OMG,” at the Lee and Joe Jamail Skatepark. Music by Shostakovich was selected for the Sesquicentennial Park Monument honoring James A. Baker III, who helped oversee foreign policy at the end of the Cold War. ROCO was founded in 2005 as the River Oaks Chamber Orchestra.