Houston native Brandon Lee appears on Wednesday, August 26 in the PBS Great Performances program, "Harlem in Montmartre." It tells the story of the jazz age in Paris between the first and second World Wars, exploring an often neglected era in African-American cultural history. After peace was signed at Versailles, many black Americans remained in Europe rather than return to the brutal segregation and racism of America. Over the next two decades, they created an expatriate community of musicians, entertainers and entrepreneurs, primarily congregating in Paris's hilly Montmartre neighborhood. Some achieved enduring fame, while others have faded into history. Inspired by the book by William A. Shack and utilizing rare archival material from both France and America, this documentary features footage of such key figures as James Reese Europe, Josephine Baker, Sidney Bechet, Bricktop, Eugene Bullard, Django Reinhardt, and many more. Catch Brandon Lee on Da Camera's jazz series in March, 2010.

A frequent guest ensemble on Da Camera of Houston's chamber music series, the Enso String Quartet has a new cd of quartets by Ginastera out on Naxos. http://tinyurl.com/lou4d5 Get a glimpse of the recording session with soprano Lucy Shelton in this YouTube video. The quartet performed a Ginastera quartet during their concert at the Menil Collection in November 2007. They return with guitarist Eliot Fisk for Italian Romantics on October 30.

Da Camera Artistic Director Sarah Rothenberg's The Blue Rider In Performance will open the season at New York's renowned Miller Theatre. This world premiere event explores the dynamic interaction of music, light, and visual imagery using materials from Vasily Kandinsky's seminal Blue Rider Almanac of 1912. Rooted in Kandinsky's connections to artists in both Russia and Germany, the Blue Rider Almanac brought together art, music, and writing from avant-garde movements across Europe, capturing a short-lived moment of international experimentalism that was abruptly halted by the outbreak of World War I. Pianist Sarah Rothenberg and soprano Susan Narucki perform music from the era by such composers as Scriabin, Webern, and Berg under a rich blanket of light and projection; world premiere choreography by Karole Armitage further illuminates Arnold Schoenberg’s ground-breaking Second String Quartet. The Blue Rider In Performance opens September 23 with an additional performance on September 25. It is co-produced with Works & Process at the Guggenheim, in conjunction with the KANDINSKY retrospective at the Guggenheim Museum. With concept and direction by Sarah Rothenberg, The Blue Rider features lighting and set design by Marcus Doshi, projection design by Sven Ortel, the Brentano String Quartet; Susan Narucki, mezzo-soprano; Sarah Rothenberg, piano; special guest choreographer Karole Armitage with dancers from Armitage Gone! Dance and music by Alban Berg, Thomas de Hartmann, Arthur Lourié, Arnold Schoenberg, Alexander Scriabin, and Anton Webern.