The Hope Farms Gathering Barn, boasting pastoral, serene views of the grounds, was the setting, and the evening kicked off with an al fresco cocktail hour featuring herbaceous cocktails. The 50 guests then sat at one long (and beautiful!) table, on which perfectly plated dishes from Bistro Menil’s Greg Martin, Le Jardinier’s Felipe Botero, Ostia’s Travis McShane and seven other spectacular chefs were served. The hues of autumn complemented Cavnar’s décor palette of navy blue and glittering gold.
The organization reports that fundraising records were broken during the multicourse “chefstravaganza.”
Anita Garten, Bob Cavnar, David Garten
Bob and Gracie Cavnar
Travis McShane
Aashish and Erin Parekh
Black Tiger Prawn with lemongrass salad garnished with gold leaf and caviar
Salil Deshpande, Marian Cabanillas and Orlando Lozano
Gracie Cavnar with the participating chefs
Texas Wagyu on zucchini pancake topped with gochujang aioli
Rudy Guerra and Mercedes LaBanca
Scott and Christina Boston
Chase Voelz of Bludorn
Sharon and Ricky Sanders
RJ Jenkins, Robyn Jedkyns, Theresa and Jake Voss
Kelly and Kim Hales
Jeff and Rebecca Deurlein
John and Wendy Miller
Barbara McKnight with Culinaire
Jennie Bui-McCo, Angela Bishop, Edgar Huerta
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Brooke Wyatt Trio
While each concert is currently at capacity, walk-up seating may be available the day of the performances on a first-come, first-served basis. While not as intense as Taylor Swift’s swifties, Beethoven has a formidable fanbase, and we hear he’s doing pretty well on Spotify.
Yvonne Chen
The first three concerts take place at the Menil Collection with performances by six different pianists, including CityBook faves Mei Rui and Yvonne Chen, who founded the new music ensemble Loop38 and was featured in our 2019 Music Issue. The series culminates with a marathon performance on Dec. 16 (Beethoven’s birthday!) at the Rothko Chapel.
First up, at 1pm, is Timothy Hester, who will tackle two of Beethoven’s most popular and technically challenging sonatas: Piano Sonata No. 8 in C minor, popularly known as “Sonata Pathetique,” and Sonata No. 21 in C major, nicknamed “Waldstein.” At 2:15pm, Tali Morgulis will play the always-popular Sonata No. 14 in C-Sharp Minor, better known as the “Moonlight” sonata. And at 3pm, DACAMERA artistic director Sarah Rothenberg closes the series with what will no doubt be a breathtaking performance of Beethoven’s final three sonatas, including his two-movement, almost avant-garde Sonata No. 32 in C Minor. In a 2022 interview for Houston CityBook, Rothenberg said, “In a way, there’s nothing more modern than some of the compositional things Beethoven does in his late works.”
For Houston jazz fans, DACAMERA has two free concerts on tap featuring pianist and rising star Brooke Wyatt performing several holiday jazz favorites, first on Dec. 6 at noon in the Grand Foyer of the Wortham Theater Center, and again on Dec. 15 from 5-7pm in the new Lynn Wyatt Square for the Performing Arts.
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