Music in Midtown Presented by Musiqa & Lawndale Art Center

Theo Chandler premieres a new work inspired by the Vietnamese community in Houston’s Midtown neighborhood in collaboration with Houston poet Lucas Fang.

Throughout his body of work, composer Theo Chandler explores music’s profound and mysterious capacity to depict sensations, images, and human experience. Chandler holds composition degrees from Rice University (DMA 2021), The Juilliard School (MM 2017), and Oberlin Conservatory (BM 2015). Since June 2020, Chandler has worked with the Houston Symphony under the title Livestream Score Director, designing and producing the cinematography for the Houston Symphony’s livestreams.

Lucas Fang is the 2024-2025 Houston Youth Poet Laureate, a Vietnamese-Taiwanese American, and proud Houston native. A 2024 Gold Medalist in Poetry for the Scholastic Art and Writing Awards, Lucas’s work reflects his family’s history, cultural heritage, passion for music, and vibrant experiences of youth. He is an alumnus of the Iowa Young Writers’ Studio, Kenyon Review Young Writers Workshop, Yale Young Writers’ Workshop, and Writers in the Schools.

Musiqa’s mission is to enrich and inspire our community through programs that integrate contemporary music with other art-forms. Through interdisciplinary collaborations and educational programming, Musiqa makes modern repertoire accessible and vital to audiences of all ages and backgrounds.

More information about Musiqa and their upcoming programs can be found on their website- https://musiqa.org/

This project is funded in part by the City of Houston through Houston Arts Alliance.