The Resounding Vision Award is given to musicians whose efforts transcend aesthetics and resonate beyond the performance hall. It honors artists who pursue a vision of progress in our communities.
The work of COOPER-MOORE is a testament to commitment, vision, compassion, and invention.Trained as the pianist of his family’s rural Virginian church at 12, community service was ingrained from the beginning. A working musician and composer,Cooper-Moore developed a method for teaching academic curriculum to 3 to 5 year-olds through music. Publishing this method, he traveled the country training Head Start teachers. Since then, hi service has expanded to the differently-abled, the incarcerated, and the homeless, all the while earning a global reputation as a singular artist. Cooper-Moore’s performances encompass wide-ranging explorations on hand-made instruments, insightful storytelling, and virtuosic piano playing. He is an artist whose music embodies the urgency of the moment, and whose voice delivers plainspoken truth with unwavering intensity. In 2006 and 2008, Cooper-Moore came toHouston to work with children in Nameless Sound’s workshops, training Nameless Sound’s staff in his methods. Raising the bar for our own mission, he left an immeasurable influence on our organization.
The Community Resounding Vision Award is given to visionary supporters of and advocates for the arts in Houston.
Houston photographer CASEY WILLIAMS was known for his “found abstractions,” unadultered photos that reveal uncanny beauty in unexpected places. The most famous are his images of oil tankers in Houston’s Ship Channel.Tight framing combines with reflections in the water to make these photographs appear as Rothko-like color fields on first glance. Only once the eyes settle in does the industrial reality emerge from the colors. The generous and affable artist also had a deep love of music. NamelessSound Director David Dove met an enthusiastic Williams at the first concert he ever presented (a solo by futureResounding Vision Awardee Joe McPhee). Passionately moved by the performance, Williams was the type of audience member that inspired Dove to persist. Williams became a founding member of Nameless Sound’s Board of Directors. His keen eye and camera documented much of the early educational work of the organization. And it’s important to note that Casey’s wife, art therapist JoAnn Williams, became an important mentor to NamelessSound, guiding the organization in its first engagements with Houston homeless youth. Casey Williams has been key to Nameless Sound. He will always be missed, and never forgotten.
Event Underwriters and In-Kind Donors
BB’s Tex-Orleans
Be More Pacific
Dalla Terra
El Topo
Enchanted Nurseries
Pete Gershon
Gus’s World Famous Fried Chicken
Heights Grocers
James Magee
Jack Massing
Saint Arnold’s Brewery
Stewart Anderson
Spaghetti Western
Spinning Plates
Sprouts Farmer’s Market
Akio Suzuki
Trader Joe’s
Urban Eats
Mike Watt