Ars Lyrica's to Present a Night of Baroque Music With ECSTATIC VISIONS in November

Ars Lyrica Houston will present Ecstatic Visions, an otherworldly concert that explores ecstasy in Baroque music, with world-renowned early music performers soprano Sherezade Panthaki, oboist Kathryn Montoya, violinist Andrew Fouts, and Ars Lyrica's orchestra. All instrumentalists perform on period instruments with careful attention to accurate historical context and style.

Ecstatic Visions takes place on Friday, November 3rd at 7:30pm in Zilkha Hall, The Hobby Center for the Performing Arts (in-person and digital tickets are available).

Ars Lyrica Houston is thrilled to welcome back soprano Sherezade Panthaki, who is known as one of the most skilled early music singers of this generation. She has been described as an “astonishing coloratura with radiant top notes” (Calgary Herald), and been praised for her “full, luxuriously toned upper range” (The Los Angeles Times) and interpretations, “mining deep emotion from the subtle shaping of the lines” (The New York Times).

Sherezade Panthaki takes the stage for Handel's Silete venti which Ars Lyrica Artistic Director Matthew Dirst describes as a “spectacular showpiece for soprano and orchestra, with exceptionally fine text setting that puts the work on a plane alongside Handel's best operas and oratorios.” This stunning twenty-five minute work centers around the quest for and attainment of spiritual ecstasy, a perfect closer to a program full of elaborative and beautiful Baroque music.

Sharing the spotlight are recorder player Kathryn Montoya and violinist Andrew Fouts, two of the nation's leading early music specialists. Both instrumentalists will perform divisions, a type of early music performance where long notes are divided into smaller embellishments, demonstrating the performers' prowess and creativity. Artistic Director Matthew Dirst describes the programmed Bovicelli's Divisions on Ancor che col partire as “among the most outrageous things ever written for recorder, full of odd twists and turns.”

This stunning program full of music both delicate and triumphant will immerse the audience in a listening experience that, in the words of one concertgoer “touches one with such pleasant and serene emotions that linger far after leaving Zilkha Hall, and the soul feels rejuvenated once again.”

Ecstatic Visions
Friday, November 3, 2023 at 7:30 PM
Zilkha Hall, The Hobby Center for the Performing Arts

Single tickets:

In-person tickets ($39 - 75) and student tickets ($15) are available for purchase at the Hobby Center website on August 28. Digital tickets ($20 per household) are available for purchase at the Ars Lyrica website. 

About Ars Lyrica Houston 

Founded in 1998 by harpsichordist and conductor Matthew Dirst, Ars Lyrica Houston presents a diverse array of music in its original context while creating connections to contemporary life. Imaginative programming features neglected gems alongside familiar masterworks, and extracts the dramatic potential, emotional resonance, and expressive power of music. Its local subscription series, according to the Houston Chronicle, “sets the agenda” for early music in Houston. Ars Lyrica appears regularly at international festivals and conferences because of its distinctive focus, and its pioneering efforts in the field of authentic performance have won international acclaim.

This 2023/24 season, Ars Lyrica Houston celebrates 20 Years of Magic with a season dedicated to musical wizardry of various kinds, from wondrous choral works by Carissimi and Charpentier to miraculous chamber pieces by Biber and Bach. The milestone 20th anniversary season closes with a new production of a “magic” opera, Handel's Amadigi di Gaula, in its Houston premiere.

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