Mercury Reveals 2016-17 Season

Mercury is pleased to announce details of its 2016-2017 Season, featuring Baroque masterpieces, multimedia events and partnerships with the Museum of Fine Arts Houston and the Houston Symphony Chorus. Artistic Director Antoine Plante has created a diverse new season featuring composers from the Baroque era and beyond, spanning Europe and the Americas. Each concert-performed on period instruments-promises to be a dynamic and fresh experience, something audiences have come to expect from Mercury.

Mercury kicks-off the 2016-2017 season with our annual Free Community Concert at Miller Outdoor Theatre. Experienced by thousands of people each year at Houston's premiere outdoor concert venue in Hermann Park, this season's concert, Vivaldi Rocks!, features excerpts from Vivaldi's Four Seasons, Bach's Brandenburg Concertos and more. This concert is made possible in part by the Miller Outdoor Theatre Advisory Board.

Mercury's Downtown Series, at the Wortham Center's Cullen Theater, is comprised of seven distinctive concerts running from October through May. Mercury opens the series with Brahms' First Symphony and Beethoven's Violin Concerto, featuring Mercury concertmaster Jonathan Godfrey. In November, Mercury features the sonorous string section with Schubert's Quintet in C (arranged by Antoine Plante) and Dvo?ák's lush String Serenade. We celebrate the holiday season in December when members of the Houston Symphony Chorus, under the direction of Betsy Cook Weber, join us for Vivaldi's Gloria and Lauda Jerusalem.

In the new year, Denis Plante and Antoine Plante present a special multimedia event highlighting American composers, including Gershwin, Barber and Glass. Through music and drama, we explore the American Dream from Ellis Island to the race to explore space. For the 2017 Houston Early Music Festival in February, Mercury collaborates with the Museum of Fine Arts Houston in a multimedia presentation, pairing eighteenth-century paintings with the orchestral suite from the French opera-ballet Les Indes Galantes by Rameau. March is an all-classics program including Haydn's Symphony No. 6 "Morning", Symphony No. 45 "Farewell" and Beethoven's Second Piano Concerto. Mercury concludes this special season with Mozart's Requiem, a powerful work left unfinished at the composer's death.

In its fifth year, Mercury's Neighborhood Series, sponsored by LINN Energy, offers intimate, hour-long concerts in four outstanding and convenient locations across Houston. These concerts will be offered in October, November/December, and April at Memorial Drive Presbyterian Church, Museum of Fine Arts Houston, Midtown's MATCH Building, and the Dosey Doe Big Barn in The Woodlands. Designed to inspire and energize all who attend, these concerts feature the full string section of Mercury performing works including Bach's Goldberg Variations, Schubert, Dowland and selections celebrating and exploring Baroque music in the New World.

SUBSCRIPTION AND TICKET INFORMATION

Subscription sales for Mercury's 2016-2017 season are available immediately, offering savings up to $155. Subscribers always receive the best seats at the best prices. Other exclusive subscriber benefits include reserved seats, free ticket exchange privileges, and additional discounts on single tickets.

Single tickets will be available in August 2016.

For more information or to order a subscription, please call Mercury's Patron Services Team at 713-533-0080, Monday through Friday from 10 AM to 5 PM; or visit Mercury's website at mercuryhouston.org.