Ars Lyrica Houston Announces 2026-27 Season: Visions and Visionaries

Ars Lyrica Houston announced its 2026-27 season, Visions & Visionaries, a six-program series that explores the power of imagination in music — from mythological tales and supernatural visions to deeply human expressions of faith, friendship, and identity.

Spanning from the early Baroque to the Classical era, the season features fully staged opera, a newly commissioned work, and collaborations with leading artistic partners across Houston.

Opening the season in September, Hunter’s Prey brings together a semi-staged production of Charpentier’s chamber opera Actéon and scenes from Rameau’s Hippolyte et Aricie, exploring themes of transformation and fate through the lens of the hunt—a favored aristocratic pastime often depicted in Baroque music for its drama and symbolism. Heinichen’s Concerto in F Major highlights horns and oboes, instruments historically associated with the hunt and outdoor spectacle, evoking the sonic world of European courts.  

For Halloween, Haunted Spirits plunges into a world of chaos, madness, and the supernatural. Rebel’s Les Élemens opens with its famously dissonant depiction of “Chaos,” while Handel’s dramatic mad scenes reveal the psychological extremes of his operatic characters. Tartini’s virtuosic “Devil’s Trill” Sonata, long associated with legend and diabolical inspiration, and Purcell’s haunting Bess of Bedlam complete a program that blurs the line between the theatrical and the uncanny.  

At the heart of the holiday season, Magnificat offers a radiant exploration of sacred music at its most celebratory. Bach’s 1723 setting of the Magnificat text combines jubilant choruses and intimate solos, capturing both grandeur and devotion. Handel’s coronation anthem and Telemann’s Concerto for Three Trumpets frame the program with brilliance and ceremony, reflecting the festive traditions of early 18th-century Europe. Presented in collaboration with the Moores School of Music and featuring the Moores School Concert Chorale, this program marks the first of two university partnerships in Ars Lyrica’s 2026/27 season.

With Viennese Dreamers, the focus shifts to friendship, mentorship, and artistic exchange in Classical Vienna. The relationship between Joseph Haydn and Marianna Martines reveals a dynamic musical partnership shaped within the city’s vibrant salon culture, where composers, performers, and patrons intersected. Through symphony, concerto, and vocal works, the program illuminates a shared creative world that helped define the Classical style.

Spring brings Soy la Diosa, a centerpiece of the season and a joint commission by Ars Lyrica Houston and Les Délices from Nicaraguan American composer Gilda Lyons. Drawing on Latin American folklore and historical traditions, the program places a newly created work alongside Baroque-era Spanish-language repertoire and instrumental dances, expanding the early music canon through contemporary and cultural dialogue.  

Closing the season, Handel’s Oreste brings high-stakes drama and mythological intensity to the stage in a fully staged production. Adapted in 1734 from music drawn from Handel’s earlier operas, Oreste reflects the composer’s inventive approach to reworking material into a newly unified narrative. Inspired by Greek tragedy, the opera explores themes of vengeance, justice, and redemption in a rarely performed work that highlights Handel’s theatrical imagination. Presented in collaboration with the Moores Opera Center at the University of Houston, this local premiere extends Ars Lyrica’s ongoing investment in large-scale Baroque opera and artistic partnerships.

A distinguished roster of guest artists appears throughout the season. Featured vocalists include sopranos Alicia Gianni, Amia Langer, Andréa Walker, and Estelí Gomez; mezzo-sopranos Nikola Printz and Cecilia Duarte; countertenor Key’mon Murrah; and haute-contre Richard Pittsinger. Instrumentalists include violinist Manami Mizumoto and fortepianist Patricia Garcia Gil. The season also highlights a collaboration with the Moores School Concert Chorale and concludes with a fully staged production of Oreste in partnership with the Moores Opera Center at the University of Houston.

In addition to its subscription series, Ars Lyrica Houston will continue expanding its community and education initiatives across the city. Building on recent seasons, the organization anticipates returning to a range of public-facing programs and partnerships, including appearances at the ExxonMobil Discovery Series at the Hobby Center, the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo, Heights Kids’ Day of Music,  and Theater District Open House, as well as collaborations with institutions such as the Cynthia Woods Mitchel Pavilion, Rothko Chapel and the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. Ars Lyrica also plans to continue participating in programs such as Harmony in the Air alongside additional engagements designed to bring early music into accessible and unexpected spaces throughout Houston.

“Music offers us fleeting glimpses of other worlds — moments where imagination takes hold and transforms how we experience the present,” said Artistic Director Matthew Dirst. “This season brings those visions to life through opera, dance, and instrumental storytelling, inviting audiences into spaces where myth, history, and human expression intersect.”

With Visions & Visionaries, Ars Lyrica Houston continues its commitment to historically informed performance, bold collaborations, and programming that connects past and present for audiences across Houston.

Ars Lyrica Houston Full 2026-27 Season

Hunter's Prey
Friday, September 25, 2026 at 7:30 p.m.
Zilkha Hall, Hobby Center for the Performing Arts

Haunted Spirits
Saturday, October 31, 2026 at 5 p.m.
Zilkha Hall, Hobby Center for the Performing Arts

Magnificat
Friday, December 4, 2026 at 7:30 p.m.
St. Philip Presbytarian Church

Viennese Dreamers
Friday, January 15, 2027 at 7 p.m.
Zilkha Hall, Hobby Center for the Performing Arts

Soy La Diosa
Saturday, March 6, 2027 at 5 p.m.
St. Philip Presbytarian Church

Hunter's Prey
Friday, September 25 at 7:30 p.m.
Zilkha Hall, Hobby Center for the Performing Arts

Handel's Oreste
Friday, April 16, 2027 at 7:30 p.m. | Sunday, April 18, 2027 at 2 p.m.
Moores Opera House, University of Houston