Ars Lyrica Houston Celebrates THE WELL-TEMPERED CLAVIER 300th Anniversary Celebration

On Sunday, March 12th at 6 pm CT, Ars Lyrica Houston will present The Well-Tempered Clavier 300th Anniversary Celebration: Panel Discussion. This live Zoom panel is free with registration and features three internationally recognized music experts discussing J.S. Bach's legacy. Ars Lyrica Artistic Director Matthew Dirst, a leading scholar of Bach's keyboard music, will be joined by harpsichord builder John Phillips (Berkeley, California) and scholar David Yearsley (Cornell University).

The panelists will discuss Baroque harpsichords and the legacy of Bach's keyboard music. The event will also feature the premiere of the complete The Well-Tempered Clavier Book 1 playlist, publicly available online on Youtube along with a myriad of other public educational resources.

This project, the first of its kind, comprises high-definition, professionally-recorded videos of all 24 preludes and fugues from The Well-Tempered Clavier, Book 1. Harpsichordist Matthew Dirst recorded this series at Rienzi, the Museum of Fine Arts house museum for European decorative arts. These videos, which also include informative commentary from the performer, were filmed by Ben Doyle of BEND Productions with audio producers and engineers Ryan Edwards and Shannon Smith.

Dirst speaks to the scope of the project, "Bach's Well-Tempered Clavier, Book 1 is an iconic collection, one that virtually all pianists, keyboard players, harpsichordists, and organists learn to play some part of at some point in their careers. This volume is an important pedagogical tool, but it's not all that well understood. This video series is a way to acquaint listeners with more of the collection and on an instrument that's ideally suited to this music and in a venue that looks like we're in the 18th century."

This project is generously underwritten by the City of Houston through the Let Creativity Happen grant from the Houston Arts Alliance.

The Well-Tempered Clavier 300th Anniversary Celebration on March 12th features:

• Free zoom panel at 6pm CT (to be recorded and archived on Youtube)
• Webpage with all public resources
• Youtube playlist with 24 single movements of The Well-Tempered Clavier, Book 1
• Youtube playlist with 12 Biweekly Bach episodes featuring commentary

Free registration for the zoom panel discussion (3/12 6pm CT) is available here: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZwudOytpjsiEtP4JnP5ZTZgBIKyFQqZ80fr

For more information on the project, see here: https://arslyricahouston.org/welltemperedclavier

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.

Ars Lyrica Artistic Director Matthew Dirst, recently described in the Washington Post as an "efficient, extremely precise conductor who has an ear for detail," is the first American musician to win major international prizes in both organ and harpsichord, including the American Guild of Organists National Young Artist Competition and the Warsaw International Harpsichord Competition. Widely admired for his stylish playing and conducting, Dirst leads a period-instrument ensemble with several acclaimed recordings, one of which-J. A. Hasse's Marc Antonio e Cleopatra-was nominated for a Grammy Award in 2011 for Best Opera. His degrees include a PhD in musicology from Stanford University and the prix de virtuosité in both organ and harpsichord from the Conservatoire National de Reuil-Malmaison, France, where he spent two years as a Fulbright scholar. Equally active as a scholar and as an organist, Dirst is Professor of Music at the Moores School of Music, University of Houston, and Organist at St Philip Presbyterian Church in Houston. His publications include Engaging Bach: The Keyboard Legacy from Marpurg to Mendelssohn (Cambridge University Press, 2012) and Bach and the Organ (University of Illinois Press, 2016).