Ars Lyrica Houston Presents COMFORT AND JOY

Ars Lyrica Houston will present a holiday program of small-scale delights that are often overlooked during a season usually marked by Handel's massive Messiah. On Friday, December 18 and 7:30 p.m., the program Comfort and Joy airs alongside complimentary social and educational programming in a complete artistic package. The multi-national program of Baroque music highlights mezzo-soprano Cecilia Duarte, soprano Camille Ortiz, and flautist Colin St Martin.

Normally, the December holiday season means a packed calendar for artists and concert goers alike. With the drastic reduction in performances this 2020, Ars Lyrica is proud to be able to support Houston's artistic community by engaging instrumentalists and singers alike for this intimate collaboration.

"From the beginning of this crisis, we have been standing side by side with our artists who suffered the unprecedented loss of income and professional connections," says Executive Director Kinga Ferguson. "Our top priority has been to keep our artists employed and engaged through a wide range of new virtual programs, recordings, and socially-distanced outdoor performances. We created Artist Support Fund back in April to be able to pay the artists for cancelled performance and new virtual opportunities. Ars Lyrica can only thrive if our artists thrive with us. "

Comfort and Joy takes a miniature Grand Tour of Europe with music by composers from Italy, Germany, France, and Spain. Of particular interest is Scarlatti's Christmas Cantata, of which very few recordings exist. This holiday pastoral shares elements with its larger cousin, The Messiah, as well as with the more familiar Christmas Cantata by Arcangelo Corelli in combing shimmering melodies, vocal virtuosity, and the sounds of shepherds in the field. Scarlatti's celebrated cantata, written for a festive 1711 Christmas Eve entertainment in Rome, proclaims a universal message of hope and expectation. Vivaldi's most inventive psalm setting, along with a tuneful Telemann concerto and some lively French noëls, complete this holiday gift for the Ars Lyrica family.

For access to the concert as well as social and education programming that accompanies the mainstage broadcast, please visit https://www.arslyricahouston.org/comfortandjoy

Ticketing information: https://www.arslyricahouston.org/subscriptionsandtickets

Season subscription: $150 all-inclusive
Concert broadcast subscription: $80 or $10/per concert

On the program

Scarlatti,a??Christmas Cantataa??

Telemann, Concerto in D Majora??for Flute and Stringsa??

Vivaldi,a??Nisi Dominusa??

Charpentier,a??Noëls

J.S. Bach, Aria (Duetto) from Gesegnete Christen, BWV 184/2

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