Ars Lyrica Houston Reveals 2025/26 Season

Ars Lyrica Houston’s 2025/26 season, Twists of Fate, invites audiences into a world shaped by unpredictable forces - where love, loss, and destiny unfold through music that’s as powerful today as it was centuries ago. This season offers Houston audiences the rare chance to hear masterworks that are seldom performed anywhere, including Houston premieres and the first major staging of Monteverdi’s Orfeo in over two decades.

The season begins on Friday, September 19 with Bach’s Divine Comedy, a witty program anchored by The Dispute between Phoebus and Pan - a secular cantata rarely performed in concert halls. This imaginative work sets a playful mythological debate to sparkling vocal writing and is paired with Bach’s beloved Orchestral Suite No. 3 in D Major and the double-chorus motet Fürchte dich nicht.

On October 25, Love Untamed explores raw emotional territory with Haydn’s Arianna a Naxos - one of the composer’s few dramatic solo cantatas. Mezzo-soprano Erin Wagner leads the program, which also includes The Peace of Wild Things, a setting of Wendell Berry’s poetry by Houston composer David Ashley White, and rarely performed chamber works by Telemann and Vittorio Rieti.

December brings The Watchmen’s Song on December 2, an intimate Advent concert at St. Philip Presbyterian Church. Centered on the chorale Wachet auf, this program connects four centuries of sacred music through works by Bach, Tunder, Distler, and others. For many of these pieces - especially those by Franz Tunder and Nicolaus Bruhns - live performances are exceptionally rare.

On Valentine’s Day, Ars Lyrica offers Fatal Attractions, a program of French solo cantatas inspired by myth and tragedy. Clérambault’s Léandre et Héro and Rameau’s Orphée - written before his rise to operatic fame - showcase a more intimate, expressive side of the French Baroque. These works are rarely performed, making this a special Houston encounter with these haunting stories. Soprano Nola Richardson stars in this dramatic offering at Duncan Recital Hall.

A major highlight arrives on March 14, with the Houston premiere of Handel’s Aci, Galatea e Polifemo. Written during the composer’s time in Naples, this Neapolitan serenata is filled with theatrical flair and vocal fireworks. Lauren Snouffer, Cecelia McKinley, and Douglas Williams bring this mythic love triangle to life in a program that has never before been performed in Houston.

The season concludes with a monumental production: Monteverdi’s Orfeo, staged May 29 & 30 with the New York Baroque Dance Company. Widely regarded as the first great opera in Western music, Orfeo is both a historical milestone and a gripping emotional work. This marks the first full production of Orfeo in Houston in over twenty years. Karim Sulayman stars in the title role, with staging by Catherine Turocy and musical direction by Matthew Dirst. A festive Post-Opera Soirée follows the Saturday performance.

Season subscriptions feature a wide range of benefits, including ticket discounts, priority seating, invitations to post-concert receptions, and access to all Zilkha Hall concert streams. A new student rush subscription will launch in fall 2025, offering same-day discounted access to all mainstage performances.

Houston Awards - Live Stats

Best Musical - Top 3

1. BRIGHT STAR (Spark Theater)

7.6% of votes

2. ROCK OF AGES (Standing Ovation Theatre)

6.4% of votes

3. THE LIGHT IN THE PIAZZA (The Sankofa Collective)

5.7% of votes

Vote Now!