Da Camera presents Mahan Esfahani: FROM RENAISSANCE TO REICH

Da Camera's 2017-18 season continues with "From Renaissance to Reich," featuring Mahan Esfahani on harpsichord, at the Menil Collection on Tuesday, December 12, 2017, at 7:30 PM. Esfahani makes his first appearance with Da Camera in this solo recital.

Born in Tehran, Iranian-American Esfahani began his musical journey on the piano before discovering his passion for the harpsichord as a teenager. After studying musicology and history at Stanford University under George Houle, Esfahani was mentored by Peter Watchorn and the great Zuzana R?ži?ková before making his London debut in 2009. He is the first harpsichordist ever to be named a BBC New Generation Artist, a Borletti-Buitoni Trust prizewinner and to be nominated for Royal Philharmonic Society Instrumentalist of the Year and Gramophone Artist of the Year. He was also named the BBC Music Magazine Newcomer of the Year in 2015. Throughout his groundbreaking career, Esfahani has single-handedly reintroduced this historical instrument into the mainstream classical and contemporary concert repertoire. He played the first BBC Proms harpsichord recital in 2011, and since then has performed solo concerts at some of the most illustrious concert halls and music festivals around the world.

In Houston, Esfahani's wide-ranging program includes an early work for harpsichord by Renaissance composer William Byrd; Toru Takemitsu's Rain Dreaming, which combines Western modernism with elements of the composer's native Japanese musical traditions; J.S. Bach's Toccata in F#-minor, BWV 910, one of the composer's most improvisational and virtuosic works; and a new arrangement by Esfahani of Steve Reich's Piano Phase, as featured on his award-winning third album, Time Present and Time Past.

General admission tickets for "From Renaissance to Reich" are $60. Tickets are available by contacting Da Camera, 1402 Sul Ross, at 713-524-5050 or online at www.dacamera.com. Tickets for students and senior citizens are always half-price. $5 student rush tickets are available 30 minutes before the concert begins.