Mercury Chamber Orchestra Announces 2022-2023 Season

Mercury Chamber Orchestra has unveiled its 2022-2023 Season. Artistic Director Antoine Plante has created an inviting array of concerts with engaging musical highlights from the Baroque to the Romantic as well as favorites from the Twentieth Century.

"We are grateful for the incredible response from our subscribers and supporters over the last two years of the pandemic. Looking to the future, Antoine has created a new season that is dynamic and engaging - making audience members a central part of the Mercury experience," says Executive Director Brian Ritter.

As with the last two last seasons, all concerts will be performed for live audiences and broadcast online, streaming for one week after each premiere, increasing arts accessibility for listeners everywhere. "We are thrilled that people from Houston and across the world have now been able to hear our wonderful musicians and our period-instrument approach that brings a fresh listening experience," says Artistic Director Antoine Plante.

Mercury kicks off the new season with its annual Free Community Concert at Miller Outdoor Theatre in September with "Music Among Friends." Experienced by thousands of people each year at Houston's premier outdoor concert venue in Hermann Park, this season's concert invites the audience to experience the favorite music of our musicians from Vivaldi to Gershwin and beyond. This concert is made possible in part by the Miller Outdoor Theatre Advisory Board.

Mercury's Downtown Series, at the Wortham Center's Cullen Theater, is comprised of seven distinctive concerts running from October through May. Mercury opens the series with Love's Philosophy a program spanning Haydn to Bernstein and featuring guest conductor, John Axelrod. This performance marks Maestro Axelrod's first conducting appearance in Houston in over 20 years. November brings the music of Vivaldi & Telemann with guest soloist Vincent Lauzer on recorder.

In December, Mercury presents the audience favorite blockbuster, Handel's Messiah, on period instruments as Handel would have imagined it and featuring the Mercury Singers, under the direction of Betsy Cook Weber. Due to its immense popularity, a Sunday matinee performance has been added!

January's concert, Chopin's Letters, will explore the life of Frédéric Chopin through his letters and string transcriptions of his most famous melodies by Artistic Director Antoine Plante. In February, back to the Baroque with a program of J.S. Bach, including his popular work the Coffee Cantata.

Moving to the Romantic in March, the ensemble performs Tchaikovsky's lush Serenade for Strings and, for the first time, Metamorphosis for 23 Solo Strings by Richard Strauss. Mercury concludes the season with Beethoven's spirited Seventh Symphony.

Now in its eleventh year, Mercury's Neighborhood Series offers intimate, hour-long concerts in four exceptional locations across Houston - Memorial Drive Presbyterian Church, Museum of Fine Arts Houston, Midtown's MATCH, and the Dosey Doe Big Barn in The Woodlands. Designed to inspire and energize all who attend, these concerts are highly accessible and intimate. Kicking off in October 2022, the programs feature Bach's complete Cello Suites (spread over two concerts), a program of early German Christmas music that will transport audiences to the Christmas Market and a night of Klezmer music featuring clarinetist Airat Ichmouratov.