Cecilia Duarte News

Ars Lyrica Houston, the Grammy-nominated early music ensemble, announces new outreach programs in multiple languages with a focus on literacy: Musical Storytime Series, the bilingual Orígenes, and Musical Detectives.

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.

Houston Grand Opera's HGOco and League of Women Voters of Houston are partnering to present a special live stream airing of Faye Chiao and Anton Dudley's Katie: Strongest of the Strong.

Ars Lyrica Houston has announced its reimagined 16th season. The season explores dualities in music, programming, and also celebrates the relationship between the audience and the artists.

Houston Grand Opera has announced HGO Digital, its all-new program of digital works for the 2020-21 season. Starting in September and extending through April 2021, HGO will release original video content bimonthly for audiences to enjoy from the comfort of their homes, free of charge.

Ars Lyrica Houston is growing its outreach and education programs to reach and reflect the diverse Houston landscape. Continuing efforts they started before stay-at-home orders effected in March, the organization is creating a new catalogue of offerings with reach beyond the presentation of in-person concerts and programs.

A consortium of international choral singers and excellent instrumentalist, here's a premiere of a new virtual performance: 'My Soul Is a Candle' is the fifth movement from Jake Runestad's 'The Hope of Loving.'

Houston Chamber Choir's has won the GRAMMY® Award for “Best Choral Performance” for its Signum Records recording of “Duruflé: Complete Choral Works,” a performance of music by 20th century French composer Maurice Duruflé. Houston Chamber Choir founder and artistic director Robert Simpson conducted, with Ken Cowan on organ. Simpson accepted the award at the Jan. 26 ceremony, along with his wife, Marianna Parnas-Simpson, a Houston Chamber Choir member.

Ars Lyrica, the Grammy-nominated early music ensemble, adds depth and dimension to the artwork of Goya with an engaging concert experience on February 22nd at 7:30 pm at the Hobby Center. Richard Savino, Grammy-nominated guest director and expert in Spanish Baroque music, joins with members of the Ars Lyrica orchestra to create a biographical portrait with the vivid colors of guitars, singers, and percussion. Rather than performing complete works, this unique program features selected movements from the major composers living in Spain during Goya's lifetime, chosen according to their ability to communicate the affect of the periods of the artist's life.

Houston Chamber Choir's has been nominated for a 2020 GRAMMY® Award for 'Best Choral Performance' for its Signum Records recording of 'Duruflé: Complete Choral Works,' a performance of music by 20th century French composer Maurice Duruflé. The recording was also part of a second GRAMMY® nomination: Blanton Alspaugh was nominated for Producer of the Year, Classical, for his work on eight recordings including Houston Chamber Choir's Duruflé recording.

Mercury Chamber Orchestra opens its 2019-2020 Season on Saturday, October 5, 2019 at 8 p.m. at the Wortham Center with an energetic and lively night of music featuring Antonio Vivaldi's L'estro armonico.  Under the direction of Artistic Director Antoine Plante, the orchestra will perform selections from Vivaldi's influential set of concerti grossi as well as the Concerto for Two Cellos in G minor (RV 531) and Concerto for Strings in G minor (RV 152). 

Houston Grand Opera (HGO) announces that HGOco, its education and community engagement initiative, is the winner of a bronze 2019 Telly Award in the Arts & Culture Category for "Boundless," Episode 1 of the company's innovative Star-Cross'd. web series. "Boundless" was based on "I Can Die Now," a true story by Houstonian Aryana Rose that first aired on The Moth and is one of the most-listened-to segments in The Moth's history.

On Saturday, February 23, Ars Lyrica Houston surpassed its previous fundraising record at its magical loved-themed A Mid-Winter Night's Dream Gala which also included a surprise wedding! This gala, honoring Dr. Sippi Khurana and chaired by Stephanie von Stein and Dr. Mark A. Schusterman, took place at the modern luxury Hotel Alessandra in downtown Houston. Gala proceeds support Ars Lyrica's biennial Baroque opera productions, which began in Fall 2018 with Handel's Agrippina at the Hobby Center, a production that played to rave reviews.

Houston Grand Opera (HGO) will present its 2019-20 season with a broad repertoire of operas in productions that have never been seen by Houston audiences. The 65th season will open October 18, 2019, with Verdi's classic Rigoletto. Tomer Zvulun returns to direct the season opener after successfully opening the 2018-19 season with his production of The Flying Dutchman. American baritone Brian Mulligan sings his first Rigoletto leading an outstanding cast filled with renowned HGO Studio alumni, including Mexican tenor Arturo Chacon-Cruz as the Duke of Mantua and Armenian soprano Mane Galoyan as Gilda. Paired with Rigoletto is the North American  premiere of the dramatic oratorio Saul in a much-lauded and imaginative production by Barrie Kosky. Christopher Purves returns to the title role after his celebrated performance at the Glyndebourne Festival and is joined by countertenor Aryeh Nussbaum Cohen and Korean soprano Pureum Jo, both HGO Studio alumni.

Leading from the harpsichord, Artistic Director Matthew Dirst joins returning soloists Dominique McCormick (soprano), Cecilia Duarte (mezzo-soprano), and Brian Shircliffe (baritone) and the Ars Lyrica ensemble for Scherzi musicali on Friday, Februrary 15, 2019 at 7:30 pm in Zilkha Hall at the Hobby Center for the Performing Arts. The jovial Valentine program explores the delicious colors of love in Claudio Monteverdi's comical vocal work, Scherzi musicali ( musical jokes ).

Ars Lyrica Houston's A Mid-Winter Night's Dream Gala, honoring Dr. Sippi Khurana and chaired by Stephanie von Stein and Dr. Mark A. Schusterman will take place on Saturday, February 23, 2019 at the modern luxury Hotel Alessandra in downtown Houston. This event supports Ars Lyrica's biennial Baroque opera productions, which begin this fall with Handel's Agrippina at the Hobby Center on November 16 and 18. The February gala begins at 6:30 pm with cocktails and hors d'oeuvres and continues with a spirited musical performance by mezzo-soprano Cecilia Duarte, lutenist Aresh Noori, and percussionist Jesus Pacheco, with remarks by Artistic Director Matthew Dirst. The Hotel Alessandra's continental European cuisine restaurant Lucienne will serve dinner on a wintry whimsical theme. This glamourous evening concludes with an upbeat 'after-party' with dancing and drinks. Expect surprises around every corner!

Houston Chamber Choir has just been signed to Signum Classics, a highly prestigious British record label which will release the company's fifth CD in April 2019 featuring the complete choral works of 20th century French composer Maurice Duruflé with renowned organist Ken Cowan of Rice University. Signum Classics is one of the United Kingdom's leading independent classical labels and home to diverse and eclectic repertoire by some of the finest artists and singers from around the world.

At a time when our nation is wrestling with tough questions about immigration, Houston Grand Opera is bringing back its bilingual production of Cruzar la Cara de la Luna / To Cross the Face of the Moon, a moving story that chronicles the joys and struggles of three generations of a family divided between countries and cultures through the rich melodies of mariachi. HGO presents three special performances on May 17, 19, and 20 in the HGO Resilience Theater at the George R. Brown Convention Center. Composed by Jose 'Pepe' Martinez with libretto by Leonard Foglia and known as the world's first mariachi opera, Cruzar has been performed to audiences around the world, including in New York City in January 2018. HGO's production will feature the Grammy Award-winning Mariachi Los Camperos. Tickets for these productions at the HGO Resilience Theater in the George R. Brown Convention Center are available at HGO.org. Parking is available at the Avenida North Garage located at 1815 Rusk Street, across from Resilience Theater. A sky bridge connects the parking garage to the GRB, and clear signage directs patrons to the theater. More information about parking can be found here.

Ars Lyrica Houston, the Grammy-nominated early music ensemble, announces its 2018/19 season: Out of the Box: Celebrating Ambition & Innovation. Ars Lyrica Houston takes on its first full-length Baroque opera with Handel's Agrippina plus the complete "Brandenburg" Concertos by J. S. Bach. Artistic Director Matthew Dirst has created a program "that highlights composers and works that are exceptional, definitive, unusual, even infamous." With Bach's six concertos appearing in pairs throughout the season, individual programs explore distinct ways of thinking about the general theme, from unexpected musical gifts to singular collections and composers.

Ars Lyrica Houston presents the Artful Women season finale with A Day with Marie Antoinette on Saturday, May 19th at 7:30 pm in Zilkha Hall at the Hobby Center for the Performing Arts. The musical program will conjure up an artful day chez France's most famous queen, from intimate morning music lessons to a spectacular evening concert. By turns rustic and elegant, this program offers a violin concerto by Marie Antoinette's music teacher Joseph Bologne (the Chevalier de Saint-Georges), a Mozart flute quartet, a dance suite from Gluck's Orphee et Eurydice, and Haydn's "Paris" Symphony No. 85, subtitled "The Queen."