Matthew Dirst News

Ars Lyrica Houston's A Roman Feast gala will take place on Saturday, March 3, 2018 in the historic Esperson building in downtown Houston.

Ars Lyrica Houston presents the fourth concert of the 2017/2018 Artful Women season with Esther & Jonah in Zilkha Hall at the Hobby Center on Friday, February 16 at 7:30pm. Produced in collaboration with Bach Society Houston as part of the 2018 Houston Early Music Festival, this program comprises two concise music dramas from opposite ends of the 18th century: G. F. Handel's Esther (1718) and Samuel Felsted's Jonah (1775).

A Houston Early Music favorite, ensemble El Mundo, returns with a festive new program of 17th- and 18th-century Christmas music from Latin America. Titled Cathedrals, Monasteries & Missions, the concert will take place Tuesday, Dec. 12, at 7:30 p.m. at Christ Church Cathedral. This event is part of Houston Early Music's Hispanic Heritage Series.

Ars Lyrica Houston presents the second Artful Women season concert, Italian Sirens in Zilkha Hall at the Hobby Center for the Performing Arts on Sunday, November 12, 2017 at 6:00pm.

Performed in Zilkha Hall at the Hobby Center for the Performing Arts on May 21st at 6:00 p.m., DON QUIXOTE'S EXCELLENT ADVENTURES winds up the Ars Lyrica 2016/2017 season with a whimsical Baroque program inspired by the figure of the Ingenious Gentleman of La Mancha.

Ars Lyrica Houston, the Grammy-nominated early music ensemble, announces its 2017/18 season: Artful Women: Muse, Heroine, Musician, and Patron features a wide range of musical works by, for, and about women.

Ars Lyrica Houston, the Grammy nominated early music ensemble, celebrates the New Year with a glittering evening filled with gorgeous music and flowing glasses of champagne at BACHANALIA tonight, December 31, at the Hobby Center For The Performing Arts.

Forget everything you know about the Bach cantata. (It's hard. I know.) The Ars Lyrica Houston early music ensemble is to perform Johann Sebastian Bach's works sans chorus -- two cantatas plus one extra movement, with four soloists for its New Year's Eve concert BACHANALIA.

Ars Lyrica Houston, the Grammy-nominated early music ensemble, celebrates the New Year with a glittering evening filled with gorgeous music and flowing glasses of champagne, on Saturday, December 31, at the Hobby Center For The Performing Arts.

Ars Lyrica Houston (ALH) returns to the Hobby Center for the Performing Arts this September with the season opening performance of Les Plaisirs de Versailles, its first event to be live streamed around the world.

Ars Lyrica Houston, the Grammy nominated early music ensemble, announces a 2016/17 season that mixes beloved masterworks of the Baroque with rare gems from the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries. Fables & Follies opens on September 9 with an encore visit to the world of King Louis XIV, with Marc­Antoine Charpentier's comic chamber opera Les Plaisirs de Versailles. Handel's late masterpiece Jephtha will be offered twice, on October 15 and 16, and will feature a stellar cast of soloists plus the award-­winning Moores School Concert Chorale from the University of Houston. On December 31 a festive program rings in the New Year with cantatas J.S. Bach wrote specifically for this holiday. Bachanalia also includes Ars Lyrica's annual holiday gala and silent auction following the program.

First performed in the spring of 1742, this musical masterpiece by George Frideric Handel has become one of the world's most beloved musical works.  Although more traditionally performed during Christmastime, this timeless Baroque masterpiece was intended by Handel as an Easter offering.

Artistic Director Matthew Dirst will lead the highly anticipated program, entitled All in a Garden Green after an English folksong. A menu of delectable tunes mixes items from English, Italian, French, and Spanish musical cultures and includes Vivaldi's Spring, along with songs and cantatas by William Byrd, Thomas Morely, Juan del Encina and others. Love will definitely be in the air at this Valentine's weekend program!

Artistic Director Matthew Dirst will lead mezzo-soprano Jamie Barton (2013 Cardiff Singer of the World) and violinist Adam LaMotte, with the Ars Lyrica Houston orchestra in the eagerly anticipated 2015-2016 season opener performance Autumn Hunt. The pre-classical season orchestra will highlight the first selection from Vivaldi's Four Seasons, Autumn, along with a selection of Handel arias with excerpts from  Serse and Semele.

Houston Early Music audience favorite El Mundo returns to celebrate the holidays with a performance of 'Villancicos y Cantatas de Navidad,' a program of 17th- and 18th-century seasonal music from Spain, Italy and Latin America tonight, Dec. 12 at Christ Church Cathedral.

The Grammy-nominated early music ensemble Ars Lyrica Houston presents Bach & Sons: At the Cafe tonight, November 14, 2014 at Zilkha Hall, Hobby Center for the Performing Arts. The first of a two-part tribute to the great Bach dynasty on Ars Lyrica's 2014/15 season, this program includes a rarely performed ode and a concerto by Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach, younger brother Johann Christoph Friedrich Bach's cantata Die Amerikanerin, plus patriarch Johann Sebastian Bach's beloved 'Coffee Cantata.'

Houston Early Music audience favorite El Mundo returns to celebrate the holidays with a performance of "Villancicos y Cantatas de Navidad," a program of 17th- and 18th-century seasonal music from Spain, Italy and Latin America on Dec. 12 at Christ Church Cathedral.

The Grammy-nominated early music ensemble Ars Lyrica Houston presents Bach & Sons: At the Cafe on Friday, November 14, 2014 at Zilkha Hall, Hobby Center for the Performing Arts. The first of a two-part tribute to the great Bach dynasty on Ars Lyrica's 2014/15 season, this program includes a rarely performed ode and a concerto by Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach, younger brother Johann Christoph Friedrich Bach's cantata Die Amerikanerin, plus patriarch Johann Sebastian Bach's beloved "Coffee Cantata."

Grammy nominated Ars Lyrica Houston has announced its 2014/15 season opener: Flying High on September 7th at 6 pm at the Hobby Center's Zilkha Hall. This program soars and lifts the spirit, with music ranging from nimble Baroque dances to a memorable setting of the legend Icarus, who flew too close to the sun. French and Italian Baroque chamber works animate this program, featuring French-Italian soprano Celine Ricci and viola da gambist Mary Springfels in G. F. Handel's evocative Tra le fiamme.

Ars Lyrica Houston, the Grammy nominated early music ensemble, announces its 2014/15 season, titled The Power of Music, which explores the variety of expression and shows how great music moves us in ways both subtle and profound.