Our 2025/26 Twists of Fate season begins with a dazzling singing contest from the pen of J. S. Bach: his dramma per musica “Phoebus & Pan,” who argue the virtues of artful and populist song styles, respectively. Thankfully, Bach’s secular cantata, as filtered through the Roman storyteller Ovid, comes to a happier conclusion than the original myth: in the ancient Greek tale, Apollo (god of music) flays Pan (god of nature) for his clumsy singing. A stellar cast of eight also offers an intricate double-chorus motet, and the orchestra a beloved suite.

Visit our webpage for tickets and more information: https://www.arslyricahouston.org/bachdivinecomedy.

Orígenes: voice and percussion through the ages, adapted from our virtual program “Orígenes: Exploring the Spanish and Latin-American Renaissance", is a bilingual program curated by Mexican-born mezzo-soprano Cecilia Duarte and Spanish-born percussionist Jesús Pacheco. The program explores the development of voice and percussion instruments with a focus on Spanish and Latin American cultures. This performance is specially adapted for the intimacy of Rothko Chapel, expanding the original Orígenes concept to include guitar, adding warmth and texture to a program with music that spans from the Renaissance to the present. Featuring mezzo-soprano Cecilia Duarte, percussionist Jesús Pacheco, and special guest guitarist Héctor Alfonso Torres.

Recipient of a 2025 Early Music America Engagement Award, and underwritten in part by Kathleen Moore and Steve Homer.

Orígenes: voice and percussion through the ages, adapted from our virtual program “Orígenes: Exploring the Spanish and Latin-American Renaissance", is a bilingual program curated by Mexican-born mezzo-soprano Cecilia Duarte and Spanish-born percussionist Jesús Pacheco. The program explores the development of voice and percussion instruments with a focus on Spanish and Latin American cultures. A group of singers and percussionists will perform impassioned music from the Renaissance to the present day, showcasing how voice and percussion developed through the ages. Featured instruments will include gongs, bells, vibraphone, and drums. Students will learn how these instruments were used for communication, accompanying people through the everyday human experience: from festive celebrations to poignant moments of sorrow and drama. From the earliest forms of musical expression to contemporary soundscapes, Orígenes immerses students in a journey through time, revealing the diverse colors and textures of Spanish and Latin American musical heritage.

This performance is presented in partnership with ExxonMobil Discovery Series at The Hobby Center for the Performing Arts and is not open to the public.

Recipient of a 2025 Early Music America Engagement Award, and underwritten in part by Kathleen Moore and Steve Homer.

Orígenes: voice and percussion through the ages, adapted from our virtual program “Orígenes: Exploring the Spanish and Latin-American Renaissance", is a bilingual program curated by Mexican-born mezzo-soprano Cecilia Duarte and Spanish-born percussionist Jesús Pacheco. The program explores the development of voice and percussion instruments with a focus on Spanish and Latin American cultures. A group of singers and percussionists will perform impassioned music from the Renaissance to the present day, showcasing how voice and percussion developed through the ages. Featured instruments will include gongs, bells, vibraphone, and drums. Students will learn how these instruments were used for communication, accompanying people through the everyday human experience: from festive celebrations to poignant moments of sorrow and drama. From the earliest forms of musical expression to contemporary soundscapes, Orígenes immerses students in a journey through time, revealing the diverse colors and textures of Spanish and Latin American musical heritage.

This performance is presented in partnership with ExxonMobil Discovery Series at The Hobby Center for the Performing Arts and is not open to the public.

Recipient of a 2025 Early Music America Engagement Award, and underwritten in part by Kathleen Moore and Steve Homer.

Orígenes: voice and percussion through the ages, adapted from our virtual program “Orígenes: Exploring the Spanish and Latin-American Renaissance", is a bilingual program curated by Mexican-born mezzo-soprano Cecilia Duarte and Spanish-born percussionist Jesús Pacheco. The program explores the development of voice and percussion instruments with a focus on Spanish and Latin American cultures. A group of singers and percussionists will perform impassioned music from the Renaissance to the present day, showcasing how voice and percussion developed through the ages. Featured instruments will include gongs, bells, vibraphone, and drums. Students will learn how these instruments were used for communication, accompanying people through the everyday human experience: from festive celebrations to poignant moments of sorrow and drama. From the earliest forms of musical expression to contemporary soundscapes, Orígenes immerses students in a journey through time, revealing the diverse colors and textures of Spanish and Latin American musical heritage.

This performance is presented in partnership with ExxonMobil Discovery Series at The Hobby Center for the Performing Arts and is not open to the public.

Recipient of a 2025 Early Music America Engagement Award, and underwritten in part by Kathleen Moore and Steve Homer.

Orígenes: voice and percussion through the ages, adapted from our virtual program “Orígenes: Exploring the Spanish and Latin-American Renaissance", is a bilingual program curated by Mexican-born mezzo-soprano Cecilia Duarte and Spanish-born percussionist Jesús Pacheco. The program explores the development of voice and percussion instruments with a focus on Spanish and Latin American cultures. A group of singers and percussionists will perform impassioned music from the Renaissance to the present day, showcasing how voice and percussion developed through the ages. Featured instruments will include gongs, bells, vibraphone, and drums. Students will learn how these instruments were used for communication, accompanying people through the everyday human experience: from festive celebrations to poignant moments of sorrow and drama. From the earliest forms of musical expression to contemporary soundscapes, Orígenes immerses students in a journey through time, revealing the diverse colors and textures of Spanish and Latin American musical heritage.

This performance is presented in partnership with ExxonMobil Discovery Series at The Hobby Center for the Performing Arts and is not open to the public.

Recipient of a 2025 Early Music America Engagement Award, and underwritten in part by Kathleen Moore and Steve Homer.

Love Untamed explores deeply felt emotions with a Haydn solo cantata and a song cycle by Houston’s own David Ashley White. Haydn’s Arianna a Naxos treats the legend of Ariadne, whose abandonment by Theseus elicits a torrent of feelings, from despair to wrath. In contrast, White’s contemporary song cycle, set to poetry of Wendell Berry, finds balm for the troubled soul in the natural world. Surrounding these stormy narratives are spirited instrumental works in a more peaceful mode, by G. P. Telemann and Vittorio Rieti.

Visit our webpage for tickets and more information:
https://www.arslyricahouston.org/love-untamed.

A favorite German chorale, as treated by composers from the 17th through the 20th centuries, provides this program’s through-thread. Philipp Nicolai’s 1599 hymn Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme (“Zion Hears the Watchmen Singing”), which traditionally hails the arrival of the Advent season, takes as its basis the Parable of the Ten Virgins, which reminds believers to prepare for the Lord’s arrival or suffer the consequences. Around multiple iterations of Wachet auf—including pieces for diverse forces by Franz Tunder, Dietrich Buxtehude, J. S.  Bach, and Hugo Distler—this program includes other seasonal music for voices and instruments by the German Baroque masters Heinrich Schütz and Nicolaus Bruhns.

Visit our webpage for tickets and more information:
https://www.arslyricahouston.org/watchmenssong.

Ars Lyrica Houston presents 30 performances of “Ring in the Peace” at The Buffalo Bayou Park Cistern with additional free performances at other Arts District venues such as MECA, Sawyer Yards, and the Downtown Houston Tunnels. This multicultural holiday program, curated by Mexican-born mezzo-soprano Cecilia Duarte and Spanish-born percussionist Jesús Pacheco, features music for voice and percussion from the ninth century onward. By pairing ancient music with Houston’s one-of-a-kind venues, “Ring in the Peace” offers listeners a new, memorable musical experience that fosters reflection and a sense of unity with one’s communities, both locally and across the world.

Tickets go on sale on October 1, 2025.

Ars Lyrica Houston presents 30 performances of “Ring in the Peace” at The Buffalo Bayou Park Cistern with additional free performances at other Arts District venues such as MECA, Sawyer Yards, and the Downtown Houston Tunnels. This multicultural holiday program, curated by Mexican-born mezzo-soprano Cecilia Duarte and Spanish-born percussionist Jesús Pacheco, features music for voice and percussion from the ninth century onward. By pairing ancient music with Houston’s one-of-a-kind venues, “Ring in the Peace” offers listeners a new, memorable musical experience that fosters reflection and a sense of unity with one’s communities, both locally and across the world.

Tickets go on sale on October 1, 2025.

Ars Lyrica Houston presents 30 performances of “Ring in the Peace” at The Buffalo Bayou Park Cistern with additional free performances at other Arts District venues such as MECA, Sawyer Yards, and the Downtown Houston Tunnels. This multicultural holiday program, curated by Mexican-born mezzo-soprano Cecilia Duarte and Spanish-born percussionist Jesús Pacheco, features music for voice and percussion from the ninth century onward. By pairing ancient music with Houston’s one-of-a-kind venues, “Ring in the Peace” offers listeners a new, memorable musical experience that fosters reflection and a sense of unity with one’s communities, both locally and across the world.

Tickets go on sale on October 1, 2025.

Ars Lyrica Houston presents 30 performances of “Ring in the Peace” at The Buffalo Bayou Park Cistern with additional free performances at other Arts District venues such as MECA, Sawyer Yards, and the Downtown Houston Tunnels. This multicultural holiday program, curated by Mexican-born mezzo-soprano Cecilia Duarte and Spanish-born percussionist Jesús Pacheco, features music for voice and percussion from the ninth century onward. By pairing ancient music with Houston’s one-of-a-kind venues, “Ring in the Peace” offers listeners a new, memorable musical experience that fosters reflection and a sense of unity with one’s communities, both locally and across the world.

Tickets go on sale on October 1, 2025.

Ars Lyrica Houston presents 30 performances of “Ring in the Peace” at The Buffalo Bayou Park Cistern with additional free performances at other Arts District venues such as MECA, Sawyer Yards, and the Downtown Houston Tunnels. This multicultural holiday program, curated by Mexican-born mezzo-soprano Cecilia Duarte and Spanish-born percussionist Jesús Pacheco, features music for voice and percussion from the ninth century onward. By pairing ancient music with Houston’s one-of-a-kind venues, “Ring in the Peace” offers listeners a new, memorable musical experience that fosters reflection and a sense of unity with one’s communities, both locally and across the world.

Tickets go on sale on October 1, 2025.

Ars Lyrica Houston presents 30 performances of “Ring in the Peace” at The Buffalo Bayou Park Cistern with additional free performances at other Arts District venues such as MECA, Sawyer Yards, and the Downtown Houston Tunnels. This multicultural holiday program, curated by Mexican-born mezzo-soprano Cecilia Duarte and Spanish-born percussionist Jesús Pacheco, features music for voice and percussion from the ninth century onward. By pairing ancient music with Houston’s one-of-a-kind venues, “Ring in the Peace” offers listeners a new, memorable musical experience that fosters reflection and a sense of unity with one’s communities, both locally and across the world.

Tickets go on sale on October 1, 2025.

Ars Lyrica Houston presents 30 performances of “Ring in the Peace” at The Buffalo Bayou Park Cistern with additional free performances at other Arts District venues such as MECA, Sawyer Yards, and the Downtown Houston Tunnels. This multicultural holiday program, curated by Mexican-born mezzo-soprano Cecilia Duarte and Spanish-born percussionist Jesús Pacheco, features music for voice and percussion from the ninth century onward. By pairing ancient music with Houston’s one-of-a-kind venues, “Ring in the Peace” offers listeners a new, memorable musical experience that fosters reflection and a sense of unity with one’s communities, both locally and across the world.

Tickets go on sale on October 1, 2025.

Ars Lyrica Houston presents 30 performances of “Ring in the Peace” at The Buffalo Bayou Park Cistern with additional free performances at other Arts District venues such as MECA, Sawyer Yards, and the Downtown Houston Tunnels. This multicultural holiday program, curated by Mexican-born mezzo-soprano Cecilia Duarte and Spanish-born percussionist Jesús Pacheco, features music for voice and percussion from the ninth century onward. By pairing ancient music with Houston’s one-of-a-kind venues, “Ring in the Peace” offers listeners a new, memorable musical experience that fosters reflection and a sense of unity with one’s communities, both locally and across the world.

Tickets go on sale on October 1, 2025.

Ars Lyrica Houston presents 30 performances of “Ring in the Peace” at The Buffalo Bayou Park Cistern with additional free performances at other Arts District venues such as MECA, Sawyer Yards, and the Downtown Houston Tunnels. This multicultural holiday program, curated by Mexican-born mezzo-soprano Cecilia Duarte and Spanish-born percussionist Jesús Pacheco, features music for voice and percussion from the ninth century onward. By pairing ancient music with Houston’s one-of-a-kind venues, “Ring in the Peace” offers listeners a new, memorable musical experience that fosters reflection and a sense of unity with one’s communities, both locally and across the world.

Tickets go on sale on October 1, 2025.

Ars Lyrica Houston presents 30 performances of “Ring in the Peace” at The Buffalo Bayou Park Cistern with additional free performances at other Arts District venues such as MECA, Sawyer Yards, and the Downtown Houston Tunnels. This multicultural holiday program, curated by Mexican-born mezzo-soprano Cecilia Duarte and Spanish-born percussionist Jesús Pacheco, features music for voice and percussion from the ninth century onward. By pairing ancient music with Houston’s one-of-a-kind venues, “Ring in the Peace” offers listeners a new, memorable musical experience that fosters reflection and a sense of unity with one’s communities, both locally and across the world.

Tickets go on sale on October 1, 2025.

In their original context, French solo cantatas indulged literary-minded listeners with venerable tales of love affairs that typically end badly. A vital element of French salon culture in the decades around 1700, these petits tragédies brought leading singers and composers into influential households.

Leander and Hero, who struggle against class and geographic barriers, found a champion in Louis-Nicolas Clérambault, master of the French cantata. Orpheus and Euridice, whose tragic separation inspired countless operas, gave the young Jean-Philippe Rameau similarly juicy material for his first dramatic work. Decades would pass before he found his true calling as a composer of music for the stage.

Visit our webpage for tickets and more information: https://www.arslyricahouston.org/fatalattractions.

The lovers Acis and Galatea, another famous couple from Ovid, must contend with a meddling monster: a cyclops named Polyphemus, whose lust leads to Acis’s death and his metamorphosis as a river. Aci, Galatea e Polifemo (Naples, 1708) is Handel’s first setting of this tale; a decade later he created the better-known Acis and Galatea. Ars Lyrica is delighted to present the Houston premiere of the former serenata, whose fiery score provides abundant opportunities for vocal display.

Visit our webpage for tickets and more information:
https://www.arslyricahouston.org/handelagp.

There is perhaps no better operatic subject matter than Orpheus, whose exceptional singing melts the hearts of the living and the dead. Claudio Monteverdi’s Orfeo stands at the head of a long list, and not just because of its early date. Together with librettist Alessandro Striggio, Monteverdi created in 1607 the first great opera. Its vivid recitative, toe-tapping arias, lavish accompaniments, and potent dramatic arc breathe life into his era’s revolutionary ideas about musical expression. Ars Lyrica’s new production, a collaboration with the New York Baroque Dance Company, is directed and choreographed by its Artistic Director Catherine Turocy and conducted by ALH Artistic Director Matthew Dirst.

Visit our webpage for tickets and more information:
https://www.arslyricahouston.org/orfeo.

There is perhaps no better operatic subject matter than Orpheus, whose exceptional singing melts the hearts of the living and the dead. Claudio Monteverdi’s Orfeo stands at the head of a long list, and not just because of its early date. Together with librettist Alessandro Striggio, Monteverdi created in 1607 the first great opera. Its vivid recitative, toe-tapping arias, lavish accompaniments, and potent dramatic arc breathe life into his era’s revolutionary ideas about musical expression. Ars Lyrica’s new production, a collaboration with the New York Baroque Dance Company, is directed and choreographed by its Artistic Director Catherine Turocy and conducted by ALH Artistic Director Matthew Dirst.

Visit our webpage for tickets and more information:
https://www.arslyricahouston.org/orfeo.