Tuesday, December 17, 2024 at 7:30PM
St. Philip Presbyterian Church (4807 San Felipe St, Google Maps)

Back by popular demand, Crossing Borders celebrates the rich flowering of music across Hispanic cultures during the Renaissance and Baroque eras, from the “Old” to the “New” World. This festive holiday program includes villancicos and romances for voices and ensemble plus instrumental works that illustrate how music knits together cultures across time and space.

Featured artists:
Camille Ortiz, soprano
underwritten by Sonja Bruzauskas & Houston Haymon
Cecilia Duarte, mezzo-soprano
underwritten by Robert Chanon
Stephanie Noori, violin
Maria Lin, violin
Eric Taeyang Mun, cello
Richard Savino, Baroque guitar/theorbo
Jesús Pacheco Mánuel, percussion
Matthew Dirst, harpsichord/organ

See our digital program booklet for full program information.

“Ortiz’s gleaming upper register triumphed…and the opulence of Duarte’s mezzo-soprano adroitly warmed the room on a chilly January night.” (San Diego Story)

“Ortiz’s flute-like tone and Duarte’s velvety mezzo were quite distinct in character. Yet their voices blended seamlessly whenever they sang together, like two organ stops producing a third timbre" (New York Classical Review)

A critically acclaimed program that has toured to New York City, San Diego, and Tucson, Crossing Borders returns to Houston three years after its premiere.

Enjoy excerpts from the New York performance of this program at our Youtube!

Artistic Director Matthew Dirst shares that “Crossing Borders explores a crucial moment in the musical history of the New World: when European musical traditions began to mingle with traditional folk music practices. This ‘festive stew’ of 17th- through 18th-century Spanish music, written by Central and South American and colonial composers, includes works that bridge the sacred and the secular divide.”