About
Ars Lyrica Houston specializes in music from the Baroque era, the “golden age” of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, as performed on period instruments with careful attention to historical style and context. Founded in Houston in 1998 by harpsichordist and conductor Matthew Dirst and incorporated in 2003 as a 501(c)(3) organization, this Grammy-nominated ensemble provides audiences with world-class performances of a wide range of dramatic, sacred, and chamber works.
ALH offers a downtown subscription series and multiple outreach programs in community venues and schools while cultivating a dedicated core of local period-instrument specialists and singers. Ars Lyrica also makes commercial recordings that bring international attention to Houston’s thriving early music scene. Employing local instrumentalists and singers alongside guest artists, ALH has cultivated a growing pool of early music specialists and a broad audience demographic in the Houston area. Its impact also stretches beyond Houston, enhancing the city’s cultural standing: international recognition of Ars Lyrica recordings and performances, including reviews in leading publications and a Grammy nomination for Best Opera 2011, affirm the organization’s mission and programming priorities. ALH has also appeared at major international early music festivals and at annual conventions and meetings that bring to Houston leading scholars and musicians from around the world.
