… reimagining the past …
Music from the Middle Ages through the 18th Century
World-class concerts performed with historical instruments and
with styles true to the period.
Houston Early Music presents the world’s finest period ensembles and soloists … bringing to life music from the Middle Ages through the Renaissance to the Baroque and Classical periods. Experience with us early music played on original instruments, by musicians reviving performances of the past.
The season includes the exciting debut of our Emerging Artist Series, highlighting up and coming artists of excellence. We welcome the opportunity to again collaborate with Da Camera of Houston—this time in a delicious Golden Age experience featuring La Poème Harmonique.
Villancico is one of early music’s most popular genres and a specialty of El Mundo. Throughout the 15th-17th centuries, the music of the Spanish colonies of Latin America were wellsprings of cultural sophistication.A very active music scene in cathedrals and the courtly life, combined with the participation of the local populations and their folk music, produced a delightful intersection of elegance and simplicity.
Celebrate the Yuletide season with the engaging music of this dynamic group.With their always festive cornucopia of instruments—lute, cittern, viols, crumhorns, recorders, rebec and percussion—this virtuosic ensemble offers old carols and dance tunes from the British Isles, Germany, France, Spain and the New World.
This up-and-coming group specializes in rarely heard music from the Italian Renaissance and early Baroque. In mid-17th-century Rome, the Barberini family was a great supporter of vocal chamber music. The program highlights Roman composers of the period, including Rossi, Carissimi and Cesti. To complete the historical picture, a copy of the famous Barberini harp, made for this prestigious family in 1635, will be played in this concert.
The ensemble’s Houston debut is presented in collaboration with Da Camera of Houston. Semi- staged in candlelight, the program of works by Claudio Monteverdi, Biagio Marini, Francesco Manelli and Benedetto Ferrari is a celebration of Venice in the Golden Age, when art music and popular forms came together and mingled, before emotion and language were restrained by rules and codes. Receive a significant discount on premium seating in Cullen Theater with your HEM subscription.
The San Francisco-based ensemble’s program features 15th-century music from the time of the infamous Vlad the Impaler, whose tyrannical rule shocked Europe. Ensemble member Shira Kammen is known by many in the area from her early-music performances in Houston. The program features the Lamentation for the Fall of Constantinople by Dufay, French and Italian dance music, German songs, Balkan folk songs, and more.
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