Texas Early Music Project presents an exciting chance to hear some of early music’s best and brightest from here and abroad in a concert featuring wildly imaginative and exciting music from the early Baroque in Italy. German violin virtuoso Henning Vater, founder of the Göttingen Baroque Orchestra, and Dutch recorder maestro Paul Leenhouts, now director of Early Music Studies at North Texas University in Denton, will join Fleurs-de-LYS 2012 in presenting works from one of music’s most imaginative periods. A small ensemble of up-and-coming stars from around the U.S., including Austin’s dazzling soprano Jenifer Thyssen, complete the cast for this year’s ensemble.

In the Baroque period, Italian composers were influenced by the harmonic, rhythmic, and dramatic innovations of early 17^th century composers, such as Merula and Monteverdi, who made Italy such a hotbed of musical brilliance. Works by these innovators are featured in this concert, as are pieces by later composers such as Corelli who profited from their advances.

Please join us for an unparalleled opportunity to hear these world-class performers bring to life all of the fire, intensity, humor, and romance of Italy in the 17^th and 18^th centuries, played on original instruments. This concert promises to be a highlight of Austin’s musical season.