The holiday season is in full swing, and you can certainly see it in our best bets. Below, you will find a few events we think are worth a little time away from vacation prep, family get-togethers, and holiday shopping, so keep reading for our picks of the best things to do in Houston over the next seven days.
Dr. Mei Rui began playing the piano at the age of three and went on to be both a Grammy-nominated musician and an Assistant Professor of Neurosurgery, as well as the founder and director of Music-in-Medicine at the MD Anderson Cancer Center. Tonight, Thursday, December 12, at 7:30 p.m., violinist Cho-Liang Lin and cellist Nicholas Tzavaras will join Rui for Mei Rui: ‘Your Brain on Beethoven’ at Asia Society Texas. The Beethoven-centric program, which coincides with Ludwig van Beethoven’s birthday month, is part concert-experiment. During the show, brain-computer interfaces and EEGs will be utilized to visualize the effect of the works on the brains of the musicians playing and volunteers from the audience. Tickets are available here for $10 to $25.
Yet another Houston holiday tradition returns on Thursday, December 12, at 7:30 p.m., when the Houston Symphony presents Very Merry Pops at Jones Hall. Conductor Steven Reineke will lead the Symphony in a program full of carols and seasonal tunes with guest vocalist Betsy Wolfe and the Houston Symphony Chorus. As always, you can also expect an appearance from a special guest all the way from the North Pole. The concert will also be performed at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, December 14, and 2 and 7:30 p.m. Sunday, December 15. Tickets to any of the in-hall performances can be purchased here for $49 to $138. If you can’t make it over to Jones Hall, the Saturday night performance will be live-streamed, and access can be purchased here for $20.
The intertwined lives of three women who work together in a Mumbai hospital are at the center of Golden Globe-nominated writer-director Payal Kapadia’s film, All We Imagine as Light, which will screen at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, on Friday, December 13, at 7 p.m. The New York Times described the film, which won the Grand Prize at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival, as “a quiet drama about fragility, beauty and kinship, and what it takes to keep going in ordinary, difficult times,” saying it is also “flat-out wonderful” and “one of finest of the year.” The film will be screened at 7 p.m. on Saturday, December 14, and 5 p.m. on Sunday, December 15. Tickets to any of the screenings can be purchased here for $7 to $9.
Synesthesia is a neurological condition that causes people to experience a blending of their senses and in playwright Shanae’a Moore’s Synapse, which premieres Friday, December 13, at 7:30 p.m. at the MATCH, a young woman finds that her synesthesia may just save the world. The production, mounted by Creative Movement Practices and The Octarine Accord, will attempt to mix the senses, with Moore telling the Houston Press that audience members will hopefully “experience a little bit of synesthesia, experience a little bit of magic, or make peace with their own neurodivergence and find something to celebrate in it.” Performances will continue at 7:30 p.m. Fridays and December 14, 16, and 19, and 2 p.m. Saturdays and December 15 through December 21. Tickets can be purchased here for $35 (with a pay-what-you-can performance scheduled for December 16).
If you’ve ever wondered what happened to little Cindy Lou Who, you can find out on Friday, December 13, at 8 p.m. when The Garden Theatre opens Matthew Lombardo’s adults-only holiday comedy Who’s Holiday! at the MATCH. Chaney Moore, who’s playing the adult, trailer park-dwelling Cindy, recently told Houston Life that the one-woman show is for folks who “want something fun and unusual for Christmas,” and it’s “not something you want to bring the little tykes to.” Performances are scheduled for 7:30 p.m. December 16 and 19, 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays, 2 p.m. December 14 and Sundays, and 1 p.m. December 21 through December 22. Tickets are available here for $25 to $30, with pay-what-you-can performances set for Monday and Thursday nights.
Ready the family for a day of activities, from train and carousel rides to arts and crafts, during Holidays in Hermann Park on Saturday, December 14. The fun, including lawn games and a roaming Santa Claus, starts at 10 a.m. and concludes with a free double feature of Robert Zemeckis’s 2004 motion capture-made film The Polar Express at 5 p.m. and Ralphie Parker’s memorable quest for a Red Ryder BB gun in Bob Clark’s 1983 film A Christmas Story at 7 p.m. on the lawn in the Commons. The screenings are free, as are the first-come, first-served popcorn and the activities at Kinder Station. But there will be additional costs to ride the holiday train ($7 for non-members) and carousel ($5 for an all-day pass).
Houston Grand Opera will return to Discovery Green on Saturday, December 14, from 7 to 9 p.m. with a distinct mariachi flair during Carols on the Green, HGO’s annual program of operatic works and holiday hits. Mezzo-soprano and Houston native Vanessa Alonzo – who you may remember from her roles in Cruzar La Cara de La Luna, El Pasado Nunca Se Termina, and El Milagro del Recuerdo, i.e., all three mariachi operas world-premiered by HGO – will perform on the Anheuser-Busch Stage alongside artists from HGO’s Butler Studio program, the HGO Chorus, the Bauer Family High School Voice Studio, the University of Houston’s Mariachi Pumas, Indigo Diaspora Dance Company, and Segundo Barrio Children’s Chorus. The event is free to enjoy, and you can register here.
Juan del Encina, a multi-hyphenate of the early modern era, famously helped transition Spanish drama from medieval traditions to the Renaissance with his églogas as a playwright, but he was also a gifted composer. Three of his surviving works – A quién debo yo llamar, Ay triste que vengo, and Hoy comamos – will be featured during Crossing Borders, a program of music celebrating the music that emerged from Hispanic cultures during the Renaissance and Baroque eras that you can experience at St. Philip Presbyterian Church on Tuesday, December 17, at 7:30 p.m. Baroque ensemble Ars Lyrica, under harpsichordist and conductor (and founder) Matthew Dirst, is bringing the program back to Houston after three years along with soprano Camille Ortiz and mezzo-soprano Cecilia Duarte. Tickets are available here for $50.
This article appears in Jan 1 – Dec 31, 2024.
