I see my friends in Houston just had a brush with rare, almost-freezing weather. All the better to get you in the proper mind-set for a wonderful concert coming up this week… This Saturday, February 21, 7:30 pm, at the South Main Baptist Church (4100 Main Street, Houston, TX), the one-and-only Paul Hillier will make his Houston debut leading the also one-and-only Houston Chamber Choir, in a program of music from Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania.

Hillier is a world-renowned and award-winning choral director at the forefront of both early and new music, often combining the two with highly inventive programming across musical periods and cultures. Since the 1970s, Hillier has built a catalog of over 100 recordings (released on Harmonia Mundi, ECM, EMI, Finlandia, and Hyperion), and has won two Grammy Awards, for recordings of Arvo Pärt’s Da Pacem (2006) and David Lang’s The Little Match Girl Passion (2009).

Highlights of the program include Pärt’s Magnificat; Three Poems by Pēteris Vasks, and The Stomping Bride by Vaclovas Augustinas (which calls for members of the ensemble to perform interlocking percussive patterns on various instruments of their own choice). Also on the program are works by Veljo Tormis, Galina Grigorjeva, Rytis Mazulis, and Algirdas Martinaitis.

You can get tickets online at www.houstonchamberchoir.org or by calling (713) 224-5566. General admission tickets to the concert are $40 for Adults, $36 for Seniors (65+), and $10 for students (with valid ID).

So H-towners, before those balmy 70s completely drive your winter away again, why not head there this weekend and chill with some truly beautiful music?