On Sunday night, at a celebratory event for orchestra subscribers at the Meyerson symphony center, the Dallas Symphony announced its 2014/2015 classical and pops lineup. The good news? More concerts and more new music on the programs. Here are the highlights:
More Classical Concerts In May 2015, the orchestra will launch its inaugural Soluna: International Music and Arts Festival, increasing the overall number of classical subscription concerts from 16 to 18. This year's festival theme, Destination: America, celebrates the contributions of American immigrant composers. Additionally, the orchestra announced that it is expanding its still-new ReMix series from two concerts this season, to three next season, one of which will coincide with the Soluna festival. The orchestra will also present three organ recitals next season, featuring the hall's incredible and underused instrument and three renowned guest soloists. This series will be called Opus 100. When you add it all up, that's 24 classical concerts in total, a jump from this season.
An Artist-In-Residence You may remember Conrad Tao's name from last November. He is the 19-year-old composer the DSO commissioned to write a piece in honor of the anniversary of Kennedy's assassination. He's also a fantastic pianist and, starting this fall, will serve a two-year term as the orchestra's artist-in-residence, a position not currently held by anyone.
More New Music and New-To-You Music In addition to a standard repertoire that includes music by Mahler (his 9th and 3rd symphonies presented as part of a continuing cycle), Bach, Beethoven, Tchaikovsky and Brahms, the orchestra announced a promising number of newer works on next year's agenda. In September, Mason Bates' Liquid Interface, a piece that incorporates technology as well as acoustic instruments, will have its Dallas premier. Local high school student Chase Dobson will hear the DSO premier of his Piano Concerto No. 1 in March, and later in the season the orchestra will give the Dallas premier of Christopher Rouse's Iscariot and the U.S. premier of Wolfgang Rihm's Triple Concerto.
Also of note: Hillary Hahn returns this fall to perform Beethoven. Pianists Emanuel Ax, Yefim Bronfman, Lucille Chung, Stephen Hough and Daniil Trifonov will also solo.