Spend an evening with the ghosts of composers past on Monday when the Dallas Chamber Music Society opens its 69th season with a concert by the acclaimed American String Quartet. The quartet, originally founded by a group of Juilliard students, will begin the concert with the haunting modernist sounds of…
Over the weekend, the Dallas Symphony Orchestra tried something new. It’s about time. If there is an arts organization in town that is in need of a little revamping in its programming and marketing, it’s the symphony. So kudos to the DSO for launching ReMix, a new concert series that…
Too often, classical music concerts in Dallas — maybe “art music” or “concert music” are better terms — are limited to performances of music from centuries past. Plenty of living, breathing contemporary composers around the world continue to create beautiful, evocative art music. This October, however, in addition to some…
This Saturday night, the Dallas Symphony Orchestra gets Dallas’ gala season started with a glitzy bash at the Meyerson. Big bucks demand big stars, and so this year’s post-dinner/ pre-party concert will feature American opera superstar Renée Fleming. When it comes to the American opera stage, there’s hardly a bigger…
Alessio Bax is not a native North Texan, but we’ll claim him as our own nonetheless. After all, the Italian pianist moved to Dallas at age 16 to study piano at Southern Methodist University and made his home here for more than a decade. When Bax returns to Dallas to…
“This is going to be wild,” the man seated next to me warned as I settled into my seat after intermission at last night’s Dallas Symphony Orchestra concert. It was an accurate prediction. The DSO and Maestro Jaap van Zweden opened their 2013/2014 season Thursday with a performance of Tchaikovsky’s…
Over the summer, Dallas Symphony Orchestra Maestro Jaap van Zweden spent some time with a camera crew talking through one of the pieces from each of the concerts he’ll conduct this year with the symphony. “The Maestro’s Choice” videos are well-produced and informative clips that provide audiences with Van Zweden’s…
As the name implies, when it comes to chamber music — music composed for a small ensemble as opposed to a large orchestra — the space in which the music is performed matters. The slimmed-down size of a chamber orchestra creates a sense of intimacy and vulnerability between the performers…
Last night, the Dallas Chamber Symphony launched its second season of concerts at City Performance Hall with an artistically compelling program featuring the group’s new concertmaster, Japanese violinist Kazuhiro Takagi, as soloist. The orchestra and its new concertmaster will perform four subscription concerts during its 2013/2014 season — two less…
“Music and Masterpieces” is an artist one-two punch of music and visual art. Beginning at 2 p.m. Sunday in the Dallas Museum of Art’s Horchow Auditorium, Texas-born tenor David Portillo will perform a concert in celebration of National Hispanic Heritage Month. Presented by The Dallas Opera, the concert is free…
Whether you’re an avid classical music nerd fan, or a novice looking to expand your musical palette, there are plenty of diverse opportunities to hear exceptional live classical music in Dallas this month. From the alien sounds of a 200+ year-old organ in a museum, to the rich swells of…
Ah, Labor Day: the best excuse September offers to get completely wasted on a Sunday. You probably already know how you’re going to get your holiday weekend Sunday Funday started (Mimosas? A pool? Both?), so here is how you’re going to cap it off: by letting your inhibitions and your…
Most young opera singers dream of taking the stage of New York’s Metropolitan Opera and performing history’s most famous operatic roles around the world. It’s safe to say that wowing Howard Stern at Radio City Music Hall was not originally part of Sean Panikkar’s opera-star dream, but when an opportunity…
Classical music doesn’t have to be stuffy and conservative. In fact, in a lot of places it isn’t. Take for example (le) Poisson Rouge (LPR) in New York City, a Bleeker Street nightclub that opened in 2008 and quickly made a name for itself as one of the most exciting…
This weekend, Café Madrid brings you all the fun of Spain’s annual Running of the Bulls without the risk of getting trampled, you know, by actual bulls. There will also be a lot less running (read: none) and a lot more eating great food and drinking Spanish wine. Starting at…
“Nothing free in life is really free,” says my mom. And she’s right. The last time my phone company told me I was eligible for a “free” upgrade, they also charged me a $30 upgrading fee. Hey, phone company, $30 is not free. One truly free thing Dallasites have been…
It’s a lazy summer Sunday in Texas and you’ll need to arrive early if you want to catch the first installment of the Fine Arts Chamber Players’ annual Basically Beethoven festival. These concerts — presented every Sunday in July — are free to the public, don’t require a ticket or…
Before every pitch in a major league baseball game, there’s a moment of stillness. The pitcher nods to the catcher, then maybe he goes through a ritualistic hat tug or arm shake. Before he winds up, he stops and he prepares. The eyes of the crowd rest on him, waiting…
If you Google the Indonesian term dhalang, Wikipedia will give you a simple definition: a puppeteer from the island of Java. But last night, the capacity crowd that watched a master dhalang perform at the Dallas Museum of Art discovered there is way more to it than that. Ki Purbo…
Elite classical musicians are often compared to pro athletes, at least by other classical musicians. We make the comparison because when we see a pitcher hurl a perfectly placed fastball into the strike zone at 97 mph, watch an Olympic gymnast flip backward through the air and land solidly on…
For nearly two weeks now, Fort Worth’s Bass Hall has played host to some of the world’s most elite competitive pianists between the ages of 18 and 30. I haven’t seen any blood, but buckets of sweat and I’m sure more than a few tears have been shed during the…
Have things been a little stale lately between you and your pup? Looking for a way to spice up those mundane Saturday morning walks or dog park excursions? Look no further than this weekend’s 19th Annual Dog Day Afternoon. From 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday, Flag Pole Hill Park…
