After listening to more than 130 hopeful pianists audition in six cities around the world, judges for the 14th Van Cliburn International Piano Competition have chosen this year’s 30 finalists. Of those who made the cut into the esteemed Fort Worth competition, eight are from the United States. Italy shines…
The Fort Worth Opera is bringing Dallas a little present tonight, in the form of some very boozy singing. Skipping the opera house for a cozier setting, the company presents its popular pop-up opera series, Opera Shots, on the outdoor stage of the Foundry. Tonight’s two-hour event gets going at…
Last night’s Dallas Symphony Orchestra concert left me with whiplash. If this was any indication, this weekend’s program is bizarrely lopsided and, despite impressive playing, feels more like a display of anomaly than a cohesive artistic experience. The first half of the concert is light and quick, lasting only about…
Editor’s note: Observer contributor and local piano instructor Katie Womack was especially moved by the death yesterday of pianist Van Cliburn, whose namesake competition she was gushing about just last week. We asked for her take on Cliburn’s death. Wednesday morning one of America’s most storied classical music performers, pianist…
Since his arrival in Dallas in 2008, there’s no doubt that maestro Jaap van Zweden has fundamentally changed the way the Dallas Symphony Orchestra performs. There is a noticeable difference in the delicacy of phrasing, precision, volume control and artistry with this orchestra when van Zweden is at the helm…
Tune your pianos, plug in your keyboards and practice your scales, kids. Or at the very least, go to the Van Cliburn website and click the giant play button on the Cliburn Radio tab, because it only happens once every four years and it’s quickly approaching. This May 24 through…
If Valentine’s day is about indulgence, the Dallas Symphony Orchestra is doing its part this weekend, offering up a concert chock full of saccharin-sweet schmaltz. There might be a little too much icing on this cake, but sometimes you just gotta run your finger across the plate and lick it…
This Valentine’s Day treat your date (and yourself) to a theatrical extravaganza fit for a Spanish king or queen. The zarzuela, a Spanish mini-opera filled with music, lyric poetry and dance, began as entertainment for royalty in the Middle Ages. On Saturday, The Orchestra of New Spain’s groundbreaking period production…
During its 2013/2014, season the Dallas Symphony Orchestra will commemorate the anniversary of JFK’s assassination with a memorial concert, welcome back Music Director Emeritus Andrew Litton (DSO conductor from 1994-2006), and celebrate the music of Beethoven. The DSO’s upcoming season, released yesterday, features many familiar classical works by Beethoven (3rd,…
According to Mark Landson, “The reason people think classical musicians are elitist is because classical musicians are elitist.” As a former professional violist and current driving force behind Open Classical, a weekly open mic night for classical musicians and performers, Landson knows a thing or two about the sometimes overly…
Classical music is stuck in the past. Plenty of living composers and musicians argue this statement’s falsehood adamantly. However, it’s true that the bulk of art music played by symphonies, chamber groups and operas hails from hundreds of years ago. Case in point: This weekend the Dallas Symphony Orchestra is…
Fort Worth’s Hall Ensemble returns chamber music to its roots by presenting ensemble music the way it was originally performed — in rich people’s giant living rooms. At 7:30 p.m. Friday, the ensemble, made up of Fort Worth Symphony players and Fort Worth Opera singers, presents Music at the Mansion:…
Last night the Dallas Symphony Orchestra performed an all-Mozart concert, the first in its two-week-long mini-festival celebrating history’s most famous boy genius. Mozart’s 257th birthday is next weekend, which seems as good a reason as any to indulge in a little gratuitous Amadeus worship. Starting with last night, this weekend’s…
Igor Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring is like the Beethoven’s Fifth of 20th-century classical music. It’s such an iconic work that even if you don’t know it, you probably know it. In 1940, Walt Disney’s animators, inspired by the primitive undertones of Stravinsky’s aggressive, pulsating music, set to the score visions…
Nicola Benedetti seems to be living a charmed life. At 25 she is gorgeous, has an exciting international performance career and an album — 2012’s release The Silver Violin — that’s topped classical and pop charts. If she weren’t so down to earth and passionate, we’d really like to hate…
The years of slovenly dripping your way through life have concluded. This year, you’re going to get dressed up and cultured. Beginning your path to betterment is a one-weekend-only performance by sexy Scottish violin superstar Nicola Benedetti. She joins the Dallas Symphony Orchestra at 8 p.m. Thursday for a concert…
Some say opera is a dead or dying art form. On its way out, it fills old spaces with almost-dead people to hear old music by way-dead composers. Don’t tell that to the Fort Worth Opera, though, which announced yesterday an enormous plan to keep the genre not just alive,…
It’s time to pack up miniature baby Jesus and tuck away the shepherds. Well, almost. At the Dallas Arboretum there’s still time to get your nativity fix before tiny sheep and magi bearing gifts go out of season. Sunday, catch the Arboretum’s Artistry of the Nativity display, an enormous collection…
What’s that? You thought Christmas was over just because the presents have been replaced with eggnog hangover? Think again. Holiday professionals know that there’s more yuletide to wring from the week and that it’s never too late to steamroll your Christmas. Mannheim Steamroller brings its iconic Christmas extravaganza to the…
Feeling guilty about all of those skipped family dinners in 2012? Still haven’t ordered mom a Christmas present? Ease your conscience and get into the holiday spirit by snagging tickets for the whole fam to the Dallas Symphony Orchestra’s annual Christmas Celebration. The evening, which features the Dallas Symphony Chorus…
1. Highlight: Dallas Symphony Orchestra’s Jaap van Zweden Named Conductor of the Year This was the Year of Van Zweden, according to Musical America, which named Dallas’ intrepid maestro Conductor of the Year for 2012. JvZ made the most of his year in the spotlight by presenting consistently exciting, critically…
On Thursday, the Dallas Symphony Orchestra hosts Grammy Award-winning band Mariachi Los Camperos de Nati Cano for a Navidad-inspired musical celebration. The group, led by Mexican-born mariachi legend Natividad “Nati” Cano, has been performing for more than 50 years. Expect to be wowed. This group is composed of the finest…
