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Katie Womack

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Becoming Santa Claus Marks Dallas Opera's Third World Premiere in 2015

By Katie Womack
Dec 1, 2015

Composer Mark Adamo knows what you are thinking when you hear the words “Christmas opera” (he can see the sugar plum fairies dancing across your mind). “It’s an opera about Santa Claus as a young boy,” he says with a laugh. “People hear that and they start looking for their...
People 2015: Karina Canellakis Rides a Wave of Success at the Dallas Symphony Orchestra

By Katie Womack
Jun 24, 2015

In this week's Dallas Observer we profile 20 of the metro area's most interesting characters, with new portraits of each from local photographer Can Turkyilmaz. What does it feel like when dreams start to become reality and the big career you’ve been working toward for years takes off and gains...
Opera Porn

By Katie Womack
Sep 11, 2014

Soprano Ailyn Pérez is beautiful and ridiculously talented. She’s also married to a gorgeous, talented man, a tenor named Stephen Costello. Some people are just lucky like that. For the rest of us, it’s awfully fun to watch an attractive couple with insanely beautiful voices perform together on stage, which...
Analog Sounds in a Digital World

By Katie Womack
Sep 11, 2014

The Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra opens its 2014/2015 classical season with a concert that combines brand new sounds with familiar ones. At 7:30 p. m. Friday, the orchestra welcomes new composer-in-residence Anna Clyne with a performance of her analog-inspired Fri., Sept. 12, 7:30 p.m., 2014...
Get Your Gala On

By Katie Womack
Sep 11, 2014

‘Tis the season for glitz and glam at the Dallas Symphony. On Saturday, the Dallas Symphony Orchestra’s 2014 AT&T Gala brings an opportunity not only to hear great music, but also to slip into a formal gown, sip champagne and get your groove on in the Meyerson Symphony Center’s elegant...
DSO Gets Its Groove On

By Katie Womack
Sep 4, 2014

To open its 2014/2015 Pops Season, The Dallas Symphony orchestra and Principal Pops Conductor Jeff Tyzik have enlisted the help of some exceptionally talented dancers. On Friday, September 5th at 7:30pm, the orchestra will present “Let’s Dance,” a concert of music that spans centuries of music history and a variety...
100 Dallas Creatives: No. 62 Virtuosic Violinist Nathan Olson

By Katie Womack
Sep 3, 2014

Mixmaster presents "100 Creatives," in which we feature cultural entrepreneurs of Dallas in random order. Know an artistic mind who deserves a little bit of blog love? Email [email protected] with the whos and whys. When I meet him for coffee, Nathan Olson is sporting a new look -- a thick...
The Fort Worth Symphony Gets Romantic

By Katie Womack
Aug 21, 2014

The Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra is bringing some beautiful romantic music to the last hot days of summer with a special late-August, pre-season festival. Over the course of three concerts in one weekend, the FWSO will present the iconic sounds of two of classical music’s great romantic composers: Johannes Brahms...
The Best Classical Concert in Dallas This Month Could Happen In Your Living Room

By Katie Womack
Jul 29, 2014

Any list of the best classical concerts to hear in Dallas this August is going to be a short one. Toward the end of the month, the Fort Worth Symphony is putting on a mini festival of music by Brahms and Dvorák (featuring guest soloist Augustin Hadelich on violin). But...
Buy the Booze at the Bar

By Katie Womack
Jul 17, 2014

Basically, the Fine Arts Chamber Players’ annual Basically Beethoven Festival is a great way to try out a classical concert on the cheap (read: free). It’s also the perfect post-Sunday-brunch activity; its cool and dark inside Dallas City Performance Hall, the music is lovely, and you don’t even have to...
Hot Outside? Try a Cold, Dark Theater

By Katie Womack
Jul 10, 2014

For the next full week, the 2014 Asian Film Festival of Dallas presents over 50 eclectic movies back to back. From thrillers to comedies, horror films to dramas, animated sci-fi flicks to documentaries, this festival covers the gamut of contemporary and classic Asian film. You can stretch your imagination with...
Walking is Boring

By Katie Womack
Jul 3, 2014

Why simply stroll from your office to your car when you can propel yourself through the air, using the buildings and bus stop benches around you as concrete trampolines? My Playground is a film that might inspire you to do just that, or, at the very least, to look at...
The Best Classical Concerts to Hear in Dallas this July

By Katie Womack
Jul 1, 2014

Thanks to the Fine Arts Chamber Players' annual Basically Beethoven Festival, local music fans can get their classical fix this month in the midst of what is otherwise a pretty quiet summer on the classical calendar. Offering a free concert at Dallas City Performance Hall every Sunday in July, the...
At Oak Cliff Film Festival, a Symphony's Creation Documented

By Katie Womack
Jun 20, 2014

Nathan Felix fell in love with orchestral music on the open road. The leader of Austin-based indie-pop band The Noise Revival Orchestra was just out of college and touring with a punk band when he found himself in a moment of musical exasperation. "One night I was just so furious,"...
A Midsummer Night’s Teen Dream

By Katie Womack
Jun 12, 2014

On Saturday night, June 14th, the Dallas Symphony Orchestra is partnering with some of the city’s most talented and innovative young musical minds to present a special, one-night only concert. The concert is imagined by and presented in partnership with the Dallas Symphony’s Teen Council and features musicians from the...
A Midsummer Night’s Teen Dream

By Katie Womack
Jun 12, 2014

On Saturday, the Dallas Symphony Orchestra and some of the city’s most talented and innovative young musical present a special one-night only concert. The concert is imagined by and presented in partnership with the Dallas Symphony’s Teen Council and features musicians from the Greater Dallas Youth Orchestra and the Booker...
The Dallas Opera Announces Nicole Paiement as Principal Guest Conductor

By Katie Womack
Jun 11, 2014

When The Dallas Opera decided to stage Death and the Powers, Tod Machover's challenging modern sci-fi opera, they called on conductor Nicole Paiement to handle the complex score. Paiement was a smart choice: as Artistic Director of San Fransisco's Opera Parallèl, a professional company dedicated to producing contemporary operas, she's...
It’s Ragtime in the City

By Katie Womack
Jun 5, 2014

Put on your pinstripes and pack a picnic. As part of their annual free-to-the-public summer parks concert, the Dallas Symphony Orchestra is bringing a little swing and a lot of syncopation to Klyde Warren Park (2012 Woodall Rodgers Fwy) at 8 p.m. Thursday. Principal pops conductor Jeff Tyzik will lead...
Review: André Watts in Recital at the Winspear Opera House

By Katie Womack
Jun 3, 2014

OK, Google Glass, show me how to play Liszt like André Watts. The staff at the AT&T Performing Arts Center snagged a pair of Google Glasses from their partners at the International Association of Venue Managers and tested them out yesterday with pianist André Watts during rehearsal for his Monday...
The Best Classical Concerts to Hear in Dallas this June

By Katie Womack
Jun 2, 2014

Most classical music organizations are on summer hiatus now, which means concert offerings in Dallas this month are slimmer than usual. That being said, there are a handful of concerts coming up over the next few weeks that feature an interesting break from the norm and a chance to explore...
Andre the Giant

By Katie Womack
May 29, 2014

André Watts’ big break came when he was just 16 years old. In 1963, Leonard Bernstein invited the tall, lanky teenager to make his professional debut with the New York Philharmonic. Almost overnight the young African-American/Hungarian pianist was a classical sensation, selling records and traveling the world as a performer...
The Dallas Opera Announces 2014 Maria Callas Debut Artist of the Year Award

By Katie Womack
May 23, 2014

Each year, season subscribers to The Dallas Opera get a chance to vote on their favorite of all the singers who debuted with the company during the previous season. Votes are tallied and the winner receives the "Maria Callas Debut Artist of the Year" award. This year's award-winner was no...