Founded in 1974, Dallas Black Dance Theatre has performed for more than four million people worldwide. Be there when they partner with the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra and music director Robert Spano in Bass Performance Hall for Stravinsky’s Petrushka Suite with choreography by Sean Smith, a balletic take on the story of Punch and Judy fame, with its whirling, folk-inspired melodies and high-stepping harmonies. Also on the program are a pair of Mozartian gems, the Overture from The Magic Flute, as well as the esteemed “Jupiter” symphony.

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Dallas Black Dance Theatre and the FWSO: Mozart and Stravinsky

Bass Performance Hall

Billy Joel may be the piano man, but nothing compares to hearing his tunes backed by a live orchestra. In this touching tribute to both Billy Joel and Elton John, the orchestra adds excitement and verve to well-known hits including Bennie and the Jets, “Just the Way You Are,” “Tiny Dancer,” “Rocket Man,” “Uptown Girl,” and much more.

Elton John and Billy Joel Tribute

Hailed for his “tasteful restraint and explosive energy” by The Guardian, German conductor Kevin John Edusei’s star is on a meteoric rise. In January, he returns to Fort Worth for a single work, Mahler’s epic Symphony No. 7, a symphony of such towering majesty that it demands a program all to itself. The symphony traces a day’s journey from dawn to dusk, from the “religious vision” of the first movement through the snarking, biting scherzo and boisterous C Major conclusion.

Edusei conducts Mahler’s Seventh

Starring four Broadway actresses/Princesses, a Broadway actor/Prince and MD/Fairy Godfairy to narrate, this show celebrates the courage, kindness and music of 12 Disney princesses and two Frozen queens. Amplified by full animation projections, the performers appear as themselves and share behind-the-scenes stories of their time portraying these characters on Broadway and beyond.

Disney Princess: The Concert

Will Rogers Memorial Center

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The Artelize Podcast and Kasper Holten - Pedefining Opera for the modern world

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The Artelize Podcast - A legacy of innovation in Opera: Celebrating Marc A. Scorca

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Mozart composed his opera “The Magic Flute” as an allegory for the Masonic initiation. In this program, FWSO brass deliver a bright arrangement of the opera’s Overture as well as offerings by composers Oskar Böhme and Kevin McKee. Also on the program are Elliot Carter’s grave Sonata for Piano and Cello as well as one of Britten’s first published works, the rarely heard Phantasy Oboe Quartet.

Hidden Gems: Music by Mozart, Carter, Böhme, McKee, and Britten

Kimbell Art Museum

She’s a four-time GRAMMY Award-winning soprano and a regular at both the Metropolitan Opera House as well as Broadway. He’s one of the world’s leading baritones, with regular operatic and concert engagements all over the world.

Superstar Renée Fleming, who has recently become an outspoken advocate for the impact of music on health, is returning to Fort Worth to perform with the inimitable Rod Gilfry in a one-night-only performance of some of Broadway’s greatest hits. Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra Music Director Robert Spano leads the orchestra in a program featuring the likes of “Some Enchanted Evening” from South Pacific, “Til There Was You” from The Music Man, “Tonight” from West Side Story, “Climb Every Mountain” from The Sound of Music and more.

Gala Concert: Renée Fleming and Rod Gilfry

Wagner described Beethoven’s seventh symphony as the “Apotheosis of the Dance.” It’s a spot-on description — the music moves and breathes and exults and laments, one of Beethoven’s finest and best-loved orchestral works. For this concert, renowned conductor Anne Manson teams up with FWSO’s principal oboist Jennifer Corning Lucio for Ralph Vaughn Williams’ haunting Oboe Concerto, a work in which each movement ends as it began. Finally, the orchestra completes the program with a work by composer Carlos Simon, composer-in-residence at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.

The FWSO’s Jennifer Corning Lucio: Beethoven, Vaughan Williams, and Carlos Simon

The world-famous production of Beethoven Lives Upstairs features a lively exchange of letters between young Christoph and his uncle. Their subject: the “madman” who has moved into the upstairs apartment of Christoph’s Vienna home. Through a touching correspondence, dramatically underscored with the composer’s most beautiful excerpts, Christoph slowly comes to understand the genius of Beethoven and the beauty of his music.

Audiences are captivated by more than twenty-five excerpts of Beethoven’s music, including the Moonlight Sonata, Fur Elise, and the great Fifth and Ninth Symphonies. The music is magically woven into the drama as two actors share anecdotes and observations based on true incidents from the composer’s life. Presenting history, drama, music, and fun, this engaging concert is an ideal addition to any children’s education program or family concert series.

Beethoven Lives Upstairs

John Williams may have done more to keep orchestras in the public consciousness than any composer alive. To watch Star Wars is to thrill to that opening trumpet blast. He captured the mystery of the Harry Potter films with a celeste and whispering strings. Fluttering winds launch a magical flight to Peter Pan’s Neverland. The list goes on.

John Williams Celebration

International Record Review called star pianist Joyce Yang’s take on Tchaikovsky’s first piano concerto “hugely enjoyable, beautifully shaped … a performance that marks her out as an enormous talent.” Now, the Grammy-nominated artist is bringing that thrilling interpretation of a concerto once thought to be unplayable to Bass Performance Hall. Dutch conductor Edo de Waart joins the orchestra for an all-Tchaikovsky program that pairs the concerto with Symphony No. 5 and its famous opening “fate” motif.

Tchaikovsky: Piano Concerto and the Fifth Symphony

One piano, two pianos, four hands duets, eight hands quartets — this concert has it all. FWSO music director Robert Spano and his long-time collaborator Pedja Mužijević, pianist Shields-Collins (“Buddy”) Bray, President and CEO Keith Cerny, rush the stage for more than a dozen high-energy works for multiple pianists by composers ranging from Bach to John Cage and Schumann to George Crumb, with favorites like Saint-Saens Danse Macabre for two pianos, eight hands and Crumb’s “Celestial Mechanics” anchoring the program.

Piano Stampede!

Die Walküre is the second of Wagner’s four-opera Ring cycle. The first act narrates the tale of a forbidden romance with Wagnerian grandeur and themes that call the cycle’s other operas and characters to mind. FWSO Music Director Robert Spano leads the orchestra and star vocalists in a special concert version of this act, preceded by Sibelius’ Symphony No. 6, which the composer poetically described as “cold spring water” and the “scent of first snow.”

Wagner’s Walküre and Sibelius’ Sixth

The battle for the galaxy intensifies as Imperial Forces launch an all-out attack on the Rebel Alliance, Han Solo (Harrison Ford) and Princess Leia (Carrie Fisher) flee to Cloud City where they are captured by Darth Vader. Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill) journeys to the mysterious, marshy planet of Dagobah, where the wise Jedi Master Yoda teaches the young hero the ways of the Force. Little does Luke know that all his Jedi training will be called upon so soon. A stunning revelation – and a seeming life-or-death duel with Darth Vader – await. Presentation licensed by Disney Concerts

Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back

The mysterious “Hedwig’s Theme” enchanted the world. Open your children’s eyes to the magical power of a full orchestra in this musical trip to the Wizarding World of Harry Potter, where the orchestra performs favorites from the films in a concert sure to delight fans of all ages.

Harry Potter Children's Suite

When Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 5 premiered in Leningrad, listeners gave an ovation that lasted longer than half an hour, catapulting this gripping, emotional work to immediate and lasting success. It’s one of the few works to unite both critics and the public in their positive opinions. To open the concert, Beethoven’s Egmont Overture suggests societal unease in its churning rhythms before five famous knocking notes open Beethoven’s Violin Concerto. Youthful violinist Stephen Waarts takes to the stage for this staple of violin repertoire while FWSO music director Robert Spano helms the orchestra.

Beethoven’s Violin Concerto: Beethoven and Shostakovich

Lasting Impressions invites you to rediscover the emotional power of art through a breathtaking new immersive orchestral experience.

Witness the spellbinding transformation of the Impressionist masterworks, brought to moving life by a team of artists using cutting-edge 3D Motion Sculpting technology. The world’s first use of three-dimensional technologies to showcase impressionist artworks in a new light.

With an exclusive introduction by Sophie Renoir, Lasting Impressions is an astonishing travelogue through Old Europe. Featuring 14 artists including Van Gogh, Monet, and Renoir with more than 100 paintings presented on a custom ultra high-definition stereoscopic screen aligned with an entrancing soundtrack to match. The art is choreographed to renowned composers such as Debussy & Ravel as well as popular music including French and global songs such as Ce sera moi sung by Nana Mouskouri.

Lasting Impressions

While writing his masterful eighth symphony, Czech Dvořák told a friend that “melodies simply pour out of me.” Indeed, this symphony is perhaps Dvořák’s most melodic, from the rhapsodic first movement to the electrifying finale. Czech conductor Tomáš Netopil has paired the symphony with one of Dvořák’s lively Slavonic Dances, originally composed as piano duets to earn some cash early on in his career. Finally, pianist Lukáš Vondráček takes to the stage for Czech-tutored composer Chopin’s first piano concerto, written at the tender age of 20.

Dvořák’s Eighth: Dvořák and Chopin

Jennifer Higdon discusses her career, compositional style, and her Low Brass Concerto which is on the program for the Symphonic Series Season Finale from May 31– June 2, 2024. These performances will feature works that showcase brass instruments as part of a collaboration between the FWSO, Texas Christian University, and the 2024 International Trombone Festival which will be hosted in Fort Worth. 

Meet Jennifer Higdon

In partnership with the International Trombone Festival and Texas Christian University, The FWSO’s season finale goes out with a blast, spotlighting the brass instruments of the orchestra. Music Director Robert Spano will lead the ensemble in a brand-new double concerto for trombone and piano by Texas Christian University alumnus Kevin Day as well as Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Jennifer Higdon’s river sings a song to trees. For the big finish: Mahler’s Symphony No. 5.

Season Finale: Jennifer Higdon, Kevin Day, and Mahler 5

Artistic Director Melissa Young and Dancer/Co-Rehearsal Director Sean Smith discuss how the Dallas Black Dance Theatre and the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra will bring this collaboration to life through Sean Smith's choreography for Stravinsky’s Petrushka Suite. 

Dallas Black Dance Theatre is the oldest, continuously operating professional dance company in Dallas. Under the direction of the Artistic Director, Melissa M. Young, the contemporary company, consists of 14 professional, full-time dancers performing a mixed repertory of modern, ballet, jazz, and ethnic works by nationally and internationally known choreographers. Over the course of its history, DBDT has performed for 4 million arts patrons and 2.6 million children worldwide (40,000 annually youth grades K–12).

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Tchaikovsky: Piano Concer...

Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra

Piano Stampede!

Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra

Wagner’s Walküre and Sibe...

Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra

Star Wars: The Empire Str...

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Harry Potter Children's S...

Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra

Beethoven’s Violin Concer...

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Lasting Impressions

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Dvořák’s Eighth: Dvořák a...

Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra

Meet Jennifer Higdon

Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra

Season Finale: Jennifer H...

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Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra