Embark on an auditory adventure with the Dallas Symphony Orchestra's upcoming season, featuring a diverse array of performances that span cultural classics and groundbreaking compositions. From the existential musings of Mahler's symphonies to the whimsical scores of Danny Elfman, each performance promises to be a unique exploration of musical storytelling. Whether you're drawn to the deep emotional explorations of Puccini's operas or the eclectic fusion of jazz and classical in Gershwin's work, there's something for every music enthusiast.

Symphonic Journeys: From Mahler’s Epics to Elfman's Cinematic Soundscapes

The Dallas Symphony Orchestra is set to captivate audiences with a stellar lineup of events that traverse genres and emotions. From the jazz-infused 'Rhapsody in Blue' to cinematic scores by Danny Elfman, and the epic 'Symphony of a Thousand' by Mahler, this season promises a remarkable journey through soundscapes. Featuring world-class performers like Fabio Luisi, Inon Barnatan, and Danny Elfman himself, these performances promise not just music, but a deep dive into cultural and emotional narratives that resonate beyond the concert hall.

A Symphony of Stories: Dallas Symphony Orchestra's Diverse Musical Journey

As the Dallas Symphony Orchestra unveils its new season, music lovers are in for a treat with a lineup that promises to excite and inspire. From classic American compositions and iconic operas to cinematic scores and epic symphonies, each performance offers a unique journey through sound and emotion. With renowned conductors, talented musicians, and awe-inspiring venues, this season's events exemplify the depth and diversity of orchestral music, inviting audiences to experience the transformative power of live performances.

A Symphony of Spectacular Soundscapes: Dallas Symphony Orchestra's Upcoming Season

If you’ve never experienced the glory of the Lay Family Concert Organ, you’ll be enticed by these stats: the organ is a focal point of the Eugene McDermott Concert Hall, rising to the full height of the chamber behind the stage. It has 4,535 pipes, ranging in size from just 0.75 inches to 32 feet tall! The Lay Family Concert Organ is considered one of the world’s greatest and has inspired similar installations in other concert halls. “Consistently the most compelling player,” (Dallas Morning News) DSO’s resident organist, Bradley Hunter Welch leads this concert in a breathtaking performance. This recital is especially noteworthy, because it also features an exciting collaboration with the Dallas Symphony Chorus for a portion of the concert.

Organ Recital: Bradley Hunter Welch

Morton H. Meyerson Symphony Center

Headlining this all-American program is the red, white, and blue Rhapsody in Blue that Gershwin described as a sort of “musical kaleidoscope of America.” Inon Barnatan “fine music-making wedded to astounding technique” (The Washington Post) stars in this beloved American classic, an effervescent mix of jazz and classical music. The composer himself was at the keyboard at the premiere, and the audience went wild with enthusiasm, propelling this concerto to iconic status. Angélica Negrón’s gripping work for orchestra, chorus and four soloists is an elegy for lost sounds and incorporates birdsong, whale calls, sounds of forests and oceans. It is not to be missed!

Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue

“What is life and what is death? Why did you live? Why did you suffer? … Do our life and death have a meaning? … Whoever hears this call must give a reply. And this reply I give in my last movement.” Thus Mahler guides us to the meaning of his stirring Second Symphony, a work with a beautiful, consoling message. The Finale is a combination of thunderous, apocalyptic outbursts, brass fanfares heard off stage, as well as quieter moments; and then, out of nowhere, a hushed chorus intones the ecstatic Resurrection Ode, as solo voices soar, singing of forgiveness, divine compassion and eternal life: “You shall rise again, rise again/My heart, in an instant./What you have conquered/Shall carry you to God!” Whatever your concept of heaven, this is Paradise in music!

Mahler’s Symphony No. 2 – “Resurrection”

Celebrate the holiday season with the Dallas Symphony Orchestra at the enchanting "Christmas Pops" concert series. Running from December 6th to December 15th, 2024, at various times, this festive event promises to fill the air with the glorious sounds of the season. Under the baton of conductor Lawrence Loh, the performances will feature the magnificent Dallas Symphony Chorus and the Dallas Symphony Children’s Chorus, led by chorus director Anthony Blake Clark and artistic director Ellie Lin, respectively. Adding to the magic will be the extraordinary talents of vocalists Capathia Jenkins, a renowned actress and star of Broadway, TV, and movies, and Ryan Shaw, a three-time GRAMMY-nominated artist. Together, they will perform a collection of your favorite seasonal songs, carols, and thrilling choruses.

The concert series will also include special appearances by the Dallas Symphony Children’s Chorus at the matinee performances, ensuring a heartwarming experience for all ages. Bradley Hunter Welch, the resident organist, will further elevate the performances with his mastery. And, as no holiday celebration is complete without a visit from Santa Claus, expect some jolly surprises that will delight the entire family.

Mark your calendars for this holiday spectacle and prepare to be swept away by the spirit of the season with the Dallas Symphony Orchestra's "Christmas Pops."

Christmas Pops

Celebrated for his “grace, skill and abundant proficiency” by the Journal Assist News, Albuquerque, come see Alcee Chriss III in an astounding organ recital.

Organ Recital: Alcee Chriss III

Fabio Luisi leads all musical forces (including former DSO artist-in-residence Matthias Goerne) in Brahms’s inspiring work. Gone are the rafter-shaking Last Judgment and punishment for sinners; instead, this Requiem’s centerpiece is the gentle “How Lovely Is Thy Dwelling Place,” comforting the bereaved and giving them the hope for eternal life. A balm for the soul. With English supertitles.



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Brahms Requiem

Meyerson Symphony Center

Featuring Music from Beetlejuice, Batman, Edward Scissorhands, The Nightmare Before Christmas, Alice In Wonderland, Frankenweenie, Charlie And The Chocolate Factory, Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure and more…

Explore the collaborative relationship between music and storytelling and the process and importance that this has in filmmaking. Composer Danny Elfman and visionary Hollywood filmmaker Tim Burton have created a unique concert experience, lending music and visuals to celebrate the 25-year partnership of two of Hollywood’s top creators. This live concert features Danny Elfman live along with famous Tim Burton film scores being brought to life on stage by orchestra, enhanced by visuals on the big screen of original sketches, drawings and storyboards.

Danny Elfman’s Music from the Films of Tim Burton

Fabio Luisi leads the late-Romantic composer’s magnum opus, a towering oratorio that tackles no less a subject than the Bible’s Book of Revelation — the Apocalypse — a prophetic vision of the final violent destruction of the world. The DSO, soloists, massive chorus, and organ solos on the Lay Family Concert Organ depict the breaking of the seals, the Horsemen of the Apocalypse, the seven trumpets summoning souls to the Last Judgment, and, finally, the message of salvation and an ecstatic “Hallelujah.” Monumental, riveting, unforgettable! With English supertitles.



The Book with Seven Seals

This holiday season… Believe! The DSO will bring the Academy Award®-nominated holiday classic, The Polar Express™ in Concert, to the Meyerson for the first time. Experience the musical magic of Christmas Eve through Alan Silvestri’s unforgettable score, be immersed as The Polar Express adventures up and down mountains, slip-slides over ice fields, and teeters across mile-high bridges, while the DSO performs live with the film. You’ll see wonders. And you’ll believe. All aboooooard!



The Polar Express™ in Concert

The beloved holiday tradition continues with the Dallas Symphony Orchestra performing transcendent anthems, classical holiday favorites and sing-along carols. Your favorite holiday vocalists join the DSO and our choruses to bring a bit of Christmas magic to the Meyerson. Sprinkle in an appearance by you-know-who, a bit of snow and the joyous music of the DSO and there is nothing quite like it.

Copland’s Concerto swings in the hands of New York Philharmonic’s brilliant Principal Clarinet, Anthony McGill, while the DSO and DSO Chorus, led by Fabio Luisi, enthrall with a quintessential Romantic subject: the battle for the soul of Faust. You’ll recognize the protagonists by their music — heroic, lyrical, infernal — and be moved by the tenor solo and all-male “mystical chorus” exalting woman-eternal.


Copland and Liszt

Experience the multi-Academy Award®-winning 1984 motion picture, Amadeus, on the big screen while Mozart’s most celebrated works are performed live in-sync by the Dallas Symphony Orchestra and Chorus. Winner of eight Academy Awards® including Best Picture, Milos Forman’s sumptuous Amadeus is an aural and visual treat for all the senses.



Amadeus Live in Concert

Arguably, the most iconic choral work of the 20th century, Carmina Burana’s unforgettable opening, “O Fortuna,” has become a pop culture phenomenon. Based on medieval German poetry, Carmina Burana has it all: rhythmic and brooding choruses, lusty drinking songs, ballads cursing fickle lovers and gleaming paeans to love. Catulli Carmina brings all of the boldness and audacious storytelling its more famous sibling piece is know for to complete a program that will thrill and delight. Many may not have heard the Catulli Carmina, one of the two sequels Orff wrote to Carmina Burana, but, in a rare pairing, you will get to hear them both together as Orff intended with our four critically acclaimed soloists, the Dallas Symphony Chorus, the Dallas Symphony Children’s Chorus and the DSO.

Carmina Burana

Paul McCreesh joins the DSO to conduct a grand spiritual concert including vocal soloists, the Dallas Symphony Chorus and the Lay Family Organ. Also known as his Symphony No. 2, Mendelssohn described the work as a “symphonic cantata.” Bearing a superficial similarity to Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, it begins with three instrumental movements although on a much smaller scale and closes with a cantata-like structure for chorus, solo voices and orchestra.

Blest Pair of Sirens is a short work for choir and orchestra by English composer Hubert Parry, who was commissioned to compose a piece for the Bach Choir of London to commemorate the Golden Jubilee of Queen Victoria. The Glories of our Blood and State was to be used, but subsequently scrapped possibly due to lines including “Sceptre and crown must tumble down” not being the most suitable for the event.

Parry then decided to set Milton’s At a Solemn Music garnering immediate success and eventually being recognized as an outstanding English choral work.

Mendelssohn’s “A Symphony Cantata”

If any opera can break your heart, it surely is Madama Butterfly, the story of an innocent young Japanese girl, who — as her nickname foreshadows — is crushed by one of opera’s most callous cads, naval officer Lieutenant Pinkerton, who promises her a forever love. She is willing to give up her family and her religion to become a good “American” wife. From the ecstatic love duet on their wedding night, to the famous “humming chorus,” as she and her servant Suzuki await Pinkerton’s return, to the anguish of her suicide to preserve her honor — this deeply moving opera will resonate long after the last note has sounded. Performed by a star-studded cast of singers, orchestra and chorus, led by Luisi, a masterful opera conductor, Puccini’s Madama Butterfly is this season’s stunning opera in concert.

Puccini’s Madama Butterfly

Fresh from his wildly successful recent appearance with the DSO, Edward Gardner returns to conduct Holst’s most famous score, with the astrological character of each of the celestial bodies. Each planetary “portrait” reveals a fitting attribute, from Mars’ bellicose hammer blows to the haunting resonances of Neptune, “The Mystic,” with female voices singing wordlessly off stage till they fade away into the great unknown. Walton’s regal hymn of praise was commissioned to celebrate the coronation of Queen Elizabeth in 1953 and sung as she made her exit from Westminster Abbey. David Childs, euphonium sensation and brass faculty member of the University of North Texas, solos in the US premiere of a concerto by critically acclaimed Scottish composer James MacMillan, whose music is esteemed “for its rhythmic excitement and powerful emotional communication.”

Holst’s The Planets

Danny Elfman’s Music from the Films of Tim Burton explores the collaborative relationship between music and storytelling and the process and importance that this has in filmmaking. Composer Danny Elfman and visionary Hollywood filmmaker Tim Burton have created a unique concert experience, lending music and visuals to celebrate the 25-year partnership of two of Hollywood’s top creators. This live concert features Danny Elfman’s famous Tim Burton film scores brought to life on stage by orchestra, enhanced by visuals on the big screen of original sketches, drawings and storyboards.

Danny Elfman’s Music from the Films of Tim Burton 

The nickname “Symphony of a Thousand” scarcely does justice to Mahler’s epic work — one of the greatest in the concert repertoire. Its immense scope makes performances rare and, therefore, are to be treasured. Part One of Mahler’s mystical work begins with a powerful unleashing of sound that sets the hymn, “Come, Creative Spirit,” a text that also foreshadows the message of Part Two of the Symphony. The expansive second half transports us to the final scene of Goethe’s dramatic poem Faust, the title character who had bargained away his soul to the devil and thus to eternal damnation. But the beatific voices of a “chorus mysticus,” underscored by thunderous timpani rolls, reach into the stratosphere and promise that Faust’s soul — borne higher and ever higher to heaven through the intercession of hosts of penitent women and holy men and ultimately angels, will be redeemed through “the eternally feminine” — the power of love.

Dallas Symphony Chorus

9 - 11 Jan, 2026

Puccini’s Madama Butterfly

22 - 24 Jan, 2026

Holst’s The Planets

13 - 15 Mar, 2026

Danny Elfman’s Music from the Films of Tim Burton

15 - 17 May, 2026

Mahler’s Symphony of a Thousand

Nov 23, 2025

Organ Recital: Bradley Hunter Welch

16 - 18 Oct, 2025

Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue

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