SMU Meadows School of the Arts Offers Community Performance Series for Spring 2015

SMU Meadows School of the Arts is offering six community concerts and events this spring as part of its “Meadows Community Series.” Launched in fall 2013, the series is designed to bring Meadows performances into the community, feature the work of talented students and engage new audiences at diverse venues in Dallas. The spring series begins with a concert by the Meadows Wind Ensemble at 8 p.m. Friday, Jan. 30 in Dallas City Performance Hall. Other offerings will include concerts by the SYZYGY new music ensemble, Meadows choirs, Meadows Opera Theatre and Meadows Symphony Orchestra as well as a dance performance and children’s creative movement class at Klyde Warren Park. (A full schedule and descriptions follow.)

Meadows Dean Sam Holland says, “This series is about showcasing talented Meadows performers in venues throughout the city. It’s also about giving back and inviting a new audience into an aesthetic experience with us. I want SMU students to identify with the city and the city to identify with SMU students.

“People don’t usually come to concerts to be edified,” says Holland. “They come to have fun, to feel something, perhaps to be moved by something greater than themselves. That is what aesthetic experience is about, and that is what we want to provide in all of our public concerts.”

Four of the events are ticketed, and two are free. Ticket prices range from $7-$25 and may be purchased at the door or online in advance at bit.ly/MeadowsCommunitySeriesEvents. Significant discounts are offered with the purchase of three- or four-event packages. Discounts are also available for Meadows season subscribers. For more information call the Meadows ticket office at 214-768-2787.

Spring 2015 Meadows Community Series

Friday, January 30 at 8 p.m.
The Best of the Meadows Wind Ensemble
Dallas City Performance Hall, 2520 Flora St., Dallas (75201)
$13 for adults, $10 for seniors, $7 for students
This City Performance Hall concert will give Dallas audiences a chance to hear an electric – and eclectic! – program that the Meadows Wind Ensemble is preparing for a gala February concert in San Antonio at the prestigious Texas Music Educators Association Conference. The conference is attended by well over 25,000 music professionals annually, and the MWE was selected to perform through a rigorous audition process. This “Best of the MWE”program will feature Michael Daugherty’s Motown Metal, Darius Milhaud’s La création du monde and William Bolcom’s First Symphony for Band.

Thursday, February 19 at 8 p.m.
SYZYGY New Music Ensemble Presents Vox Femina
Dallas City Performance Hall, 2520 Flora St., Dallas (75201)
$13 for adults, $10 for seniors, $7 for students, faculty & staff
Dan Welcher’s song cycle Vox Femina headlines a diverse showcase of 20^th- and 21^st-century music that also includes works by James MacMillan, Amy Beth Kirsten and Mason Bates.

Sunday, March 22 at 7 p.m.
Choral Concert: In Dreams
Dallas City Performance Hall, 2520 Flora St., Dallas (75201)
$13 for adults, $10 for seniors, $7 for students, faculty & staff
“Carry me to the place where dreams fly…” These words from the Robert Bode poem, “In Dreams,” represent the inspiration for the concert, which features the Meadows Concert Choir, Meadows Chorale and Diva Dolce. Included in the program will be works by Eric Whitacre, John David Earnest and Pēteris Vasks.

Friday, March 27 at 11 a.m.
Meadows Opera Theatre Presents “Sopranos Anonymous”
Elliot Hall in Highland Park Presbyterian Church, 3821 University Blvd., Dallas (75205)
FREE
Admitting that they cannot control their chronic high-note addictions, acute drama-queen compulsions and incurable obsession to steal the spotlight from others, a group of tightly wound sopranos gathers together in a meeting for the purpose of working towards recovery from their coloratura catastrophes, fioratura follies and countless diva difficulties. Conceived and directed by Courtney Stancil (a soprano).

Sunday, May 3 at 12 p.m.
Dancing in the Park
Klyde Warren Park, 1909 Woodall Rodgers Freeway, Dallas (75201)
FREE
Meadows dance students present a creative movement class for children in grades K-6 followed by excerpts of their original, student-choreographed ballet, modern and jazz works created for the Meadows School’s Sharp Show senior showcase.

Sunday, May 10 at 2:30 p.m.
Soluna Festival - Meadows Symphony Orchestra Concert
Meyerson Symphony Center, 2301 Flora St., Dallas (75201)
$25 for adults, $20 for seniors, $15 for students, faculty & staff
The Meadows Symphony Orchestra will perform a special concert as part of the 2015 Soluna International Music & Arts Festival presented in May by the Dallas Symphony. The concert will reprise three works presented earlier in the MSO season, including Above Light by award-winning Meadows faculty composer Xi Wang; Saint-Saens’ Concerto for Piano No. 2 in G minor, featuring guest pianist Hando Nahkur, an international prizewinner and the first student accepted into Meadows’ prestigious Artist Diploma program; and Rachmaninoff’s imaginative and lively Symphonic Dances. Dallas Morning News critic Scott Cantrell praised the MSO’s earlier performance of Symphonic Dances as “absolutely touched by magic”; those who missed it will now have another chance to experience the magic themselves!