With beloved classical pieces, a monumental opera-in-concert and world premieres, the Dallas Symphony Orchestra’s 2024-2025 season has something for everyone.
“The DSO is thrilled to unveil programming for the 2024/25 concert season, and we hope our patrons and subscribers are just as excited to see what’s in store for the upcoming season,” said Kim Noltemy, Ross Perot President & CEO of the Dallas Symphony. “We have packed the season with well-loved classics, a fantastic lineup of guest artists and conductors, dynamic new works from composers never-before-heard in Dallas and so much more.”
The 2024-2025 season is Fabio Luisi’s fifth as the orchestra’s Music Director. He will lead the orchestra in ten concerts as part of the Texas Instruments Classical Series.
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“Going into my fifth year of this musical partnership with the incredible musicians at the DSO, we have developed a distinctively ‘Dallas’ sound, of which I am immensely proud,” Luisi said. “We are playing at a high artistic level, and I look forward to building upon that and sharing beautiful music with Dallas audiences in the 2024/25 concert season.”
Luisi will be leading the Dallas Symphony Orchestra as it becomes the first American orchestra in recent history to present an opera-in-concert version of Wagner’s epic Der Ring des Nibelungen(the Ring cycle) in its entirety. The orchestra will perform Siegfried on October 5, and Götterdämmerung on October 8, , followed by the week-long presentation of the full Ring cycle beginning on Sunday, October 13.
This enormous endeavor is the culmination of many years of planning by DSO artistic staff and leadership and features a massive orchestra of over 100 players and a cast of more than 30 vocalists on stage at the Morton H. Meyerson Symphony Center.
Luisi is at home in the world of opera, having served nine years as the General Music Director at the Zurich Opera and six years as Principal Guest Conductor of The Metropolitan Opera. In 2013, he won a Grammy Award for his leadership of the last two operas of Wagner’s Ring Cycle at the Met.
The Scene
“The Ring Cycle is one of the deepest and most complex musical works that has ever been written. It is all of humanity brought to the stage – family, love, sex, loss, consequences and the quest for power,” Luisi said. “Across the entirety of the story, with beautiful music and beautiful text guiding you, you are transformed at the end.”
The orchestra has commissioned and will present three world premieres, including pieces by Native American, Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Raven Chacon, DSO composer-in-residence Sophia Jani and Sean Shepherd.
The orchestra will also present the US premiere of Andrew Norman’s Concerto for Trombone and Orchestra, featuring celebrated trombonist Jörgen van Rijen. The season also includes Dallas premieres of Estonian composer Allison Kruusmaa’s Five Arabesques for Chamber Orchestra and Amy Beach’s Piano Concerto, in a program highlighting female musicians leading into the DSO’s sixth annual Women in Classical Music Symposium; film composer Kris Bowers’ For a Younger Self featuring rising star violinist Charles Yang; Arlene Sierra’s new work, Kiskadee, which was commissioned by the League of American Orchestras with the generous support of the Virginia B. Toulmin Foundation; Julia Perry’s Stabat Mater; and Dallas-based composer Kyle Gann’s Serenity Meditation after Ives.
The new season also includes Bartók The Wooden Prince, Sibelius Symphony No. 3, Mahler Symphony No. 2, “Resurrection, Elgar’s Enigma Variations Mozart Symphony No. 41, “Jupiter” Dvořák Symphony No. 9, “From the New World”, Berlioz’s Symphonie fantastique, Beethoven Symphonies No. 5 and No. 3, “Eroica”, Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring and Mendelssohn’s Symphony No. 3, “Scottish”.
Former Dallas Symphony Orchestra Music Director Jaap van Zweden will lead the orchestra in concerts featuring Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 5, his first appearance in Dallas since 2018.
Shira Samuels-Shragg joins the Dallas Symphony Orchestra as the orchestra’s new Assistant Conductor (Marena & Roger Gault Chair) during the 2024-2025 season. Samuels-Shragg, who currently serves as assistant conductor at the Spokane Symphony and Plano Symphony, will replace Maurice Cohn. She will lead the orchestra in youth concerts, Community and Parks Concerts, select DSO on the GO performances and other concerts as assigned. Samuels-Shragg will also regularly assist Luisi and guest conductors in the preparation of the orchestra for Texas Instruments Classical Series concerts.
“I am thrilled to be joining Maestro Luisi, the wonderful musicians and the fantastic team at the Dallas Symphony Orchestra,” Saumels-Shragg said. “I'm honored to become part of an organization that brings so much to both the local and international music communities.”
2024/25 Pops series, led by Principal Pops Conductor Jeff Tyzik, includes Twist and Shout: The Music of The Beatles, Let’s Groove Tonight: Motown & the Philly Sound, and ¡Bailamos! A Night of Latin Music.
“I always look forward to working with the Dallas Symphony, and I’m thrilled to return to the podium this season to share these exciting programs with Dallas audiences,” Tyzik said. “We have something for everyone in this season, from the seminal, catchy tunes by The Beatles to the soulful, infectious music of Motown artists.”
The season also includes a special presentation of A Lovesome Thing: Billy Strayhorn Suite with piano artist Lara Downes performing with the orchestra. Big screen favorites fill the Meyerson Symphony Center with the orchestra’s movies-in-concert performances, featuring Harry Potter & The Goblet of Fire, Elf and The Princess Bride.
Newly appointed Principal Conductor, Dallas Symphony Presents, Enrico Lopez-Yañez (Nancy A. Nasher & David J. Haemisegger Chair) leads five special programs, including the annual Día De Los Muertos concert and Disco Fever.
“I am delighted to return for my second season as Principal Conductor for the Dallas Symphony Presents series,” Lopez-Yañez said. “This is an exciting season of pops and special programming, and I look forward to spending more time in Dallas, exploring the city, getting to know the audience even better and working with the incredible DSO musicians.”
Learn more: Dallas Symphony Orchestra
