The First Soluna Festival: Concerts, Films, World Premieres And 'Washington Crossing The Delaware' | Art&Seek

From Touch of Evil (2012) by Alex Prager starring Brad Pitt.

Way back in February, the Dallas Symphony announced its 2014-15 season, and part of that season was Soluna, the first Arts District-wide, music-and-more festival, set for three weeks in May. Now the DSO’s released a more complete schedule with a few details and performances still to be filled in.

At the heart of the festival is classical music, natch, but it’s often classical-music-combined-with-another art form. North Texas’ Avant Chamber Ballet, for instance, will perform at the City Performance Hall May 5 with DSO musicians performing music by Glinka and Dvorak. Or the DSO will play music, composed by Ali Helnwein, accompanying three films made by LA photographer-filmmaker Alex Prager, screening at the CPH May 6. Even big, orchestral events with the DSO are often a case of classical-music-augmented. Jaap van Zweden conducts Leonard Bernstein’s Symphony No. 3, “Kaddish,” at the Meyerson May 14 & 16, for instance, and the evening will include a film, Yael Bartana’s Inferno. Also, even the Perot Museum of Nature and Science gets involved — with an interactive panel with the UT Southwestern Medical School, a panel on the music and the brain that’ll include members of the DSO performing chamber music.

As for other major Arts District organizations/venues: the Dallas Black Dance Theater will present a world premiere by choreographer Daniel Catanach as part of the DBDT’s Spring Celebration Series at the Wyly Theater, May 15-17. The Dallas Museum of Art will host an environmental audio performance by artist Kevin Beasley May 15, as part of the DMA’s Friday Late Nights. And the Nasher Sculpture Center will present an evening of its Soundings series May 20, an evening devoted to the music of Arnold Schoenberg — whose music also appears in “Hollywood Exile,” the DSO’s ReMix concert at the Dallas City Performance Hall May 8 & 9, which focuses on music by European composers who moved to Hollywood.

WCD (Washington Crossing the Delaware) by Francisco Moreno

And there will be events outside the Arts District, notably WCD (Washington Crossing the Delaware), a new installation and performance in a warehouse-to-be-announced by Francisco Moreno, plus a Oaxacan Cultural Exchange Performance at the Latino Cultural Center May 7.

Here’s the complete schedule of events:

SOLUNA: International Music & Arts Festival Schedule
As of November 11, 2014

Monday, May 4, 2015 at 7:00PM
A Musician’s View
Meyerson Symphony Center Stage, 2301 Flora Street, Dallas
Musicians of the Dallas Symphony Orchestra including Angela Fuller Heyde, Daphne Volle, violins; Christine Hwang, viola; Jeffrey Hood, cello; Demarre McGill, flute; Greg Raden, clarinet; Ryan Anthony, Kevin Finamore, trumpets; Wilfred Roberts, Scott Walzel, bassoons; John Kitzman, Darren McHenry, trombones; David Cooper, horn; Daniel Florio, percussion

STRAVINSKY Fanfare for a New Theatre
GOLIJOV Lullaby and Doina
MARTINU Quartet for Horn, Clarinet, Cello and Side Drum
STRAVINSKY Octet
DVOŘÁK String Quartet No. 12, “American”

Current ticket prices are $19. For tickets and information, visit www.mydso.com or call 214.TIX.4DSO.

Tuesday, May 5, 2015 at 7:30PM
Avant Chamber Ballet at the SOLUNA Festival
Dallas City Performance Hall, 2520 Flora Street, Dallas
Avant Chamber Ballet, Artistic Director Katie Puder
Musicians of the Dallas Symphony Orchestra

George Balanchine’s “Valse Fantaisie” (Music by Glinka)
Christopher Wheeldon’s “The American” pas de deux (Music by Dvořák)
A new ballet by Katie Puder

George Balanchine brought ballet to America and created a truly American style of ballet and dancing. Christopher Wheeldon and Paul Mejia were dancers at Balanchine’s company New York City Ballet and were protégés of his style. The current generation of choreographers are continuing the legacy of American ballet while continuing to find innovation and inspiration through the style.

Wednesday, May 6, 2015 at 7:00PM
SOLUNA Festival Opening Performance
Three Short Films by Alex Prager with the Dallas Symphony Orchestra
Dallas City Performance Hall, 2520 Flora Street, Dallas

Dallas Symphony Orchestra
Karina Canellakis conducts

Face in the Crowd (2013)
La Petite Mort (2012)
Despair (2012)

Karina Canellakis leads the DSO in a live music performance accompanying the screening of three Alex Prager films with music composed by Ali Helnwein. An After-Party will be hosted at a venue to be determined.

Current ticket prices are $49 for concert only, $150 ticket price for concert plus After-Party. For tickets and information, visit www.mydso.com or call 214.TIX.4DSO.

May 6 and 7, 2015 at 5:00PM
Dallas Theater Center
Wyly Theater, 2400 Flora Street, Dallas

Dallas Theater Center Brierley Resident Acting Company & Booker T. Washington High School for the Performing and Visual Arts Skokos Advanced Acting Lab students will present a showcase of scenes highlighting SOLUNA’s theme, Destination (America).

Free & open to the public

Thursday, May 7, 2015 6:00PM
Alex Prager Exhibit Opening
Goss-Michael Foundation
1405 Turtle Creek Boulevard, Dallas

Three video installations and a new body of photographs presented for the first time in the United States will open at the Goss-Michael Foundation, which will host a reception for SOLUNA Festival participants. A Friday lunch conversation with the artist will also be promoted by GMF as part of their regular Friday lunch series with Green House Market. Exhibit continues May 8-June 20, 2015.

Thursday, May 7, 2015 at 7:30PM
Rachmaninoff + Korngold
Dallas City Performance Hall, 2520 Flora Street, Dallas
Amernet String Quartet
Misha Vitenson, Marcia Littley, violins; Michael Klotz, viola; Jason Calloway, cello
Musicians of the Dallas Symphony Orchestra
Eunice Keem, Miika Gregg, violins; Ann Marie Brink, viola; Theodore Harvey, cello
and Baya Kakouberi, piano

RACHMANINOFF String Quartet No. 1
KORNGOLD Piano Quintet
ENESCU String Octet

Current ticket prices are $19. For tickets and information, visit www.mydso.com or call 214.TIX.4DSO.
Thursday, May 7 at 7:30PM
Oaxacan Cultural Exchange Performance
Latino Cultural Center
2600 Live Oak Street, Dallas

An educational initiative between the State of Oaxaca, Mexico, and the DSO’s SOLUNA: International Music & Arts Festival, this cultural exchange began in August 2014 when six DSO musicians traveled to Oaxaca for a week-long residency including private lessons, music coaching and ensemble rehearsals.

The exchange concludes when select Oaxacan music students travel to Dallas to perform with the DSO’s Young Strings students and members of the Dallas Symphony Orchestra. The concert will feature chamber music by renowned Mexican and American composers.
May 8 & 9, 2015 at 7:30PM
Hollywood Exile
ReMix
Dallas City Performance Hall, 2520 Flora Street, Dallas

Dallas Symphony Orchestra
Karina Canellakis conducts
Conrad Tao, piano and DSO Artist-in-Residence
Video by Pipilotti Rist (World Premiere – DSO Commission)

KORNGOLD The Sea Hawk Overture
STRAVINSKY Scherzo à la Russe
SCHOENBERG Accompaniment to a Cinematographic Scene
ROZSA Andante for String Orchestra
Video by Pipilotti Rist
ROZSA Spellbound Concerto
Conrad Tao, piano

Current ticket prices are $19. For tickets and information, visit www.mydso.com or call 214.TIX.4DSO.
The Dallas Foundation is the presenting sponsor of the 2014/15 ReMix series with additional support from JPMorgan Chase & Co.

May 9, 2015 at 2:30PM
Conrad Performs Copland + Bartok
Dallas City Performance Hall, 2520 Flora Street, Dallas
Conrad Tao, piano and DSO Artist-in-Residence
Nathan Olson, violin
Gregory Raden, clarinet

COPLAND Piano Sonata
RACHMANINOFF Vocalise
with Nathan Olson, violin
BARTOK Contrasts
with Greg Raden, clarinet; Nathan Olson, violin
RACHMANINOFF Three Etudes-tableaux

Current ticket prices are $19. For tickets and information, visit www.mydso.com or call 214.TIX.4DSO.
Sunday, May 10, 2015 at 6:00PM
Phantasy Quartet
Dallas Contemporary, 161 Glass Street, Dallas, TX

Amernet String Quartet
Misha Vitenson, Marcia Littley, violins; Michael Klotz, viola; Jason Calloway, cello
Musicians of the Dallas Symphony Orchestra to include Erin Hannigan, oboe

NICHOLAS MAW Intrada
BERNARD RANDS String Quartet No. 2
BRITTEN Phantasy Quartet for Oboe and Strings
Erin Hannigan, oboe
KORNGOLD String Sextet
Sunday, May 10, 2015 at 2:30PM
Southern Methodist University Orchestra Concert
Meyerson Symphony Center, 2301 Flora Street, Dallas

Paul Philips conducts
Hando Nahkur, piano

XI WANG Above Light
SAINT-SAËNS Piano Concerto in G minor
RACHMANINOFF Symphonic Dances

Xi Wang is an acclaimed member of the Meadows School of the Arts faculty in composition. Originally from China, she came to the U.S. to study and has remained here. Estonian pianist Hando Nahkur is the first person to enroll in the new Meadows School of the Arts Artist Diploma program. Rachmaninoff emigrated from Russia to the U.S in 1917. His last completed work, Symphonic Dances, was composed in 1940.

May 14, 2015 at 7:30PM
Kevin Beasley Artist Talk
Dallas Museum of Art, 1717 N Harwood Street, Dallas

The evening will include an interview/talk/Q&A with Kevin and a curator at the DMA. Details to follow.

May 14 & 16, 2015 at 7:30PM
Bernstein 3
Texas Instruments Classical Series
Meyerson Symphony Center, 2301 Flora Street, Dallas

Jaap van Zweden conducts
Liza Ferschtman, violin
Kelley Nassief, soprano
Ronald Guttman, narrator
Dallas Symphony Chorus: Joshua Habermann, director
Children’s Chorus of Greater Dallas: Cynthia Nott, director

BERNSTEIN Serenade
BERNSTEIN Symphony No. 3, “Kaddish”

Prior to the performances, Yael Bartana’s film Inferno will be screened. Bartana explores the imagery of cultural identity. In her films, installations, and photographs, she critically investigates her native country’s struggle for identity, and the ideas of displacement and belonging. Her thought-provoking film Inferno deals sensitively with the experience of being uprooted from one’s homeland, and explores the intersection of culture and individuality.

Current ticket prices are $29 – $129. For tickets and information, visit www.mydso.com or call 214.TIX.4DSO.
May 15, 2015 at 7:30PM
Transfigured Night
Meyerson Symphony Center Stage, 2301 Flora Street, Dallas

Amernet String Quartet
(Misha Vitenson, Marcia Littley, violins; Michael Klotz, viola; Jason Calloway, cello)
Musicians of the Dallas Symphony Orchestra including Emanuelle Boisvert, Andrew Schast, violins; Pamela Askew, viola; Christopher Adkins, Jennifer Humphreys, cello; Nicolas Tsolainos, bass;
TBD, soprano

GINASTERA String Quartet No. 3
GOLIJOV Last Round
SCHOENBERG Transfigured Night
May 15, 2015
Kevin Beasley Performance
Dallas Museum of Art, 1717 N Harwood Street, Dallas

As part of the DMA’s Friday Late Nights, New York artist Kevin Beasley will present a performance using sculptures incorporating microphones that will capture environmental sounds.
FREE event – part of the Dallas Museum of Art’s Late Night series
May 15-17, 2015
Dallas Black Dance Theater
Wyly Theater, 2400 Flora Street, Dallas
Part of DBDT’s Spring Celebration Series.
Dallas Black Dance Theatre will present a world premiere created by New York based choreographer, Daniel Catanach. Catanach will integrate ballet, Black and Hispanic urban gesture, and social and modern dance to create this transformative work which focuses on the experience of young men growing up in Urban America. The work will feature six male dancers who are celebrating “coming of age” in very different ways. Though they are from various social and economic backgrounds and are finding their own unique voice through independent journeys, they still share one common ground: growing up a “minority.” The piece will be structured in three parts. Celebration: will highlight the ways in which they feel they are moving forward in the world. Struggle: will put forth various obstacles to be dealt with, sometimes between each other and other times from within. Triumph: will show the inner spirit that pushes through and keeps one living.

May 17, 2015 at 7:30PM
Greater Dallas Youth Orchestra
Meyerson Symphony Center, 2301 Flora Street, Dallas

TCHAIKOVSKY Cossack Dance from Mazeppa (with the student conducting competition winner)
RAVEL Tzigane (Maria Schleuning, violin)
R. STRAUSS Till Eulenspiegel
DVOŘÁK Symphony No. 9 “From the New World”

This evening also features the GDYO Gala at 6:00 PM, which benefits the GDYO Scholarship Fund and Tour Fund. Gala tickets start at $100 and include a concert ticket (reserve by May 1). Concert tickets range from $10-$25, with student tickets at $8 (student ID required). Tickets may be purchased online at www.gdyo.org, by phone at 214-528-7747 or at the Meyerson box office on the day of the concert.

May 18, 2015 at 7:30PM
Dvorak + Prokofiev
Hamon Hall at the Winspear Opera House, 2403 Flora Street, Dallas, TX

Musicians of the Dallas Symphony Orchestra including Alexander Kerr and Nathan Olson, violins; Ellen Rose, viola; Christopher Adkins, cello; David Cooper, horn; Gregory Raden, clarinet
Lucille Chung, piano

PROKOFIEV Sonata for Two Violins
DOHNANYI Sextet
DVORAK Piano Quintet in A major

Current ticket prices are $19. For tickets and information, visit www.mydso.com or call 214.TIX.4DSO.
May 20, 2015 at 7:30PM
Soundings: New Music at the Nasher
Music from Yellow Barn: Music on the Brink of War
Nasher Sculpture Center, 2001 Flora Street, Dallas, TX

Soundings presents an evening devoted to Arnold Schoenberg’s Pierrot Lunaire. With soprano Lucy Shelton and songs of Kurt Weill and Bertolt Brecht with actors Walter van Dyk and Liza Sadovy.

Since its premiere in 1912, Arnold Schoenberg’s Pierrot Lunaire has been regarded by generations of musicians and audiences as an icon of artistic originality. Igor Stravinsky referred to Pierrot as the “solar plexus of twentieth century music”. Both Schoenberg and Kurt Weill (with dramatist Bertolt Brecht) whose Threepenny Opera, Mahogany, and Happy Days appeared in the first stirrings of the Second World War, found the cabaret to be an environment conducive to blurred lines separating art and popular music, and the socialist and capitalist worlds to which their music reacted.

May 21-23, 2015 at 7:30PM
Mahler 3
Texas Instruments Classical Series
Meyerson Symphony Center, 2301 Flora Street, Dallas

Jaap van Zweden conducts
Alice Coote, mezzo-soprano
Women of the Dallas Symphony Chorus: Joshua Habermann, director
Children’s Chorus of Greater Dallas: Cynthia Nott, director

MAHLER Symphony No. 3

Current ticket prices are $39 – $139. For tickets and information, visit www.mydso.com or call 214.TIX.4DSO.

May 22, 2015 at 10:00PM
TANGO FIESTA!
Venue to be announced
FREE

Michael Guttman and Friends
Musicians of the Dallas Symphony Orchestra

A program of Tangos, dances and more

May 24, 2015 at 8:30PM
Salute to the Armed Forces
In partnership with Carry the Load
Klyde Warren Park, 2012 Woodall Rodgers Freeway

Dallas Symphony Orchestra
Jaap van Zweden conducts
Monte Laster, performance artist
Students from Booker T. Washington High School for the Performing Arts
Francisco Moreno
WCD Project – New installation and performance
Dates and venue to be announced

Francisco Moreno’s performance WCD will take place after dark in an empty warehouse. On entering the space, visitors will hear the deep rumble of a custom-built car engine and witness a dynamic performance inspired by the artist’s experience as a Mexican immigrant to the United States.

WCD (Washington Crossing the Delaware) borrows its title from a painting by German artist Emanuel Leutze that was intended to inspire European revolutionaries. Moreno reinterprets this depiction of a symbolic American story in a performance involving a Japanese car—built by a company that contributed to that country’s participation in World War II—with an implanted American engine rebuilt from scratch by Mexican technicians.
Further partner organizations will include AT&T Performing Arts Center, Crow Collection of Asian Art, Dallas Opera, Dallas Theater Center, Perot Museum of Nature and Science, TITAS Presents, UT Southwestern Medical Center and the University of Texas at Dallas.
Additional performances and events to be announced.