WE ARE
Committed to Opera
After over a year of enormous financial difficulties, the musicians of the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra are thrilled to announce that we have been invited to join Maestro Fabio Luisi and the Dallas Symphony Orchestra for a week of performances and educational initiatives in the Dallas area featuring performances of Mahler’s First Symphony on April 30th and May 1st. Additional programming will be announced shortly. Proceeds will be donated to MET Orchestra Musicians Fund, Inc. and DFW Musicians Covid Relief Fund and will benefit musicians experiencing financial hardship.
We cannot overstate the impact this unprecedented collaboration will have on our members, both financially and artistically, after this long year of cultural famine. We are profoundly grateful to the generous donors who are making these concerts possible, to the Board of the Dallas Symphony Orchestra, to Maestro Luisi, to the musicians of the DSO and to the entire Dallas music community. Thank you for so warmly welcoming us into your home.
Read the entire press release from the Dallas Symphony below:
DALLAS SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA AND MEMBERS OF THE METROPOLITAN OPERA
ORCHESTRA UNITE FOR A SPECIAL CONCERT
LED BY FABIO LUISI
MAHLER SYMPHONY NO. 1
APRIL 30 AND MAY 1 AT 7:30PM
MORTON H. MEYERSON SYMPHONY CENTER – DALLAS, TEXAS
BENEFIT FOR THE MET ORCHESTRA MUSICIANS FUND AND THE DFW MUSICIANS COVID-19 RELIEF FUND
Dallas, Texas (April 12, 2021) – Today the Dallas Symphony Orchestra (DSO) and Music Director Fabio Luisi (Louise W. & Edmund J. Kahn Music Directorship) announce a joint concert with members of The MetropolitanOpera Orchestra and the Dallas Symphony Orchestra. This unique collaborative event will benefit the MET Orchestra Musicians Fund and the DFW Musicians COVID-19 Relief Fund. It will be the first time many of the non-DSO musicians will have had the opportunity to perform to a live audience since the COVID-19 shutdown in March 2020. This full-sized orchestra will perform Mahler’s Symphony No. 1 at the Morton H. Meyerson Symphony Center with Fabio Luisi conducting.
The Dallas Symphony has put a number of protocols in place to ensure the safety and health of the musicians and attendees during the 2020/21 season. All audience members must be masked, and seats will be assigned with social distancing in place. Tickets will be timed for entry, and the concert will have no intermission. For a full list of protocols, visit dallassymphony.org.
This special benefit event is presented by Capital One and made possible by The Marcella Fund, as well as travel partners Dallas Marriott Downtown and Southwest Airlines. The DSO is grateful to Mercedes T. Bass, Fabio Luisi, Joanne Bober and Sarah Titus & Tilda Morris for their support of this event.
“During my time with The Metropolitan Opera, I became close to many of the members of the orchestra. It is devastating that these incredible musicians have not had an opportunity to perform together in over a year,” said Luisi. “Sadly, this is the case for many musicians around the country, and many have been affected so greatly by this reduction of income. I urged the DSO to find a way to gather musicians together to make music in a way we have not heard in more than a year as a symbol of solidarity.”
“I have enjoyed performances with Fabio Luisi for years, first in New York and now in Dallas,” said Mercedes T. Bass, Chairman of the Board of the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra and member of The Metropolitan Opera Board of Directors. “This is such a brilliant idea and a wonderful way to show how musicians around the world are like a family, supportive of and helpful to their colleagues.”
“As one of the few orchestras fortunate to be able to perform all season to live audiences, we are painfully aware that many of our colleagues around the country were not able to play concerts since last March,” said Kim Noltemy, Ross Perot President & CEO of the Dallas Symphony Orchestra. “Fabio encouraged us to think of something we could do in Dallas to show our support for our colleagues who have been unable to play to live audiences. These live performances joining together members of our DSO and the MET Orchestra under his direction will be special events for our audiences as well as a way to show support for our colleagues.”
“We cannot overstate the impact this unprecedented collaboration will have on our members, both financially and artistically, after this long year of cultural famine,” said Brad Gemeinhardt, MET Orchestra Committee Chair. “We are profoundly grateful to the generous donors who are making these concerts possible, to the Board of the Dallas Symphony Orchestra, to Maestro Luisi, to the musicians of the DSO and to the entire Dallas music community. Thank you for so warmly welcoming us into your home.”
“The members of the DSO are thrilled to welcome our colleagues from New York. It will be an inspiring and emotional event for all of us; especially performing such a monumental work,” said Alexander Kerr, Concertmaster of the DSO (Michael L. Rosenberg Chair). “We are honored and blessed to be a part of an organization that has been able to perform for live audiences throughout this difficult time and we are thankful to be able to share the experience with our friends, the wonderful musicians of The MET.”
In addition to their performance, the musicians will engage with members of the DSO’s Young Strings through masterclasses and workshops. Young Strings is the DSO’s signature education program that develops the talents of exceptional and underrepresented string players in the city of Dallas by providing its students with the skills, lessons, opportunities, and resources essential for success both in college and careers in music.
Tickets are priced at $30, $50 and $90, and will go on sale on Friday, April 16 at dallassymphony.org. A video of the performance will be made available on the DSO’s website for free, on-demand streaming in early May.
Read more about our collaboration with the Dallas Symphony Orchestra in the New York Times.
