The 22nd annual benefit concert for SMU Meadows will feature the critically acclaimed Meadows Symphony Orchestra, led by conductor Paul Phillips, and two renowned opera singers – Thomas Studebaker and mezzo soprano Michaela Martens – in a presentation of Mahler’s Das Lied von der Erde (“The Song of the Earth”).

The hour-long work, based on six 8th-century Chinese poems, was composed after Mahler learned he was terminally ill, and has been called the finest and most deeply moving part of his artistic legacy.

Proceeds from the concert provide scholarships for the Meadows Scholars program, aimed at recruiting the brightest and most talented students to SMU and Dallas.