25 Years of Classical Music

New Dallas Symphony season celebrates Meyerson milestone and adds new festival

The Dallas Symphony Orchestra has announced the complete details of the forthcoming 2014-2015 season, and it's one that will include even more current popular programming, a tribute to the venue they call home and the start of a new festival tradition.

The biggest of those is the introduction of the inaugural Soluna: International Music and Arts Festival. Taking place from May 7-24, 2015, the festival features three separate concerts from the Dallas Symphony as well as performances by other visual and performing arts groups and individuals from around the world.

The theme of the festival will be Destination: America, and every performance will pay tribute in one way or another to artists who came to or were inspired by the United States and its freedoms in creating their art.

The Meyerson Symphony Center marks its 25th anniversary in September.

Also on the docket is a celebration of the elder performing arts building in the Dallas Arts District, the Meyerson Symphony Center, which marks its 25th anniversary in September 2014.

The DSO will hold a week-long celebration featuring an open house, special performances and more, ending with the annual DSO Gala on September 13.

The orchestra will bring back its ReMix series and expand it to three different weekends, including one during the Soluna festival. The ReMix concerts take place in Dallas City Performance Hall, which is a more intimate and relaxed atmosphere than the Meyerson.

Conrad Tao, who composed The World Is Very Different Now for the JFK Memorial Concert in 2013, has been appointed the DSO's artist-in-residence for the new season. His duties will include participating in the ReMix series and performing during Rachmaninoff's Rhapsody on a Theme by Paganini in January 2015.

Other concerts will include the U.S. premiere of Wolfgang Rihm's Triple Concerto, a recital series designed to showcase the Meyerson's Lay Family Organ, a Rodgers & Hammerstein tribute and one featuring classic songs from Disney animated movies.

Season tickets for the 2014-2015 season are now on sale, while individual tickets will go on sale in late summer. For the first time, the DSO is offering a "Super Pops" package that includes all nine pops concerts, as well as five classical concerts. All subscriptions can be purchased by calling 214-692-0203 or going to www.dallassymphony.com.

The DSO's home, the Meyerson Symphony Center, celebrates its 25th anniversary in September 2014.

Photo by Andreas Praefcke

The DSO's home, the Meyerson Symphony Center, celebrates its 25th anniversary in September 2014.

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Final bow

Dallas Opera CEO steps down and departs for Canada — again

Photo by WJNPHOTO

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For the second time in a decade, a Dallas Opera CEO is leaving Dallas and heading to Canada: Ian Derrer, who has been the TDO Kern Wildenthal General Director and CEO since 2018, will not renew his contract when it concludes at the end of this fiscal year, TDO announced in a release on February 10.

Derrer has been named General Director of the Canadian Opera Company (COC) in Toronto and will assume the role on July 1, the release says.

“This is a bittersweet moment for The Dallas Opera,” said Board Chair Quincy Roberts in a statement. “While we are thrilled for Ian and his new adventure, we’re sorry to lose such a creative and collaborative leader. His tenure with the company has been marked by great successes, including the recent fundraising campaign which has strengthened our fiscal position. We are grateful for his dedication to advancing opera in North Texas, and we wish him well.”

Derrer, a graduate of the SMU's Meadows School of the Arts, became the eighth general director in TDO's history. It marked a return to Dallas for Derrer (then the general director of Kentucky Opera), who served as artistic administrator of the Meadows School from 2014-16.

Derrer was named head of TDO in 2018, less than four months after then-CEO and general director Keith Cerny announced his resignation and headed for a post in Canada: as general director and CEO of Calgary Opera.

Cerny was lured back to North Texas the next year to become CEO of the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra, a position he still holds.

Dallas Opera administrators praised Derrer's tenure with the company, including his steady navigating of the pandemic; creating innovative ways to reach worldwide audiences; raising $54.5 million in six months and doubling its endowment; and commissioning and mounting multiple world premieres, the most recent of which garnered worldwide attention and rave reviews: Joby Talbot and Gene Scheer’s The Diving Bell and the Butterfly.

“I am truly proud of the work that we’ve accomplished here in Dallas, and I know that I leave this great company in a solid position for its future,” said Derrer in a statement. “I am so very fortunate to have been able to work with a board, staff, and community that deeply loves opera, especially our music director, Emmanuel Villaume. While I look forward to this new opportunity with COC, I offer my sincerest gratitude and admiration to everyone at TDO and to the generous arts community in North Texas.”

TDO has not announced plans for a search for Derrer's replacement.

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