In tune with the times

Dallas Symphony takes shows on the road with 16-foot mobile concert truck

If audiences can't go to Dallas Symphony Orchestra concerts this holiday season, the orchestra will haul the concerts to them. A mobile venue called The Concert Truck will take up residency with the DSO, rolling out small pop-up shows around the city through mid-December.

The concerts will be a collaboration among DSO musicians, members of other arts organizations (including Booker T. Washington High School for the Performing Arts, Dallas Theater Center, and Dallas Black Dance Theatre), and concert pianists Susan Zhang and Nick Luby.

Zhang and Luby founded The Concert Truck in 2016 as a mobile concert stage that could take classical chamber music directly to communities. According to their website, they converted a 16-foot box truck into a fully functioning concert hall on wheels, complete with lights, sound system, and piano. The truck won Most Original Idea in Social Enterprise in the 2018 Johns Hopkins University Business Plan Competition.

The founders take the truck all over the the country, performing alone and with other musicians at a range of venues, according to a release. This fall, they've partnered with The Kennedy Center’s Washington National Opera, University of South Carolina, and more.

Zhang and Luby will perform in all of the upcoming Dallas shows.

“Our musicians have been wonderful to volunteer to play chamber music around the city. Since May they have done more than 80 appearances in many different locations,” says Kim Noltemy, Ross Perot President & CEO of the Dallas Symphony, in a release. “As the weather has gotten cooler, we looked for a way to continue this music-making, and we found The Concert Truck."

Dallas-area concerts will be held outdoors in both traditional and nontraditional venues, including Neiman Marcus Garden at NorthPark Center, The Sound at Cypress Water, and UT Southwestern Medical. Audiences and performers will be able to maintain a safe distance while enjoying live performances, the DSO assures.

Each concert will last 45 to 60 minutes and will be free to attend.

"This will be an incredible method for the DSO to perform outside the Meyerson in a very professional manner," Noltemy says. "We are delighted to be able to share the stage, literally, with our colleague arts groups in Dallas and take the show on the road to our audiences around the city. We are so thankful to Susan and Nick for the vision and idea to create this innovative mobile stage.”

Here's the current Concert Truck pop-up concert schedule, with more details and locations to come, they say. Pianists Zhang and Luby will perform at all events. (Other artists and locations are subject to change.)

Keep up with the truck’s location at mydso.com.

Saturday, November 21: The Potter’s House Church
Members of the DSO

Sunday, November 22 at 2 pm: The Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza
Members of the DSO

Monday, November 23 at 6:30 pm: Medical City Dallas Hospital
Members of the DSO

Wednesday, December 2 at 5:30 pm: The Ronald McDonald House
Members of the DSO

Thursday, December 3-Friday, December 4 at 6 pm: Neiman Marcus Garden at NorthPark Center
Members of the DSO

Saturday, December 5 at 3 pm: The Sound at Cypress Water
Susan Zhang and Nick Luby, piano

Sunday, December 6 at 4 pm: Neiman Marcus Garden at NorthPark Center
Members of the DSO

Tuesday, December 8 at 3:30 pm: Booker T. Washington HSPVA
BTW Students

Wednesday, December 9 at 12 pm: UT Southwestern Medical – Clements Hospital
Members of the DSO

Wednesday, December 9 at 5:30 pm: Klyde Warren Park
Members of Dallas Theater Center's Diane and Hal Brierley Resident Acting Company with Members of the DSO

Thursday, December 10 at 6 pm: HALL Arts Hotel – Urban Garden
Members of the DSO

Friday, December 11 at 3:30 pm: Booker T. Washington HSPVA
BTW Students

Friday, December 11 at 6 pm: Klyde Warren Park
Members of the DSO

Saturday, December 12 at 12:30 pm – Location TBC
Members of Dallas Theater Center's Diane and Hal Brierley Resident Acting Company with Members of the DSO

Sunday, December 13 at 12 pm: The Nasher Sculpture Center
Members of the DSO

Sunday, December 13 at 3:30 pm: Meyerson Symphony Center
Dallas Black Dance Theatre's DBDT: Encore! with Members of the DSO

Monday, December 14 at 10:30 am: Greiner Middle School
Members of the DSO

Tuesday, December 15 at 9 am: Eduardo Mata Elementary School
Members of the DSO

Wednesday, December 16 at 3 pm: The Landon at Lake Highlands
Members of the DSO

Thursday, December 17 at 2 pm: Methodist Hospital Dallas
Members of the DSO

Thursday, December 17 at 7 pm: St. Paul United Methodist (with caroling)
Singers from St. Paul Choir with Members of the DSO

Friday, December 18: Trinity Basin Prep School, Ledbetter Campus
Members of the DSO

Friday, December 18 at 6 pm: Klyde Warren Park
Members of the DSO

The Concert Truck is a 16-foot box truck converted into a fully functioning mobile concert hall.

Photo courtesy of Dallas Symphony Orchestra

The Concert Truck is a 16-foot box truck converted into a fully functioning mobile concert hall.

concerts symphony music

Season Announcement

Echo Theatre introduces Dallas audiences to a season of strangers in 2026

Photo by Julieta Cervantes

'The Roommate' was recently on Broadway.

It's a "Season of Strangers" for Echo Theatre this year, as the Southwest's premier company for promoting dramatic works by women+ focuses on how someone different than you can change your life.

The 28th season begins with the new musical Silhouettes by Jordan Ealey and Ari Afsar. This score-in-hand workshop was developed in the aftermath of the fall of Roe v. Wade, and examines a pivotal moment in American history through the intersecting lives of two women navigating the decision to have an abortion. Echo's managing and artistic director Kateri Cale directs, with Vonda K. Bowling as musical director.

In a joint statement, Ealey and Afsar say that Silhouettes was born from their need to process the emotional and political aftermath of Roe’s fall. “We continue to see that history is cyclical and equity is fleeting,” they say. “But when policy fails, art has the opportunity to step in. Silhouettes is a musical about choice, sisterhood, and intergenerational courage.”

They add that presenting the work in Dallas reflects their commitment to community-building in states like Texas, where bans and restrictions have made women and gender minorities particularly vulnerable. “We want this musical to be a safe and brave haven amid attempts to create a culture of fear and a reminder that people are not alone.”

It runs January 16-17, 2026, and admission is free, though a $20 donation is suggested.

The world premiere of You Must Wear A Hat by C. Meaker is next, and plugged-in Dallas theater fans might recognize the play from its reading at Kitchen Dog Theater in 2019.

Tuesday and Weeks make hats on the Great Barrier Reef, waiting for the world to end. It's described as "A play for two. And a rabbit."

C. “Meaks” Meaker (they/them) is a playwright, essayist, and teacher whose work often explores queerness, monstrosity, and the end of the world. Their plays have been performed and developed across the United States, including the Kennedy Center, Seattle Repertory Theatre, San Francisco Playhouse, Annex Theatre (Seattle), Hub Theater (D.C.), Fat Theater Project (Chicago), and About Face (Chicago). They’re a two-year finalist for the Dramatist Guild National Fellows program and a recent finalist for the Jerome Hill Theater Arts Fellow.

You Must Wear a Hat runs February 27-March 14, 2026.

The season closes with The Roommate by Jen Silverman. The play was on Broadway in 2024 starring marquee names Mia Farrow and Patti LuPone.

In it, a divorced Midwesterner takes a roommate from The Bronx. A relationship evolves and secrets unfold into a darkly comedic exploration of life choices. It runs June 19-July 4, 2026.

All shows this season will be performed at the Bath House Cultural Center, 521 E. Lawther Dr., in White Rock Lake Park.

Tickets range from Pay-What-You-Can to $40, with discounts available for students and seniors.

Additional events this season include Cake by the Lake on April 21, Echo's free birthday party fundraiser that also launches its reading series, Echo Reads.

Echo Reads runs April through September, presenting six plays in six month. All plays will be performed on Tuesdays at 7:30 pm, and then read the next day at different venues around the city.

Echo Offstage Podcasts is going monthly. The free podcast series interviews women+ who are making art and making a difference.

And Echo is already teasing its 29th season, which will begin in the fall of 2026 and run the more traditional September through August instead of the calendar year.

The season 29 opener is a co-production, the company mysteriously hints, involving three Dallas theaters, two shows, and an internationally known writer. We'll all just have to wait and see what this intriguing production might be.

echo theatre podcasts world premieres echo reads the roommate play theater