Special
Appearances by the Dallas Symphony Chorus
Hailed by the New York Times as
an "excellent" choir with a "robust sound"
and a
"dramatic edge", the Dallas Symphony Chorus is proud of its
string of successful Carnegie
Hall performances. In December of
1988 and 1990, Skitch Henderson invited the Chorus to
sing Christmas favorites with the New York Pops. Then in
January 1999, the Dallas Symphony Orchestra and Chorus
performed Walton's Belshazzar's
Feast at the revered New York
music hall for their first joint appearance in this
venue under the baton on Andrew Litton. The Dallas
Symphony Chorus has also appeared four times at Carnegie
Hall
with
the
Opera Orchestra of New York - in May 1998 performing
Donizetti's Poliuto,
in April 1999 to sing Halevy's La
Juive,
in May 2002 to sing Donizetti's Marino
Faliero, and most recently
Poncielli's La Gioconda
in April 2004,
all under the direction of Eve Queler and featuring some
of the newest voices of the New York opera scene.
Members of the Chorus were also invited to join the
Dallas Symphony Orchestra when they spent several
summers at the Vail (Colorado) Music Festival,
performing there first in July 2000, again in July 2002,
then in July 2005.
In July 1996,
on its second international tour (the first tour took place
in 1985 to Vienna, Salzburg, Ingolstadt and Leipzig), the
chorus performed Mahler's towering Symphony No. 8
in Jerusalem as
part of that city's 3000th-year celebration at the
invitation of Zubin Mehta and the Israel Philharmonic. The
Dallas Symphony Chorus received excellent reviews and
audience response from its six 1996 performances of the
Mahler "Symphony of a Thousand" with the Israel
Philharmonic, directed by Zubin Mehta. The chorus also gave
a special 4th of July performance at the home of American
Ambassador Martin Indyk for such dignitaries as Israeli
President Ezer Weizman and Prime Minister Benjamin
Netanyahu. In July 1997, the DSC performed Brahms'
Ein Deutches
Requiem at the Texas
Choral Directors' Association in San Antonio, Texas. The
success of that performance led the Chorus to a concert
of Mozart's Great Mass in
C and Puccini's
Messe di
Gloria with the combined Dallas and
Austin Chamber Orchestras as a "featured chorus" at
the American
Choral Directors Association's biennial National
Conference in San Antonio in March, 2001.
The 25th
Anniversary Concert Season of the Chorus saw a gala concert
on September 10, 2002 with selections from many great
choral works including Carmina
Burana, Cavalleria
Rusticana, and Die
Meistersinger, as well as a performance of
the Berlioz Requiem
in May 2003
and
a triumphant
third international tour to Europe in July 2003 with
concerts in Munich, Prague,
Vienna,
and Budapest
(Click on a city
name to see the respective concert poster!). The Chorus
returned with the Dallas Symphony to Carnegie Hall on
April 8, 2005 for a performance of Carl Orff's
iconic Carmina
Burana. In June 2006, the Chorus
took its fourth international tour, this time to South
America for the first time, with performances of the
Brahms Requiem
in Argentina,
Uruguay, and Brazil. The Chorus returned to Carnegie
Hall for the ninth time in January 2008 to sing
selections from Porgy &
Bess with Maestro Andrew Litton
and the New
York Pops and has been invited back
once again with the Dallas Symphony to perform the New
York debut of Steven Stucky’s August 4,
1964 at the inaugural Spring for
Music Festival in May 2011, which, incidentally, will be
Maestro Jaap Van Zweden’s Carnegie Hall debut as
well.
