Mainstage

SYZYGY, the Meadows new music ensemble, opens its 2012-13 season with a program featuring Shaker Loops by John Adams, one of the most exciting composers in America today. This rhythmically driven work for string septet, led by ensemble director Matt Albert, will be paired with pieces for winds and percussion by Marcos Balter and David Lang.

The MSO opens its 2012-13 season with a program of 19th- and 20th-century works. Featured will be Lutoslawski’s Concerto for Orchestra, an imposing and dynamic piece with melodic themes inspired by Polish folklore; its premiere in 1954 made the composer internationally famous. Also featured will be Symphony No. 1: Holocaust by Simon Sargon, noted Meadows professor of composition, which was premiered by Eduardo Mata and the Dallas Symphony in 1991.

For his 43rd annual faculty recital at SMU, Dr. Palmer will perform the only harpsichord work by jazz master Duke Ellington, a sonata by Martinu, and Bach’s dazzling Toccata in D Major, as well as organ works by Franck, Howells and Duruflé.

Join the MWE & friends for a sultry celebration of all things tango, including red dresses, stilettos and tight black pants! The program will feature performances of Michael Daugherty’s Red Cape Tango from Metropolis Symphony; John Mackey’s red-hot Redline Tango; Frank Zappa’s Be-Bop Tango; and a set of Astor Piazzolla tangos arranged especially for the MWE. The program also will include works by Igor Stravinsky and John Philip Sousa – yes, even Stravinsky and Sousa were seduced by tango!

Two world premieres by nationally recognized choreographers highlight the Fall Dance Concert. Dallas’s own Bruce Wood will create a new work, “Zing a Little Zong,” set to classic American songs performed live by noted singers Gary Floyd and Denise Lee. Mel Tomlinson, former soloist with the New York City Ballet, premieres “Le Coeur de Ballet,” a romantic celebration of the feminine featuring 12 ballerinas in white tutus. Rounding out the concert is a restaging of “Getting There” by Emmy-winning artist Billy Siegenfeld, featuring his vibrant “jump rhythm jazz” technique.

Directed by Isaac McGinley.

Of this modern retelling of Aeschylus’s story of the 50 daughters of Danaus who run away from an arranged marriage with their cousins, The Guardian said, “Chuck Mee shakes up fragments of an ancient Greek trilogy, adds some 21st century preoccupations, and serves it up, with a knowing wink, on the Italian Riviera.” It’s delightful, witty, athletic, coolly ironic, and ... fiercely entertaining!

WORLD PREMIERE! Directed by Ezra Bookman.

In a world of hypnotic rhythms, unpredictable characters and lyrical language, we are introduced to Joya, who is “staring at the world until it cracks to reveal what’s in the interstices .... magic – pure hoodoo.” Interim is a marvelously seductive challenge to conventional structure, language and characterization by Barbara Cassidy, whose work has been seen at Flea Theatre, Little Theatre, Dixon Place, the New York International Fringe Festival and Bric Studios.

Directed by Aneesha Kudtarkar.

Described variously as searingly funny, disturbing, generous, merciless, sympathetic and engrossing, this play explores the complicated story of a Salvadoran nanny and the Anglo lawyer she works for as it open-heartedly examines the prejudices and misconceptions between two cultures. It asks: How do we make someone “the other”? What is the cost of doing so?

“That music always round me, unceasing, unbeginning, yet long untaught I did not hear; but now the chorus I hear and am elated....” So begins the poem penned by Walt Whitman – his words form the theme for the final choir concert of the season. The program will feature texts about the music that informs and accompanies our lives – music that is sometimes expected and obvious, and sometimes surprising and only subtly present. Our special guests on this concert will be the singers of the Garland High School Acappella Choir, under the direction of Cheryl Wilson.

Food, glorious food! We’re all food junkies – we even have television channels devoted entirely to food. What better way to salute this wonderful obsession than by presenting a delicious feast of music all about food? Don’t miss this delectable concert!

*In lieu of admission for these concerts, we ask that you make a donation to the North Texas Food Bank through ntfb.org; food items may also be donated in person at the concert.