"The Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra opened its 2025-26 season with a jubilant evening that brought together the orchestra's talented musicians and enthusiastic patrons who champion their work."
- Stephanie Allmon Merry
Photo credit: Karen Almond
DALLAS MORNING NEWS
Review: Fort Worth Symphony enlivens standard rep in season opener
"Spano was the most sympathetic collaborator, precisely coordinating the orchestra with Hough’s expressive nuances."
- Scott Cantrell
Photo credit: Karen Almond
EarRelevant
Spano’s leadership and Hough’s brilliance fuel revelatory season opener for Fort Worth Symphony
"The Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra continues to reach ever higher levels of professionalism and its stature as a major orchestra."
- Gregory Sullivan Isaacs
Photo credit: Karen Almond
OnStage NTX
‘Sibelius, Grieg, Brahms’ @ Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra
"The orchestra is in top form, and the soloist is dynamically superb as the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra opens its 2025-26 classical season this weekend at Bass Performance Hall under the baton of music director Robert Spano."
- Wayne Lee Gay
Photo credit: Karen Almond
FWSO Welcomes Resident Conductor Stephanie Rhodes Russell
The Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra is delighted to announce that Stephanie Rhodes-Russell has been named Resident Conductor for the 2025-2026 season. She will conduct the Stars of the Symphony concert on August 20, featuring soloists from the FWSO orchestra, and the Wild West Rodeo Pops concerts on January 16 and 17, 2026 featuring iconic Western images from the Sid Richardson Museum in Fort Worth. She will also conduct a wide range of educational and community-based concerts during her tenure.
President and CEO Keith Cerny noted, "I first observed Stephanie Rhodes Russell's conducting 10 years ago when she was part of the inaugural class of conductors at the Hart Institute for Women Conductors I founded in Dallas. Since then, her career has flourished, leading to many significant symphony and opera engagements. FWSO Music Director Robert Spano and I are very happy to welcome Stephanie as part of the symphony's artistic leadership team."
Please direct media inquiries to Monica Sheehan at marketing@fwsymphony.org.
Fort Worth Magazine
Fort Worth Symphony ‘Stars’ Set to Shine at Bass Hall
"That legacy continues with “Stars of the Symphony” — a concert that feels uniquely Fort Worth, blending elegance, daring, and community pride. It’s a reminder that the musicians who perform Brahms and Bernstein with effortless polish week after week are also soloists in their own right."
Photo credit: Randal Vanderveer
ARTS AND CULTURE TEXAS
Fort Worth Symphony: From Beethoven and Brahms to the Bard and Ballet
"The Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra still has its eye on Beethoven, Brahms, Debussy and their ilk. But it will peek beyond its artistic home turf next season, when it will share Bass Performance Hall with actors, dancers and even masterpieces of Spanish painting."
- Steven Brown
Photo credit: Karen Almond
Fort Worth Report
How Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra is enhancing its concerts through visual elements
"The duo came up with a shared artistic vision that has elevated the symphony orchestra’s visual and contextual elements in recent years: Theater of a Concert."
- David Moreno
Photo credit: Karen Almond
Delaware Symphony Orchestra
Announcing the Delaware Symphony Orchestra's New Music Director, Michelle Di Russo
"This orchestra is a cultural treasure of Delaware with limitless potential, and I’m honored to have been entrusted with its future.
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- Michelle Di Russo
CultureMap
Fort Worth Symphony Gala-goers party to the tune of a million bucks
“In all, the Gala raised a record-breaking $1,076,000 toward FWSO's Adventures in Music Program, which brings music into the lives of more than 20,000 students annually in North Texas."
- Stephanie Allmon Merry
Photo Credit: Jill Johnson
EarRelevant
FWSO’s ‘Dutchman’ delivers world-class opera in semi-staged splendor
"This was as successful a performance of the opera as you would experience in any of the world’s great houses."
- Gregory Sullivan Isaacs
Photo credit: Karen Almond
Onstage NTX
Wagner’s ‘The Flying Dutchman’ @ Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra
"And this is unquestionably a fine performance of Wagner's legend-inspired score. The Fort Worth Symphony, in full Wagnerian force, is in top form this weekend, with precise and rich tone from the string sections."
- Wayne Lee Gay
Photo credit: Karen Almond
DALLAS MORNING NEWS
Review: The Fort Worth Symphony’s vivid ‘Flying Dutchman’
"The orchestra, which is very good these days, gave one of its finest performances. Spano stirred up thrilling storms of sound — those brasses! — but he was no less attentive to the score’s delicacies."
- Scott Cantrell
Photo credit: Karen Almond
EarRelevant
No fireworks, just fire: Ohlsson and Spano bring refined brilliance to Rachmaninoff at FWSO gala
"Ohlsson had the expressive freedom that his interpretation needed to fully flourish without having to worry about staying with a less sensitive conductor. The orchestra was equally outstanding. They are better every time I hear them."
- Gregory Sullivan Isaacs
Photo credit: Karen Almond
WRR
WRR101 Focus on the Arts: Bass Raymond Aceto returns with the FWSO for another Wagner warhorse
“There’s all the things we love about opera, right? Lust, rage…. all the wonderful things that, of course, unfortunately, are still timely – but it’s such a beautiful story and such a beautiful opera,” says American bass Raymond Aceto.
PaperCity
Breathtaking Floral Exhibition “Fleurs de Villes” Returns To Dallas’ NorthPark Center
“It is a pleasure to showcase the immense talents of our local florists as they partner with premier arts and cultural organizations to shine the spotlight on the significant work they do for our region."
- Nancy Nasher
Photo Credit: Tracy Autem Photography
DALLAS MORNING NEWS
Review: A gloriously played Mahler Ninth Symphony from Spano, Fort Worth Symphony
"With music director Robert Spano conducting, the Bass Performance Hall stage was filled with the large complement of musicians called for in the score. And, start to finish, the orchestra played gloriously. From the gentlest intimacies, to great explosions of sound, to the final strands trailing off into silence, this was a superbly engineered and polished performance."
- Scott Cantrell
Photo credit: Karen Almond
EarRelevant
Robert Spano and Fort Worth Symphony deliver a masterful Mahler Ninth
"Maestro Spano is a workman-like conductor...like a gifted artisan, he has a solid concept of the entire piece and how every note fits into that, like tiny bits of stained glass that combine into a magnificent window."
- Gregory Sullivan Isaacs
Photo credit: Karen Almond
FORT WORTH REPORT
Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra announces return of the Mercedes T. Bass Sounds of the Summer series in 2025
FWSO Summer concerts have become a hallmark of the Fort Worth summer experience, and the Sounds of the Summer Series expands on this seasonal staple, offering residents and visitors alike the opportunity to enjoy exceptional performances in beautiful indoor and outdoor settings.
Summer Series On Sale April 10
Dallas Morning News
Fort Worth Symphony plays Russian music, with dancers in Stravinsky’s ‘Rite of Spring’
"The Rite of Spring adds new layers of modernist dissonance and rhythmic asymmetry. Friday’s performance, at Bass Performance Hall, proved that, as Ezra Pound said of great literature, the Rite is news that stays news."
- Scott Cantrell
Photo credit: Karen Almond
EarRelevant
FWSO and glo merge movement and music in a bold pairing of Russian masters
"Spano delivered a vivid reading of this amazing score, with sudden explosions of sound contrasted with more vacant and lyrical passages. His tempo throughout kept a keen edge on the forward push through Stravinsky’s violent score.
It was a fascinating evening."
-Gregory Sullivan Isaacs
Photo Credit: Karen Almond
EarRelevant
Creative consonance: The evolving collaboration of Robert Spano and Lauri Stallings brings forth a new ‘Rite of Spring’
"In the anticipation that precedes an innovative performance, there’s an electric charge in the air, a silent promise of something extraordinary. This is the atmosphere surrounding the upcoming rendition of Igor Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring this weekend by the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra (FWSO), conducted by Robert Spano and choreographed by Lauri Stallings, featuring her intersectionality-centered movement platform, glo.
The creative relationship of Stallings and Spano, a blend of passion, innovation, and deep-seated mutual respect, is set to manifest in a way that will reframe your mind regarding the boundaries of ballet and orchestral music."
- Mark Gresham
Photo Credit: glo
FORT WORTH REPORT
Science fiction fans can hear their favorite film scores live at Fort Worth concert
"When preparing to conduct an orchestra through film scores, Di Russo said she studies the movie, its characters and what is happening during that moment in the music."
- Erin Ratigan
EarRelevant
Jake Heggie’s ‘Earth 2.0’ delivers a searing environmental plea and stirring call for climate action
On Friday evening, the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra, music director Robert Spano, and composer Jake Heggie brought the awesome communicative power of music to reiterate increasingly disastrous predictions about global warming.
Photo credit: Karen Almond
DALLAS MORNING NEWS
Review: Fort Worth Symphony Premieres New Jake Heggie Work
"...Heggie effectively exploited Murrah’s powerful countertenor voice and vivid delivery, with blazing high notes in soprano range."
- Scott Cantrell
Photo credit: Karen Almond
Dallas Morning News
Review: Guest conductor Jane Glover leads Fort Worth Symphony in Mozart, Ravel, Britten
"The Ravel ‘Tombeau de Couperin’ and Mozart ‘Paris’ Symphony were highlights."
- Scott Cantrell
Photo credit: Karen Almond
FORT WORTH REPORT
Latin American music takes center stage at bilingual Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra concert
Michelle Di Russo, who co-created the nonprofit Girls Who Conduct during the pandemic, wants to help welcome more people of all backgrounds into the world of classical music.
The orchestra’s upcoming concert, produced in partnership with Artes de la Rosa, aims to do just that.
EarRelevant
From elegance to wild drama: Fort Worth Symphony thrills under Spano, Steele shines in Schumann
"The level of playing in this orchestra continues to astound by its remarkable growth during my tenure in the Metroplex. The program was a challenging one, but they exceeded any expectations all evening."
- Gregory Sullivan Isaacs
Photo Credit: Karen Almond
Dallas Morning News
Review: Another superb concert from the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra
"If critics had the power people imagine, readers of this review would be battling for tickets for a repeat of Friday’s Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra concert. At Bass Performance Hall, start to finish, the concert was a display of high standards both technical and interpretive."
- Scott Cantrell
Photo Credit: Karen Almond
WRR101 Focus on the Arts
FW Symphony’s Principal Cello brings a Schumann favorite to Bass Hall
In this feature with WRR’s Amy Bishop, Allan talks about his favorite part of Schumann’s Cello Concerto, and the enduring popularity of the other piece in this weekend's program, Berlioz’s Symphonie fantastique.
DALLAS MORNING NEWS
Review: Up and down an Alp, brilliantly, with the Fort Worth Symphony
"If you’re a Dallas lover of orchestral music and haven’t heard the Fort Worth Symphony anytime recently, may I recommend a westbound trip? You’ll almost certainly be amazed at the high current standards of the Fort Worth orchestra."
- Scott Cantrell
Culturemap Fort Worth
A Strad-tastic night!
Fort Worth Symphony celebrates new season with ovation-worthy evening
"The Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra has a lovely tradition of opening each new season with an exhilarating concert followed by an elegant dinner that brings together the orchestra musicians and passionate patrons who keep the music playing.
Opening Night of the 2024/2025 Season recognized another vital part of FWSO's composition for success: the instruments played onstage. Specifically, one very special instrument on loan from a Fort Worth family."
- Stephanie Allmon Merry
Photo credit: Jill Johnson
Onstage NTX
Berlioz / Sibelius / Tchaikovsky @ Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra
"Conductor Spano and the orchestra provide the perfectly balanced canvas on which Ehnes paints his reading of the work."
- Wayne Lee Gay
Photo credit: Randal Vanderveer
Dallas Morning News
Review: A super season opener from Robert Spano and the Fort Worth Symphony
"Led by Robert Spano, starting his third season as music director, every section of the orchestra played with pizzazz where called for, well-bred finesse everywhere."
- Scott Cantrell
Photo Credit: Randal Vanderveer
95.9 The Ranch
Pat Green Talks Nerves, Family, and His New Project with the FWSO
"I've done the things that any musician would want to do but Bass Hall, here in my hometown...is at the top of my list." - Pat Green
FWSO Press Release
Jane Glover Appointed Principal Guest Conductor
The FWSO is excited to announce the appointment of British conductor Dame Jane Glover as our next Principal Guest Conductor beginning August 1, 2025.
Following her debut with the FWSO in 2023, the Dallas Morning News praised Dame Jane, “Hearing Glover’s spirited and elegantly nuanced Mozart 40th, it was clear she has this music in her blood and sinews. And the orchestra gave her every detail she’d obviously prepared and expressively conducted.”
360 WEST
Leading With a Vision
"Every move made to expand the symphony's reach has been purposeful, a consistent theme throughout Cerny's tenure." -Tori Couch
FORT WORTH REPORT
Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra, I.M. Terrell students share music, stage
For senior and double bass player Ava Hoyt, it was exciting to work with a larger ensemble — including a four-person bass section.
“I’ve been watching the symphony and all their work since I was a little girl,” she said. “So it’s really nice to be able to work with people that you’ve been looking up to and almost see as celebrities.”
FORT WORTH REPORT
Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra aims to connect with Latino audiences. Here’s how.
The number of Hispanic and Latino orchestra members across the country is low, but growing.
Over the summer, the League of American Orchestras released a study of 156 orchestras that showed growth in the number of Hispanic and Latino musicians: 4.8% today, up from 2.5% during the 2013-14 season.
The Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra is just one group working to address diversity both within its ranks and in its audiences.
Press Conference Video
If you were unable to attend our in person event or view our live stream, you can watch the full announcement below.
Press Releases
March 10, 2025
January 22, 2025
Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra Announces 2025-2026 Season
April 29, 2024
April 9, 2024
Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra Receives a Transformative Gift from Mrs. Mercedes T. Bass
April 2, 2024
Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra Announces The Mercedes T. Bass Sounds of the Summer Series 2024
February 26, 2024
Dame Jane Glover Appointed Principal Guest Conductor of FWSO
January 11, 2024
Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra Announces 2024-2025 Season
January 12, 2023
Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra Announces 2023–2024 Season
and Contract Extension for Robert Spano
January 12, 2022
Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra Announces 2022–2023 Season
Robert Spano’s Inaugural Season as Music Director
February 9, 2021
Robert Spano Appointed Music Director Designate
Media Contacts
Monica Sheehan
Director of Marketing
(817) 665-6500 ext. 121 | email