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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

Elderly man holding microphone and smiling surrounded by smiling and clapping people

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

Violinist James Ehnes solo

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

Maestro Robert Spano conducting 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

Pat Green and a FWSO musician holding a trumpet

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

View of orchestra from backstage

EarRelevant

Spano and the Fort Worth Symphony deliver a magnificent Mahler’s Fifth to close the season

"In writing this review, it was tempting to list all of the moments that made this performance so memorable, but that would require an extensive essay of esoteric musings. So, let me leave you with this statement:

This was probably the best performance I have ever heard of Mahler’s Fifth, as well as from the FWSO."

- Gregory Sullivan Isaacs

Orchestra musicians taking a bow

DALLAS MORNING NEWS

Review: Two recent American works, Mahler’s Fifth Symphony from Fort Worth Symphony

The Mahler got a fabulous performance, and Kevin Day’s ‘Departures’ was fun.

"It was worth the ticket price, and then some, to hear Gerald Wood Friday night at Bass Performance Hall. I can’t think I’ve ever heard the big horn solos in Mahler’s Fifth Symphony more stirringly, more elegantly played than by the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra’s principal.

His fellow horns played splendidly, too — as did the rest of the orchestra under music director Robert Spano."

- Scott Cantrell

pro ópera (en español)

CONCIERTO DE SIBELIUS Y WAGNER EN FORT WORTH

"La orquesta creó un marco adecuado y un acompañamiento esencial para las voces. Ya desde el preludio se escuchó la energía y frenetismo que a la partitura orquestal le imprimió el maestro Spano, nunca sometiéndose al leitmotiv, sino enfocándose y apuntando hacia la expresividad y el drama."

- Ramón Jacques

*English translation on page 6 and 7

FORT WORTH REPORT

Mercedes Bass, Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra’s ‘biggest fan’ details $5 million gift

“It wasn’t a question of if I would do it or I wouldn’t do it — I had to do it,” Bass said in an interview with the Fort Worth Report. “And I loved doing it.”

- Mrs. Mercedes T. Bass, FWSO Board Chair

Opera performers with Maestro Spano courtesy of Karen Almond

Onstage NTX

‘Wagner & Sibelius’ @ Fort Worth Symphony

"Conductor Spano beautifully commands the intricacies here, demonstrating and communicating a deep love and respect for this relatively neglected score. The orchestra supplies a magnificently radiant tone from the strings and solid response from the other sections."
- Wayne Lee Gay

a woman and three men holding hands for a bow

The Dallas Morning News

Review: A stirring Act 1 of ‘Die Walküre’ and Sibelius’ Sixth Symphony in Fort Worth

"Spano shaped and balanced the whole score with smarts and sensitivity, and the orchestra played splendidly."
- Scott Cantrell

Culture Map Fort Worth

Fort Worth Symphony unveils summer series replacing 2024 Concerts in the Garden

Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra is pressing pause on Concerts in the Garden for 2024, but the music is not coming to a full stop. In its place will beThe Mercedes T. Bass Sounds of the Summer Series, "featuring intimate live performances, new partnerships, and community engagements," says a release.

Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra President and CEO standing in marble stairway

WRR

WRR101 Focus on the Arts: A preview of FWSO’s 24-25 season – It’s BIG!

WRR's Kurt Rongey and FWSO President and CEO Keith Cerny Give a Detailed Overview of the 24-25 Season

Culture Map Fort Worth

Fort Worth Symphony Gala 2024 Enchants with Broadway and Opera Royalty

A beloved Broadway ballad performed on stage during the Fort Worth Symphony Gala Concert quite perfectly summed up the event: "Some Enchanted Evening."

Per tradition, the FWSO Gala had many parts, and the performance was just the start. After the concert's triumphant conclusion (Fleming and Gilfry's hilarious duet "Anything You Can Do (I Can Do Better)" from Annie Get Your Gun), patrons scooped up their gowns and boarded shuttle buses for a quick ride to the Worthington Renaissance Hotel, where a reception and dinner-dance awaited.

Jane Glover

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.”

Keith Cerny photo credit Ralph Lauer

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

FWSO Mahler's Seventh

The Dallas Morning News

Review: Brilliantly played Mahler Seven from the Fort Worth Symphony...

The Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra left no doubt of its excellence Sunday afternoon in a performance of Gustav Mahler’s Seventh Symphony. Led by principal guest conductor Kevin John Edusei, one section after another demonstrated tonal polish, technical mastery and expressive pliancy.

EarRelevant

Fort Worth Symphony and Dallas Black Dance Theatre unite forces in superlative “Petrushka”

This past Friday evening, the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra, under the baton of music director Robert Spano, presented a concert that featured a ballet. That is rather difficult to pull off in a concert hall because the orchestra takes up most of the available real estate, leaving only the stage’s apron for choreographic maneuvering. However, partnering with the Dallas Black Dance Theatre enabled Spano and the FWSO to pull it off as though this was the intended way to present Stravinsky’s ground-breaking ballet, Petrushka.

Dallas Black Dance Theatre

The Dallas Morning News

Review: Fort Worth Symphony, Dallas Black Dance present dazzling Stravinsky ‘Petrushka’

The music is Stravinsky at his most irresistible, replete with toe-tapping rhythms and hummable tunes (most actually derived from Russian folk songs). It’s playful, witty and just mischievous enough.

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.”

Peter and the Wolf Puppet

The Dallas Morning News

Fort Worth Symphony enlivens ‘Peter and the Wolf’ with puppetry

The Fort Worth Symphony is putting on a puppet show...and it’ll enliven Prokofiev’s Peter and the Wolf with large-scale puppets and illustrations while the orchestra plays onstage.

“There’s beauty in the illustrations that are being created, and there’s comedy in the process of setting it up,” says Judd Palmer, co-founder and co-artistic director of the Old Trout Puppet Workshop, based in Alberta, Canada.

Senior Manager of Education and Community Programs Josselin Pendleton

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. 

Culture Map Fort Worth

Alann B. Sampson Awarded Prestigious FWSO Medal of Excellence at Opening Night Celebration

Under the direction of Robert Spano, FWSO and 19-year-old pianist, Yunchan Lim lit up the audience inside Bass Hall on opening night. It was Lim’s highly anticipated return to the stage where he became the youngest-ever winner of the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition in 2022 (and has since become a piano rock star).

Following the concert, FWSO's most devoted supporters joined a dinner party hosted by chairman Mercedes T. Bass and the FWSO board of directors. The Opening Night Celebration honored Alann B. Sampson for decades of service to the orchestra, the Cliburn, and the greater Fort Worth arts and cultural community. FWSO principal pianist, Shields-Collins “Buddy" Bray introduced Sampson as recipient of the prestigious FWSO Medal of Excellence. Sampson joined the FWSO Board of Directors in 1991 and has been involved with the Cliburn since its inception.

PRESS RELEASE

2023–2024 Season Announcement & Contract Extension for Robert Spano

The Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra announces the 2023–2024 season programming for the Symphonic, Pops, Chamber, Meet the Artist, and Family Series, five special one-night-only concerts, and a Gala Concert performance featuring Renée Fleming. Music Director Robert Spano has also agreed to an extension of his contract and will remain in his position with the organization through the 2027–2028 season.

Full Release

360 West

Fort Worth Symphony music director is making himself at home in Cowtown.

During that 2022-23 season, Spano and symphony CEO and President Keith Cerny reimagined performances based on a vision called Theater of a Concert. This brought new experiences to Bass Performance Hall, including a collaborative performance of Stravinsky’s “The Firebird” with Texas Ballet Theater and an interactive staging of the oratorio “Haydn: The Creation.”

More collaborative performances and the third year of the Chamber Series at the Kimbell Art Museum are scheduled for the 2023-24 season.

Fort Worth Business Press

Quest for the best: Mercedes Bass and the Fort Worth Symphony reach for the stars

The Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra’s 2022-23 season raises the curtain on a transformative “new vision,” defined by heightened artistic excellence and directed at international acclaim.

The driving force behind this ambitious initiative is philanthropist Mercedes Bass, chairwoman of the orchestra board and a longtime classical music aficionado.

“There is no reason that Fort Worth should not have the best,” she said in an interview. “You can’t just have a vision. You have to have a plan and it is our hope that we will reach our goal.”

Fort Worth Report

‘By playing together, we really understand each other better’: New director of the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra discusses plans for his tenure

Fornoff: Mm-hmm. Is there anything that I didn’t ask you about that you want to mention or you think is important to know? 

Spano: That’s a great question. I think what’s important to know for anyone who hasn’t been to the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra is that they’re welcome here....

Read the full interview from Fort Worth Report by clicking below!

Arts & Culture Texas

Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra's New Vision

When the doors of Bass Performance Hall open for the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra’s first concert of their 2022-23 season this September, it will also mark the beginning of a new era for the 110-year-old organization. The new artistic vision, as FWSO President and CEO Keith Cerny describes it, is one that took months of discussion, planning, and strategizing with their newly-appointed Music Director Designate Robert Spano and members of the board, focusing on everything from programming to audience engagement.

In Loving Memory of Our Beloved

Ann Koonsman

The Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra (FWSO) is saddened to announce the passing of longtime President and CEO​ Ann Koonsman who passed away on June 21, 2021, having surmounted significant health challenges in her final years. She served the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra in multiple capacities over many years, both as a violinist and executive. In 1980, she became the Executive Director of the FWSO, a position she held with distinction until her retirement in 2004. She returned to the FWSO in 2006 as President and CEO, a position she held until her second retirement in 2011.

Full Release: Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra Announces Passing of Esteemed Former President and CEO Ann Koonsman

Star-Telegram Obituary

Fort Worth Business Press Obituary

CultureMap Fort Worth Obituary

CBS DFW Obituary

WFAA'S SCOOP JEFFERSON REPORTS

Youngest bassoonist and guest conductor making history with Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra

Principal Guest Conductor Kevin John Edusei and Principal Bassoon Joshua Elmore speak with WFAA Reporter Scoop Jefferson on their careers with the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra.

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.

FWSO Press Conference Jan. 11, 2024 from WFAA Production on Vimeo.

KRLD's CEO Spotlight - Keith Cerny, Ph.D.

Press Releases

Media Contacts

Carrie Ellen Adamian
Chief Marketing Officer
(817) 665-6500 | email

Monica Sheehan
Director of Marketing
(817) 665-6500 ext. 121 | email