Project Unity

The Dallas Symphony Orchestra and Dallas Black Dance Theatre are uniting for a concert to support Project Unity on Wednesday, November 11. This event will honor those who have lost their lives to racial violence and injustice – most recently, George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, Dallas’s Botham Jean, and Fort Worth’s Atatiana Jefferson.

Featured during the evening will be the world premiere of a DSO-commissioned work by award-winning 24-year-old African American composer Quinn Mason of Dallas. The Unity Concert will be streamed live from the Morton H. Meyerson Symphony Center.

Project Unity, founded by Pastor Richie Butler of St. Luke “Community” United Methodist Church, works to unify Dallas by implementing community-building programs to help heal race relationships between law enforcement and Dallas citizens, as well as other community programs.

Featured highlight of the night will be the world premiere of the Dallas Symphony Orchestra newly commissioned work Reflection on a Memorial by award-winning 24-year-old Dallas composer Quinn Mason.

Dallas Black Dance Theatre will perform an emotionally moving male trio, Evidence of Souls Not Seen, and an ensemble of DBDT dancers will perform an excerpt from the delicate and thoughtful Etudes and Elegy. Both ballets are a beautiful requiem that express mourning the deaths of those we hold close to our hearts. The Dallas Symphony Orchestra will accompany both works with music by Elgar, Mahler and Chopin.

The DSO will perform works by Black composers Adolphus Hailstork, Florence Price, and William Grant Still. Conductor Lawrence Loh will lead the DSO with soloists Michelle Bradley, soprano, and Reginald Smith, Jr., baritone. Both singers have appeared in performances at The Metropolitan Opera in recent seasons. They will perform a selection of vocal works to include spiritual and gospel arrangements.

The concert will also feature speakers Dallas City Councilperson Tennell Atkins; Richie Butler, Founder of Project Unity; Zenetta Drew, Executive Director of Dallas Black Dance Theatre; and Kim Noltemy, President & CEO of the Dallas Symphony Orchestra.

Members of the Dallas Symphony’s Young Strings program, a 28-year-old education initiative designed to increase diversity in America’s orchestras, will also perform.

To purchase in-person event tickets, visit mydso.com/concerts-and-events/tickets/unityconcert.
To purchase tickets for the livestream, visit mydso.com/concerts-and-events/tickets/unity-virtual