Curated Texan
Cultural Event Raises Funds For Education And Community Outreach Initiatives
By Cynthia Smoot Photography by Kristina Bowman and Sylvia Elzafon
THE SCENE: Recently, classical music connoisseurs and influential figures stepped into the sophisticated elegance of the Dallas Symphony Orchestra’s 2024 Symphony Gala. More than 420 distinguished guests gathered at the Morton H. Meyerson Symphony Center for an unforgettable evening of dinner, drinks, a live auction, and an exciting after party.
The evening began with a champagne cocktail reception featuring the David Washburn Jazz Band playing New Orleans-style jazz on the Meyerson’s radial staircase. When the time came to transition to dinner service members of the DSO Young Musicians, playing Oh When the Saints Go Marching In, led a second-line-style procession down the steps and through the lobby with umbrellas waiving above heads signaling to guests that it was time to enter the dining area and be seated for an elegant dinner sponsored by Charles Schwab. The New Orleans theme continued with a Creole-inspired menu including a filet of beef, blackened gulf prawns, asparagus, Dauphinoise potatoes, and tri colored carrots.
THE VIBE: After dinner, guests moved into the Eugene McDermott Concert Hall to enjoy Lang Lang in his first appearance with the DSO orchestra since the 2016 DSO Gala, the sold-out concert sponsored by Capital One. Before the concert began, the 28 Young Strings, Young Musicians, and Teen Council students who were in the audience were acknowledged to thunderous applause. Before handing the mic over to the gala’s Co-Chairs Laura Harris-Means and Patrick Means, along with Honorary Chairs Cassandra and Avery Johnson, who welcomed sponsors, DSO stalwarts, and notables, Burns asked guests to mark their calendars for next year’s Gala, which will take place on Saturday, October 4, 2025.
Then, the legendary Lang Lang took to the stage on piano alongside the DSO, conducted by Music Director Fabio Luisi, where Rachmaninoff’s expressively virtuosic Second Piano Concerto was performed. Lang Lang gave two encores, Charlotte Sohy’s Romance, followed by his own arrangement of the Disney hit, Can You Feel the Love Tonight to thunderous applause. After the performance, guests returned to the Meyerson lobby which had been magically transformed into Club Toulouse, an after-party experience sponsored by Charles Schwab Bank, where those with the stamina enjoyed savories, desserts, and dancing to tunes spun by Endolena as DJ.
THE NON-PROFIT: Continuing the organization’s tradition, the annual Symphony Gala is one of the Dallas Symphony Orchestra’s largest annual fundraisers, benefiting the DSO’s life-changing education and community outreach initiatives, including Young Strings and Young Musicians. These programs touch the lives of more than 243,000 North Texas residents annually, including more than 30,000 children.
