Dallas Symphony Orchestra and The Black Academy of Arts and Letters announce the second season of Jazz at Symphony Center

Featuring Regina Carter, the Count Basie Orchestra, Oleta Adams, The Yellowjackets and Kevin Eubanks on the stage of the Morton H. Meyerson Symphony Center during the 2021/22 Season

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Dallas, Texas (September 24, 2021) – The Dallas Symphony Orchestra (DSO) and The Black Academy of Arts and Letters (TBAAL) announce the second season of Jazz at Symphony Center. This new season will feature five concerts of the very best jazz artists from around the world throughout the 2021/22 season. Jazz at Symphony Center is curated by Curtis King, the founder and artistic leader of The Black Academy of Arts and Letters. Tickets for the events range from $29 – $99.

“The DSO is delighted to continue this presentation series with Curtis and TBAAL,” said Kim Noltemy, Ross Perot President & CEO of the Dallas Symphony.  “Jazz at Symphony Center is a partnership that brings Curtis’s relationships and vast knowledge of the jazz space to the incredible venue of the Meyerson stage.”

“I have enjoyed working with and getting to know Kim and bringing this collaborative partnership to life,” said King. “We look forward to building on the success of the inaugural season and expanding TBAAL’s presence at the Meyerson and bringing our work to a broader community.

The Jazz at Symphony Center 21/22 season features:

October 21, 2021        Regina Carter

December 21, 2021    A Very Swingin’ Basie Christmas: The Legendary Count Basie Orchestra

February 26, 2022       Oleta Adams

May 22, 2022             The Yellowjackets

June 20, 2022              Kevin Eubanks

The DSO and TBAAL have partnered on programs and performances since the early 1980s. During one notable collaboration, DSO and TBAAL collaborated on a performance called Symphony in Black, which featured artists including The Jon Hendricks Jazz Singers, Phylicia Rashad and William Warfield and was conducted by Paul Freeman. The event led to long-term associations between the two organizations’ board members and patrons, facilitating connections during a particularly difficult time for Dallas. In addition, each January, TBAAL presents its annual Emmy Award-winning Black Music and the Civil Rights Movement Concert at the Meyerson. 


ABOUT THE DALLAS SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA
The Dallas Symphony Orchestra, under the leadership of Music Director Fabio Luisi, presents world-class orchestral music at the Morton H. Meyerson Symphony Center, one of the world’s top-rated concert halls. As the largest performing arts organization in the Southwest, the DSO is committed to inspiring the broadest possible audience with distinctive classical programs, inventive pops concerts and innovative multi-media presentations. In fulfilling its commitment to the community, the orchestra reaches more than 243,000 adults and children annually through performances, educational programs and community outreach initiatives.

During the pandemic, the Dallas Symphony was one of a few major U.S. orchestras to present socially distanced concerts with live audiences throughout the 2020/21 Season. Furthermore, the orchestra has offered more than 200 outdoor chamber concerts in neighborhoods throughout the Metroplex since the summer. The DSO continued online music lessons to more than 200 students as part of its Young Strings and Young Musicians programs and increased its online dissemination of concerts through a newly designed website and on social media.

The DSO has a tradition dating back to 1900 and is a cornerstone of the unique, 118-acre Arts District in Downtown Dallas that is home to multiple performing arts venues, museums and parks – the largest district of its kind in the nation. The DSO is supported, in part, by funds from the Office of Arts & Culture, City of Dallas.

ABOUT THE BLACK ACADEMY OF ARTS LETTERS

The Black Academy of Arts and Letters (TBAAL) is a Dallas, Texas, based multi-discipline cultural arts and educational institution located in the heart of downtown Dallas in The Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center, Theater Complex. Operating two performance theaters (1,750-seat Naomi Bruton Main Stage and 250-seat Clarence Muse Cafe), a Gallery, Gift Shop, rehearsal and administrative office space, TBAAL was founded on July 17, 1977, on Curtis King’s dining room table with a $250 personal investment. Retrieving the institution’s early history from a New York dumpster, King launched out on a single venture to revive and merge the purpose, goals and objectives of the 1897 American Negro Academy and the 1969 New York based Black Academy of Arts and Letters. Formerly called the Junior Black Academy of Arts and Letters (JBA), TBAAL is one of America’s main cultural arts centerpieces to feature renowned African American artists, showcase the budding talents of emerging artists and to serve as an educational laboratory to hone the creative skills of promising young artists. The only one of its kind remaining in the United States, TBAAL presents and produces more than 100 programs and attracts over 250,000 patrons and art enthusiasts, annually. For over four decades, the institution has produced a stellar roster of programs in numerous impressive American city venues: New York City (Apollo Theatre), Los Angeles, CA (Wilshire Ebell Theatre, The Vision Complex), Memphis, TN (Orpheum Theatre) and Washington, DC (The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Howard University Crampton Auditorium, ‘U’ Street Lincoln Theatre, Warner Theatre and National Theatre). Known for its national critically acclaimed “Black Music and the Civil Rights Music” concert held in Dallas’s Meyerson Symphony Center, TBAAL has received three EMMY Awards (Lone Star Region) for this concert. TBAAL trains thousands of youth in its preeminent Summer Youth Arts Enrichment Institute which has produced the likes of Grammy winners Erykah Badu and Roy Hargrove and Skye Turner, who currently stars on Broadway as the young Tina Turner in the “Tina Turner Musical” and is also portraying the young Aretha in the upcoming Aretha Franklin movie starring Oscar winner Jennifer Hudson.

Now approaching its fourth year, the institution created the annual Riverfront Jazz Festival, featuring more than 40 national/international and Dallas based artists; and the festival attracted more than 18,000 visitors and tourists from around the country in its third year. One of the institution’s greatest achievements, to date, is its partnership with the University of North Texas (UNT) which houses and digitizes TBAAL’s permanent collection of ‘original and rare’ archival papers, letters, programs, videos, photographs, etc. TBAAL operates with a nine member Board of Directors and a fifty member national Board of Advisors. For more information, visit www. tbaal.org

Media Contacts:

Denise McGovern | Dallas Symphony Orchestra

d.mcgovern@dalsym.com | 214.718.7094