Dallas Symphony Orchestra Announces Extension of Sophia Jani’s Contract as Composer-in-Residence
Jani will hold the position through the 2025/26 concert season
DSO will present the world premiere of her new orchestral work March 6-9, 2025, at the Morton H. Meyerson Symphony Center
DALLAS, TX (January 13, 2025) – The Dallas Symphony Orchestra, Music Director Fabio Luisi (Louise W. & Edmund J. Kahn Music Directorship) and Ross Perot President & CEO Michelle Miller Burns announce the extension of Sophia Jani’s contract as the DSO’s composer-in-residence (Lisa & Robert Segert Chair) through the 2025/26 concert season. Jani was first appointed to the position for the 2023/24 season.
The DSO’s composer-in-residence position is a multi-year appointment that brings contemporary composers to Dallas to work with the orchestra and Fabio Luisi, to program works with chamber ensembles and to work with Dallas-based student composers. The position also includes the commissions of new works to be premiered by the DSO during their tenure. Previous composers-in-residence include American composers Julia Wolfe and Puerto Rican composer Angélica Negrón.
“The composer-in-residence position reflects the Dallas Symphony’s unwavering commitment to nurturing the creative voices that define the future of classical music,” said Katie McGuinness, the DSO’s Wildenthal Families Chief Artistic Officer. “We are thrilled to continue this partnership with Sophia Jani and look forward to the inspiring music that will emerge from our collaboration.”
Jani’s tenure as composer-in-residence has included performances of her 2021 composition, Flare, which received its Dallas premiere February 29, 2024. The DSO also presented the European premiere of the piece in Jani’s hometown of Munich, Germany while on tour in summer 2024. Additionally, Jani participated as a panelist in the DSO’s annual Women in Classical Music Symposium in both 2023 and 2024.
The DSO will present the estreno mundial of Jani’s new orchestral work, I Wish You Daisies and Roses, in concerts March 6-9, 2025, at the Morton H. Meyerson Symphony Center. The program also features the Dallas premiere of Arlene Sierra’s new work, Kiskadee, which was commissioned by the League of American Orchestras with the generous support of the Virginia B. Toulmin Foundation. About her new work, Jani said:
“I am writing my piece for the DSO at a very special time in my life, since it is the first composition I am working on after the birth of my first child. What really touched me was this immense and infinite love you’re feeling as a parent and how much and with all your heart you wish your child a good future. With that came the realization that when you have something so infinitely precious in your life, you also become infinitely vulnerable. So, throughout this past year, I had to fight again and again not to sink completely into worries and insecurities. It was out of this energy that I started writing this piece. I think it’s one of the most intuitive compositions I’ve written so far, the result surprised me myself in many places and I’m incredibly excited and grateful that I was given the opportunity to capture such an important time in my life in the form of an orchestra piece and that it is going to be brought to life by such a wonderful orchestra as the DSO.“
For tickets and more information about Jani’s upcoming world premiere, visit Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 3 – Dallas Symphony Orchestra. Interviews are available upon request. Jani’s headshot is available for editorial use via the DSO’s Press Kit (photo credit: Manuel Nieberle).
Sophia Jani (b. 1989) is a German composer of contemporary classical music who takes a poetically minimalist approach to composition and belongs to a new generation of artists who were influenced early on by the boundlessness of the 21st century. Her music has been commissioned and performed by the New Jersey Symphony, the Munich Symphony, Bang on a Can, the Goldmund Quartet, vocal sextet Sjaella and pianist Eunbi Kim, among others. She has also contributed music to successful film, theatre, dance and album projects. Her Six Pieces for Solo Violin, that were released on Squama Recordings in 2024, has been praised as “a significant addition to the solo violin repertoire” (The Whole Note) and “a piece that feels timeless from the outset” (Bandcamp Best Contemporary Classical Music), with NPR calling her a “poet of the violin.” The work will have its US premiere in May 2025, at Long Play Festival in New York City.
In 2023, Sophia Jani was the Musical Artist in Residence of the Arvo Pärt Centre, as well as the recipient of the APC Residency Fellowship. Her debut album of chamber works, 2022’s Music as a mirror, received a nomination for the German Classical Music Prize Opus Klassik. In addition to her work as a composer, Jani is passionate about building a diverse and international community of artists that open-mindedly addresses the challenges notated music faces in the 21st century. To that end, she is one of the founders and artistic directors of Feet Become Ears, which is a platform that commissions, presents, and celebrates contemporary chamber music. Jani holds degrees from the University of Augsburg, the University of Music and Performing Arts Munich and the Yale University School of Music where she studied with Martin Bresnick and David Lang, made possible through the generous support of the Fulbright Foundation.
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SOBRE LA ORQUESTA SINFÓNICA DE DALLAS
The Dallas Symphony Orchestra, under the leadership of Music Director Fabio Luisi, presents more than 150 orchestra concerts each year 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. As part of its commitment to the community, the orchestra reaches more than 243,000 adults and children annually through performances, educational programs and community outreach initiatives. The orchestra offers more than 200 chamber concerts in neighborhoods throughout Dallas each year, as well as music lessons to more than 1500 students as part of its Young Strings and Young Musicians programs.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. For more information, visit dallassymphony.org.
MEDIA CONTACT
Chelsey Norris, Director of Communications | Dallas Symphony Orchestra
c.norris@dalsym.com | 813.362.5251