Texas Instruments, thank you for 20 years!

With the 2020/21 Season, the Dallas Symphony Orchestra gratefully acknowledges Texas Instruments for 20 years of exceptional music for our community as the Classical Series sponsor. TI has been a leading corporate partner for the DSO for nearly 70 years.

In 2001, at the launch of the Classical Series, the Dallas landscape and the DSO looked remarkably different. The Meyerson was celebrating its 13th year as the home of the DSO, and Andrew Litton was the Music Director on the podium. And while the series was new at the time, our partnership with TI was decades strong. Today, the leadership of TI continues to be a force in the DSO’s artistic and community growth, helping the DSO to reach larger and more diverse audiences in North Texas and to play an important role in the thriving arts and culture scene in Dallas.

“In each city, there are institutions that have shaped history and culture,” said Kim Noltemy, Ross Perot President & CEO of the Dallas Symphony Orchestra. “In Dallas, Texas Instruments is an extraordinary example of a corporate culture dedicated to the vitality and enrichment of its headquarters’ hometown and for the people who live there. TI leads by example and instills civic responsibility and pride in their employees. It is through partnerships and long-term commitments such as the DSO’s relationship with TI that true cultural and artistic potential is reached.”

Each season, the DSO shares music with hundreds of thousands of audience members through the TI Classical Series, Pops Series, Family Concerts and Youth Performances. TI’s support has allowed the DSO to expand its community reach and share the gift of music beyond traditional symphony audiences, including 35,000 area children. The Young Strings program, founded in 1992, nurtures young musicians from neighborhoods that are traditionally under-resourced.  The program allows diversity of experiences and backgrounds on the orchestra stage while giving underprivileged kids the chance to express themselves and open their eyes to their own artistic power. Similarly, the new Young Musicians program helps participants fulfill their potential by learning the value of individual responsibility coupled with teamwork and has successfully reached more than 500 elementary-aged children with free lessons and instruments.

The founders of TI cultivated a dedication to corporate responsibility and philanthropy that has defined generations of giving and volunteering among its employees – known as “TIers” – and the community. In addition to philanthropic support, TIers actively engage as DSO patrons, volunteers and board members. Joe Hubach, retired Senior Vice President and General Counsel for TI, was the most recent TIer to serve as Board of Governors Chairman, from 2013-2017. Krunali Patel, TI Vice President, Design and Manufacturing Solutions, now serves on the Dallas Symphony Executive Board, along with Joe. Sam Self, retired TI Foundation chairman and TI Controller, also served as interim president and CEO of the DSO. Joe, Sam and Krunali are strong leaders and vocal champions for the DSO, as are numerous TIers who enthusiastically spread their love of music and equitable access to arts throughout their ranks and communities.

“We believe the arts help make Dallas a vibrant place to live and are a key building block of a strong community,” said Andy Smith, Executive Director of the Texas Instruments Foundation and TI Director of Giving and Volunteering. “By partnering with arts organizations such as the Dallas Symphony Orchestra, the cultural fabric of our city is strengthened, and people are joined. Especially during these past few months, we’re all the more aware of how we need the arts and music to give reflection and hope for the future.”

The Dallas Symphony sincerely thanks TI for its outstanding partnership on this historic anniversary.