The Flaming Lips will headline the Dallas Symphony Orchestra’s Soluna International Music & Arts Festival this April, performing a rare orchestral version of their landmark album The Soft Bulletin. The DSO announced the programming for the sixth annual festival this morning, including several world premieres and special guest performances by Krono Quartet and Sō Percussion. The three week festival, which includes both classical concerts and contemporary collaborations, is taking place in the Dallas Arts District and across the city from April 3-21.
The Flaming Lips recently re-recorded The Soft Bulletin with the Colorado Symphony Orchestra. The band will play the record from start to finish in a one-night-only event with the DSO and the Dallas Symphony Chorus on April 19 at the Meyerson. Considering the group’s theatrical stage style and the festival’s history of over-the-top performances, you can expect there to be some visual art elements woven into the concert. Here’s a taste from Colorado.
The 2020 festival kicks off with Fabio Luisi conducting The Book with Seven Seals, a rarely heard oratorio, April 3-5. The first weekend will also include Rising Excellence, a show of new choreography by the Dallas Black Dance Theatre, Pulcinella/La Voix Humaine performed by the Dallas Opera in collaboration with the DBDT, and the world premiere of Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Du Yun’s Windows to Yushu.
Fan-favorite event Passport to the Park returns on April 4. The free, family-friendly event will bring Ethiopian singer Meklit, Native American hip-hop artist Supaman, Bruce Wood Dance, and Greiner Middle School’s Mariachi Los Unicos to Klyde Warren Park.
Other highlights of the festival include Sō Percussion presenting the Texas premiere of Julia Wolfe’s Forbidden Love, and performing Jason Treuting’s Amid the Noise with students from the DSO Young Strings Program.
Dallas groups Verdigris Ensemble and Voices of Change have collaborated to reimagine Missy Mazzoli’s Song from the Uproar: The Lives and Deaths of Isabelle Eberhardt. The new production, created in partnership with director and choreographer Joshua L. Peugh, explores societal ideas of gender roles through Eberhardt’s unbelievable life story.
Finally, Dallas-based artist and musician Carmen Menza has created an immersive piece called Negotiating Dialogues, in which sounds trigger visual projections. That will be staged at The Cedars Union on April 18.
Festival passes are on sale now starting at $75. The passes include admission to certain concerts–The Flaming Lips show isn’t included, but it does give you pre-sale access to purchase individual Soluna tickets. Single event tickets are available to the general public on January 30.
