Advising the Dallas Chamber Symphony

Just last month I posted an article about all the things I'm involved in. I do have a lot of pots boiling on the stove. This month I've added another. I got a call from Richard McKay who is the artistic director and principal conductor of the newly formed Dallas Chamber Symphony. He and I worked on a project together several years ago when he was a conducting graduate student at the University of Texas. I hadn't heard from him since so it was nice to catch up and hear what he's been up to.

He called to ask if I would be interested in helping them program some film music related concerts. He wants 25% of their seasonal performance schedule to be focused on film music and called to seek out any ideas I might have. We talked at length about it and explored my role with the orchestra. He sent me over a prospectus and gave me time to mull it over.

We talked again a couple weeks later. This time I had some firm ideas which he responded well too. I was also helpful in reacting to some other ideas he had. He asked if I would be willing to serve on their board of advisers. I said, "of course!" I now have a small list of duties to tend to and along the way will be their contact point for advice regarding the film music portion of their season.

I'm pretty excited about this. Championing film music is a big part of what I do. This definitely serves that role. When I first moved to Austin back in 1998 one of my goals was to earn the reputation for being "the guy" in Texas when it comes to film music. Less than fifteen years into my career, I'm seeing several manifestations supporting this goal including my role with the Dallas Chamber Symphony.

It's going to be a lot of fun for me to work with Richard on this. I applaud him for wanting to include film music in his programing. Before the first note sounds, I'm already a big fan of the Dallas Chamber Symphony.

This is an artist's rendition of the new Dallas City Performance Hall scheduled to open later this year. This will be the new home for the Dallas Chamber Symphony.