News and Events
The 2008 “Meadows at the Meyerson” event on April 29 to showcase the Meadows Symphony Orchestra, Artist in Residence Chee-Yun, and student accomplishments
The 15th annual benefit concert and showcase of Meadows School of the Arts talent, “The 2008 Meadows at the Meyerson,” was held at 7:30 p.m., Tuesday, April 29 in the Morton H. Meyerson Symphony Center, 2301 Flora St. in Dallas. Held each spring, the concert features the Meadows Symphony Orchestra and honors a community leader. This year’s honoree is noted arts patron and philanthropist Nancy Hamon.
Under the direction of conductor Paul Phillips, the Meadows Symphony will perform Tchaikovsky’s Capriccio Italien, Emmanuel Chabrier’s brilliant Espana and Manuel de Falla’s evocative and exciting First and Second Suites from The Three-CorneredHat. Guest soloist and new Meadows Artist in Residence Chee-Yun, a virtuoso violinist and winner of numerous international awards, will join the orchestra for a performance of Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto.
In addition, students from each division of the Meadows School will present performances and displays in the lobby before the concert and during intermission. Included will be a stage combat demonstration by theatre students; a reprise of the Spring Dance Concert performance of Three Pieces, accompanied by clarinetist Jonathan Jones; and excerpts from award-winning Broadway musicals, sung by voice and theatre students who studied with Broadway music director and Meadows alumna Kimberly Grigsby in a two-week master class last month. There also will be a lobby performance during intermission of the new Meadows Community Youth Chorus, a group of 26 fourth and fifth grade students from low-income neighborhoods in Dallas, led by Meadows music faculty member Bonnie Jacobi.
“For the past 15 years, ‘Meadows at the Meyerson’ has been one of our most important annual events,” said José Bowen, dean of the Meadows School of the Arts. “Thanks to the generosity of many supporters, it has raised hundreds of thousands of dollars that have benefited our students, our programs and our educational mission. This year, we are honoring Nancy Hamon’s extraordinary service to the community by dedicating the event’s proceeds to support SMU’s new Meadows Scholars program, which will help bring the best and brightest students from around the globe to the Meadows School of the Arts.”
Honoree Nancy Hamon is one of SMU and Dallas’s greatest art advocates, and is much admired for her service to a multitude of organizations in the community. She is a civic leader, arts patron, and philanthropist recognized for her vision and generosity, enabling cultural institutions to flourish throughout the Dallas area. Through her generosity and imagination, she has nurtured and transformed the city’s major cultural institutions, including the Dallas Museum of Art, the Dallas Opera, the Dallas Zoological Society, the Arts Magnet School of the Dallas Independent School District, the Dallas Center for the Performing Arts and SMU’s Hamon Arts Library. In 2000, SMU awarded her an honorary Doctor of Arts degree.
This year a new Meadows Scholars level has been created to recognize those who either permanently endow a Meadows Scholar at $150,000 or who make a $30,000 commitment to fund an individual Meadows Scholarship over four years. For additional information, call the Meadows Development Office at 214-768-4189.
The 2008 “Meadows at the Meyerson” corporate sponsor is Thompson & Knight. The 2007-08 season sponsors of the Meadows Symphony Orchestra are The Dallas Morning News and WRR 101.1 FM.
ABOUT CHEE-YUN:
Known for her romanticism and flawless technique, violinist Chee-Yun has performed with many of the world’s foremost orchestras, including the New York Philharmonic and London Philharmonic, and in venues worldwide including Carnegie Hall and the Kennedy Center. She is an active recording artist whose recording of Penderecki’s Metamorphosen Concerto (Naxos) with the composer at the podium was hailed by The Strad as an “engrossing, masterly performance.” An Avery Fisher Career Grant recipient and Young Concert Artists International Auditions winner, Chee-Yun can be heard frequently on National Public Radio’s “Performance Today,” on WQXR and WNYC radio in New York City, Public Radio International and numerous syndicated and local radio programs across the United States and abroad.
