Inside University Park United Methodist Church, the Orpheus Chamber Singers fill the chapel with the warm harmonies of contemporary American composer Shavon Lloyd’s “So Breaks the Sun.”
The echo of their voices is one of the sounds from North Texas that was featured in the BBC’s special “American Roadtrip” which aired this past weekend to UK audiences. BBC Radio 3, which primarily broadcasts classical music, selected Dallas-Fort Worth as one of four stops in the U.S. — along with Boston, Philadelphia and L.A. — to highlight American music amid the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence.
Rachel Gill, the BBC’s lead producer for the Dallas program, said she wanted to represent North Texas’ rich artistic landscape.
“What we've tried to reflect in the show is this idea of America being a real melting pot of cultures and different waves of immigration and cultures and ethnicities and how that's kind of created a different sound,” she said.
While the show centers on classical music, it also features other parts of the local music scene: a reference to UNT alum Norah Jones, a cowboy song from the Fort Worth Stockyards, an old Blues recording from Deep Ellum and a taste of Tejano music.
“We're playing some Tejano music, which I wanted to represent that part of Dallas. It's got a huge Hispanic population and musically that's really interesting,” she said.
The core of the show includes a specially-recorded taping of Orpheus and previous recordings of the Dallas Symphony Orchestra and Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra. The show also features conversations with respective leaders Maestro Fabio Luis and Music Director Robert Spano, as well as Hart Institute for Women Conductors alumna Shira Samuels-Shragg and Texas-born opera singer Michael Mayes.
David Grogan, a baritone singer who’s performed with Orpheus for about 20 years, said friends visiting from out of town are often surprised by the diversity of North Texas’ music scene.
“The North Texas music scene is vibrant…in terms of instrumental and vocal music,” he said. “I can sing just about anything I want to without driving more than an hour or two and it's wonderful.”
J.D. Burnett, Orpheus’ artistic director, said the group was intentional about selecting songs that reflect the breadth of American choral music, including the spiritual “Didn't My Lord Deliver Daniel” by Moses Hogan.
“These spirituals are just uniquely American because these songs were born here,” Burnett said.
“We were so pleased to be included in this program. Orpheus is such an important part of the musical life of Dallas, but part of our expanded mission is to make the work of Orpheus known in this region and in this country.”
Enslaved Africans in the American South sang spirituals, a type of American folk song, in the late 18th and 19th centuries, according to the Library of Congress. Typically sung in call and response form, spirituals are also known as coded protest songs and reflect African heritage and Christian music traditions.
Orpheus also performed “To Be Sung on the Water” by iconic 20th century composer Samuel Barber and “So Breaks the Sun” by contemporary composer Shavon Lloyd.
The Dallas show host Petroc Trelawny also stopped at Fort Worth’s Amon Carter Museum to look at some visual art. He spoke with Assistant Curator Michaela Haffner about 19th century American artist William Harnett’s oil painting “Ease,” a tabletop scene including a flute, violin and musical score.
Haffner said the realistic style of the painting makes it possible to identify the score as Vincenzo Bellini's 1831 opera “La sonnambula” about a sleepwalking heroine who is accused of infidelity.
“This is I think a humorous inside joke that Harnett makes by including this particular piece in the painting, because that opera is about the deception of appearances,” she said.
Haffner said it’s a metaphor for Harnett’s style of painting that’s meant to trick the eye.
The show aired Sunday in England and there are no plans to broadcast the special in the U.S. However, Haffner said it's an important opportunity to reflect the diversity of the arts in both Dallas and Fort Worth.
“I think that it's exciting for us, but I'm not actually surprised. I think about the landscape, art and music in the U.S., we [Dallas-Fort Worth] certainly hold our own,” she said.
