When Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra president and CEO Keith Cerny brought music director Robert Spano on board in 2021, he wanted someone who could help him build the organization’s audience engagement.
The Fort Worth orchestra had been successful in attracting audiences to its concerts, Cerny said, but the organization wanted to appeal to a diverse and younger demographic as well.
The duo came up with a shared artistic vision that has elevated the symphony orchestra’s visual and contextual elements in recent years: Theater of a Concert.
Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra has seen a 25% increase in new patrons year over year since the inception of the concept. Theater of a Concert weekends typically see twice as many single ticket sales as a standard symphonic concert, according to the organization.
The goal has been to encourage audiences to think differently about what a symphony concert is and what it can be, but not control the experience, Spano said.
“I’m not delivering something to manipulate or dictate an experience to the perceiver, I’m putting something out there knowing that everyone’s going to participate in their own way, which is a much more complex and beautiful perspective,” he said. “It’s up to me to deliver and it’s up to everyone else to react.”
Robert Spano was promoted to the role of music director for Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra in April 2021. His contract was extended for him to stay through 2031. (Courtesy photo | Karen Almond)
Reimagining concerts with fresh perspectives
In October 2023, Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra started incorporating visual projections and images into its concert series, specifically puppetry. The organization invited The Old Trout Puppet Workshop, a Canadian company, to create a visual show during performances of Prokofiev’s “Peter and the Wolf.”
The Canadian company crafted large-scale puppets representing the characters of Peter, the wolf and other animals that assembled on stage like a pop-up book or jigsaw puzzle. The illustrations completed the musical narrative and provided a fresh perspective, Cerny said.
“We had our most age-diverse audience, I think we’ve ever had on anything,” he said. “We had people bringing babies in arms to see this and it in no way diminished the quality of the musicians playing.”
Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra has incorporated singers into its concert series, notably during performances of “Haydn: The Creation,” where singers moved around on stage while images related to the song’s lyrics projected on screens. An English translation was provided above the stage.
The orchestra also expanded its collaborations with North Texas-based artistic groups, including Texas Ballet Theater, to create hybrid performances where dance occurs on stage in front of the musicians.
The orchestra presented “Firebird” with the dance company in April 2023 as part of an initiative to explore Russian composer Igor Stravinsky’s ballet scores through different lenses, Cerny said.
“It was really, really moving choreography that had our orchestra think of it differently when they went back and played that piece,” he said.
New visual elements on the way
As audience members prepare to take their seats for the upcoming 2025-26 season, Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra is serving up new elements to keep listeners engaged.
The orchestra’s early spring 2026 production of “Shakespeare at the Symphony” will mark the first time actors are intertwined with the music. Members of the Dallas Theater Center will take center stage during selections from “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” and “Romeo and Juliet.”
“We’re creating a tapestry of scenes and music that was written for those plays,” said Spano, who will conduct the concerts.
If successful, Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra plans to continue incorporating actors into its concerts, Spano added.
Interested in attending a Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra concert?
The orchestra’s 2025-26 season kicks off Aug. 20 and ends May 24, 2026. The season is broken up into different series: Symphonic Series, Pop Series, Chamber Series, Family Series and Specials. For more information click here.
The orchestra is also launching a Spanish program incorporating iconic paintings from the Kimbell Art Museum’s collection as the first part of a three-year collaboration.
“Spanish Masters: An Evening of Music and Art” at Bass Performance Hall in late April 2026 will feature projections of some of the museum’s Spanish masterpieces during the concerts.
“We have capitalized on the things that are so spectacular in (the Kimbell’s) collection and also things that their expertise is curating for artistic enhancement,” Spano said. “It’s a great grab bag of possibilities.”
Guests can expect other fun surprises during other 2025-26 season performances, including “Symphonic Stories: Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland” in September and “Wild West Rodeo” in collaboration with the Sid Richardson Museum in January 2026.
As Cerny and Spano continue planning the 2026-27 season and beyond, the orchestra leaders know there are more ways to elevate the Theater of a Concert concept.
Do they know what those new elements are yet? No, but it is a continual exploration, Spano said.
“It’s certainly going further in terms of diversification, because there’s so many things that I’m sure we haven’t even thought of yet, but we will.”
David Moreno is the arts and culture reporter for the Fort Worth Report. Contact him at david.moreno@fortworthreport.org or @davidmreports.
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