Meadows junior Mikayla C. Dobson to have work premiered by Greater Dallas Youth Orchestra (GDYO) on Feb. 19

DALLAS (SMU) — Mikayla C. Dobson, a junior majoring in music composition and piano performance at SMU Meadows School of the Arts, will have a new work premiered by the Greater Dallas Youth Orchestra (GDYO) at its concert on February 19 in Dallas City Performance Hall.

The work, titled Cruelty Ironic Waves Washing, was commissioned by the GDYO last fall.

Mikayla C. Dobson

“I was very excited to learn about my opportunity to collaborate with the GDYO,” said Dobson. “I wrote cruelty ironic waves washing as an experiment in color, considering the ensemble and likening it to a palette, and seeing what new and fascinating combinations of colors and textures I could build up from the sound.”

Though still an undergraduate, Dobson has already won awards for her compositions and performances. Her work has been played by orchestras including the Meadows Symphony Orchestra, the Boston University Tanglewood Institute Young Artists Orchestra, the Booker T. Washington High School Symphony Orchestra and the Dallas Symphony Orchestra, which programmed her Piano Concerto No. 1 in their subscription series in March 2015. Dobson’s chamber music has been performed by musicians such as Matt Albert, founding member of eighth blackbird, and David Cooper, principal horn of the Dallas Symphony. Since 2013, she has served as composer-in-residence with the Dallas-based Avant Chamber Ballet, and to date has collaborated with them on two full-length productions.

Along with Dobson’s work, the GDYO concert will include the Karelia Overture, Op. 10, by Sibelius; Ravel’s Le Jardin Féerique from Ma Mère L'Oye; Malcolm Arnold’s English Dances (Set Two); and Radetzky March by Strauss. In addition, the GDYO Wind Symphony will present works by John Mackey, Michael Daugherty, David Biedenbender and Viet Cuong.

The concert takes place at 7:30 p.m. Sunday, February 19 in Dallas City Performance Hall, 2520 Flora Street, Dallas 75201. Tickets are available through the GDYO website, by calling the GDYO office at 214-528-7747, or at the Dallas City Performance Hall box office the day of the concert.  Advance tickets are $10 for adults and $5 for students; tickets purchased at the door are $12 for adults and $5 for students.

ABOUT GDYO

The Greater Dallas Youth Orchestra is funded in part by the City of Dallas Office of Cultural Affairs, TACA, and the Texas Commission on the Arts, with funding from the State of Texas and the National Endowments for the Arts.  The GDYO was founded in 1972 by parents, educators and members of the Dallas music community. It has grown to include two full orchestras, three string orchestras, a wind symphony, a flute choir and eight jazz combos in the Jazz Institute. In addition to performing at the Meyerson, the GDYO tours internationally, including a trip to China in the summer of 2007, a tour of Germany and the Czech Republic in 2012 and a tour to China in 2015. The GDYO program offers training to more than 450 talented youth musicians, ages 8 to 18. For more information, visit www.gdyo.org. 

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