https://www.orchestraofnewspain.org The mission of the Orchestra of New Spain is:
• Introduction in concert of the neglected repertory of the Spanish 17th and 18th centuries, and exploration of the Hispanic heritage of which it is a part; educating the public on the importance of the repertory and its broader cultural implications.
• Performance of other renaissance, baroque, classical and romantic repertories on period instruments.
• Performance of alternative repertory, from other periods and of other provenance. The Orchestra of New Spain is a professional period-instrument baroque orchestra and chorus specializing in, but not limited to, the music of Spain and its sphere of New Worlds influence. It was created in 1989 for as the Hispanic offering for the opening of the Meyerson Symphony Center and to celebrate the Hispanic orientation of the Guadalupe Cathedral in the life of the aborning Dallas Arts District. Seeking to serve the Hispanic community it began its continuing educational activities in West Dallas with in-school concerts in 1996. What started as small in-school concerts of our annual production has now grown to include an ongoing program of In-School Strings Lessons for Dallas ISD schools, an annual Summer Strings Camp for DISD string players, an annual staged production designed for young people, and ongoing concerts and other events in DISD, Diocesan and other schools. The Orchestra is perhaps the most significant purveyor of Spanish baroque musical masterworks in the world, with two CDs to its credit and its national and international influence assured through the tours it has been invited to undertake: 2007 to Santa Fe, NM, to represent the Spanish Ministry of Culture; 2012, to the Festival of Early Music in Santa Cruz, Bolivia; and the Cervantino Festival in Mexico; 2008, Washington DC, National Portrait Gallery and the US State Department as the event for the 50th anniversary of the International Fulbright Program in Spain. Each year, ONS alternates between a flamenco production and an opera stage production. The Orchestra’s staged productions of Spanish theatrical and musical works began in the opening season of the City Performance Hall in 2013: a series of annual staged performances of zarzuela (Spanish operetta) that have inspired a Renaissance of the same repertory in Madrid’s theaters. They have brought to Dallas major international Spanish and Hispanic theater artists to work alongside its extraordinary team of Dallas musicians—instrumentalists and singers—actors and dancers to produce modern premières of major works that have lain dormant for three centuries. In February 2018, our opera production of Achille in Sciro will be the first modern production of an 18th c. Spanish opera (as opposed to zarzuela or operetta) in the U.S., offering a glimpse of the musical wealth of Spanish culture during the era of Zurbaran, Velazquez and Goya. More info about the Orchestra of New Spain can be found on our website: www.orchestraofnewspain.org
