20th Anniversary Season Celebration

The Lone Star Wind Orchestra celebrates 20 years of music-making and outreach with a program that honors our past while looking boldly toward the future. Featuring special guest composers and thrilling world premieres, this concert embodies the spirit of creativity that has defined our journey. Together, we mark this milestone season with a vision as vibrant and dynamic as the music itself.

The Lone Star Wind Orchestra and Music Director Eugene Migliaro Corporon, along with the Lone Star Youth Winds and Director Andrew Trachsel, present the organization’s “20th Anniversary Season Celebration” concert on Sunday, February 22, 2026, at 3 p.m. at the majestic Meyerson Symphony Center in Dallas.

To celebrate, the Lone Star Wind Orchestra is pulling out all the stops. The concert welcomes Grammy award-winning composer Michael Daugherty in attendance for the world premiere of the wind band transcription of Last Dance at the Surf. Back by popular demand, renowned and local favorite piano soloist, Aaron Kurz performs a piano concerto by composer Nancy Galbraith. The Lone Star Wind Orchestra collaborates with Dallas non-profit KnoxBox Dance to present a new dance film in the lobby of the Meyerson. The Lone Star Youth Winds presents Tyler Grant’s All the Earth and Air and gives the consortium premiere of Kevin Poelking’s Green Whispers. In addition, the concert also features music by James David, Clifton Williams and Joseph Wilcox Jenkins. The Lone Star Wind Orchestra and the Lone Star Youth Winds will join forces for the final piece of the concert.

Join us for this epic concert to celebrate 20 years of Music Changing Lives! Our 20th Anniversary Season Celebration is Sunday, February 22nd at the Meyerson Symphony Center in Dallas.

PROGRAM (subject to change):

American Overture, Joseph Willcox Jenkins

Green Whispers, Kevin Poelking
*Consortium Premiere

All the Earth and Air, Tyler Grant

Urban Light, James David

Concerto for Piano and Winds, Nancy Galbraith
*Featuring pianist Aaron Kurz

Last Dance at the Surf, Michael Daugherty
*World Premiere of the Wind Band Transcription

La Chancla, Dennis Llinás

The Sinfonians, Clifton Williams

ABOUT MICHAEL DAUGHERTY:

Multiple GRAMMY Award-winning composer Michael Daugherty has achieved international recognition as one of the ten most performed American composers of concert music, according to the League of American Orchestras. His orchestral music, recorded by Naxos over the last two decades, has received six GRAMMY Awards, including Best Contemporary Classical Composition in 2011 for Deus ex Machina for piano and orchestra and in 2017 for Tales of Hemingway for cello and orchestra. Current commissions for 2020 include new orchestral works for the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra and the Omaha Symphony and a concerto for violinist Anne Akiko Meyers who will give the world premiere with the National Symphony at the Kennedy Center in 2021.

Michael Daugherty was born in Cedar Rapids, Iowa in 1954 and is the son of a dance-band drummer and the oldest of five brothers, all professional musicians. As a young man, Daugherty studied composition with many of the preeminent composers of the 20th century including Pierre Boulez at IRCAM in Paris (1979), Jacob Druckman, Earle Brown, Bernard Rands and Roger Reynolds at Yale (1980-82), and György Ligeti in Hamburg (1982-84). Daugherty was also an assistant to jazz arranger Gil Evans in New York from 1980-82. In 1991, Daugherty joined the University of Michigan School of Music, Theatre and Dance as Professor of Composition, where he is a mentor to many of today’s most talented young composers. He is also a frequent guest of professional orchestras, festivals, universities and conservatories around the world. Daugherty’s music is published by Peermusic Classical/Faber Music, Boosey & Hawkes and Michael Daugherty Music.

ABOUT AARON KURZ:

Engaging audiences with his charismatic and moving performances, American pianist Aaron Kurz enjoys a burgeoning career. He has captivated audiences across three continents, in venues ranging from Carnegie Hall in New York to the Palace of Peace and Harmony in Astana, Kazakhstan. His performances have been lauded by the press, called both “nuanced musical journeys” (Belgium’s Le Soir) and “a lesson in pianism” (England’s Cambridge Independent). Aaron’s playing has also garnered acclaim in competitions, winning top prizes in the New York, Los Angeles, Virginia Waring, and World Piano Teachers Association International Piano Competitions, among others. An avid performer, he has played extensively in North America, Europe, and Asia. In recent years, his playing took him to China, where he gave performances and a masterclass, and he is poised to return to Asia for a multi-country tour in Spring of 2025.

Aaron holds recent degrees from SFCM (studying with Jon Nakamatsu and Jeremy Denk) and Yale (studying with Boris Berman), and he is now pursuing a DMA at the University of Texas, under the tutelage of Anton Nel. Other previous teachers include Ethel Fang, Carol Leone, Logan Skelton, Alexander Kobrin, Ian Jones, and Norma Fisher. Aaron is also a teacher himself and maintains his own private teaching studio in Austin, where he hopes to pass on his knowledge to the next generation. In his spare time, he loves reading, watching sports, and spending time with his friends and fiancée, Vivian.

OTHER SPECIAL MENTIONS

• Composer Michael Daugherty will be in attendance
• There will be a pre-concert talk in the hall at 2:35 p.m.
• An art gallery display in the lobby showcasing concert posters designed by artist Thomas Nynas

TICKETS: