Members of the Dallas Symphony Orchestra play in the Concert Truck at NorthPark Mall in Dallas on December 3. Photo by Lawrence Jenkins
“In an outdoor garden courtyard at Dallas’ NorthPark Center, a few dozen audience members huddle together in the cold … sipping hot chocolate while watching a string trio play selections from The Nutcracker,” writes Tim Giovanni in Friday’s (12/4) Dallas Morning News. “The musicians—members of the Dallas Symphony Orchestra—are performing inside a 16-foot box truck…. This mobile venue, aptly called the Concert Truck, was founded by Baltimore-based pianists Nick Luby, 31, and Susan Zhang, 32, in 2016. The Dallas Symphony has brought the piano duo, who are a couple, and their stage-on-wheels to Dallas this holiday season for performances from Klyde Warren Park to schools, churches and museums … The Concert Truck has come to town at a time when performing arts groups in the area have been crippled by the coronavirus pandemic…. ‘The only place we really can play for people—unless it’s in the Meyerson and they’re so far apart from each other—is outside,’ says Scott Walzel, the DSO’s associate principal bassoon. Walzel is leading the coordination efforts among the Concert Truck, local venues and DSO musicians…. The free performances are offering art lovers and the public some relief when they need it most.”
