Dallas Arts District Annual Community Breakfast

Overview

Dallas Arts District

is proud to announce the return of the Community Breakfast, featuring classical artists Quinn Mason, Ava Pine, and Reginald Smith, Jr. as the featured speakers, December 1, 2021, Morton H. Meyerson Symphony Center.

Quinn Mason (b. 1996) is a composer and conductor based in Dallas, Texas. His music has been played by groups such as the Dallas Symphony, San Francisco Symphony, Utah Symphony, Orchestra Sinfonica Nazionale della RAI, NYO-USA and more. A multiple prize winner in composition, he is the recipient of awards from the American Composers forum, Philadelphia Youth Orchestra, Heartland Symphony Orchestra, ASCAP, and Voices of Change among others. As a conductor, he studied with Marin Alsop, James Ross, Miguel Harth-Bedoya and Will White, and has guest conducted orchestras around the country.

Soprano Ava Pine has enjoyed a rich and varied career on both concert and operatic stages, dazzling audience and critics alike with her rewarding vocalism and commitment to character. Ava first appeared with the Dallas Symphony in 2007 singing the Fauré Requiem, and has returned for performances of Handel’s Messiah, the Mozart Requiem, and multiple seasons of Christmas Pops concerts, which she holds as some of her most joyous musical experiences. In addition, Ava has performed leading operatic roles with Dallas Opera, Florida Grand Opera, Chicago Opera Theatre, Kansas City Lyric Opera, Opera Colorado and Tulsa Opera, among many others. She received a Grammy nomination for her 2011 recording with Ars Lyrica of Houston, singing the title role of Cleopatra in Hasse’s Marc’ Antonio e Cleopatra. She made her European debut with the BBC Symphony Orchestra as The Angel in the UK premiere of Angels in America, a role she first debuted with Fort Worth Opera. In 2017 Ava left singing as a full-time career and now balances musical performances with her work as a bone marrow transplant nurse for New York-Presbyterian Hospital.

Baritone Reginald Smith, Jr. has been lauded as a “passionate performer” (New York Times) with an “electric, hall-filling” (The Baltimore Sun), and “thrillingly dramatic” (Opera News) voice that is “one of the most exciting baritone sounds to come along in years” (Opera News). Reginald, a native of Atlanta, Georgia, is a Grand Finals winner of the 2015 Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions, and he is a graduate of the Houston Grand Opera Studio. Reginald Smith, Jr.’s 2019-2020 season opens with his much-anticipated debut at the Metropolitan Opera as Jim in Porgy and Bess, followed by Amonasro in Aida with the Houston Grand Opera and the Cincinnati Opera and Jake in Porgy and Bess with the Atlanta Opera. His orchestral appearances include Christmas Pops Concerts with the Dallas Symphony Orchestra and Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 with Oregon Symphony. Future engagements include stage debuts with the Lyric Opera of Chicago and the Santa Fe Opera.

Please review Meyerson’s Updated COVID-19 Protocols here: Meyerson’s Updated COVID-19 Protocol