Radio 3

The third of four special live programmes across the US, as 2026 marks the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. Live from WRR studios in Dallas, North Texas, Petroc Trelawny explores the musical life within one of the largest metropolitan areas in the US, with specially recorded performances from the Orpheus Chamber Singers, Dallas's foremost professional choir. With a range of the greatest music by US composers and musicians throughout the programme, the focus inevitably falls on recordings made by the area's two main symphony orchestras: Petroc visits the Bass Performance Hall to meet conductor Robert Spano, musical director of Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra and Washington National Opera, and meets members of the Dallas Symphony Orchestra and their musical director Fabio Luisi. Petroc also talks to Shira Samuels-Shragg, an alumna of Dallas's International Opera Award-winning Hart Institute for Women Conductors. Dallas-born composer Quinn Mason talks about his love for the city, and with a visit to the John F. Kennedy Memorial Plaza in downtown Dallas, Petroc remembers the role of Barber's Adagio for Strings as played by the National Symphony Orchestra at the funeral in 1963. Petroc embraces his inner cowboy at the Fort Worth Stockyards, and WRR host Emilio Alvarez joins him live in the studio to talk about the area's rich tradition of community music-making, and the historic centre of blues music, Deep Ellum.