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MAY | PAGE 20 | 2015 BY PATRICIA MORA. PHOTOGRAPHY CLAUDIA GRASSL FOR THE PHOTO DIVISION. ART DIRECTION MICHELLE AVIÑA. HAIR AND MAKEUP CARMEN WILLIAMSON. STYLIST CARLOS ALONSO PARADA FOR ONE SET MANAGEMENT. SOLUNA Dallas Symphony Orchestra conductor Jaap van Zweden and daughter Anna-Sophia van Zweden at the Morton H. Meyerson Symphony Center. Anna-Sophia wears a Novis dress, at TenOverSix. Lynn Ban's Gash ruby bracelet, at Grange Hall. F or the imperfectly informed, Dallas' epicenter resides somewhere between the Neiman's cosmetics counter and a Bentley dealership. In decades past, this finger-bowl and foie gras mentality might have had far more currency than a broader, more up-to-date appraisal of "the city that shops." Take, for instance, the inaugural Soluna International Music & Arts Festival, slated for May 4 through 24, with performances strategically scattered around Dallas with the Morton H. Meyerson Symphony Center at the core. It's the brainchild of an impressive triumvirate: Dallas Symphony Orchestra conductor Jaap van Zweden; his daughter, Anna-Sophia; and DSO president and CEO Jonathan Martin. The maestro and his daughter agreed to meet with me recently for a wide-ranging conversation at the Meyerson — a venue so achingly tasteful that entering I.M. Pei's architectural inner sanctum feels mildly daunting. However, the conversation with the van Zwedens was both sumptuous and substantive, an adventure in plundering the spoils of haute bohemia that proved, like most adventures, to be rich in unanticipated ways. Jaap van Zweden is palpably intense. A colleague commented on the thunderous applause heard during a recent performance and how van Zweden, instead of enjoying a moment of frisson, looked up, tapped a musical score and said, "I've already marked 16 things to make it better." The maestro's eyes are the color of pale sea foam and convey an implacable allegiance to perfection — a "go big or go home" approach that one either loves or deplores, indicative of a man willing to endorse a full-court press in an era punctuated with pop celebrities who transport idleness to voluptuous new dimensions. Anna-Sophia operates as a lavish and billowing yin to her father's yang. She's been the focal point of many a photo shoot and is often spotted at all the right places doing all the right things. If one brands her as just another sexy face, however, that would mean missing out on … well, just about everything. Not only does she brew a mean jolt of espresso, but she's also up-to- the-minute when it comes to the art world; pushing a Dutch magazine toward me, she shows off images of an artist often closely associated with Michaël Borremans, whose work I greatly admire. While her father planned the music for the Soluna festival, Anna-Sophia is very "hands on" regarding visual art, dance, theater and new media. She spent time with artists during her tenure with Sotheby's New York and is also a student of both the American and Dutch museum systems. In other words, she's an ideal candidate to pair the best of visual and expressive new media with DSO music performances. Her father affectionately confers upon her the title of ambassador when it comes to representing the arts and its ancillary causes. One work for Soluna, Leonard Bernstein's Kaddish, is due to be performed on two evenings, May 14 and 16. This huge piece is challenging in numerous ways. It includes a chorus to be sung in Aramaic. It explores Bernstein's relationship with his father as well as the manner in which this personal relationship acts as a trope for understanding Moses' relationship with Yahweh. For the van Zwedens, the work limns the relationship between Europe and America and how memories of one's homeland are carried into new terrain; upon reflection, movement — whether literal or psychological — is all we know or will ever know. The maestro looked at me and coolly announced, "This is a big piece. Usually there is only one big piece a year. But we have this and Mahler and two others." Soluna, as the name suggests, is equal parts sun (sol) and moon (luna). Put differently, it's a hybrid of Apollonian and Bacchanalian influences. This means the festival will provide ample fodder for both rowdy and cerebral types; after all, those two heavenly bodies have long been identified with rational and passionate THE MAKING OF A CEREBRAL CELEBRATION OF MUSIC AND ART, WITH A BIT OF COACHELLA MIXED IN. HEREIN, THE VAN ZWEDEN GUIDE TO SPENDING 20 SPLENDID DAYS IN MAY.