“Concert takes off with “UFO”: Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring was dispatched on Tuesday with considerable élan by the Dallas Wind Symphony. But the real standout was Michael Daugherty’s UFO.

“Soloist Thomas Burritt entered the darkened Morton H. Meyerson Symphony Center from the rear, cloaked in a wizard’s silver-accented black hooded robe. I don’t know what instrument he was playing, but, alternately struck and bowed, it yielded eerie clatters and slithers. The Second movement began with up-and-down gestures for xylophone and winds and worked itself into quite a frenzy. In the central movement “Flying,” shimmering outer-space effects gave way to a mélange of gamelan and jazz idioms featuring vibraphone. Surround-sound castanets supplied striking effects in a movement titled “???,” and then the big-band syncopations of the finale took a break for a furious drum cadenza. All this strained at least one attention span, but Dr. Burritt, who’s a professor of percussion at the University of Texas, gave a stunning performance. And musical director Jerry Junkin whipped his charges into a razzle-dazzle collaboration.”

- Scott Cantrell, Dallas Morning News

Scott Cantrell, Dallas Morning News