The Dallas Symphony Orchestra gives us a treat every Memorial Day. As part of its Community Concerts series, the DSO does a concert at Dallas’s Flagpole Hill, a part of White Rock Lake Park. The audience sits on a gradually sloping hill facing a small band shell that contains the orchestra.
The orchestra sweats through several patriotic or traditional songs, and it’s capped off by a nice, small fireworks show.
Halfway through my 8th grade year, I switched from trumpet to euphonium. I stuck with it through my junior year at SMU.
Even though they have too much firewood string instruments and no euphoniums, I really enjoy when they do Sousa marches. I still remember most of the fingerings and “play along,” sometimes getting the 4th valve fingering right for the lower D and D flat.
The program never indicates the fireworks show. What always happens is they do one last surprise song kind of like an encore, and the fireworks go off during then. The fireworks are shot off across Northwest Highway (6 lane surface road) from Flagpole Hill. The cops block off traffic during the fireworks, possibly because of the smoke and distraction.