May 1, 2023-Dallas, Texas-DFW based musician and singer/songwriter, Jess Garland will debut her new laser harp at The Wyly Theatre on May 26-28 for a performance titled Luminescence. The concert is presented by the AT&T Performing Art Center’s Elevator Project and sponsored by the City of Dallas’ Offices of Arts & Culture. Jess is working with frequent collaborators new media artists, Eric Trich and James Talambas on this performance. The concert will feature a new 3D printed sculpture laser harp that Garland will use to shine a light on the lack of racial equity in the Arts District in Downtown Dallas. With an all Black cast of musicians, the concert lifts the voices of this underrepresented community while sharing Garland’s personal experiences in love and life through song and visual arts. Through the use of light and sound, Luminescence honors creativity as a source to express and celebrate Blackness while invoking change in the Arts District.
The performance will also feature multi-instrumentalist Brianne Sargent, cellist Najeeb Sabour, violist Steven Juarez, Grammy award winning Geno Young and vocalist Audra Scott. Majority of the musicians performing have their own unique connection to the Arts District through being an alum of Booker T. Washington High School of the Performing and Visual Arts, alum of the Dallas Symphony Orchestra’s Young Strings program and being educators or presenters at the arts magnet and YS program.
Through her nonprofit Swan Strings, Garland teaches her students how to create their own pathways in the performing arts. Her mission is to provide representation for diversity and equity in music education and the performing arts for her students and the community. She currently teaches harp for the Dallas Symphony Orchestra’s Young Strings program and has a history working with the DSO from Guest Services to Community Liaison. Garland was furloughed and terminated from the DSO during the pandemic. She started Swan Strings while she was working at the DSO prior to them launching their Southern Dallas Residency Program. Swan Strings provides free music education and community concerts primarily in South Dallas, Oak Cliff and Pleasant Grove. Swan Strings launched their Music Lounge Series at the South Dallas Cultural Center in 2022 and will be announcing the 2023-2024 season soon. They are currently accepting registration for Girls Rock Dallas summer camp at South Dallas Cultural Center in July 2023. Swan Strings will also be hosting music camps at Southwest Adventist Junior Academy and Pleasant Grove Library this summer. Please contact us at swanstrings@gmail.com for more information about our programming and exclusive access to the laser harp.