Houston Symphony Closes Its Dolly Parton Weekend Sunday at Jones Hall, a Celebration Booked Before Her Death
Dolly Parton's Threads: My Songs in Symphony plays its final Houston performance Sunday at 2 p.m. at Jones Hall - a multimedia celebration the symphony booked before Parton's death in August at 80, now carried by three guest vocalists, a country band and Parton's own recorded stories.
HOUSTON - The Houston Symphony closes a weekend that changed meaning before it ever played. Dolly Parton's Threads: My Songs in Symphony, booked as a celebration, receives its final Houston performance Sunday at 2 p.m. at Jones Hall, two months after Parton died in Nashville at 80 following a brief battle with cancer, according to her official announcement and the Associated Press.
The program pairs the full orchestra, under principal pops conductor Steven Reineke, with a country band and with Parton herself on screen: recorded stories and video from Parton run between the songs, in a show she curated. The set list reaches across her catalog - 'Jolene', 'Coat of Many Colors' and 'I Will Always Love You' among them - in new orchestral arrangements by Nashville arranger David Hamilton, whom Parton handpicked, built around fiddles, steel guitar, banjo and mandolin alongside the orchestra.
Three guest vocalists carry the songs live: Katelyn Drye, half of the country duo The Dryes and a former contestant on NBC's The Voice; Nashville-raised singer Hollie Hammel; and Kentucky-born singer-songwriter Blair Lamb. The Houston Symphony's own note on the performance reads, in part: 'We join fans around the world in mourning the loss of Dolly Parton, whose extraordinary life, music, and generosity touched generations across cultures and continents.'
The performance runs about two hours with a 20-minute intermission and is recommended for ages 6 and up. Jones Hall is at 615 Louisiana Street downtown, and tickets are sold through the Houston Symphony box office at 713-224-7575 and at houstonsymphony.org. The weekend opened Friday night; Sunday afternoon is the last Houston performance.
