About us
The Dust City Symphony will be a new classical music ensemble arriving on the Playa in 2024. Its founders have been part of the founding of three of the four orchestras and symphonies that operate on the Playa and at Burning Man now. For this effort, they wanted to try assembling a repertoire and group that is more intimate and classical. Each group (and yes, Burning Man should take a bow; four orchestras, covering from pops to really large, to entire ballets!) seems to leave room for one more artistic aspect to explore. The Dust City Symphony will focus on chamber music and smaller, more elegant and focused pieces in its first year, with a focused group of players.
Each kind of classical or classical-adjacent music has a different flavor—and a different way of playing. This is especially true in the rigorous, extreme conditions of Burning Man (the desert, after all, is trying to kill you). So, our effort may be inflected by the special madness of trying to bring to the Playa a type of music that depends on a superb conductor—and on players focused on being in a conversation with each other—playing and listening.
Who knows? We are plunging forward and into this endeavor with our hearts—this may be madness. Perhaps the most glorious kind!
However, we have certain factors on our side; having played together, some of us, since 2014, we are going forward knowing each other’s skills and talents. The Frozen Oasis camp will help us as a base camp—and supply an acoustic shell, shade, a stage, and support. Hopefully, the gods of Placement will put the camp (and therefore us) in a place where you can hear 28 musicians trying to draw out a whisper of pianissimo decrescendo to provide in music the emotions and ideas that words cannot quite capture without being obliterated by Untz, Untz, Untz…
We shall see… And so, off we go… See you in the dust.
The Founders of The Dust City Symphony
Conductor Dave
Concert Mistress Alyce
And the stalwarts of Frozen Oasis
And so, we’re off on a new adventure!
As it should be, the Playa will have spawned four orchestras for a City of 80,000 people.
It’s a bit risky!
Are there enough players there for so many live music ensembles?
Are there enough people who want to be an audience partner for these performances?
If you are making art with an audience and artists and there isn’t any risk—what are you doing?
We hope you join us.
Founder Timeline
2014
Musicians now part of The Dust City Symphony help bring into fruition the first and ongoing orchestra on the Playa — the Playa Pops! The tradition of a radically inclusive Beethoven’s 9th Chorus (Kazoos anyone?) starts here!
2018
In 2018, a group splits off from the Playa Pops and helps found the Black Rock Philharmonic (this is foreshadowing; like a leit motif in a classical score, you may start to recognize a pattern emerging)
2019-2023
The Black Rock Philharmonic grows in size and locations---resonating with part of the Burning Man ethos to explore “Big Art”--- with moments like the 2019 concert at The Folly (accompanied by Elektra the Dragon and her flames!)
2019
Pop classics like Bohemian Rhapsody and Hotel California become part of the repertoire. Experiments are tried (dawn concerts!) and found to be - well - really difficult.
2018-2023
From 2018-2023, the Black Rock Philharmonic (BRP) also plays at Temple—and brings a quieter, calmer concert there. And we all cry.
2023
The 2023 concert in the dust storm at The Chapel of Babel—with 100 musicians, the Playa Chorus (40+ members), thousands of audience members.
The BRP achieves an artistic goal of bringing the largest classical ensemble and the largest audience for such an ensemble onto the Playa—and, what a high it is!
Sound support generously provided by the professionals of Titantic’s End and The Mars Explorer mutant sound cars.
And Finlandia soars! Oh, and included for free, a mutant vehicle spontaneously combusts behind the Chapel.
2024
And now, in 2024, we’re founding a new group. Of course, we wish all the ensembles on Playa the very best! We just wanted to try something smaller and elegant (and yes, large, and larger, and huge is awesome too!) and we’ll see what this joint journey with an audience is like when we do something smaller and different.