Our latest blog post Basically Beethoven Festival 2026
For more than 45 years, Basically Beethoven has been producing free, professional classical music concerts in Dallas, as well as music education programming in select local schools. Basically Beethoven's free concerts are produced year-round, monthly from October - May (excluding December) in our Hallam Concert Series, and three Sundays in July during our Basically Beethoven Festival. Everyone is welcome to these live family-friendly chamber music concerts.
In June 2024, we changed our logo and “doing business as” name to Basically Beethoven in deference to Fine Arts Chamber Players' original and flagship festival of the same name that began in Dallas in 1981.
The Basically Beethoven Festival was modeled after Lincoln Center's famous Mostly Mozart Festival, whose repertoire included many composers from the classical era as well as Mozart - and through the Romantic movement into the modern era. All 10 free Basically Beethoven concerts per year, including the festival at Moody Performance Hall and the Hallam concerts at Central Commons are similarly curated, sometimes featuring Beethoven, sometimes featuring other composers in the traditional canon as well as contemporary composers.
Basically Beethoven's mission is to provide - for free - all concerts and music education in our programming. Our mission puts us in a unique position as high-level concert producers to open our doors 100% of the time to anyone who can attend a concert or access our YouTube channel. In our world, "free" doesn't equate to "less than." Our concerts are professionally produced and executed, and players are among the best classical players in Dallas, performing regularly or permanently with the DSO, FWSO, Dallas Opera Orchestra, or professors and teachers with terminal degrees from area colleges, universities, and private studios.
Basically Beethoven Music Residencies provide free group and private lessons in violin, voice, and piano to students attending Dallas schools without robust music programs. Our students have gone on to careers in music and/or used their musical background and arts education as a stepping stone to college careers in other fields. Several BB students receive scholarships from the Rogene Russell Scholarship through the Dallas Foundation, including 2 singers this year (2026) from David W. Carter High School - one a full scholarship to Dallas College and another a large partial scholarship to a Dallas-area private college.
As we don't charge for anything we produce - no tickets, no lesson fees - we rely on community support for every single aspect of our organization. Please visit our Candid profile for specifics including financial breakdowns or donate here via Zeffy.
Our supporters and sponsors include Fanchon & Howard Hallam, Capital One, The City of Dallas Office of Arts & Culture, TACA - The Arts Community Alliance, Texas Commission on the Arts, The National Endowment for the Arts, Moody Fund for the Arts, DART, our Board of Directors, Individual Donors like You, and Sammons Center for the Arts, Moody Performance Hall, and Central Commons, who rent to us at reduced nonprofit rates.
This July 2026, we will celebrate the 45th year of the Basically Beethoven Festival at Moody Performance Hall. We hope to see you there.
In 2024, Fine Arts Chamber Players changed its "doing business as" name to Basically Beethoven. Its mission and EIN remain the same.
To enrich and enhance the quality of life for North Texas-area residents, especially families and children, through free concerts of classical music and free educational activities
We encourage contributions for our free, in-school music residency programs, including underwriting for teaching artist fees, for instruments, equipment (such as sheet music or new violin bows), and instrument repair. We also have numerous opportunities for concert underwriting so that we can keep our performances free for all.
We are the only arts non-profit in Dallas that is wholly dedicated to making professionally curated and performed classical music "free for all!" We serve a diverse audience through free concerts and free in-school music residency programs. Our performers and teachers are all world-class professional musicians who play with (among others) the Dallas Symphony, the Fort Worth Symphony, and the Dallas Opera, and other players come from area music faculties. Our concerts are casual, held during the afternoons to accommodate older patrons and families with children, and are centrally located near parking and public transportation. Our music residencies provide music instruction for students who otherwise wouldn't be able to afford lessons.
We believe that when audience members see people on stage who look like them, share their experiences, and who play music from their culture, they will be more comfortable engaging in the arts. To achieve, we strive to establish various progressive benchmarks; see Basically Beethoven's detailed plan on our website.
We believe that when students see people in the classroom who look like them and share their experiences, they will be more comfortable engaging in the arts. To achieve, we strive to hire accomplished, diverse staff.
We believe that when Basically Beethoven leadership is diverse, then we can best offer rich programming for the community. To achieve, we strive to recruit a healthy mix of professionals that covers a range of ages, cultures, etc.
Organization name
Basically Beethoven
other names
Fine Arts Chamber Players
Causes
Arts & Humanities, Youth & Children, Education - Career Prep
Operating Budget
$100,000 - $249,999
Counties Served
Collin, Dallas, Denton, Tarrant
BIPOC Serving
Black or African American, Hispanic or Latinx
Address
3630 Harry Hines Blvd. Ste. 302