Basically Beethoven

Our latest blog post  Basically Beethoven Festival 2026

From the Executive Director, Morgan Vaughan: 

"Since 1981, even using conservative estimates, assuming 8 free concerts per year (sometimes there were as many as 15) we've produced 360 free, top-level concerts minimum. To find how many artists worked for us - multiply that by 4 (a quartet - the average number playing per concert) and we've employed 1440 musicians.

Last school year alone, our teaching artists gave 745 free lessons in violin, voice, and piano. Even with an average-per-year of 500 lessons, that equals about 22,500 free lessons over 45 years. Certainly something to crow about.

My job requires me to talk a lot about arts education, but everyone reading this already knows how important it is. Everyone reading this remembers attending a concert when they were a kid, learning to play the piano or cello or to sing or to act, and can talk about a specific arts teacher that completely changed their life. Someone that opened up a world they had no idea existed, or discussed a piece of art that lifted them through a dark time or made a light time even brighter. This is what arts and music education is and does. Arts education is not necessarily about creating the next professional musicians - although it does do that. Or the next generation of concert-goers - although it does do that. It is literally about saving our lives, nurturing our collective humanity, and creating empathetic and steadfast citizens that then go out and make the world a much better place for everyone.

Basically Beethoven is the only classical music organization in Dallas that provides free admission at all times to professionally curated and played concerts as our main goal - our mission - no questions asked - everyone is invited."

45 years of, Basically, Beethoven ...

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.

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.

In 2024, Fine Arts Chamber Players changed its "doing business as" name to Basically Beethoven. Its mission and EIN remain the same.