Cultural Cathedral: Bass Performance Hall Celebrates 25 Years of Quality Productions

This iconic structure has been the anchor in Fort Worth's cultural ecosystem that it was designed to be.

by Stephen Montoya

April 19, 2023

8:36 AM

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Stephen Montoya

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Stephen Montoya

It's my first time visiting the iconic Bass Performance Hall, and within 20 minutes, I’m already more than 80 feet off the ground looking down at an empty stage from a vantage point through some clouds.

No, this is not a dream. The experience is very real, this visit. That this is my first time stepping into this space is magnified since many a Fort Worthian who enjoys the cultural arts considers a visit to Bass Hall, welcomed by two iconic angels blowing trumpets, a rite of passage since its emergence in downtown in 1998.

That's actually why I’m here: The Bass — this civic and cultural cathedral built to house symphony, ballet, opera, stage musicals, and concerts from metal to yacht rock and Robert Earl Keen — is 25 years old.

The 25-year-old structure is as grand today as when Van Cliburn, Frederica von Stade, and Carol Burnett opened it more than two decades ago in "Let the Angels Play," a comic gala revue. Designers built it to last 300 years! The hall's gold leaf, the grand lobby's thick marble floors, and the exterior's 4,000 pieces of limestone exemplify that philosophy.

My view from the catwalk is the 80-foot-diameter dome painted by brothers Scott and Stuart Gentling. It adorns the audience chamber.

"I know that Bass Hall is one of 20 theaters in the world that actually has one stage that moves in four stages that get[s] packed away in the ceiling," says Dylan Walker, an assistant technical director at Bass, while pointing at an intricate system of levers that run along stage right. "It takes like 40 minutes to deploy this section, and that's when we have to get lots of hands involved to make sure everything runs smoothly."

Many of these unseen sections of Bass Hall are as impressive as some of the shows it has hosted, including the Tony Award-winning "The Lion King" musical, "Phantom of the Opera," and "Miss Saigon," just to name a few.

Bass Hall has been touted for having such great acoustics that Fleetwood Mac guitarist and singer Lindsey Buckingham recorded an entire live album on its stage.

But like any iconic space, Bass Hall began as an idea of what could be for the cultural arts.

The Van Cliburn International Piano Competition made the city and its arts patrons realize that a world-class competition required a world-class competition hall, one with world-class acoustical and logistical deficiencies and dimensions.

A study was conducted for updating the city-owned Will Rogers Auditorium. In the end, it was determined that renovations were neither practical nor suitable for this space.

In 1989, a committee was formed to then explore the option of replacing the auditorium at Will Rogers in favor of a performance hall. Voters, however, balked at the cost, rejecting the bond that would’ve provided the public portion of the funding.

A feasibility study led by Ed Bass resulted in the formation of Performing Arts Fort Worth Inc., the nonprofit organization formed to fund, design, and operate the more than 2,000-seat, multi-purpose hall.

In March 1993, a $60 million capital campaign, under the leadership of civic leader and former Mayor Bayard H. Friedman, began. Initial gifts of $18 million and $10 million were donated by the Sid Richardson Foundation and the Burnett Foundation.

Two years later, the general campaign was launched. According to Performing Arts Fort Worth, the capital campaign, which received more than 2,000 gifts — some as low as $10 — was the most widely supported capital campaign ever undertaken in Tarrant County.

In April 1995, ground was broken for the new performance venue to be named for Bass’ parents, Nancy and Perry Bass.

Bass friend and renowned architect David M. Schwarz was selected to design it. Schwarz's fingerprints are all over Fort Worth and the greater DFW area, including the Basses’ Sundance Square development, the Texas Rangers’ new ballpark constructed in 1994 and, more recently, Dickies Arena. Other designs include the Cook Children's Medical Center South Tower, the National Cowgirl Museum and Hall of Fame, and the Fort Worth Public Library. In Dallas, the American Airlines Center, home to the NBA's Dallas Mavericks and NHL's Dallas Stars, is the work of Schwarz.

For the great hall in Fort Worth, Schwarz studied performance halls throughout Europe and around the U.S.

Carnegie Hall in Midtown Manhattan, built by philanthropist Andrew Carnegie in 1891, captured his eye.

"The central goal in the hall's design was to achieve the similar warm ambiance of Carnegie Hall with the traditional and elegant feel of a classical opera house but still be technologically modern and sophisticated," says Dione Kennedy, president and CEO of Performing Arts Fort Worth.

The exterior façade featuring the two angels were designed to be showstoppers, and they have been every bit of that.

Sculpted by Marton Varo, the 48-foot-tall pair were sculpted out of 104 blocks of Cordova Crème limestone from quarries just outside of Austin. The wings are 30 feet high and 18 feet broad. The trumpets are 13 feet long, and each angel weighs 250,000 pounds.

Varo spent three years carving the angels at his outside studio in California. He carved the angels in pieces, using an 8-foot model, then shipped them in blocks to Fort Worth in November 1997 where he assembled them on site. Varo then carved the wings in Fort Worth because they were too fragile to ship.

It was rumored that it took him two months to buff the angels to the state of perfection they are.

The interior façade of the hall features foyers graced with pilasters, fluted columns, and the iconic 80-foot Great Dome I was talking about earlier.

This architectural feature in the audience chamber is made from 98,000 pounds of plaster. The dome is 80 feet in diameter and rises 82 feet above the orchestra-level seating. It was built using three-dimensional scaffolding and a temporary 10,000-square-foot platform. The Gentlings left their signature on the Great Dome as two golden eagles flying in the sky.

During the painting of the dome, the Gentlings’ mother died. As a tribute to her, they painted a small crescent moon, which is located three panels to the right of the golden eagles. But this isn't the only contribution of the brothers. Two paintings at opposite ends of the lobby depict a sunset on the west side and a sunrise on the east side.

"Obviously, the architectural design with the iconic angels on the outside of Bass Hall and the Great Dome have helped make Bass Performance Hall a preeminent cultural icon in the North Texas area," Kennedy says. "But what really comes to mind as we celebrate our 25th anniversary are the thousands of world-class performances that have taken place on our stage," Kennedy says.

Another part of Bass Hall's legacy has been its dedication to education.

Bass Hall has served as a classroom to more than one million students with its Children's Education Program, according to Kennedy. This program offers a variety of performing arts educational opportunities, free of charge, to all students and educators. Some of the programs include student matinees, virtual programming, master classes, summer camps, and more.

Other notable additions to the hall include the Maddox-Muse Center, which houses the Van Cliburn Recital Hall and McDavid Studio, which were all completed in May 2001.

Today, Bass Hall and Maddox-Muse Center host more than 300 performances annually, sometimes with multiple performances a day. Bass Hall serves as the home of four resident companies ― Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra, Fort Worth Opera, Texas Ballet Theater, and the quadrennial Van Cliburn International Piano Competition.

Bass Hall also hosts traveling Broadway productions, which means shows like "Cats," "Hamilton," and "Dear Evan Hansen." These facilities are also used for nonmusical venues like corporate meetings, weddings, receptions, and parties each year.

"Beyond the economic impact, performing arts centers are, alongside universities and hospitals, anchor institutions in their respective communities," Kennedy says. "Performing arts centers are at the core of the cultural ecosystem of a community; their health and capacities to support partners and make space [literally and strategically] for other organizations in the market are critical to the longevity of a community's cultural ecosystem.

"I’m proud to say that over the last 25 years, Bass Performance Hall has served as one of those anchors. We look to the future with optimism and purpose as we strive to further strengthen the cultural ecosystem of Fort Worth and the North Texas region."

Stephen Montoya is the Digital Editor for Fort Worth Magazine.

April 19, 2023

8:36 AM