Season of Love

Dallas-Fort Worth theater stars release original holiday album

Cherish Love Robinson Love's Holiday album

The album is out now.

Photo by Jordan Fraker

Move aside, "Jingle Bells." Members of Dallas-Fort Worth's theater community have debuted a new holiday album full of original songs, all spearheaded by singer/musician Cherish Love Robinson.

"A few friends invite me to their annual Christmas parties, and I’m usually the last one to leave, hanging out at the piano with a group of others, singing holiday classics," she says. "Every year, I promise myself I’ll record a Christmas song, but either I remember too late or forget altogether. Then in January, after watching a documentary about Quincy Jones producing ‘We are the World,' I realized I’d been wanting to do this for years."

Titled Love's Holiday, the nine-song album was recorded, mixed, and mastered entirely in Dallas (in the digital liner notes, Robinson dedicates a special shout-out to Oak Cliff). Robinson fully composed and produced all the tunes, with rapper Cya Fix collaborating on the song "Better."

"I didn’t want to hassle with licensing or digging for public domain songs, so I made the decision to create original material instead," she says. "I just started writing like a madman and didn’t stop until June."

The song list spans comedic — "A Birthday Christmas," "Broseph & Mary" — to soulful with "I Pray" and sassy with "Slayeigh." Songs like "RSVP" and "Home" evoke classic Christmas vibes.

Frequent theatergoers will likely recognize many of the singers, including Justin Locklear, Lee Walter (as Jada Pinkett Fox), Brett Warner, Quintin Jones, David Lugo, and Dallas Theater Center Brierley Acting Company members Blake Hackler and Sally Vahle.

Area musicians like pianists Rebecca Lowrey and Cody Dry, guitarist Ian Ferguson, bassist Benjamin Brown, and fiddler Kat Glaze lend their talents as well, with Robinson herself accompanying several songs on keyboard and percussion.

"When I sat down to think about who I wanted to collaborate with, I was lucky that everyone I asked said yes," Robinson shares. "I didn’t just want to work with talented singers; I wanted to bring in musicians who really inspire me as well."

Cherish Love Robinson.Photo by Jordan Fraker

Some of Robinson's notable onstage work includes The Witch in DTC's production of Into the Woods, Doloris Van Cartier in WaterTower Theatre's Sister Act, the rock musical Hundred Days at Circle Theatre, and Theatre Three's original musical Solstice, which she also co-composed.

Robinson's voice and vocal production have been featured on ABC’s Grey’s Anatomy and HBO’s Big Little Lies, with superstars Erykah Badu and The Roots of The Tonight Show, and on The Colbert Show as a background singer. As a producer, she has crafted and arranged vocals for artists such as Elle King, The Texas Gentlemen, and Paul Cauthen.

"My favorite time of year starts with my birthday in October, and it spans all the way through the holidays until New Year's Day," Robinson says. "Those months are absolutely my favorite. I have to remind myself not to start listening to holiday music too early!"

Love's Holiday is available for streaming on Spotify, Apple Music, and YouTube Music, and can be purchased for digital download here.

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Ancient Sculpture News

Fort Worth museum one of only 3 in U.S. to get rare sculpture exhibit

Lorenzo di Masi/Torlonia Collection

The Torlonia Nile

A major exhibition of ancient Roman masterworks is coming to the U.S. for the first time to be viewed at only three museums — including the Kimbell Art Museum in Fort Worth.

Called Myth and Marble: Ancient Roman Sculpture from the Torlonia Collection, it's an assemblage of works stewarded by the Torlonia Family beginning in the early-19th century, and will be installed at the Kimbell from September 14, 2025 – January 25, 2026.

As part of the Foundation’s mission to showcase these historical works to the public, the exhibition will premiere at the Art Institute of Chicago on March 15 through June 29, before traveling to the Kimbell Art Museum in Fort Worth. Its third stop will be at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, from March 14 - July 19, 2026.

The Torlonia Collection was established during the course of the 19th century by the Franco-Italian banker Prince Giovanni Torlonia and his son Alessandro, then handed down over generations, eventually growing into the largest private collection of ancient Roman sculptures.

Today, the Torlonia Foundation represents the culmination of the Family’s continued passion for art. Created at the behest of Prince Alessandro Torlonia (1925–2017), the Foundation’s mission is to preserve and promote the Torlonia Collection and Villa Albani Torlonia.

In 1876, Prince Alessandro Torlonia (1800-1886) created a museum to house and exhibit the Family’s holdings, which was open to small groups until its closure at the onset of World War II. The sculptures remained unseen by the public from that time until the Foundation’s first exhibition at the Musei Capitolini in Rome in 2020. That was followed by a stint at the Louvre, the first presentation of the collection outside of Rome, where it has drawn more than 600,000 visitors to date, an unprecedented feat.

The exhibit
The curators of Myth & Marble: Ancient Roman Sculpture from the Torlonia Collection are Lisa Ayla Çakmak and Katharine A. Raff of the Art Institute of Chicago. The exhibition is co-organized by the Art Institute of Chicago and the Torlonia Foundation, in collaboration with the Kimbell Art Museum, the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, and The Museum Box. All of the sculptures in the exhibition have been restored by the Foundation with the support of Bvlgari.

The exhibition is accompanied by a catalogue co-published by the Art Institute of Chicago and the Torlonia Foundation, edited by Lisa Ayla Çakmak and Katharine A. Raff, with essays by Silvia Beltrametti and Salvatore Settis.

The North American presentation will feature 58 highlights from the Torlonia Collection, including 24 newly restored works that have not been on view in nearly a century. The sculptures date from approximately the 5th century BCE to the early 4th century CE, with the majority of the works dating to the High Imperial period (1st–2nd centuries CE). Highlights include examples of the most emblematic genres of ancient marble sculpture, acquired by the Torlonia Family from the most prominent collections of Rome’s patrician families, as well as from excavations made on the Family’s own estates throughout Italy.

“The Foundation is excited to be sharing the Torlonia Collection with audiences in North America for the first time. This exceptional group of ancient sculptures is a testament to the enduring cultural legacy of ancient Rome, as well as the vision and passion of multiple generations of the Torlonia Family,” said Alessandro Poma Murialdo, President of the Torlonia Foundation.

The presentation is organized thematically in six sections, featuring sculptures found on the Torlonia Family’s properties in Rome and the surrounding suburbs and their estate in Porto, Portugal, as well as a number of exceptional sarcophagi (stone coffins), among the largest sculpted works in marble to survive from ancient Rome.

The tour reinforces the work of the Foundation to advance the appreciation and understanding of this unparalleled collection and the rich cultural heritage it represents. The Foundation’s mission is carried out through a continuous joint effort between the public and private sectors, including with the cooperation of the Italian Ministry of Culture. The Foundation is supported by a longstanding collaboration with Bvlgari as the principal sponsor of the restoration project since its inception in Rome and throughout the global tour, and Chiomenti, who has lent invaluable support to the Foundation’s core activities.

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