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With apologies to the acts playing at Dickies Arena and AT&T Stadium on Saturday, February 25, the real rockstar in town was onstage at Fort Worth’s Bass Performance Hall: Yo-Yo Ma joined the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra as featured guest artist for its 2023 Gala Concert.

The global superstar cellist - whose resume includes 19 Grammy-winning albums, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, performing for nine American presidents, and jam sessions on Sesame Street - got a hero’s welcome the moment he emerged onstage before a sold-out audience of all ages, ecstatic to see the once-in-a-generation music icon perform live.

A consummate performer, Ma was just as generous to the audience, playfully teasing late-comers to their seats and then smiling at the front rows during his performance of Elgar’s Cello Concerto with the orchestra. No one was having a better time than Ma was, it appeared.

Afterwards - during several callbacks and a long ovation - he extended the warmth to the orchestra musicians and music director Robert Spano, whom he embraced in a bear hug before performing a solo encore and then exiting the stage.

The electricity of the concert surged over to the black-tie Gala dinner and concert at the Worthington Renaissance Hotel.

Attendees walked the red carpet for photo ops and mingled at a cocktail reception before sitting down to a sumptuous surf-and-turf dinner in a ballroom decked out in a chic black-and-white motif.

The 2023 Gala was chaired by legacy FWSO patrons Ashli Blumenfeld, Anne Marie Bratton, Kimberly Johnson, Mary Hart Lipscomb, and Misty Locke.

The night was to honor and celebrate Gala Chairman Mercedes T. Bass for her 30 years of support and dedication to the FWSO (most of them as chairman of the board). Unfortunately, Bass was unable to attend due to illness. Nevertheless, the tributes went on.

In onstage remarks, longtime friend and FWSO patron Alann Sampson said, "Mercedes' leadership has lifted the symphony to a new stage of prominence and productivity. Through her generous support and encouragement, she has taken the most difficult challenges and turned them into triumphs.”

FWSO president and CEO Keith Cerny and maestro Spano echoed the appreciation and gave personal gratitude to Bass.

Spano also recognized his predecessor Miguel Harth-Bedoya, who was in attendance. "I am immensely grateful to him to have shepherded this orchestra for two decades to be the magnificent orchestra that it is," he said, "and I just want to thank him for passing the baton to me."

A live auction for trips and jewelry raised crucial funds for the FWSO’s education programs, and a “raise the paddle” initiative allowed guests to contribute at various levels from their tables.

Once the speeches and fundraising had concluded, the party revved up. For the first time since the pandemic's onset, a party band (Time Machine) took the stage and filled the dance floor.

While Yo-Yo Ma was not spotted getting down with his bad self on the dance floor, plenty of others made a late-night of it.

Among those enjoying the Gala Concert & Dinner throughout the evening were Aaron Howard, Corrie Hood-Howard, Andrew Lombardi, Adrienne Lombardi, Blake Lipscomb, Rebecca Rucker, Clark Rucker, Lauren Bredthauer, Clark Bredthauer, Bridget Stonesifer, Clare Stonesifer, Ronnie Hernandez, David Rader, Madolin Rosenthal, Sarah Raderm, Ben Rosenthal, Steven Blumenfeld, Todd Blumenfeld, and Sharon Blumenfeld, Matthew Johnson, Kendall Kostohryz, Jennie Doumany, Mary Smith, Dwayne Smith, Nancy Hallman, Lee Hallman, Tara Warren, Sharma Dean, Asad Dean, Terence McCarthy, Robert Warren, Kim McCarthy, Michelle Marlow, Teresa King, Mollie Lasater, Wesley Gentle, Amber Gentle, and hundreds more faithful FWSO supporters and guests.

FWSO Gala 2023

Photo by Karen Almond

Mary Hart Lipscomb, Kendall Kostohryz, Madolin Rosenthal, Jennie Doumany

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'Yellowstone' stars to greet fans at Fort Worth Stock Show & Rodeo

Yellowstone news

Yellowstone fans, get your comfy shoes ready - there'll be a long line for this one. Cole Hauser a.k.a. "Rip Wheeler" on Yellowstone, and Taylor Sheridan, the show's co-creator, executive producer, and director of the series, will meet fans and sign autographs at the Fort Worth Stock Show & Rodeo.

The event will take place from 4:30-6:30 pm only on Friday, February 3. Location is the 6666 Ranch booth near the south end of Aisle 700 in the Amon G. Carter, Jr. Exhibits Hall.

According to a February 2 announcement from FWSSR, "fans will have the opportunity to snag an autograph as well as purchase some distinctive Yellowstone and 6666 Ranch merchandise while also enjoying all the features the Stock Show offers."

The event is free to attend (with paid Stock Show admission) and open to the public.

It's the second year in a row for Hauser to appear at FWSSR; in 2022, he and fellow cast mates drew huge crowds.

Sheridan, a Paschal High School graduate, is no stranger to Fort Worth; he lives in a ranch near Weatherford and filmed 1883, the prequel to Yellowstone, in and around Fort Worth. Currently, another spinoff, 1883: The Bass Reeves Story, is filming in North Texas.

The Fort Worth Stock Show & Rodeo is winding up its 2023 run on Saturday, February 4.

Concerts in the Garden drones light up this week's 5 hottest Fort Worth headlines

This week's hot headlines

Editor's note: A lot happened this week, so here's your chance to get caught up. Read on for the week's most popular headlines. Looking for the best things to do this weekend? Find that list here.

1. Fort Worth Symphony launches summer concerts with sparkly extra: drones. The Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra returned with its annual summer concert series, Concerts in The Garden, featuring 11 concerts taking place at the Fort Worth Botanic Garden, starting May 26 and running through June 11. And the coolest part of the 2023 series might be the light show: For the first time, they're replacing old-school fireworks with the use of cutting-edge drones.

2. Openings and closings head up this Fort Worth restaurant news roundup. This roundup of dining news around Fort Worth has an opening, a closing, a gofundme campaign, and loads of new menus for summer. Here's what's happening in Fort Worth restaurant news.

3. Decadent desserts in jars from celebrity Top Chef roll in to Fort Worth. Desserts in jars from a celebrity chef are coming to Fort Worth: Jars by Fabio Viviani, a fast-casual dessert brand serving popular desserts in jars, is opening a location in the Trinity Commons/Tom Thumb center, at 3000 S. Hulen St. #150. It'll open in late 2023.

4. 3 Dallas-Fort Worth entrepreneurs rank among Forbes' richest self-made women for 2023. Twelve of the country's 100 most successful female entrepreneurs live in Texas this year, and three of them call Dallas-Fort Worth home. So says Forbes in its 2023 list of America's Richest Self-Made Women, released June 1.

5. 5 tips for stunning beach sand sculptures from 2023 Texas SandFest winners. “Playing” in the sand on the beach isn’t just an activity for children, as proven by the 22 professional sand sculptors from around the world who recently competed in the 26th annual Texas SandFest. Here are five of the pros' top tips for producing a beachfront masterpiece.

Cafe with made-to-order mini-doughnuts to open near TCU in south Fort Worth

Doughnut News

Little doughnuts are rolling into south Fort Worth via a new doughnut cafe. Called Batter & Beans, it'll serve doughnuts, coffee, and more, and it's opening at 3548 South Hills Ave., south of TCU in Westcliff Center.

They'll be right around the corner from Cafe Bella [which it should be noted recently won Best Neighborhood Restauant in CultureMap's 2023 Tastemaker Awards].

Batter & Beans will be a family-owned collaboration between Matthew Whip, a partner at Ernst & Young, and his brother-in-law, who worked for a restaurant group in Michigan and brings the food knowhow.

They'll be doing miniature doughnuts, similar to the Pittsburgh-based Peace, Love, and Little Donuts chain (which has one location in Texas, in Southlake).

They're aiming to be open by early fall.

"We'll be doing fresh, made-to-order mini cake doughnuts plus premium coffee we're sourcing out of Chicago, from Metropolis, a small-batch artisan roaster," Whip says. "We're originally from the Chicago area, and that's always been my favorite roaster, and they also roast coffee for Yolk, which has a location in Sundance Square."

The cafe will also offer fresh lemonade, iced tea, and ice cream, for neighbors who want to stop in for a treat at night.

Whip and his family first relocated from the Chicago area to North Texas in 2018, then moved down the street from the shop last year. It's a small storefront, about 920 square feet, and they're currently in the final stages of design and permitting.

"There's lots of kids in this neighborhood, and I think a place with mini doughnuts would do well," Whip says.

It was only after they signed on to do the shop that they learned from a neighbor that the space they're taking had good doughnut karma, with a longtime history as a doughnut shop, most recently a place called Donut Palace. Sadly, it closed during the pandemic. Now the doughnuts will return.