The New Philharmonic Orchestra of Irving has honored five area groups with their 2015 Grace Note Awards.

This year’s honorees, not traditional venues for music, were recognized for their creative leadership, offering music as an important part of their programming.  Last year’s awards recognized the area’s many new performing arts centers.

The orchestra’s president, Gretchen Kroos, and conductor, Dr. Sergio Espinosa, presented the orchestra’s sixth annual awards February 8 at “Sundays at the Symphony” at the Irving Arts Center to the following:

- AT&T Stadium, which has worked with The Dallas Opera since 2010 to make its 100,000+ seats available for Dallas Opera simulcasts, providing the largest potential audience capacity ever in this area for an opera each year,

 - the Dallas Arboretum and Botanical Garden, opened in 1984 by White Rock Lake, offering “Cool Thursday” concerts on its Martin Rutchik Concert Stage & Lawn from April through June, September and October, and inviting musicians to perform in the gardens during festivals and special events,

- the Dallas Museum of Art, which has offered the annual free Bancroft Family Concerts of the Fine Arts Chamber Players since 1981, “Jazz under the stars” beginning in 1983 and now “Jazz in the Atrium” on Thursday evenings,

- Klyde Warren Park, Dallas’s new downtown central park, which from its beginning last year has programmed a variety of musical groups on “Music Thursdays” at the park’s performance pavilion and hosted Dallas Opera simulcasts and Dallas Symphony performances there,

- and NorthPark Center, which has included the arts in its shopping experience since its beginning, each year welcoming nearly 200 community arts groups for free performances throughout the center and hosting ArtsPark, a one-day celebration.