When Black musicians and artists were pushed far from the mainstream of American life, the Eldorado Ballroom welcomed them in. The nightclub in Houston’s Third Ward was described as the “heartbeat of Black culture” in the deeply segregated city. Houston was—and still is—home to one of the biggest Black populations in the country, which made the predominantly Black Third Ward a hotbed for talent: Duke Ellington, Count Basie, B.B. King, and countless others made the club “the Savoy Ballroom of the South,” the region’s answer to the always-happening spot in Harlem.

For people who lived in the Third Ward, Eldorado Ballroom wasn’t just the spot to see and be seen. The venue hosted birthday parties, weddings, and other community events. Local musicians were often given their share of the stage. And for people who grew up in the neighborhood, the Eldorado offered a glimpse of creativity and innovation that felt specifically Black, closer to the bone than anything they might have seen on TV or heard on the radio. It was a specific subculture that operated on its own terms, with little regard for what passed for popular in broader society. In other words, the Eldorado Ballroom—and the community that supported it—gave Black Houstonians a space to discover their own greatness and the greatness of people who looked like them.

The ideas and values that were germinated at the Eldorado lived on in Houston, and in the Third Ward in particular, the spirit of the place hanging around long after the building was abandoned. A decade later, Solange Knowles grew up in a Third Ward that was still swimming in that spirit, and launched her music and cultural agency Saint Heron with the mission of preserving and amplifying that legacy. The ethos of Eldorado continues to live on in music venues, concert halls, museums, galleries, on the internet, in fashion houses, and anywhere else Black people are given the freedom to express—and enjoy—the fullest version of themselves.

The Eldorado Ballroom series at Walt Disney Concert Hall, which was created and curated by Solange Knowles for Saint Heron, takes an unconventional approach to honoring the evolving expressions of experimental and transcendent live performances of Black artists across the decades—both contemporary and innovative musicians and composers whose work has deeply influenced music and performance art.

Experience three nights of Eldorado Ballroom coming up: 
On October 10, 2024, 
On Dissonance (An Evening of Classical, Symphonic, and Opera Works)

On October 12, 2024,
Contrapuntal Counterpoints (Experiments in Funk, Soul, and Jazz)

On October 13, 2024,
Glory to Glory (A Revival For Spiritual and Devotional Art)