Dallas, TX
Listen: Tre Nagella releases Sonic ID to represent Dallas in 2026 FIFA World Cup
How would you give a well-known tune heard by millions around the world a distinctive Dallas sound?
How about incorporating a bit of country rhythm with dobro chords and entrusting the mission to a thriving local producer who has won four Grammys?
Meet Tre Nagella, the creator of the FIFA 2026 Official World Cup Sonic ID for the Dallas venue.
A Sonic ID is a combination of sound and music that brands and corporations use to establish instant recognition among the public.
Essentially, a Sonic ID is an auditory logo.
FIFA, the international soccer governing body, uses the Sonic ID to open and close each World Cup match broadcast. Television networks also use it before and after commercial breaks.
The Dallas Sonic ID will be unveiled during the first quarter of Sunday’s Mavericks game against the Philadelphia 76ers.
“My goal was to take that theme and somehow incorporate other musical elements to better represent the city of Dallas,” Nagella said while playing the theme in his Addison production studios.
The 1:57-long Sonic ID has enough elements to distinguish itself from the other 15 Sonic IDs each World Cup host city prepared.
FIFA imposed certain constraints, such as not changing the tempo of the track because they had timed things out for broadcast and promos.
This is the first time FIFA will have city-specific Sonic IDs so that each city can put its stamp on the World Cup.
Nagella incorporated a country-style sound, but to avoid any confusion or comparison with Nashville, and to have a sound representative of Texas, the producer used acoustic guitars, pedal steel, and the dobro, a guitar-like instrument more native to the South.
“I didn’t want it to be too cliche and just be all country. Dallas has a big urban scene. We have a lot of hip-hop. We have a lot of gospel music. So I wanted to incorporate some urban elements as well,” Nagella said.
The World Cup, to be played in the summer of 2026, will be the first in history with 48 national teams competing in 104 matches.
Nagella took care of every detail in his production, recreating the most important and dramatic elements surrounding a soccer match.
Nagella’s creative production includes the clamor of fans in a stadium chanting a goal, the ticking clock signaling the passage of time, and the effects of the players’ panting breaths.
“There are a lot of elements to this that most people probably wouldn’t pick up right away. I literally use sound effects that aren’t musical at all and just put a big stadium full of people here,” said Nagella, 45.
Nagella, born and raised in Dallas, had a passion for music since he was 12 when he started playing guitar in school.
His love for music led him to study at Full Sail University — Music Production College in Orlando.
Producing gospel music for Kirk Franklin opened the door to a career that has led him to work alongside other major stars, such as Ed Sheeran, Travis Scott, Aaron Lazar, Blake Shelton, Lady Gaga and many others.
Nagella and Paul Loomis co-own Luminous Sound Studios, a 6,500-square-foot facility with three state-of-the-art studios and a two-story tracking room.
“Besides technology, you need talent to produce music,” said Nagella, who describes himself as a mix of musician, producer, mixer, and sound engineer.
“Even with all the advanced technology, the song’s melody and heart and soul still have to come from a human. You still have to be creative, and the computer can’t make it for you. There’s a reason why we still listen to songs that are old,” Nagella said.
Nagella said his most exciting moments as a music producer have come when he feels like he’s created something magical in a studio.
The FIFA 2026 Official World Cup theme is one of those moments.
“I put a lot of thought into best representing our city,” Nagella said.
“When people around the world hear the theme, the first thing they’ll think of is Dallas, that’s exciting.”
Find more FC Dallas coverage from The Dallas Morning News here.
Dallas, TX
At Dallas Contemporary, the material is the message for Chris Wolston
In the hands of Chris Wolston, even the most ordinary object — a chair, lamp or credenza — becomes something more whimsical, playful and quirky.
The artist has built a stellar reputation in the design world for his anthropomorphic rattan chairs (complete with bums and feet). Yet the array of pieces on display in his first solo museum show at Dallas Contemporary reveals there’s much more to his oeuvre.
Displayed across four catwalks, reminiscent of a fashion show or drag ball, are sculpted chairs in terra-cotta adorned with metal insects, a bronze coffee table cast from leaves found in the artist’s garden and chairs inspired by the gestural limbs of supermodels. Handwoven carpets from Morocco on the walls are interspersed with video works highlighting Wolston’s process filmed by his husband, the filmmaker David Sierra. Together, they recall a fantasy world of objects both functional and sculptural.
“I always find that through humor, there’s an interesting entry point for people — it breaks down a barrier,” says artist Chris Wolston. “And I was always drawn to furniture as a medium because it’s accessible, it’s egalitarian.” Dallas Contemporary
Wolston has been walking the tightrope between craft and art with a humorous twist since he made his first terra-cotta chairs in 2014. Drawn to the relationship between materiality and everyday life, he naturally embraced furniture as his medium.
“I started working with the (contemporary design gallery) The Future Perfect, and then we started doing these body chairs for a chair show,” he says. “I always find that through humor, there’s an interesting entry point for people — it breaks down a barrier. And I was always drawn to furniture as a medium because it’s accessible, it’s egalitarian.”
Having initially studied glassmaking at the Rhode Island School of Design, Wolston earned a Fulbright to study pre-Columbian ceramics in Colombia, prompting him to settle his studio in the city of Medellín. He found his entry point into raw ingredients by working with natural terra-cotta clay found in the mountains surrounding the city, and has since cycled through bronze, rattan, anodized aluminum and shearling.
Curated by Glenn Adamson, former director of the Museum of Arts and Design in New York, Profile in Ecstasy highlights a decade-plus of work that led Wolston to discover the throughlines behind his various collections, whether they be nods to fashion and nature, Spanish modernism or subtle surrealism.
“These themes that exist in an artist’s practice emerge when a new collection emerges,” Wolston says. “It’s interesting to see how collections made at different times with totally different materials and thought processes at play resonate with one another.”
Details
Chris Wolston: Profile in Ecstasy is on view at Dallas Contemporary from Nov. 7 through Feb. 1, 2026.
Dallas, TX
Car belonging to Dallas woman missing for over a year found, police say
The vehicle belonging to a Dallas woman who has been missing for over a year was found this week, according to police.
The Dallas Police Department said 88-year-old Myrtle Polk’s vehicle was found in the 5600 block of South Lancaster Road, near Five Mile Creek, on Tuesday. Her body was not in the vehicle.
DPD said search teams will deploy in the area to continue the search for Polk.
She was last seen in early June along Indian Creek Trail, driving her Lexus sedan. At the time, a Silver Alert was issued, given her age and medical history, according to the Texas Department of Public Safety.
Myrtle Polk known as a pillar of her community
Polk is a devout member of her church, according to her family. When she didn’t show up for service on June 9, 2024, they said they knew something was wrong.
Also affectionately known as “Mama M” or “Aunt Myrt,” Polk is living with dementia. But her niece Tawana Watson said — as late as the day before — the family did not indicate that anything was wrong.
“She was a very good driver, she knew where she was,” Watson said last June. “I talked to her that Friday [and] she was in her right mind.”
Watson does not believe the matriarch left home on her own.
“She was such a trustworthy person, I believe that Aunt Myrtle met somebody that she trusted, she let them [into her home] and they hurt her,” she continued.
Myrtle Polk is approximately 5-foot-2 and 120 pounds, with white hair and brown eyes. Anyone with information is asked to call 911 or the Dallas Police Department at (214) 671-4268.
Dallas, TX
A ‘shared calling’ unites team at Top Workplaces honoree First Baptist Dallas
A four-alarm fire at First Baptist Church of Dallas, Texas, destroyed its historic, red-brick sanctuary last year, and reconstruction of the edifice won’t be completed until Easter 2028. In the meantime, the destruction has taught the nonprofit institution a lot about its workplace as it has navigated the crisis.
Staff members were “scattered” after the fire, and as of August, permanent power still hadn’t been restored to the church offices, said Ben Lovvorn, First Baptist’s senior executive pastor. So, keeping everyone updated and encouraged during the rebuilding effort has been a priority.
“We’ve been very purposeful about communicating with our staff — and our congregation — so that they know and understand what’s going on, and that they are a part of the process,” he said. “At other organizations, this situation would lead to tremendous turnover, but our entire team has stayed intact. That [in turn] has provided consistency and encouragement to our 16,000 church members.
“Another lesson we’ve learned is making sure you have the right people in place so you’re able to handle a crisis like this,” he continued. “Finding those right people — and getting them in the right seats on the bus — is key to tackling whatever obstacles you’re presented with along the way.”
Fortunately, First Baptist has had those team members in place for a while. That’s because the staff has a biblically based, “shared faith and shared calling” that gives their work purpose, Lovvorn said. “Whether they’re a minister or work in our accounting department or in the facilities department, they’re part of something greater.”
That greater meaning is emphasized regularly, whether through monthly all-staff leadership luncheons — they brought in Babe’s Chicken for the one in August — or at “staff chapel,” where workers step away from the daily grind and pray together. Throughout its more than 155 years in downtown Dallas, “there have been good times and difficult times” for First Baptist, Lovvorn said. “But God has always been faithful in providing for us and seeing us through every season.”
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