2024–2025 SEASON
PROGRAM NOTES
LIFE. AMPLIFIED. 2025–2026 SEASON PREVIEW
GOLD RECORD COLLECTIVE: BOLD VISION, MORE MUSIC
LEARNING & ENGAGEMENT
PNC Grow Up Great MEET THE MUSICIAN
Peter Hatch
Music You Feel
SPRING
JADER BIGNAMINI MUSIC DIRECTOR
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THE COVER: DSO Music Director Jader Bignamini; photo by Marco Mantovani.
Jader Bignamini
WELCOME
Dear Friends,
As our 2024–2025 season draws to a close, we extend our sincere gratitude for your support and enthusiasm. Whether you’re a longtime subscriber, a first-time concertgoer, or a steadfast champion of the DSO, we’re thrilled to share another year of extraordinary music with you.
Looking ahead, we’re delighted to announce our 2025–2026 season, which will kick off in September 2025 with an unforgettable Opening Night Gala. The evening will feature superstar tenor Juan Diego Flórez in a dazzling program of operatic arias conducted by Music Director Jader Bignamini, whose bold artistic vision continues to push our orchestra to new heights. We can’t wait to welcome you back for a season brimming with inspiring performances by the world-class musicians of your DSO, alongside an outstanding lineup of guest artists and conductors. From the return of legendary conductor Herbert Blomstedt to innovative works by Composer-in-Residence Michael Abels, the season promises to amplify your connection to Detroit’s vibrant musical landscape. Read our feature story on page 10 to learn more about what’s in store.
While we anticipate the excitement of the upcoming season, we still have much to look forward to this summer. The DSO continues to extend its presence beyond Orchestra Hall, bringing music to audiences across Michigan. Our annual residency at Interlochen Center for the Arts remains a highlight, offering students valuable training and performance opportunities. Closer to home, we look forward to concerts across Detroit and the metro area, including at Meadow Brook Amphitheatre, where we will return in July for a program of music by John Williams under the baton of Principal Pops Conductor Enrico Lopez-Yañez.
At the core of everything we do is an unwavering commitment to artistic excellence and meaningful engagement. The DSO is more than just an orchestra—it is a vital institution dedicated to fostering inspiration and connection. From exceptional concerts to educational initiatives that nurture the next generation of musicians, we are proud to be an inclusive and culturally relevant community where all people can experience their world through music.
We look forward to celebrating the joys of music with you this summer and welcoming you back for another incredible season in the fall. Until then, enjoy the performances ahead!
With appreciation,
Erik Rönmark
Faye Alexander Nelson President and CEO Chair, Board of Directors
Erik and Faye at Classical Roots 2025
DETROIT SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA
ENRICO LOPEZ-YAÑEZ
Principal Pops Conductor
Devereaux Family Chair
FIRST VIOLIN
Robyn Bollinger
CONCERTMASTER
Katherine Tuck Chair
Kimberly Kaloyanides Kennedy
ASSOCIATE CONCERTMASTER
Schwartz and Shapero Family Chair
Hai-Xin Wu
ASSISTANT CONCERTMASTER
Walker L. Cisler/Detroit Edison Foundation Chair
Jennifer Wey Fang ASSISTANT CONCERTMASTER
Marguerite Deslippe*
Laurie Goldman*
Rachel Harding Klaus*
Eun Park Lee*
Adrienne Rönmark*
William and Story John Chair
Alexandros Sakarellos*^
Drs. Doris Tong and Teck Soo Chair
Laura Soto*
Greg Staples*
Jiamin Wang*
Mingzhao Zhou*
SECOND VIOLIN
Adam Stepniewski
ACTING PRINCIPAL
The Devereaux Family Chair
Will Haapaniemi*
David and Valerie McCammon Chairs
Hae Jeong Heidi Han*
David and Valerie McCammon Chairs
Sheryl Hwangbo Yu*
Sujin Lim*
Hong-Yi Mo *
Marian Tanau*
Alexander Volkov*
Jing Zhang*
VIOLA
Eric Nowlin
PRINCIPAL
Julie and Ed Levy, Jr. Chair
James VanValkenburg
ASSISTANT PRINCIPAL
Janet and Norm Ankers Chair
Caroline Coade
Henry and Patricia Nickol Chair
Glenn Mellow
Hang Su
Hart Hollman
Han Zheng
Mike Chen
Harper Randolph §
ORCHESTRA
JADER BIGNAMINI , Music Director
Music Directorship endowed by the Kresge Foundation
TERENCE BLANCHARD
Fred A. Erb Jazz Creative Director Chair
CELLO
Wei Yu
PRINCIPAL
Abraham Feder ^
ASSISTANT PRINCIPAL
Dorothy and Herbert Graebner Chair
Robert Bergman*
Jeremy Crosmer*
Victor and Gale Girolami Chair
David LeDoux*
Peter McCaffrey*
Joanne Deanto and Arnold Weingarden Chair
Una O’Riordan*
Mary Ann and Robert Gorlin Chair
Cole Randolph*
Mary Lee Gwizdala Chair
BASS
Kevin Brown
PRINCIPAL
Van Dusen Family Chair
Stephen Molina
ASSISTANT PRINCIPAL
Renato and Elizabeth Jamett Chair
Christopher Hamlen*
Peter Hatch*
Vincent Luciano*
Brandon Mason*
HARP
Alyssa Katahara
PRINCIPAL
Winifred E. Polk Chair
FLUTE
Hannah Hammel Maser
PRINCIPAL
Alan J. and Sue Kaufman and Family Chair
Amanda Blaikie
Morton and Brigitte Harris Chair
Sharon Sparrow
ASSISTANT PRINCIPAL
Bernard and Eleanor Robertson Chair
PICCOLO OPEN
OBOE
Alexander Kinmonth
PRINCIPAL
Jack A. and Aviva Robinson Chair
Sarah Lewis
ASSISTANT PRINCIPAL
Monica Fosnaugh
ENGLISH HORN
Monica Fosnaugh
TABITA BERGLUND
Principal Guest Conductor
CLARINET
Ralph Skiano
PRINCIPAL
Robert B. Semple Chair
Jocelyn Langworthy
ACTING SECOND CLARINET
Jack Walters
ASSISTANT PRINCIPAL
PVS Chemicals Inc./
Jim and Ann Nicholson Chair
Shannon Orme
E-FLAT CLARINET
Jack Walters
BASS CLARINET
Shannon Orme
Barbara Frankel and
Ronald Michalak Chair
BASSOON
Conrad Cornelison
PRINCIPAL
Byron and Dorothy Gerson Chair
Cornelia Sommer
Jaquain Sloan
ACTING UTILITY BASSOON
CONTRABASSOON OPEN
HORN
Patrick Walle
ACTING PRINCIPAL HORN
David and Christine Provost Chair
Johanna Yarbrough ^
Scott Strong
Ric and Carola Huttenlocher Chair
Kristi Crago
ACTING HORN
Ben Wulfman
ACTING HORN
TRUMPET
Hunter Eberly
PRINCIPAL
Austin Williams
James Vaughen
ASSISTANT PRINCIPAL
William Lucas
TROMBONE
Gracie Potter
PRINCIPAL
David Binder
Adam Rainey
Richard Sonenklar and Greg Haynes
Chair
BASS TROMBONE
Adam Rainey
TUBA
Dennis Nulty
PRINCIPAL
NA’ZIR MCFADDEN
Assistant Conductor, Phillip & Lauren Fisher Community Ambassador
TIMPANI
Jeremy Epp
PRINCIPAL
Richard and Mona Alonzo Chair
James Ritchie
ASSISTANT PRINCIPAL
PERCUSSION
Joseph Becker
PRINCIPAL
Ruth Roby and Alfred R. Glancy III Chair
Andrés Pichardo-Rosenthal
ASSISTANT PRINCIPAL
William Cody Knicely Chair
James Ritchie
Luciano Valdes§
LIBRARIANS
Robert Stiles
PRINCIPAL
Ethan Allen
LEGACY CHAIRS
Principal Flute
Women’s Association for the DSO
Principal Cello
James C. Gordon
PERSONNEL MANAGERS
Andrew Williams
DIRECTOR OF ORCHESTRA PERSONNEL
Benjamin Tisherman
MANAGER OF ORCHESTRA PERSONNEL
STAGE PERSONNEL
Dennis Rottell
STAGE MANAGER
Joe Corless
DEPARTMENT HEAD
William Dailing
DEPARTMENT HEAD
Zach Deater
DEPARTMENT HEAD
Issac Eide
DEPARTMENT HEAD
Kurt Henry
DEPARTMENT HEAD
Matthew Pons
SENIOR AUDIO DEPARTMENT HEAD
Jason Tschantre
DEPARTMENT HEAD
PAST MUSIC DIRECTORS
Leonard Slatkin
MUSIC DIRECTOR LAUREATE
Neeme Järvi
MUSIC DIRECTOR EMERITUS
LEGEND
* These members may voluntarily revolve seating within the section on a regular basis
^ Leave of Absence
§ African American Orchestra Fellow
BEHIND THE BATON
Jader Bignamini
MUSIC DIRECTORSHIP ENDOWED BY THE KRESGE FOUNDATION
Jader Bignamini was introduced as the 18th music director of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra in January 2020, commencing with the 2020–2021 season. His infectious passion and artistic excellence set the tone for the seasons ahead, creating extraordinary music and establishing a close relationship with the orchestra. A jazz aficionado, he has immersed himself in Detroit’s rich jazz culture and the influences of American music.
A native of Crema, Italy, Bignamini studied at the Piacenza Music Conservatory and began his career as a musician (clarinet) with Orchestra Sinfonica La Verdi in Milan, later serving as the group’s resident conductor. Captivated by the music of legends like Mahler and Tchaikovsky, Bignamini explored their complexity and power, puzzling out the role that each instrument played in creating a larger-than-life sound. When he conducted his first professional concert at the age of 28, it didn’t feel like a departure, but an arrival.
In the years since, Bignamini has conducted some of the world’s most acclaimed orchestras and opera companies in venues across the globe including working with Riccardo Chailly on concerts of Mahler’s Eighth Symphony in 2013 and his concert debut at La Scala in 2015 for the opening season of La Sinfonica di Milano. Recent highlights include debuts with Opera de Paris, Deutsche Opera Berlin, Accademia di Santa Cecilia Orchestra, Washington’s National Symphony Orchestra, and the Houston, Dallas, Atlanta, Milwaukee, and Minnesota symphonies; The Cleveland Orchestra at the Blossom Festival; and at the Grand Teton Festival. He has also appeared with the BBC Symphony Orchestra and London Philharmonic; with the Metropolitan Opera, Canadian Opera Company, Vienna State Opera, Dutch National Opera, and Bayerische Staatsoper; in Montpellier for the Festival de Radio France; and had return engagements with Oper Frankfurt and Santa Fe Opera. In Italy, Bignamini has conducted numerous operas at Arena of Verona, Rome’s Teatro dell’Opera, Teatro Massimo in Palermo, the Verdi Festival in Parma, Rossini Opera Festival in Pesaro, and La Fenice in Venice. In Asia, he has conducted the Osaka Philharmonic, Yomiuri Nippon Symphony Orchestra, and others. Bignamini enjoys working with the next generation of musicians and is a regular guest of Interlochen Center for the Arts with the DSO and of the Asian Youth Orchestra.
When Bignamini leads an orchestra in symphonic repertoire, he conducts without a score, preferring to make direct eye contact with the musicians. He conducts from the heart, forging a profound connection with musicians that shines through both onstage and off. He both embodies and exudes the excellence and enthusiasm that has long distinguished the DSO’s artistry.
Enrico Lopez-Yañez
PRINCIPAL POPS CONDUCTOR AND DEVEREAUX FAMILY CHAIR
Enrico Lopez-Yañez is Principal Pops Conductor of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra. He also serves in the same role with the Nashville and Pacific symphonies, and as Principal Conductor of the Dallas Symphony Presents. Lopez-Yañez has quickly established himself as one of the nation’s leading conductors of popular music and become known for his unique style of audience engagement. Also an active composer/arranger, he has been commissioned by prominent orchestras across the United States. Lopez-Yañez has conducted concerts with a broad spectrum of artists from Nas and Patti LaBelle to Itzhak Perlman, The Beach Boys, Kenny G, and more.
An advocate for Latin music, LopezYañez was the recipient of the 2023 “Mexicanos Distinguidos” Award by the Mexican government, an award granted to Mexican citizens living abroad for outstanding career accomplishments in their field.
As Artistic Director and Co-Founder of Symphonica Productions, LLC, LopezYañez curates and leads programs designed to cultivate new audiences. Symphonica’s show offerings range from pops shows to family and educational productions and have been performed by major orchestra across North America.
As a producer, composer, and arranger, Lopez-Yañez’s work can be heard on numerous albums including the UNESCO benefit album Action Moves People United and children’s music albums including The Spaceship that Fell in My Backyard and Kokowanda Bay
Follow Enrico online @enricolopezyanez
Terence Blanchard
FRED A. ERB JAZZ CREATIVE DIRECTOR CHAIR
Trumpeter, bandleader, composer, and educator
Terence Blanchard has served as the DSO’s Fred A. Erb Jazz Creative Director Chair since 2012. He is recognized globally as one of jazz’s most esteemed trumpeters and a prolific composer for film, television, opera, Broadway, orchestras, and his own ensembles, including the E-Collective and Turtle Island Quartet. Blanchard’s second opera, Fire Shut Up in My Bones, opened The Metropolitan Opera’s 2021–22 season, making it the first opera by an African American composer to premiere at the Met, and earning a GRAMMY® for Best Opera Recording. With a libretto by Kasi Lemmons, the opera was commissioned by Opera Theatre of Saint Louis, where it premiered in 2019. Fire returned to the Met for a second run in April 2024. Blanchard’s first opera, Champion, premiered in 2013 and starred Denyce Graves with a libretto from Michael Cristofer. Its April 2023 premiere at the Met received a GRAMMY® for Best Opera Recording. Blanchard has released 20 solo albums, garnered 15 GRAMMY® nominations and eight wins, composed for more than 60 films including more than 20 projects with frequent collaborator Spike Lee, and received 10 major commissions. He is a 2024 NEA Jazz Master and member of the 2024 class of awardees for the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and currently serves as the Executive Artistic Director for SF Jazz.
Visit terenceblanchard.com for more.
DETROIT SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA, INC.
LIFETIME DIRECTORS
Samuel Frankel◊
Stanley Frankel
David Handleman, Sr.◊
Dr. Arthur L. Johnson ◊
Chacona W. Baugh
Penny B. Blumenstein
Richard A. Brodie
Marianne Endicott
Sidney Forbes
Faye Alexander Nelson Chair
Erik Rönmark President & CEO
Shirley Stancato Vice Chair
James B. Nicholson
Barbara Van Dusen
Clyde Wu, M.D.◊
CHAIRS EMERITI
Peter D. Cummings
Mark A. Davidoff
Phillip Wm. Fisher
Stanley Frankel
DIRECTORS EMERITI
Herman H. Frankel
Dr. Gloria Heppner
Ronald Horwitz
Harold Kulish
Bonnie Larson
Arthur C. Liebler
David McCammon
Marilyn Pincus
OFFICERS OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS
Laura Trudeau Treasurer
Renato Jamett Secretary
Ric Huttenlocher Officer at Large
Daniel J. Kaufman Officer at Large
BOARD OF DIRECTORS
Robert S. Miller
James B. Nicholson
David T. Provost
Glenda Price
Marjorie S. Saulson
Jane Sherman
Arthur A. Weiss
David Nicholson Officer at Large
Dr. David M. Wu, M.D. Officer at Large
Directors are responsible for maintaining a culture of accountability, resource development, and strategic thinking. As fiduciaries, Directors oversee the artistic and cultural health and strategic direction of the DSO.
Michael Bickers
Elena Centeio
Rodney Cole
Dr. Marcus Collins
Jeremy Epp, Orchestra Representative
Aaron Frankel
Ralph J. Gerson
Laura Grannemann
Dr. Herman B. Gray, M.D.
Laura Hernandez-Romine
Rev. Nicholas Hood III
Richard Huttenlocher
Renato Jamett, Trustee Chair
Daniel J. Kaufman
H. Keith Mobley, Governing Members Chair
Xavier Mosquet
Faye Alexander Nelson, Board Chair
David Nicholson
Arthur T. O’Reilly
Bernard I. Robertson
BOARD OF TRUSTEES
Shirley Stancato
Scott Strong, Orchestra Representative
Laura J. Trudeau
James G. Vella
Dr. David M. Wu, M.D.
Ellen Hill Zeringue
Trustees are a diverse group of community leaders who infuse creative thinking and innovation into how the DSO strives to achieve both artistic vitality and organizational sustainability.
Renato Jamett, Trustee Chair
Ismael Ahmed
Richard Alonzo
Hadas Bernard
Janice Bernick
Elizabeth Boone
Gwen Bowlby
Dr. Betty Chu, M.D.
Karen Cullen
Joanne Danto
Stephen D’Arcy
Maureen T. D’Avanzo
Jasmin DeForrest
Cara Dietz
Afa Sadykhly Dworkin
Emily Elmer
James C. Farber
Amanda Fisher
Linda Forte
Carolynn Frankel
Christa Funk
Robert Gillette
Jody Glancy
Malik Goodwin
Mary Ann Gorlin
Darby Hadley
Donald Hiruo
Michelle Hodges
Julie Hollinshead
Laurel Kalkanis
Jay Kapadia
David Karp
Joel D. Kellman
John Kim
Jennette Smith Kotila
Leonard LaRocca
William Lentine
Linda Dresner Levy
Gene LoVasco
Anthony McCree
Kristen McLennan
Tito Melega
Lydia Michael
H. Keith Mobley, Governing Members Chair
Sandy Morrison
Frederick J. Morsches
Jennifer Muse
Geoffrey S. Nathan
Sean M. Neall
Eric Nemeth
Maury Okun
Jackie Paige
Priscilla Perkins
Vivian Pickard
Denise Fair Razo
Gerrit Reepmeyer
James Rose, Jr.
Laurie Rosen
Carlo Serraiocco
Lois L. Shaevsky
Elliot Shafer
Shiv Shivaraman
Dean P. Simmer
Richard Sonenklar
Dhivya Srinivasan
Rob Tanner
Yoni Torgow
Nate Wallace
Gwen Weiner
Donnell White
Jennifer Whitteaker
R. Jamison Williams
As the lights dim and the first notes rise from Orchestra Hall, the Detroit Symphony Orchestra invites audiences to embark on an unforgettable journey through music. The 2025–2026 season promises an exhilarating fusion of timeless masterworks, groundbreaking contemporary compositions, and dazzling performances by acclaimed artists. From the return of legendary conductor Herbert Blomstedt to lead performances of Mahler’s Ninth Symphony to the luminescent beauty of the Northern Lights Festival, this season reaffirms the DSO’s place at the forefront of artistic excellence.
JADER BIGNAMINI: LEADING WITH PASSION AND PRECISION
In his fifth season as Music Director, Jader Bignamini will lead nine electrifying programs, setting the stage for another year of extraordinary music-making. The season begins in September with a spectacular opening week: a performance of Verdi’s Requiem at Hill Auditorium, presented in partnership with University Musical Society, followed by the highly anticipated Opening Night Gala at Orchestra Hall, featuring the incompa rable tenor Juan Diego Flórez.
Throughout the season, Bignamini will conduct an array of stunning works on the PVS Classical Series, including Orff’s Carmina Burana, Gershwin’s Piano Concerto in F with the virtuosic Hélène Grimaud, and a breathtaking interpretation of Rachmaninoff’s Symphony No. 2 to close the season in June. Following the success of the recent release of the DSO’s first recording with Bignamini—Wynton Marsalis’s Blues Symphony (Pentatone, 2025)—the orchestra will present two works by Marsalis: his Violin Concerto with Giuseppe Gibboni and the dynamic Swing Symphony, the latter performed alongside the Paradise Theatre Big Band under the direction of Kris Johnson. Debuted in 2023, the Paradise Theatre Big Band honors the history of Orchestra Hall as the Paradise Theatre (1941–1951), which hosted some of the eras biggest names in jazz.
Norway. The festival features Sibelius’s Violin Concerto with the acclaimed Christian Tetzlaff, Einojuhani Rautavaara’s haunting Cantus Arcticus, and Stenhammar’s uplifting Excelsior!, among other Nordic gems.
Berglund’s relationship with the DSO continues to deepen, and her fearless, dynamic approach to conducting has captivated audiences worldwide. In addition to the programs as part of the Northern Lights Festival, Berglund will conduct Mozart’s Overture to Le nozze di Figaro, Schoenberg’s Verklärte Nacht, and Brahms’s Piano Concerto No. 1 with Kirill Gerstein in October.
MICHAEL ABELS: VISIONARY COMPOSER-IN-RESIDENCE
TABITA BERGLUND & THE NORTHERN LIGHTS FESTIVAL
In April, experience the raw emotional power, shimmering harmonies, and evocative storytelling that makes Nordic music as awe-inspiring as the northern lights. The Northern Lights Festival will be anchored by two DSO programs in Orchestra Hall led by Principal Guest Conductor Tabita Berglund, a native of
Acclaimed for his genre-defying compositions, Michael Abels joins the DSO as Composer-in-Residence for the 2025–2026 season. Widely recognized for his scores to Jordan Peele’s Get Out and Us, Abels will present several works including Unbound, Global Warming, and More Seasons. The highlight of his residency comes in February with the world premiere of a new orchestral suite from Omar, a reimagining of his Pulitzer
Jader Bignamini
Prize-winning opera co-composed with Rhiannon Giddens.
Beyond Abels’s contributions, the season continues the DSO’s legacy as champions of contemporary music with commissions by Joan Tower ( A New Day, featuring cellist Alisa Weilerstein) and Samy Moussa (Flute Concerto, featuring Emmanuel Pahud), alongside performances of works by Carlos Simon, Jörg Widmann, Anders Hillborg, Stacy Garrop, Gabriela Lena Frank, Arturo Márquez, and John Adams.
AMERICA AT 250: A CELEBRATION OF MUSICAL HERITAGE
As the nation marks its 250th anniversary, the DSO honors America’s rich musical tapestry with a mosaic of programs showcasing trailblazing composers past and present, including the works by Gershwin and Marsalis. At the annual Classical Roots concerts, which celebrate the contributions of African Americans to classical music, former Resident Conductor Thomas Wilkins will lead the DSO in Carlos Simon’s Troubled Water for Trombone and Orchestra. Premiered by the DSO in 2023, the work features former Principal Trombone Kenneth Thompkins and is inspired by the many stories, accounts, and experiences of enslaved people seeking freedom at any cost on the Underground Railroad. The season also pays homage to Dvořák’s “New World” Symphony, a piece deeply intertwined with the American spirit, presented alongside vibrant works by Ginastera and Márquez.
ENRICO LOPEZ-YAÑEZ & THE PNC POPS SERIES: A FEAST FOR THE SENSES
The PNC Pops Series promises to thrill audiences with a dynamic mix of symphonic spectacle and popular favorites. Principal Pops Conductor (Devereaux Family Chair ) Enrico Lopez-Yañez gets in on America’s 250th celebration with a program of Great American Songbook
hits, jazz standards, and Broadway classics with vocalists Melinda Doolittle and Jimmie Herrod. Running the gamut of genres from a high-energy tribute to Billy Joel to a mesmerizing collaboration with acrobats from Troupe Vertigo, PNC Pops Series performances redefine the possibilities of orchestral entertainment. A deeply personal highlight for Lopez-Yañez will be a program with The Three Mexican Tenors in October, featuring his father, Jorge Lopez-Yañez, in a celebration of Mexico’s rich musical heritage.
A SEASON TO REMEMBER
With bold programming, world-class artists, and enduring commitment to artistic excellence and innovation, the DSO’s 2025–2026 season is poised to be an unforgettable celebration of the power of music. Whether you are drawn to the grandeur of the classics, the fresh energy of contemporary works, or the electrifying spectacle of pops concerts, there is something for everyone to experience and enjoy.
Join us as we step into a season where music magnifies every emotion, every connection, every moment. Subscriptions are available now at dso.org, and single tickets go on sale this summer—secure your seat and be part of the magic!
VISIT DSO.ORG TO SUBSCRIBE NOW TO THE 2025–2026 SEASON
Enrico Lopez-Yañez
LEARNING & ENGAGEMENT
PNC GROW UP GREAT
BY MARISA JACQUES
In powerful partnership between the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, Detroit Public Schools Community District (DPSCD), and the PNC Foundation, the DSO is excited to continue its participation in the PNC Grow Up Great program, which unites music and early childhood education to set students up for success. The DSO has participated in Grow Up Great for many seasons, but this year marks a significant milestone in the program’s growth. Throughout the 2024–25 season, the DSO will visit all 130 DPSCD preschool classrooms for the first time, which is a large leap from the 38 classroom visits last year.
During each school visit, students and teachers welcome a DSO teaching artist and a DSO musician into their classroom. For 45 minutes, students are led on an exciting musical journey that fortifies the established DPSCD curriculum. These interactive visits invite curiosity and encourage students and teachers alike to actively participate by singing, dancing, and clapping. The lesson plan includes activities such as call-and-response with a DSO musician, practicing rhythm with movement and voice, and using the contents of the DSO Music Toolbox, a W.K. Kellogg Foundation sponsored kit that includes a variety of instruments and educational props.
Grow Up Great is as important to the teachers as it is to the students. Teachers are educated on how to implement these musical activities into their daily lesson plans, as music is a catalyst for achieving crucial early childhood education milestones relating to literacy, number recognition, social and communication skills, and more. This functional
practice of music helps teachers deliver lessons in an engaging way while laying the foundation for long-term social, academic, and potential musical success for these young children at such a pivotal time in their development.
There is much to celebrate as the DSO is in the midst of the first season of partnership with all DPSCD schools. Following this expansion, the DSO hired two new teaching artists, adding to the single teaching artist already on staff. Sarah Boyd, Audra Kubat, and Shirel Jones are professionals in different artistic disciplines, but they share expertise in early childhood education. The students now benefit from a wider range of lessons and activities, exposing them to music in ways they may not have experienced before.
The mission of the DSO’s Learning & Engagement team is that of the organization at large—to provide unforgettable musical experiences for our city and the global community. The opportunity to share these experiences and create a lasting impact on every preschool student in Detroit is a tangible realization of this mission, and the DSO looks forward to continuing these connections for years to come.
MEET THE MUSICIAN: PETER HATCH
For Peter Hatch, the bass is more than an instrument—it’s the foundation of rhythm and harmony. As a member of the DSO’s bass section since 2023, he brings a deep, resonant voice to the ensemble, anchoring the orchestra with precision and artistry.
Growing up in the suburbs of Chicago, Hatch began his musical education through the public school system, later studying privately with Lyric Opera of Chicago bassist Andrew Anderson.
“By the time I was twelve, I knew without a doubt that I wanted to pursue a career as an orchestral musician,” says Hatch. “The pivotal moment for me came when I heard the Chicago Symphony negotiating their contract on the radio. That was when I realized that playing the bass could be a full-time career, and the idea of dedicating myself to the orchestra clicked.”
Upon graduation, he was awarded the prestigious Louis Sudler Prize in the Arts in recognition of his outstanding performance and promise.
Hatch studies continued at The Juilliard School, where he earned a Master of Music degree as a Kovner Fellow. Before joining the DSO, he performed with esteemed ensembles including the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra, Grant Park Music Festival, The Philadelphia Orchestra, the Metropolitan Opera, and the Minnesota Orchestra.
Shortly after, he experienced his first taste of playing professional-level repertoire as coprincipal bassist of the Chicago Youth Symphony Orchestra. He toured internationally with the Blue Lake International Symphony Orchestra and, for two consecutive years, was named Principal Bass of the Illinois All-State Honors Orchestra. Exploring interests in other genres, he also held the bass position in the top Illinois All-State Jazz Band.
“The beauty of being a bass player is that I get to wear so many different hats,” he says. “I’ve always enjoyed the versatility of my instrument, whether I’m working on a classical masterwork with the DSO, laying down grooves in a jazz combo, or contributing to the unique sound of a film score.”
Hatch continued at Rice University’s Shepherd School of Music, studying under Timothy Pitts.
With such an extensive performance background, what drew Hatch to the Detroit Symphony Orchestra? “The DSO has always been on my radar because of its reputation as one of the finest orchestras in the country,” he says.
“The opportunity to be part of such a distinguished ensemble, surrounded by top-tier musicians, was incredibly exciting for me.”
An avid golfer, Hatch appreciates Detroit’s blend of urban energy and natural beauty. “Shepherd’s Hollow, nestled in the hills, is one of my favorite spots—it’s peaceful and breathtaking, especially during the fall when the colors are just incredible,” he shares. “Beyond golf, I’m always discovering new restaurants and cultural spots in Detroit—it feels like there’s always something exciting around the corner.”
“What I enjoy most about being in the DSO is the sense of community and collaboration—it truly feels like a collective effort to create something special every time we perform. Plus, the energy from the audience here is unlike any other; it’s inspiring to perform for such a dedicated and passionate crowd.”
GOLD RECORD COLLECTIVE: BOLD VISION, MORE MUSIC
BY LATOYA CROSS
In February, the DSO celebrated the launch of a new fundraising initiative, the Gold Record Collective (GRC), with the vinyl pressing of the orchestra’s first recording with Music Director Jader Bignamini — Wynton Marsalis’s Blues Symphony. The album was released commercially (streaming, digital, and CD) on the Pentatone label on March 14.
This release adds to the DSO’s rich history of recordings that dates to 1928 with the orchestra’s first 78 rpm singles with Ossip Gabrilowitsch released on the Victrola label.
Since then, your Detroit Symphony Orchestra’s highlight reel of recordings has included more than 20 releases with Paul Paray, and 27 under the baton of Neeme Järvi. In the 1970s, led by then-Associate Conductor Paul Freeman, the DSO took part in the historic Black Composers Series; and in 2017, the orchestra earned its first GRAMMY® nomination for Copland’s Third Symphony/Three Latin American Sketches, under the direction of Leonard Slatkin.
“I am so proud of all that we have accomplished together, but especially of the outstanding music-making by the musicians of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra. We are rising to meet the demands of this new era, and our musicians’ dedication to their craft, and to being the best, makes my job a supreme pleasure as we build something remarkable here in Detroit and beyond.”
— JADER BIGNAMINI MUSIC DIRECTOR
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ENRICO LOPEZ-YAÑEZ
Principal Pops Conductor
Devereaux Family Chair
DETROIT SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA
JADER BIGNAMINI , Music Director Music Directorship endowed by the Kresge Foundation
TERENCE BLANCHARD
TABITA BERGLUND Principal Guest Conductor
Fred A. Erb Jazz Creative Director Chair NA’ZIR MCFADDEN Assistant Conductor, Phillip & Lauren Fisher Community Ambassador
PVS CLASSICAL SERIES
Title Sponsor:
BEETHOVEN & BRAHMS
Friday, March 21, 2025 at 7:30 p.m.
Saturday, March 22, 2025 at 8 p.m.
Sunday, March 23, 2025 at 3 p.m. in Orchestra Hall
JADER BIGNAMINI, conductor ROBYN BOLLINGER, violin WEI YU, cello
Johann Strauss II Overture to Die Fledermaus (1825–1899)
Johannes Brahms Concerto for Violin, Cello, and Orchestra (1833–1897) in A minor, Op. 102, “Double Concerto”
I. Allegro
II. Andante
III. Vivace non troppo
Robyn Bollinger, violin Wei Yu, cello
Intermission
Ludwig van Beethoven Symphony No. 6 in F major, Op. 68, “Pastoral” (1770–1827) I. Awakening of cheerful feelings on arriving in the country: Allegro ma non troppo
II. Scene by the brook: Andante molto mosso
III. Merry assembly of country folk: Allegro
IV. Thunderstorm: Allegro
V. Shepherd’s Song – Happy, grateful feelings after the storm: Allegretto
Saturday’s performance will be webcast via our exclusive Live from Orchestra Hall series, presented by Ford Philanthropy. Technology support comes from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation.
Flash photography, extended video recording, tripods, and cameras with detachable lenses are strictly prohibited.
PROGRAM AT-A-GLANCE | BEETHOVEN & BRAHMS
Razzmatazz, Reconciliation, and Raindrops
Strauss’s lively Overture to Die Fledermaus opens, allowing audiences to preview the operetta character’s comical escapades. In contrast, Brahms’s Double Concerto for violin and cello (his last large orchestral work) depicts Brahms longing for reconciliation with a close friend, violinist Joseph Joachim. After a falling out, Brahms saw an opportunity to win Joachim’s graces when the cellist in his quartet asked Brahms to compose a cello concerto. In the resulting work, the violin and cello share the spotlight, joining forces to expand the range of each instrument and thereby expand the conventions of the concerto form at large. Using symphonic form to express the emotions he experienced in the great outdoors, Beethoven’s “Pastoral” Symphony showcases the many facets of nature: liveliness, calmness, and the occasional storminess. These varied characteristics of nature reflect themes shared on this program, including the excitement from the Overture to Die Fledermaus and the yearning from the Double Concerto.
PROGRAM NOTES
Overture to Die Fledermaus
Composed 1874 | Performed 1874
JOHANN STRAUSS II
B. October 25, 1825, Vienna, Austria
D. June 3, 1899, Vienna, Austria
Scored for 2 flutes (one doubling piccolo), 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 4 horns, 2 trumpets, 3 trombones, timpani, percussion, and strings. (Approx. 9 minutes)
Strauss’s
Overture to Die Fledermaus is the opening to his operetta Die Fledermaus, which was based on a French script, Reveillion (referring to a long, festive dinner on the eve of a holiday), by Offenbach’s librettists Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halévy. This operetta was successful from the time of its first performance, initially running for 16 shows and quickly securing more performance dates—and by the end of 1874, productions were up and running in Berlin, Budapest, and New York. The operetta’s story of extramarital flirtation, spousal disguise, and clever revenge charms audiences, washed down with a stream of laughter and a river of champagne.
The Overture provides a taste of all the musical flavors and tunes present
throughout the operetta—dominated by a double-time dance number and an infectious waltz. While other tunes from the operetta weave in and out throughout the Overture, the dance and the waltz remain prominent throughout, and return at the very end in a buoyant conclusion.
The DSO most recently performed Strauss’s Overture to Die Fledermaus in December 2018, conducted by Nikolaj Szeps-Znaider. The DSO first performed the work in February 1922, conducted by Victor Kolar.
Concerto in A minor, Op. 102 for Violin, Cello, and Orchestra
Composed 1887 | Premiered 1887
JOHANNES BRAHMS
B. May 7, 1833, Hamburg, Germany
D. April 3, 1897, Vienna, Austria
Scored for solo violin, solo cello, 2 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 4 horns, 2 trumpets, timpani, and strings. (Approx. 31 minutes)
Brahms
was a towering figure in German
Romanticism, fusing principles of Baroque counterpoint and Classical form from the two
preceding centuries into his highly expressive sentimental 19th century style.
By custom, Brahms spent his summers at some rural lakeside resort, and it was there that many of his most memorable works came to life. From 1886 to 1888, he spent his summers at Hofstetten near Lake Thun in the Swiss canton of Berne, where he produced several major chamber-music works, the Gypsy Songs, and in 1887, the Double Concerto in A minor for Violin, Cello, and Orchestra.
While he looked forward to the fun a composer could have writing for two soloists, Brahms expressed a certain unease about writing for string-instrument soloists, especially the violin. He acknowledged his thorough technical mastery of the piano, readily evident in the splendid solo parts of his two piano concertos. But he recalled seeking the help of violinist Joseph Joachim in shaping the solo line of his Violin Concerto, and in a letter to Clara Schumann, he wondered whether he shouldn’t have passed on his ideas for the Double Concerto to Joachim.
“It is a very different matter writing for instruments whose nature and sound one only has a chance acquaintance with, or only hears in one’s mind, from writing for an instrument that one knows as thoroughly as I know the piano,” he confided to Schumann. For her part, Schumann quickly dismissed his fears and, as matters turned out, Joachim was brought into consultation.
The Brahms Double Concerto is the last famous work in a long line of “concertante” works that call for more than one soloist. Its best-known predecessors are Beethoven’s Triple Concerto for Violin, Cello, Piano, and Orchestra and Mozart’s Sinfonia Concertante for Violin, Viola, and Orchestra. Some commentators cite the double concertos of Bach as more distant ancestors of this work. Finally, there was a lively though musically superficial tradition of hybrid symphony/concerto writing in late 18th-century French music. Like
the Mozart work, these were called “sinfonia concertante” and involved multiple soloists.
Though Brahms’s treatment of the two solo parts is often seemingly rhapsodic, the work itself is the shortest and most tightly constructed of his four concertos. The opening movement is a compact sonata form, the second a lyrical song form, and the finale is a brisk Hungarian rondo, recalling his fondness for this form and his earlier use of it in the Violin Concerto, the G minor Piano Quartet, and other works. —Carl R. Cunningham
The DSO most recently performed Brahms’s Concerto in A minor for Violin and Cello in February 2016, conducted by Leonard Slatkin and featuring Baiba Skride and Danjulo Ishizaka as the violin and cello soloists. The DSO first performed the piece in November 1920, conducted by Ossip Gabrilowitsch and featuring Ilya Schkolnik and Philipp Abbas.
Symphony No. 6 in F Major, Opus 68, “Pastoral”
Composed 1808 | Premiered 1808
LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN
B. December 16, 1770, Bonn, Germany
D. March 26, 1827, Vienna, Austria
Scored for 2 flutes, piccolo, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 2 horns, 2 trumpets, 2 trombones, timpani, and strings. (Approx. 40 minutes)
Beethoven’s love of nature has been amply documented. Many of the composer’s acquaintances recalled the joy he seemed to find in woods and meadows. “He loved to be alone with nature, to make her his only confidante,” reported Therese von Brunswick, one of Beethoven’s closer companions. Another acquaintance confirmed that he “had never met anyone who so . . . thoroughly enjoyed flowers or clouds or other natural objects.”
Beethoven himself confessed that “It seems as if in the country every tree said to me ‘Holy! Holy!’ Who can give complete expression to the ecstasy of the woods?”
Who, indeed, if not Beethoven himself? In 1803, the composer made preliminary sketches for a symphony intended to convey the glories of a sylvan landscape, but five years passed before this work took final shape. Beethoven completed his Sixth Symphony in the summer or early autumn of 1808 and directed its first performance on December 22 of that year.
The composer himself devised the title “Pastoral Symphony, or a recollection of country life.” He also provided the descriptive headings that precede each of the five movements. Even without these guides, there could hardly be any mistaking the pictorial qualities of this composition. It is the most unambiguously programmatic of Beethoven’s nine symphonies.
While his Third, Fifth, and Ninth Symphonies imply, in an oblique manner, great dramas of crisis and transcendence, the “Pastoral” draws on a well-established repertory of musical onomatopoeia to convey specific extra-musical phenomena, including bird calls, a storm and more.
Yet Beethoven evidently worried that listeners would give too much attention to these pictorial elements, for he appended a caveat word to the symphony’s title: “More an expression of feelings than tone painting.” The qualification is important. Nature clearly meant more to Beethoven than just a pleasing landscape or woodland sounds that could be imitated through clever musical alliteration. It was, rather, a wellspring of purity and beauty, something to be held in reverence. And it is his great feeling for nature, his personal but hardly idiosyncratic relationship to it, far more than tonal allusions to brooks and birds and storms, that lies at the heart of the “Pastoral” Symphony.
The first movement, entitled “Cheerful impressions on arriving in the country,”
seems expansive and unhurried despite its Allegro tempo indication. Certain critics have complained of a static quality in much of this music, and superficially it does seem that very little happens. Harmonies remain unchanged for dozens of measures at a time, and motives are repeated over and over without variation. But in fact, because it is Beethoven, a great deal happens. The repeated figures never lack a strong sense of direction and are dappled with ever-changing orchestral colors. The slow harmonic motion lends each change of chord heightened significance and imparts a feeling of leisurely contemplation to the music, which is nevertheless carefully and handsomely shaped.
“Scene by a brook” reads Beethoven’s heading for the second movement, and a stream of flowing melody runs through its pages. The suggestion of birdcalls heard in the woodwind arpeggios and violin trills becomes explicit in the final measures. Beethoven, in the score, even identifies his collaborators: a nightingale (flute), quail (oboe), and cuckoo (clarinet).
The final three movements are linked by a continuous dramatic thread. The scherzo third movement has the robust quality of the peasant dances that Beethoven undoubtedly encountered on his rambles through the countryside. But an ominous rumbling in the low strings interrupts the “merry gathering.” This is a wonderfully dramatic moment, hushed and perfectly timed. The tempest then breaks out in full symphonic fury.
Calls from the clarinet and horn signal the end of the storm and lead to a radiant theme in the strings, the principal subject of the finale. This melody is child-like in its simplicity, entailing almost nothing but the outlines of tonic and dominant chords. It conveys innocent gratitude and transcendent joy. Beethoven attributes these feelings to his imaginary shepherd, but they are, of course, his own. The fond remembrance of peasants dancing, the shepherd singing after the storm—in the
end, Beethoven, that great humanist, sings his hymn not just to nature but to mankind in nature. And this makes all the difference.
The DSO most recently performed
PROFILES
For Jader Bignamini biography, see page 6.
ROBYN BOLLINGER
Daring, versatile, and charismatic,
American violinist Robyn Bollinger is Concertmaster (Katherine Tuck Chair ) of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra. Equally at home as soloist, chamber musician, orchestral leader, and pedagogue, Bollinger is an artist at the forefront of classical music. Having made her Philadelphia Orchestra debut at age 12, she regularly performs with orchestras across the United States. Past highlights include engagements with the Boston Pops and the symphony orchestras of Brevard, California, Charleston, Grand Tetons Music Festival, Helena, Illinois, Indian Hill, Knoxville, and Symphony in C. In 2019, Bollinger gave the world premiere of Artifacts, a four-movement violin concerto commissioned by the California Symphony by composer Katherine Balch and written specifically for Bollinger.
A sought-after collaborator and recitalist, Bollinger is a popular figure on chamber music stages around the world. She is a returning participant at the acclaimed Marlboro Music Festival and has been featured in numerous national tours with Musicians from Marlboro. She has toured in Midori’s Music Sharing International Community Engagement Program “ICEP” in Japan, performing in recital in Osaka’s Phoenix Hall, Tokyo’s Oji Hall, and Tokyo National Arts Center. A prizewinner at the 2007 Fischoff National
Beethoven’s Symphony No. 6 in February 2020, conducted by John Storgårds. The DSO first performed the piece in February 1920, conducted by Ossip Gabrilowitsch.
Chamber Music Competition, Bollinger has appeared at the chamber music festivals of Halcyon, Highlands-Cashiers, Lake Champlain, Monadnock, and Orcas Island. She has presented recitals at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, National Sawdust, Emory University, Kalliroscope Gallery, Live from Indian Hill, the California Symphony, and more. She appears regularly with the Chameleon Arts Ensemble in Boston, the Boston Chamber Music Society, Mistral Music, Spruce Peak Chamber Music Society, and Glissando Music, among others.
Bollinger has been recognized for both her innovation and entrepreneurship. She received a prestigious Fellowship from the Lenore Annenberg Arts Fellowship Fund for her multimedia performance project, “CIACCONA: The Bass of Time,” later releasing a commercial CD and DVD of the project and presenting a national tour of the program. An examination of the history and legacy of the Bach’s famed chaconne for solo violin, the program received critical acclaim from The New York Times, The Boston Globe, and the San Francisco Chronicle, among others.
Bollinger has also been recognized with an Entrepreneurial Musicianship Grant from New England Conservatory for her ground-breaking “Project Paganini,” a performance project featuring the twenty-four Caprices of Paganini. She was recently awarded a historic Early-Career Musician Fellowship from Dumbarton Oaks Museum in Washington, DC, to research and prepare her next multimedia project, “Encore! Just One More,” to be
debuted in future seasons.
A noted leader and ensemble player, Bollinger has been a frequent Guest Concertmaster with the Pittsburgh Symphony and has made Guest Concertmaster appearances with the Indianapolis Symphony and St. Bart’s Music Festival Orchestra. She is a former member of A Far Cry, the Boston-based, democratically run chamber orchestra, and she has appeared on commercial recordings with both the Pittsburgh Symphony and A Far Cry, all of which were nominated for GRAMMY Awards®.
Bollinger is a devoted educator, having presented masterclasses at the Cincinnati Conservatory, the Longy School of Music, University of California Bakersfield, Temple University Preparatory School, and a unique masterclass examining classical music in the context of Aristotle at the University of Tennessee Chattanooga. She is a former faculty member at New England Conservatory Preparatory School in Boston and Brandeis University. She earned both her bachelor’s and master’s degrees with academic honors from the New England Conservatory of Music. Her major teachers included Soovin Kim, Miriam Fried, Paul Biss, Paul Kantor, and Lyle Davidson. Bollinger currently plays on a 1697 G. B. Rogeri violin on generous loan from a private collector and a 2013 Benoit Rolland bow commissioned specially for her.
WEI YU
Wei Yu was appointed Principal Cello of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra by Music Director Laureate Leonard Slatkin in 2014. He made his solo debut performing Dvořák’s Cello Concerto and has appeared as soloist with the DSO every season since. Before joining the DSO, Yu was a member of the New York Philharmonic for seven seasons.
Yu was a prizewinner at the Hudson Valley Philharmonic String Competition, the Holland American Music Society Cello Competition, the Music Teachers National Association Competition (MTNA National Collegiate Strings), Canada’s National Music Festival, Calgary’s Kiwanis Festival, and China’s National Cello competitions.
An avid chamber musician, Yu has been invited to the Marlboro, Ravinia, Great Lakes Chamber Music, and Mainly Mozart music festivals. Yu has collaborated with musicians including cellist Carter Brey and David Soyer; pianists Richard Goode and Menahem Pressler; violinists Augustin Hadelich, Midori, and Pinchas Zukerman; and members of the Guarneri, Emerson, and Juilliard Quartets. As a member of the New York Philharmonic ensembles, he made regular appearances at Merkin Concert Hall.
A successful instructor, Yu serves as a faculty member at the Northwestern University Bienen School of Music. He has given cello masterclasses at universities and festivals in the United States, Canada, Poland, and China. During the summer, Yu teaches at the Morningside Music Bridge International Music Festival in Calgary, Canada; Carnegie Hall’s National Youth Orchestra; and the Center Stage Strings Summer Institute at the University of Michigan.
Born in Shanghai, China, Yu began studying the cello at age four and made his concerto debut at age 11, performing Elgar’s Cello Concerto with the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra. He received a Bachelor of Music from North Park University in Chicago and a Master of Music from The Juilliard School. His principal teachers include Mei-Juan Liu, John Kadz, Hans Jørgen Jensen, and David Soyer.
ENRICO LOPEZ-YAÑEZ
Principal Pops Conductor
Devereaux Family Chair
DETROIT SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA
JADER BIGNAMINI , Music Director Music Directorship endowed by the Kresge Foundation
TERENCE BLANCHARD
TABITA BERGLUND Principal Guest Conductor
Fred A. Erb Jazz Creative Director Chair NA’ZIR MCFADDEN Assistant Conductor, Phillip & Lauren Fisher Community Ambassador
PVS CLASSICAL SERIES
Title Sponsor:
BRAHMS’S THIRD SYMPHONY
Thursday, March 27, 2025 at 7:30 p.m.
Friday, March 28, 2025 at 8 p.m.
Saturday, March 29, 2025 at 8 p.m. in Orchestra Hall
JADER
BIGNAMINI, conductor ALEXANDRA DOVGAN, piano
Jeremy Crosmer Solo (b. 1987)
Camille Saint-Saëns Piano Concerto No. 2 in G minor, Op. 22 (1835–1921) I. Andante sostenuto
II. Allegro scherzando
III. Presto
Alexandra Dovgan, piano
Intermission
Johannes Brahms Symphony No. 3 in F major, Op. 90 (1833–1897) I. Allegro con brio
II. Andante
III. Poco allegretto
IV. Allegro
Saturday’s performance will be webcast via our exclusive Live from Orchestra Hall series, presented by Ford Philanthropy. Technology support comes from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation.
Flash photography, extended video recording, tripods, and cameras with detachable lenses are strictly prohibited.
PROGRAM AT-A-GLANCE | BRAHMS’S THIRD SYMPHONY
In the Spotlight
In the Detroit premiere of Solo, composed by DSO cellist Jeremy Crosmer, single voices emerge from the symphonic texture to add their unique colors, creating a musical depiction of a painting by the late Philip C. Curtis. Continuing the theme of a solo voice, rising teenage pianist Alexandra Dovgan performs Saint-Saëns’s Piano Concerto No. 2, displaying her virtuosity on the Orchestra Hall stage for the first time. A child piano prodigy himself, Saint-Saëns performed at the most sought-after salons in his youth around the same age as Dovgan was when she debuted at the world’s most prestigious concert halls. In Brahms’s Third Symphony, the emerging solo voice is not a specific instrument, but a motif created by the notes F-A flat-F. These notes are a musical cryptogram, outlining the phrase “Frei aber froh,” or “Free but happy.”
PROGRAM NOTES
Solo
Composed 2023 JEREMY CROSMER
B. 1987
Scored for 2 flutes, piccolo, 2 oboes, English horn, 2 clarinets, bass clarinet, 2 bassoons, contrabassoon, 4 horns, 3 trumpets, 3 trombones, tuba, timpani, percussion, harp, and strings. (Approx. 12 minutes)
Of Solo, Jeremy Crosmer writes the following:
“Solo was commissioned to honor the legacy and work of the artist Philip C. Curtis (19072000). The work is based on the painting Solo (oil on board, 1962). Born in Jackson and an Albion College alum, Curtis typically said little about his paintings, leaving them to speak for themselves. The musical nature of this particular painting, showing a horn interlaced within a gnarly tree, made it a perfect choice to serve as a model for a soundscape.”
Solo was commissioned by the Philip J. Curtis Foundation for the Jackson Symphony Orchestra. This performance marks the DSO premiere of Solo by Jeremy Crosmer.
Piano Concerto No. 2 in G minor, Op. 22
Composed 1868 | Premiered 1868
CAMILLE SAINT-SAËNS
B. October 9, 1835, Paris, France
D. December 16, 1921, Algiers, Algeria
Scored for solo piano, 2 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 2 horns, 2 trumpets, timpani, percussion, and strings. (Approx. 23 minutes)
Camille
Saint-Saëns demonstrated great skill at the piano as a young boy—while his age was still in the single digits, his mother wrote that he possessed “an imagination, an enthusiasm, and ease of assimilation which bordered on the marvelous.” As he grew older, in a France generally obsessed with opera, SaintSaëns reinvented for the orchestral genre a purely French style. His five piano concertos, differing greatly in tone and inspiration, have as their aim the achievement of an ever more perfect balance between piano and orchestra, and are a remarkable demonstration of the art of writing for the keyboard.
The Piano Concerto No. 2 was written for Saint-Saëns’s own use; however, the inspiration for its composition came from Anton Rubinstein, another keyboard wizard of the time. In 1868, Rubinstein played a series of concerto programs in
Paris, with Saint-Saëns as conductor. So happy was he with their collaboration that Rubinstein suggested an additional concert, with the roles transposed: he would conduct, and Saint-Saëns would play the piano. Never wanting for inspiration, Saint-Saëns dashed off the G-minor Concerto in only three weeks, giving its premiere under Rubinstein’s direction at the Salle Playel in Paris on May 13, 1868.
The first movement opens and closes with a tribute to the preludes of Bach, but as seen from a 19th century perspective. The main discourse between the piano and the orchestra, which follows, was based on a Tantum Ergo that Saint Saëns’s pupil Gabriel Fauré brought his teacher. “Give it to me! I can make something of it!” Saint-Saëns told his pupil, and so he did. There is no slow movement; rather, a Scherzo that is tinged with both humor and feeling. The finale is a devilishly swirling Tarentelle (marked Presto), which brings an initially austere work to a tumultuous close.
The DSO most recently performed Saint-Saëns’s Piano Concerto No. 2 in February 2018, conducted by Leonard Slatkin and featuring pianist George Li. The DSO first performed the piece in February 1919, conducted by Ossip Gabrilowitsch and featuring pianist Vera Kaplun Aronson.
Symphony No. 3 in F major, Op. 90
Composed 1883 | Premiered 1883
JOHANNES BRAHMS
B. May 7, 1833, Hamburg, Germany
D. April 3, 1897, Vienna, Austria
Scored for 2 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, contrabassoon, 4 horns, 2 trumpets, 3 trombones, timpani, and strings. (Approx. 33 minutes)
In the summer of 1883, Brahms settled in the secluded German town of Wiesbaden, leaving behind his busy life in Vienna. As with previous summers, Johannes Brahms intended to divide his
time between composing, in this case the Third Symphony, and enjoying the outdoors. Of course, there was also a lovely young woman staying in Wiesbaden, a contralto named Hermine Spiess that Brahms had met earlier in the year. Though nothing ever came of Brahms’s infatuation with the young singer, it has often been speculated that the Third Symphony was, at least in part, inspired by his romantic feelings towards her.
After completing the full score in October, Brahms returned to Vienna and sent a reduction to one of his most ardent friends, the pianist and composer Clara Schumann (widow of Robert Schumann). Her letter to Brahms from February 1884 provides a beautiful poetic description of the work: “I have spent many happy hours with your wonderful creation…what a harmonious mood pervades the whole! All the movements seem to be of one piece, one beat of the heart, each one a jewel! From start to finish one is wrapped about with the mysterious charm of the woods and forests. I could not tell you which movement I loved most. In the first I was charmed straight away by the gleams of dawning day, as if the rays of the sun were shining through the trees. Everything springs to life, everything breathes good cheer, it is really exquisite! The second is a pure idyll; I can see the worshippers kneeling before the little forest shrine, I hear the babbling brook and the buzz of the insects. There is such a fluttering and a humming all round that one feels oneself snatched up into the joyous web of nature. The third movement is a pearl, but it is a grey one dipped in a tear of woe, and at the end the modulation is quite wonderful. How gloriously the last movement follows with its passionate upward surge! But one’s beating heart is soon calmed down again for the final transfiguration, which begins with such beauty in the development motif that words fail me!”
The opening of the first movement is surely one of the most vigorous and heroic moments in all of Brahms’s oeuvre. The rising chords in the woodwinds and brass announce the motto for the entire symphony—F, A-flat, F (in the flute). This motto is closely related to the motto of Brahms’s youth, F-A-E, short for “Frei aber einsam” [free but lonely], and many critics have taken the lead of Brahms’s biographer Max Kalbeck and ascribed the F-A-F motto with the meaning “Frei aber froh” [free but happy]. While scholars have debated the veracity of this inference, there is no doubt that Brahms builds the entire form of this symphony around this simple motto.
The second theme of this sonata exposition is a lilting duet between the clarinet and bassoon, in the distant key of A major, which builds to a climax before the repeat of the exposition. In contrast with the preceding stormy music, the second movement is simple and almost folk-like. The tonality is clear throughout (C major and G major), featuring an abundance of plain triadic harmonies and pedal points in the bass. The third movement is even more song-like than the second, with a soaring melody repeating again and again, but each time with new shades of orchestration.
The finale is unusual for many reasons, not least of which is the mysterious opening with the strings and bassoons in unison. Also odd is the key, F minor, as it
was not common for a symphony to begin in a major key and end in a minor key. After a buildup, the horns and cello play the second theme, featuring a rolling triplet feel reminiscent of the second movement. After a tumultuous section that displays Brahms’s mastery of developing material (as well as his penchant for syncopated rhythms), the recapitulation of the first section begins with the flute, clarinet, and bassoon. Tension and energy build until the second theme is heard again in the horns and cello, and we are finally in the home key of the entire symphony, F major. Not content to merely end the work here, Brahms embarks on a coda that defies the typical plan—instead of building to the end, Brahms starts this coda with a massive climax, which is slowly dissipated over time. Near the end, a faint echo of the F, A-flat, F motto is heard, first in the oboe, then horn, and finally the flute repeats it over a very hushed version of the opening of the entire symphony. To complete the reminiscence, the murmuring violins glide over the notes from the descending melody of the first movement, and the picture is complete.
The DSO most recently performed Brahms’s Symphony No. 3 in February 2016, conducted by Leonard Slatkin. The DSO first performed the piece in December 1920, conducted by Ossip Gabrilowitsch.
PROFILE
For Jader Bignamini’s biography, see page 6.
ALEXANDRA DOVGAN
Alexandra Dovgan was born in 2007 into a family of musicians and began her piano studies at the age of four and a half. At five, her talent emerged when she passed the highly competitive selection process to join the Academic Central Music School of the Moscow State Conservatory, where she studied under renowned teacher Mira Marchenko. She is currently continuing her education at the Ateneo de Música in Malaga. Dovgan’s musical development has been greatly influenced by her creative communication with one of the most outstanding pianists of our time, Grigory Sokolov.
Dovgan is a prize-winner in five international competitions, including the Moscow International Vladimir Krainev Piano Competition, the International Young Pianists Competition “Astana Piano Passion,” and the International Television Contest for Young Musicians “The Nutcracker.” She was only ten when she won the Grand Prix at the II° International “Grand Piano Competition” in Moscow. Recordings of this event have travelled the world on Medici.TV and YouTube, moving musicians and piano lovers globally.
Despite her young age, Dovgan has already performed in some of the most prestigious concert halls, including the Philharmonie and Konzerthaus in Berlin, the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées in Paris, the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, the Konzerthaus in Vienna, the Tonhalle in Zurich, Victoria Hall in Geneva, Konserthuset in Stockholm, Palau de la Música in Barcelona, and Gulbenkian in Lisbon, receiving standing ovations and enthusiastic reviews. In August 2024, she made her debut at Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires.
Since her acclaimed recital at the Salzburg Festival, Dovgan has impressed critics and the public alike with a remarkable series of international debuts. She performed with Gustavo Dudamel and the Mahler Chamber Orchestra, debuted in Japan with the Kioi Sinfonietta and Trevor Pinnock, with Tonhalle Orchestra Zurich and Paavo Järvi, with Stockholm Philharmonic and Ton Koopman, with Barcelona Symphony and Kazushi Ono, and recently with the Bergen Philharmonic and Pietari Inkinen.
Highlights of the 2024–25 season include her debut in London with the London Philharmonic under Edward Gardner, performances at Alte Oper in Frankfurt, Stuttgart Liederhalle, Essen Philharmonie, and Milan Conservatory, as well as her return to the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées in Paris and the Orchestre Philharmonique de Monte-Carlo under Kazuki Yamada. Additionally, she will undertake European tours with the Basel and Stuttgart Chamber Orchestras and make her debut with the Orquesta Nacional de España and the Detroit Symphony Orchestra.
The distinguishing characteristics of Dovgan’s pianism are her spontaneous depth and consciousness, along with a sound of incredible beauty and precision. You will not find any element of showboating or mere technical demonstration in her playing; rather, there is an impressive concentration combined with purity of expression and creative imagination. She possesses a charismatic presence on stage and a distinct personality.
In June 2024, Dovgan received the prestigious Prix Serdang from Rudolf Buchbinder and Adrian Flury in recognition of her achievements and her already significant career.
ENRICO LOPEZ-YAÑEZ
Principal Pops Conductor
Devereaux Family Chair
DETROIT SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA
JADER BIGNAMINI , Music Director Music Directorship endowed by the Kresge Foundation
TERENCE BLANCHARD
TABITA BERGLUND Principal Guest Conductor
Fred A. Erb Jazz Creative Director Chair NA’ZIR MCFADDEN Assistant Conductor, Phillip & Lauren Fisher Community Ambassador
PVS CLASSICAL SERIES
Title Sponsor:
BEETHOVEN & SCHUMANN
Friday, April 4, 2025 at 10:45 a.m.
Saturday, April 5, 2025 at 8 p.m.
Sunday, April 6, 2025 at 3 p.m. in Orchestra Hall
MARKUS STENZ, conductor
RALPH SKIANO, clarinet
ERIC NOWLIN, viola
Ludwig van Beethoven Leonore Overture No. 3, Op. 72b (1770–1827)
Max Bruch Concerto for Clarinet and Viola (1838–1920) in E minor, Op. 88
I. Andante con moto
II. Allegro moderato
III. Allegro molto
Ralph Skiano, clarinet
Eric Nowlin, viola
Intermission
Robert Schumann Symphony No. 2 in C major, Op. 61 (1810 - 1856) I. Sostenuto assai - Allegro ma non troppo
II. Scherzo: Allegro vivace
III. Adagio expressivo
IV. Allegro molto vivace
Saturday’s performance will be webcast via our exclusive Live from Orchestra Hall series, presented by Ford Philanthropy. Technology support comes from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation.
Flash photography, extended video recording, tripods, and cameras with detachable lenses are strictly prohibited.
PROGRAM AT-A-GLANCE | BEETHOVEN & SCHUMANN
A Flair for the Dramatic
Beethoven was the primary inspiration for the other composers on this program. Composing only one opera in his lifetime, Beethoven wrote several revisions with a new overture each time. The Leonore Overture No. 3 in C major is the one that has stood the test of time due to its ability to capture the drama and triumph to come in the opera. The work now stands alone as Beethoven made his final revision after, renaming the work to Fidelio. The lush, dramatic, and emotional sentiments from Leonore Overture carry over to Bruch’s Double Concerto. Schumann’s Second Symphony is an intimate glimpse into his emotional state during the time of composition, allowing audiences to peer into his heart and mind. Through this symphony, Schumann worked through a deep depression, studying the work of Beethoven for comfort and inspiration. By the final movement, he began to feel like himself again, which is reflected in the triumphant finale.
PROGRAM NOTES
Leonore Overture No. 3, Op. 72b
Composed 1805 | Premiered 1806
LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN
B. December 16, 1770, Bonn, Germany
D. March 27, 1827, Vienna, Austria
Scored for 2 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 4 horns, 2 trumpets, 3 trombones, timpani, and strings. (Approx. 13 minutes)
Thefact that Beethoven composed or revised the overture to his only opera four times stands as lasting evidence of his quest for artistic perfection and his effort to make a lasting musical statement on behalf of human freedom. The opera, variously titled Leonore or Fidelio, is musically a magnificent piece, though hampered by a less-than-ideal libretto portraying the dramatic rescue of a political prisoner by his wife.
Though the short, dramatically neutral Fidelio Overture is customarily used as the curtain-raiser in performances of the opera today, the third Leonore Overture has become an important concert work, and it is one of Beethoven’s most visionary orchestral pieces, in effect a tone poem composed some 40 years before that term gained currency in 19th century music. Set as a large sonata-form movement with a lengthy introduction, its scale
and dramatic value invite comparison with the opening movement of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, written nearly 20 years later. But the improvisational freedom and virtuosity with which Beethoven played upon his orchestra in this willful overture constitute a different listening experience from anything Beethoven sought in his more tightly organized symphonic movements.
The introduction, opening with an awesome descending unison scale, recreates the gloomy, hopeless atmosphere surrounding the imprisoned Florestan in the dungeon. The clarinet-bassoon phrase quotes the theme of his second-act aria, “In des Lebens Frühlingstagen,” (“In the springtime of my life, happiness has taken leave of me”). The orchestra then muses, sometimes violently, upon excerpts from this theme, before proceeding to the faster allegro section and the overture’s main theme, which gains tremendous power as it unfolds. Florestan’s melody returns as a second theme stated by the flute and first violins.
The development section is twice interrupted by a trumpet fanfare (the first time offstage), depicting the arrival of a minister of state who (in the opera) frees Florestan and punishes the institution’s ruthless warden, Pizarro. A quiet passage immediately following these fanfares depicts Florestan’s wonderment as he is finally led out into daylight. The overture culminates in a joyous restatement of its themes and a coda bursting with rapture.
The DSO most recently performed Beethoven’s Leonore Overture No. 3 in February 2013, conducted by Leonard Slatkin. The DSO first performed the piece in January 1919, conducted by Ossip Gabrilowitsch.
Concerto for Clarinet and Viola in E minor, Op. 88
Composed 1911 | Premiered 1912
MAX BRUCH
B. January 6, 1838, Cologne, Germany
D. October 2, 1920, Friedenau, Berlin, Germany
Scored for solo clarinet, solo viola, 2 flutes, 2 oboes, English horn, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 4 horns, 2 trumpets, timpani, and strings. (Approx. 19 minutes)
Max Bruch was a highly talented mid-19th century German composer whose fame was overshadowed by those of his near-contemporary, Johannes Brahms, and Richard Wagner. The son of a police official, he began to compose at the age of nine and won the Frankfurt MozartStiftung Prize when he was 14. He studied with Ferdinand Hiller, Carl Reinecke, and Ferdinand Breuning.
Bruch composed three violin concertos, three fine symphonies, dramatic works, and numerous choral works, both sacred and secular. He attained increasingly important positions in Koblenz, Sondershausen, Berlin, Liverpool, and Breslau, finally directing a composition class at Berlin’s famed High School for Music for 21 years.
He was essentially a conservative composer, rejecting the tenets of the Wagner-Liszt New German School in favor of the works of Mendelssohn and Schumann. By the time he died at age 82, Romanticism had given way to 20th century trends and his music was considered outdated, notwithstanding its fine craftsmanship and appealing melody.
Bruch’s Concerto for Clarinet and Viola was composed in his 70s—right before he was about to retire from composing altogether after over 20 years of teaching composition at Berlin’s renowned Hochschule [Conservatory] für Musik. This piece, though conservative in nature, is thoroughly steeped in the Romantic style, set in the traditional form of three movements but beginning with a unique slow movement and ending with a flashy Allegro molto as the concerto’s finale.
This performance marks the DSO premiere of Max Bruch’s Concerto for Clarinet and Viola.
Symphony No. 2 in C major, Op. 61
Composed | Premiered 1846
ROBERT SCHUMANN
B. June 8, 1810, Zwickau, Saxony, Germany D. July 29, 1856, Endenich near Bonn, Germany
Scored for 2 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 2 horns, 2 trumpets, 3 trombones, timpani, and strings. (Approx. 34 minutes)
Schumann’s conception of his Symphony No. 2 was likely shaped by the nervous breakdown he suffered in 1844, as well as by his concern for the continuation of the Germanic symphonic tradition in the void left by the deaths of Beethoven and Schubert. Both concerns his personal struggle on one hand and the future of symphonic form on the other caused Schumann to re-conceptualize his approach to large-scale form, as is evident in this symphony. Rather than presenting thematically unrelated movements, Schumann here links the four together with themes and moods that can often be traced to the opening of the first movement. In addition, the tonal plan of the symphony is unorthodox. Instead of creating tension and drama by exploring
contrasting keys in the central movements (a strategy typical in symphonic form), every movement of this symphony is centered on the same pitch C.
At least in retrospect, Schumann saw the symphony as part of his own emotional trials and recovery. He alluded to the circumstances of the symphony’s composition in a letter from April 2, 1849: “I wrote the symphony in December 1845 when I was still half sick; it seems to me that one must hear this in it. Not until [writing] the last two movements did I begin to feel myself again; actually, after finishing the entire work my health did improve. But otherwise, as I said, it reminds me of a dark time.”
The key of C major, however, seems to suggest hope and redemption in the symphony. It may also remind us of Schumann’s Germanic predecessors, in particular Beethoven and his Symphony No. 5 as well as Schubert and his “Great” C-Major Symphony. For Schumann, however, the key of C was likely also an allusion to his wife Clara’s first initial. If so, then the optimism that closes the symphony, its clear affirmation of C, and the final plagal (“amen”) cadence would seem to indicate Clara as the redemptive “hero” of the symphony. Further allusions to Clara include the melody of “Widmung ” a song that Schumann presented to Clara on their wedding day in 1840 heard in the fourth movement. Whether aware of these dedicatory elements or not, Clara appreciated the symphony. Following an 1847 performance in Zwickau, she wrote in her diary, “this work in particular enthuses and enraptures me because it contains a bold dash, a deep passion as in none of Robert’s other works! An entirely distinct character and an entirely different feeling prevail… [It] numbers among my most treasured musical pleasures.”
The structure of the symphony, though not overtly programmatic, suggests an underlying poetic or even novelistic narrative, possibly reminiscent of Schumann’s personal struggle with
mental illness. The slow opening of the first movement lays out this psychological world as a tension between reflective introspection and extroverted jubilance. In the following allegro section, the fanfare speeds up and becomes a martial primary theme.
Schumann makes another departure from model symphonic form by placing the scherzo as the second movement. This switch adds weight to the slow movement by suggesting a progression from the inner world of the third movement into the extroverted finale.
The third movement, adagio espressivo, is the most introspective. After the yearning melody (which stretches through two large leaps by seventh) is heard three times, the horns interject distant fanfares. Then the opening melody returns, traded between solo woodwinds and strings, and gains intensity with each iteration.
The exuberant C-major scales that hail the arrival of the fourth movement, allegro molto, shatter the third’s thoughtful reverie. From the finale’s first bars until the end of the movement, the home key C is firmly established and the earlier ambivalence toward the tonic is forgotten in exuberance and triumph. The initial tension between the chorale melody and fanfare returns, but now the chorale supports the optimistic mood of the fanfares. The fanfare and chorale are entwined in counterpoint, bringing the symphony to a bright and triumphant, if slightly bombastic, close. —Jesse A. Johnston
The DSO most recently performed Schumann’s Symphony No. 2 in November 2015, conducted by Andrew Grams. The DSO first performed the piece in December 1920, conducted by Ossip Gabrilowitsch.
PROFILES
MARKUS STENZ
Considered one of the leading conductors of our time, in 2024–25
Markus Stenz returns to two of his longstanding partners, GürzenichOrchester Köln and Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra, and also to Detroit Symphony Orchestra and NCPA Orchestra in Beijing, among many others. Opera productions lead him to Hangzhou, where he conducts Siegfried and to Maggio Musicale di Firenze for a new production of Henze’s Der junge Lord. Stenz’s long relationship with the Teatro La Fenice in Venice bears new fruit in a new production of Kurt Weill’s Der Protagonist.
Markus Stenz has held several high-profile positions including Principal Conductor of the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra, Principal Guest of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, and most recently Conductor in Residence at Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra. He was General Music Director of the City of Cologne and Gürzenich-Kapellmeister for eleven years, conducting Mozart’a Don Giovanni, Wagner’s Ring cycle, Lohengrin, Tannhäuser, and Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, as well as Janáček’s Jenůfa and Katya Kábanová and Eötvös’s Love and Other Demons
Stenz made his opera debut in 1988 at Teatro La Fenice in Venice and, following various highly successful concert weeks with the orchestra, amongst them a new production of Wagner’s Der fliegende Holländer in 2022–23. Upcoming projects include Ariadne auf Naxos and Lohengrin. His extensive discography includes many prize-winning recordings including the Gürzenich-Orchestra Köln’s complete cycle of Gustav Mahler’s symphonies, with Symphony No. 5 receiving the German Record Critics’ Award; Strauss’s Don
Quixote and Till Eulenspiegel both received unanimous critical acclaim, followed by an equally celebrated recording of Schönberg’s Gurrelieder released in 2015, receiving the Choral Award at the 2016 Gramophone Awards.
Stenz studied at the Hochschule für Musik in Cologne with Volker Wangenheim and at Tanglewood with Leonard Bernstein and Seiji Ozawa. He has been awarded an Honorary Fellowship of the Royal Northern College of Music, Manchester and the Silberne Stimmgabel (Silver Tuning Fork) of the state of North Rhein/Westphalia.
RALPH SKIANO
Ralph Skiano was appointed Principal Clarinet (Robert B. Semple Chair ) of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra in 2014 after serving in the same position in the Richmond Symphony and the Des Moines Metro Opera. He has also appeared as guest Principal Clarinet of the Seattle Symphony, the Cincinnati Symphony, and the Cleveland Orchestra.
Skiano has been involved in numerous music festivals including the Mainly Mozart Festival, the Peninsula Music Festival, the Britt Music Festival, Festival Lyrique-en-Mer, and the Tanglewood Music Center. As a soloist, he has been featured with ensembles in the United States, France, Germany, and Switzerland. In 2010, Skiano was a guest artist at the Oklahoma Clarinet Symposium and was a featured soloist with the Baton Rouge Symphony at the 2014 International Clarinet Association Convention. Skiano appeared as a soloist several times with the Richmond Symphony, most notably performing concerti by Mozart, Weber, and Copland. He made his solo debut with the DSO in March of 2015, performing
Mozart’s Concerto for Clarinet.
Skiano has served on the faculty of the schools of music at James Madison University and the College of William and Mary and has presented masterclasses at UVA, Towson University, Louisiana State University, California State University Northridge, Michigan State University, Northwestern University, and the University of Maryland.
Under the guidance of Richard Hawley, Skiano completed his Bachelor of Music at the Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music in 2002.
ERIC NOWLIN
DSO
Principal Viola ( Julie and Ed Levy, Jr. Chair ) Eric Nowlin has performed extensively throughout the United States as well as abroad.
Nowlin’s performance of Berlioz’s Harold in Italy with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra was described by Classical Source as “outstanding…his distinctive timbre and sovereign musicianship at one with Slatkin’s perfectly paced account…totally compelling.”
Past accomplishments include receiving second prize in the prestigious Walter W. Naumburg Competition, first prize in the Irving Klein International String Competition; first prize in the Hellam Young Artists Competition; grand prize in the Naftzger Young Artists Competition; and winner of the Juilliard Viola Concerto Competition. Performances have included solo engagements with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, the Springfield Symphony in Missouri, the Santa Cruz
Symphony, the Peninsula Symphony, and the Kumamoto Symphony in Japan, as well as recitals in New York, Chicago, San Francisco, Toronto, and Mexico.
Nowlin is the violist of the Juno and Opus Award-winning New Orford String Quartet. Other chamber music activities include participation in festivals such as the Marlboro Music Festival and the Steans Institute for Young Artists at Ravinia. He was a regular member of the Jupiter Chamber Players in New York City and toured with Musicians from Marlboro and Musicians from Ravinia’s Steans Institute. Nowlin was previously the Associate Principal Viola in the Toronto Symphony Orchestra and has served as Guest Principal Viola with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, the Metropolis Ensemble, and Cleveland’s Citymusic, as well as substitute viola with the New York Philharmonic.
Nowlin is the Assistant Professor of Viola at Michigan State University and has previously been an Assistant Professor at the University of Toronto Faculty of Music, as well as Instructor of Viola at the Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto, Ontario. He spends time during the summer months teaching and performing at numerous music festivals in the United States and Canada.
Nowlin received his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from The Juilliard School as a scholarship student of Samuel Rhodes. Nowlin plays on a 1757 J.B. Guadagnini viola on generous loan from the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, as well as a viola from 1910 made by Giovanni Pistucci and a viola made by Sam Zygmuntowicz made in 2019.
ENRICO LOPEZ-YAÑEZ Principal Pops Conductor
DETROIT SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA
JADER BIGNAMINI , Music Director
Music Directorship endowed by the Kresge Foundation
TERENCE BLANCHARD
Fred A. Erb Jazz Creative Director Chair
TABITA BERGLUND Principal Guest Conductor
PARADISE JAZZ SERIES
RON CARTER QUARTET
Friday, April 4, 2025 at 8 p.m. in Orchestra Hall
THE RON CARTER QUARTET RON CARTER, bass PAYTON CROSSLEY, drums
JIMMY GREENE, tenor saxophone
RENEE ROSNES, piano
NA’ZIR MCFADDEN Assistant Conductor, Phillip & Lauren Fisher Community Ambassador
Program to be announced from the stage, artists subject to change.
MADE POSSIBLE WITH SUPPORT FROM DownBeat magazine
Flash photography, extended video recording, tripods, and cameras with detachable lenses are strictly prohibited.
PROGRAM AT-A-GLANCE | RON CARTER QUARTET
A Jazz Quartet is only as Strong as the Bass Player...
... And when Ron Carter is the bass player, that quartet is unstoppable. Carter is one of the most prolific and influential bassists in the history of jazz, and his impressive accolades prove it. As the most recorded jazz bassist in history, the Ferndale native has three GRAMMY Awards®, an Odyssey Award for Lifetime Achievement in Music, and a Guinness World Record under his belt, to name a few. He is joined today by the rest of his Foursight quartet: drummer Payton Crossley, tenor saxophonist Jimmy Greene, and pianist Renee Rosnes. All prominent jazz figures in their own right, they join forces with Carter to create a uniquely legendary and unified sound, fortified by Carter’s 60-year career.
PROFILE
RON CARTER
RonCarter’s dexterity and harmonic sophistication on the bass have few rivals in the history of jazz. In addition to the bass, he has also employed both the cello and the piccolo bass (a downsized bass pitched somewhere between cello and contrabass), one of the first musicians to use those instruments in jazz settings. His pursuit of music began with the cello, at age 10. One of the many students aspiring to be a musician in the Detroit public schools, he switched to the bass at Cass Technical High School. He studied at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, New York, and eventually made his way to New York City, where he earned his master’s degree in music from the Manhattan School of Music in 1961. He began freelancing, playing with a host of jazz greats, such as Chico Hamilton, Randy Weston, Bobby Timmons, Thelonious Monk, and Art Farmer. Carter cut three substantial albums with the great saxophonist Eric Dolphy, two under Dolphy’s name and one under his own. Carter’s Where? and Dolphy’s Out There were groundbreaking in that Carter played cello against George Duvivier’s bass, creating a rich lower texture against which Dolphy could contrast his playing.
In 1963, he joined Miles Davis in what would become the trumpeter’s second great quintet that included Wayne Shorter,
Tony Williams, and Herbie Hancock. Davis even recorded some of Carter’s compositions—notably “R.J.,” “Mood,” and “Eighty-One”—and the rhythm section of Carter, Williams, and Hancock powered the horn section to greater heights. Among the cooperative bands he performed with during the remainder of the 1960s were the New York Jazz Sextet and the New York Bass Choir. Throughout the 1970s, he was a recording studio bassist in high demand, though he never stopped gigging with a variety of artists and bands, including several touring all-star units such as the CTI All-Stars, V.S.O.P. (ostensibly a reunion of the Davis band minus the leader), and the Milestone Jazzstars, which included Sonny Rollins, McCoy Tyner, and Al Foster.
His freelance work has continued throughout his career, including chamber and orchestral work, film and television soundtracks, and even some hip-hop recordings. Carter continues to record with young musicians such as Stephen Scott and Lewis Nash. Active as an educator, he is distinguished professor of music, emeritus of the City College of New York, and has received honorary doctorate degrees from the Berklee School of Music, the Manhattan School of Music, and the New England Conservatory in Boston. He has also written several books on playing the bass, including Building Jazz Bass Lines.
ENRICO LOPEZ-YAÑEZ
Principal Pops Conductor
Devereaux Family Chair
DETROIT SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA
JADER BIGNAMINI , Music Director
Music Directorship endowed by the Kresge Foundation
TERENCE BLANCHARD
TABITA BERGLUND Principal Guest Conductor
Fred A. Erb Jazz Creative Director Chair NA’ZIR MCFADDEN Assistant Conductor, Phillip & Lauren Fisher Community Ambassador
PVS CLASSICAL SERIES
Title Sponsor:
BRUCKNER’S EIGHTH SYMPHONY
Saturday, April 12, 2025 at 8 p.m.
Sunday, April 13, 2025 at 3 p.m. in Orchestra Hall
DONALD RUNNICLES, conductor
Anton Bruckner Symphony No. 8 in C minor (1824–1896) [revised 1890, Nowak]
I. Allegro moderato
II. Scherzo: Allegro moderato - Trio: Langsam
III. Adagio: Feierlich langsam, doch nicht schleppend
IV. Finale: Feierlich nicht schnell
Sunday’s performance will be webcast via our exclusive Live from Orchestra Hall series, presented by Ford Philanthropy. Technology support comes from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation.
Flash photography, extended video recording, tripods, and cameras with detachable lenses are strictly prohibited.
PROGRAM AT-A-GLANCE | BRUCKNER’S EIGHTH SYMPHONY
Buckle Your Seatbelts for Bruckner’s Eighth
Anton Bruckner’s final completed symphonic masterwork has been called “The Apocalyptic,” although this descriptive title was never officially adopted. The epic grandeur throughout the piece elicits feelings of uncertainty and tension with calmness and hope interspersed, as if the world as we know it is coming to an end. Bruckner’s use of textural contrast is noteworthy, as walls of brooding brass sound are juxtaposed with moments of woodwind solos. As the symphony unfolds, audiences experience the breadth of the human experience, from impending doom and loss of life to a triumphant “hallelujah” moment during the final, utterly satisfying and resounding chord. We hope you’re ready for this journey, so please buckle your seatbelts and keep your hands and feet inside the ride at all times.
PROGRAM NOTES
Symphony No. 8 in C minor
Composed 1887 | Premiered 1892
ANTON BRUCKNER
B. September 4, 1824, Ansfelden, Austria
D. October 11, 1896, Vienna, Austria
Scored for 3 flutes, 3 oboes, 3 clarinets, 3 bassoons (one doubling contrabassoon), 8 horns (2 doubling on tenor horn and 2 doubling on Wagner bass tuba), 3 trumpets, 3 trombones, tuba, timpani, percussion, 2 harps, and strings. (Approx. 1 hour, 14 minutes)
Inhis liner notes for the Columbia recording, Jack Diethier gives a superb analysis of Bruckner’s Eighth Symphony. It reads as follows:
“The Eighth and Ninth are the two most dissonant symphonies by Bruckner, and together with the Fifth, they are also the most polyphonic. In these last two, Bruckner especially anticipates the later tendency of Mahler to counterpoint wholly dissimilar themes in clashing textures. (By the time of Bruckner’s death, Mahler had already composed his first three symphonies.) Bruckner does this in his own deliberately ‘structural’ way, hurling great massive themes together with attendant flashes of lightning. This is what happens, for example, to the two main themes of the Eighth’s opening movement. The first theme is impressive enough in its own right: a soft
kind of growl in the lower strings, full of latent menace, beneath a characteristic attention-focusing tremolo in the violins and long-held notes in the horns. The theme is couched, with apparent deliberation, in the same jagged rhythm as the first theme of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, note for note, and could easily have been designed to show how utterly different that pregnant rhythm could be made to sound. Bruckner clearly shows that the rhythmic identity of the motive is much in his mind, when he begins his development section by developing the same rhythm in other, equally individual, melodic ways (beginning with a direct inversion), and when he later has the trumpets obsessively mutter the rhythm over and over again on only one use of the rhythm: The moment of recapitulation, at the 225th bar, fff, conveys perhaps the same catastrophic sense of cosmic fury as the corresponding point in Beethoven’s movement—with the addition of heterogeneous counterpoint … The above theme that the upper half of the orchestra hurls against the lower is the hitherto calm and decorous second subject. The final, sullen unwinding of the first theme, in the coda, was clearly referred to by Bruckner as a ‘death clock,’ i.e., the clock in the room where a man lies dying. The life slowly expires, but the clock goes on.
The Scherzo, one of Bruckner’s greatest, carries the concept of perpetual motion into new realms of higher invention and fantasy, inverting everything at
the start of the development, just as in the first movement, and so on. The composer had an elaborate rationale for the recurrence of the words ‘allegro moderato’ (also used at the head of the first movement) for this Scherzo. He identified the music with the legendary folk-hero ‘Michel’ of upper Austria, and added: ‘My Michel typifies the idealistic Austrian dreamer, not the German spirit, which is pure scherz (jest).’ The Trio section, marked langsam (slow) is also Austrian pastoral, with delicious arpeggios in the harp.
The yearning theme of the Adagio, in D-flat major, presently culminating in still more harp arpeggios, was probably remembered by Mahler, deliberately or unconsciously, when he came to set the Chorus mysticus of Goethe in his choral Eighth Symphony. Bruckner’s own inspiration for the theme’s syncopated accompaniment has been conjecturally attributed to the love duet (O sink herneider ) from Tristan und Isolde. A contrapuntal highlight of the movement is the placement of this yearning theme in the bass against two other themes in the antiphonal violins. And, quite marvelously,
the same little four-note figure (the last ofur notes of the Beethoven analogue) that brought the first movement to its close in sullen desolation, now brings the Adagio to a cadence of resigned contentment and beatitude.
The finale’s main theme, based on a striking new development of the first movement’s ‘Beethoven’ rhythm, is played against the most energetic of Bruckner’s ostinatos, a sort of galloping beat that the composer once recklessly identified with Cossacks, giving rise to all manner of programmatic nonsense. The chromatic beauty of the later contrasting ideas is often startling. In the recapitulation and coda, themes from the preceding movements are reintroduced one at a time; and, at last, themes of all four movements are simultaneously accommodated to a blazing C major harmony, ending with a decisive blast of the above-mentioned four-note figure.”
The DSO most recently performed Bruckner’s Symphony No. 8 in January 2009, conducted by Peter Oundijan. The DSO first performed the piece in January 1987, conducted by Günther Herbig.
DONALD RUNNICLES
Sir Donald Runnicles has built his reputation on enduring relationships with major symphonic and operatic institutions on three continents. He is the music director of the Deutsche Oper Berlin and the Grand Teton Music Festival and has held chief artistic leadership roles at the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, San Francisco Opera, and the Orchestra of St. Luke’s. He is also the principal guest conductor of the Sydney Symphony Orchestra and former principal guest conductor of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra. Runnicles was recently appointed as chief conductor of the Dresden Philharmonic, beginning with the 2025–26 season.
Runnicles’s 2024–25 season begins with a 70th birthday celebration concert at the Edinburgh International Festival conducting the BBC Scottish Symphony, after which he opens the Dresden Philharmonic’s season in his first concerts as chief conductor designate, returning two more times over the course of the season. At the Deutsche Oper, he concludes his Strauss cycle in collaboration with director Tobias Kratzer with a
new production of Die Frau ohne Schatten, alongside Arabella and Intermezzo, as well as revival performances of Zemlinsky’s Der Zwerg, Puccini’s La bohème, Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde, Verdi’s Don Carlo, and a symphony concert with the DOB as part of Musikfest Berlin. In North America, he makes guest appearances with the Chicago, Cincinnati, Detroit, Houston, and Pittsburgh symphony orchestras. He also returns twice to the Sydney Symphony.
Runnicles’s extensive discography includes recordings of Wagner’s Tristan and Isolde, Mozart’s Requiem, Orff’s Carmina Burana, Britten’s Billy Budd, Humperdinck’s Hansel and Gretel, Bellini’s I Capuleti e i Montecchi, Aribert Reimann’s L’invisible, Wagner arias with Jonas Kaufmann (2013 Gramophone prize winner for Best Vocal Recording), and Janáček’s Jenůfa (nominated for a 2016 GRAMMY® Award for Best Opera Recording).
Runnicles was born and raised in Edinburgh, Scotland. He was appointed OBE in 2004 and was made a Knight Bachelor in 2020. He holds honorary degrees from the University of Edinburgh, the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama, and the San Francisco Conservatory of Music.
Enjoy the DSO from anywhere with Live from Orchestra Hall! View free, live webcasts of PVS Classical Series and Classroom Edition performances, plus Civic Youth Ensembles presentations.
The Fine Instrument Collection of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra
The Larson Piano, a Steinway Model D Concert Grand Piano, handmade in the New York Steinway Factory. Currently played by guest pianists. Contributed to the DSO in 2023 by Bonnie Larson.
David Tecchler cello, made in 1711 referred to as “The Bedetti” after a previous owner (Dominicus Montagna 1711). Currently played by Wei Yu, DSO Principal Cello. Contributed to the DSO in 2018 by Floy and Lee Barthel.
J.B. Guadagnini viola, made in 1757 (Joannes Baptifta Guadagnini Pia centinus fecit Mediolani 1757). Currently played by Eric Nowlin, DSO Principal Viola. Contributed to the DSO in 2019 by donors who wish to remain anonymous.
THE ANNUAL FUND
Gifts received between September 1, 2023, and February 15, 2025.
The DSO is proudly a community-supported orchestra and over 500,000 people engage with music through the DSO each year. Your gift is an investment in providing this community with music we can feel and the future of arts in Detroit, whether a first-time patron or lifelong subscriber.
From our leadership donors of the Gabrilowitsch Society, to our vital Governing Members, to the thousands of Friends who support the DSO each year, all donations are essential in ensuring that memorable music experiences thrive in our community for years to come. We extend special recognition to the following donors who contributed $1,500 or more to the Detroit Symphony Orchestra’s Annual Fund between September 1, 2023, and February 15, 2024. If you have questions about this roster, or would like to make a donation, please contact 313.576.5114 or visit dso.org/donate.
GIVING OF $250,000 & MORE
Penny & Harold Blumenstein
Julie & Peter Cummings
Ms. Leslie C. Devereaux◊
Linda Dresner & Ed Levy, Jr.
Mr. & Mrs. Stanley Frankel
GIVING OF $100,000 & MORE
Mr. & Mrs.◊ Richard L. Alonzo
James & Patricia Anderson
Mr.◊ & Mrs. Raymond M. Cracchiolo
Joanne Danto & Arnold Weingarden
Mr. & Mrs. Phillip Wm. Fisher
GIVING OF $50,000 & MORE
Ms. Karol Foss
Mr. & Mrs. Aaron Frankel
Mr. & Mrs. Ralph J. Gerson
Mary Ann & Robert Gorlin
Ric & Carola Huttenlocher
Mrs. Bonnie Larson
GIVING OF $25,000 & MORE
Ms. Sharon Backstrom
Mrs. Cecilia Benner
Mr. & Mrs. Stephen Brownell
Mrs. Marjory Epstein
Mr. Michael J. Fisher
Madeline & Sidney Forbes
Mr. & Mrs. Edsel B. Ford II/Henry Ford II Fund
Mrs. Martha Ford
Dale & Bruce Frankel
Mr. & Mrs. James Grosfeld
Ronald M. & Carol◊ Horwitz
Mr.◊ & Mrs. Norman D. Katz
Mr. Alan J. & Mrs. Sue Kaufman
Morgan & Danny Kaufman
Mary Lee Gwizdala
Mr. & Mrs. Peter Karmanos, Jr.
Mr. & Mrs. James B. Nicholson
Mr. & Mrs. David Provost
Barbara C. Van Dusen
The Polk Family
Bernard & Eleanor Robertson
Drs. David & Bernadine Wu
Paul & Terese Zlotoff
Nicole & Matt Lester
David & Valerie McCammon
Mr. & Mrs. Eugene A. Miller
Patricia & Henry Nickol◊
Mr. & Mrs. Arn Tellem
Xavier & Maeva Mosquet
Mr. David Nicholson
Anne Parsons ◊ & Donald Dietz
Ms. Ruth Rattner
Martie & Bob Sachs
Laura & Jimmy Sherman Mr. & Mrs. Larry Sherman
Richard Sonenklar & Gregory Haynes Philanthropic Fund
Dr. Doris Tong & Dr. Teck M. Soo
Mr. & Mrs. Gary Torgow
Peter & Carol Walters
S. Evan & Gwen Weiner
Wolverine Packing Company
And one who wishes to remain anonymous
GABRILOWITSCH SOCIETY
Mr. & Mrs. Robert A. Allesee ◊
Diane Allmen
Dr. Lourdes V. Andaya
Janet & Norman Ankers
Pamela Applebaum
Drs. Brian & Elizabeth Bachynski
Drs. John ◊ & Janice Bernick
Gwen & Richard Bowlby
Michael & Geraldine Buckles
Ms. Elena Centeio
Thomas W. Cook & Marie L. Masters
Mr. Kevin S. Dennis & Mr. Jeremy J. Zeltzer
Adel & Walter Dissett
Mr. Charles L. Dunlap & Mr. Lee V. Hart
Margie Dunn & Mark Davidoff
Dr. & Mrs. A. Bradley Eisenbrey
Margo & Jim Farber
Sally & Michael Feder
Amanda Fisher
Dr. Saul & Mrs. Helen Forman
Barbara Frankel◊ & Ronald Michalak
Herman & Sharon Frankel
Lynn & Bharat Gandhi
Girolami Family Charitable Trust ◊
Michael and Lisa Girolami
Dr. Robert T. Goldman ◊
GIVING OF $5,000 & MORE
Mrs. Denise Abrash
Mrs. Jennifer Adderley
Richard & Jiehan Alonzo
Dr. & Mrs. Joel Appel
Drs. Kwabena & Jacqueline Appiah
Mr. and Mrs. Arnold Aronoff
Ms. Ruth Baidas
Dr. David S. Balle
James A. Bannan
Mr. Mark G. Bartnik & Ms. Sandra J. Collins
Mr. Joseph Bartush
W. Harold & Chacona W. Baugh
Mr. & Mrs. Martin S. Baum
Mr. & Mrs. Richard Beaubien
Ms. Therese Bellaimey
Mr. William Beluzo
Hadas & Dennis Bernard
Mr. & Mrs. Jeffrey A. Berner
Bill & Caitlin Beuche
Mr. Michael G. Bickers
Dr. George & Joyce Blum
Timothy J. Bogan
Ms. Debra Bonde
Ms. Nadia Boreiko
The Honorable Susan D. Borman & Mr.
Stuart Michaelson
Mr. Anthony F. Brinkman
Sandra & Paul Butler
Mr.◊ & Mrs. James A. Green
Mr. & Mrs. Robert Hage
Judy ◊ & Kenneth Hale
Drs. Janet Hankin & Allen Goodman
Michael E. Hinsky & Tyrus N. Curtis
Mr.◊ & Mrs. Norman H. Hofley
Ms. Nicole Holmes
Ms. Carole Ilitch
Renato & Elizabeth Jamett
Mr. & Mrs. Richard J. Jessup
William & Story John
Lenard & Connie Johnston
Paul & Marietta Joliat
Betsy & Joel Kellman
Dr. David & Mrs. Elizabeth Kessel
Mr. & Mrs. Kosch
LeFevre Family
Bud & Nancy Liebler
Mr. & Mrs.◊ Joseph Lile
Dana Locniskar & Christine Beck
Dr. Stephen & Paulette Mancuso
Ms. Deborah Miesel
Dr. Robert & Dr. Mary Mobley
Cyril Moscow
Geoffrey S. Nathan & Margaret E. Winters ◊
Eric & Paula Nemeth
Dr. & Mrs. Roger C. Byrd
Richard Caldarazzo & Eileen Weiser
Mr. & Mrs. Brian C. Campbell
Philip & Carol Campbell
Mrs. Carolyn Carr
Mr.◊ & Mrs. François Castaing
Dr. Carol S. Chadwick & Mr. H. Taylor Burleson
Dr. Betty Chu
Mr. Fred J. Chynchuk
Dr. & Mrs. Charles G. Colombo
Dr. & Mrs. Bryan & Phyllis Cornwall
Ms. Elizabeth Correa
Mr.◊ & Mrs. Gary L. Cowger
Mr. & Mrs. Matthew P. Cullen
Dr. Edward & Mrs. Jamie Dabrowski
Deborah & Stephen D’Arcy Fund
Maureen T. D’Avanzo
Lillian & Walter Dean
Mr. & Mrs. Richard L. DeVore
Dr. Anibal & Vilma Drelichman
Elaine C. Driker
Edwin & Rosemarie ◊ Dyer
Ms. Ruby Duffield
Randall & Jill* Elder
Mr. Lawrence Ellenbogen
Ms. Laurie Ellias & Mr. James Murphy
Ms. Emily Elmer
Jim & Mary Beth Nicholson
Gloria & Stanley Nycek
George & Jo Elyn Nyman
Debra & Richard Partrich
Kathryn & Roger Penske
Dr. Glenda D. Price
Drs. Heather & Erich RichterDr. Erik
Rönmark* & Mrs. Adrienne Rönmark*
Mr. Ronald Ross & Ms. Alice Brody
Dr. & Mrs. John Roberts
Peggy & Dr. Mark B. Saffer
Sandy Schreier
Elaine & Michael Serling
Lois & Mark Shaevsky
Mrs. Sharon Shumaker
Mr. Norman Silk & Mr. Dale Morgan
Mr. Steven Smith
Charlie & John Solecki
Mr. & Mrs. John Stroh III
Emily & Paul Tobias
Ms. Marie Vanerian
Mr. James G. Vella
Mr.◊ & Mrs. Jonathan T. Walton
Mr. & Mrs. R. Jamison Williams
Ms. Mary Wilson
And two who wish to remain anonymous *Current DSO Musician or Staff
Mr. & Mrs. John M. Erb
Fieldman Family Foundation
John & Karen Fischer
Ms. Joanne Fisher
Dorothy A. & Larry L. Fobes
Dr. & Mrs. Franchi
Mr. & Mrs. Andrew Frick
Kit & Dan Frohardt-Lane
Mr.◊ & Mrs. Richard M. Gabrys
Myndi & Alan Gallatin
Mrs. Janet M. Garrett
Mr. Max Gates
Ambassador Yousif B. Ghafari & Mrs. Mara Kalnins-Ghafari
Mr. & Mrs. James Gietzen
Keith & Eileen Gifford
Dr. & Mrs. Theodore Golden
Ms. Jacqueline Graham
Dr. Herman & Mrs. Shirley Mann Gray
Ms. Chris Gropp
Leslie Groves & Joseph Kochanek
Mr. & Mrs. Darby Hadley
Robert & Elizabeth Hamel
Mr. Sanford Hansell & Dr. Raina Ernstoff
Thomas & Kathleen Harmon
Ms. Barbara Heller
Mr. Eric J. Hespenheide
& Ms. Judith V. Hicks
Mr. Donald & Marcia Hiruo
Mr. Matthew Howell & Mrs. Julie Wagner
William Hulsker & Aris Urbanes
Jane & Mario ◊ IacobelliMr. & Mrs. A. E. Igleheart
Mr. & Mrs. Kent Jidov
Mr. George G. Johnson
Paul & Karen Johnson
Carol & Rick Johnston
Connie & Bill Jordan
Mr. & Mrs. Steven Kalkanis
Judy & David Karp
Mike & Katy Keegan
Mrs. Frances King
Mrs. Janice King
Dr. & Mrs. Edward L. Klarman
Dr. Sandy Koltonow & Dr. Mary Schlaff
Ms. Susan Deutch Konop
James Kors & Victoria King
Robert & Laurie KunzMrs. Maria E. Kuznia
Mr. David Lalain & Ms. Deniella
Ortiz-Lalain
Deborah Lamm
Dr. Raymond Landes & Dr. Melissa McBrien-Landes
Drs. Lisa & Scott Langenburg
Bill & Kathleen Langhorst
Ms. Sandra Lapadot
Mr. Leonard LaRocca
Dr. Lawrence O. Larson
Max Lepler & Rex L. Dotson
Mr. & Mrs. Robert K. Leverenz
Drs. Donald & Diane Levine
Mr. & Mrs. Richard Lewnau
Mr. John Lovegren & Mr. Daniel Isenschmid
GIVING OF $2,500 & MORE
Mr. & Mrs. Joel Adelman
William Aerni & Janet Frazis
Mr. Juan Alvarez
Mr. & Mrs. Robert L. Anthony
Dr. & Mrs. Ali-Reza R. Armin
Pauline Averbach & Charles Peacock
Mr. Joseph Aviv & Mrs. Linda Wasserman
Mrs. Jean Azar
Ms. Elizabeth Baergen
Ellie & Mitch Barnett
Mr. Thomas Basile
Nancy & Lawrence Bluth
The Achim & Mary Bonawitz Family
Rud ◊ & Mary Ellen Boucher
Don & Marilyn Bowerman
Mr. & Mrs. Mark R. Buchanan
Dr. Robert Burgoyne & Tova Shaban
Mr. & Mrs. Richard Burstein
Mr.◊ & Mrs. Robert J. Cencek
Ronald ◊ & Lynda Charfoos
Mr. William Cole & Mrs. Carol Litka Cole
Mr. & Mrs. Brian G. Connors
Mr. & Mrs. David Conrad
Patricia & William ◊ Cosgrove, Sr.
Ms. Joy Crawford* & Mr. Richard Aude
Bob & Terri Lutz
Daniel & Linda* Lutz
Mrs. Sandra MacLeod
Mr. & Mrs. Winom J. Mahoney
Cis Maisel
Mr. Sean Maloney & Mrs. Laura Peppler-Maloney
Maurice Marshall
Brian & Becky McCabe
Mr. Anthony Roy McCree
Patricia A.◊ & Patrick G. McKeever
Dr. Susan & Mr. Stephen* Molina
Mr. & Mrs. Daniel E. Moore
Ms. Jennifer Muse
Joy & Allan Nachman
Mr. & Mrs. Albert T. Nelson, Jr.
Ms. Jacqueline Paige & Mr. David Fischer
Mr. & Mrs. Randy G. Paquette
Benjamin B. Phillips
Mr. David Phipps & Ms. Mary Buzard
William H. & Wendy W. Powers
Charlene & Michael Prysak
Mrs. Anna M. Ptasznik
Drs. Yaddanapudi Ravindranath & Kanta Bhambhani
Drs. Stuart & Hilary Ratner
Mr. & Mrs. Dave Redfield
Mr. & Mrs. Gerrit Reepmeyer
Mr. & Mrs. Jon Rigoni
Ms. Linda Rodney
Ms. Patricia Rodzik
Seth & Laura Romine
Michael & Susan Rontal
Mr. & Mrs. Robert B. Rosowski
Mr. Chris Sachs
Phyllis & Kevin Cullen
Mrs. Barbara Cunningham
DeLuca Violin Emporium
Ms. Jane Deng
Michelle Devine & Brian Mahany
Dr. Mark & Karen Diem
Dr. & Mrs. Thomas Ditkoff
Diana & Mark Domin
Ms. Felicia Donadoni
Ms. Marla Donovan
Paul◊ & Peggy Dufault
Hon. Sharon Tevis Finch
Amy & Robert Folberg
Mr. & Mrs. Calvin Ford
Ms. Linda Forte & Mr. Tyrone Davenport
Ms. Laurie Frankel
Mr. George Georges
Stephanie Germack
Thomas M. Gervasi
Dr. Kenneth ◊ & Roslyne Gitlin
Ms. Jody Glancy
Mr. Lawrence Glowczewski
Judie Goodman & Kurt Vilders
Dr. William & Mrs. Antoinette Govier
Ms. Ann Green
Linda & Leonard Sahn
Mr. David Salisbury & Mrs. Terese
Ireland Salisbury
Marjorie Shuman Saulson
Ms. Joyce E. Scafe
Mr. & Mrs. Donald and Janet Schenk
Robert & Patricia Shaw
Shiv Shivaraman
Dean P. & D. Giles Simmer
Mr. & Mrs. Matthew Simoncini
William & Cherie Sirois
Michael E. Smerza & Nancy Keppelman
Ms. Susan Smith
Peter & Patricia Steffes
Dr. Gregory Stephens
Mrs. Kathleen Straus & Mr. Walter Shapero
David Szymborski & Marilyn Sicklesteel
Joel & Shelley Tauber
Dr. & Mrs. Howard Terebelo
Dr. Barry Tigay
Yoni & Rachel Torgow
Charles ◊ & Sally Van Dusen
Mrs. Eva von Voss
Mr. Michael A. Walch & Ms. Joyce Keller
Gary L. Wasserman & Charles A. Kashner
Beverly & Barry Williams
Dr. & Mrs. Ned Winkelman
Ms. June Wu
Ms. Andrea L. Wulf
Dr. Sandra & Mr. D. Johnny Yee
Mr. & Mrs. Wesley Yee
Ms. Ellen Hill Zeringue
And two who wish to remain anonymous
Diane & Saul Green
Dr. Robert Greenberger
Anne & Eugene Greenstein
Sharon Lopo Hadden
Dr.◊ & Mrs. David Haines
Dr. & Mrs. Razmig Haladjian
Cheryl A. Harvey
Mr. and Mrs. Robert Holcomb
Mr. & Mrs. Peter Hollinshead
The Honorable Denise Page Hood & Reverend Nicholas Hood III
James Hoogstra & Clark Heath
Dr. Karen Hrapkiewicz
Larry & Connie Hutchinson
Sally Ingold
Ms. Elizabeth Ingraham
Carolyn & Howard Iwrey
Dr. Raymond E. Jackson & Dr. Kathleen Murphy
Mr. John S. Johns
Diane & John Kaplan
Lucy & Alexander* Kapordelis
Bernard & Nina Kent Philanthropic Fund
John Kim & Sabrina Hiedemann
Aileen & Harvey Kleiman
Thomas ◊ & Linda Klein
Tom ◊ & Beverly Klimko
Mr. & Mrs. Ludvik F. Koci
Mr. & Mrs. Robert Koffron
Douglas Korney & Marieta Bautista
Mr. Michael Kuhne
Mr. & Mrs. Robert LaBelle
Dr. & Mrs. Gerald Laker
Ms. Anne T. Larin
Dr. Jonathan Lazar
Marguerite & David Lentz
Arlene & John Lewis
Mr. Dane Lighthart & Ms. Robyn Bollinger*
David & Clare Loebl
Mr. & Mrs. Eugene LoVasco
Mr. & Mrs. Charles W. Manke, Jr.
Barbara J. Martin
Dr. & Mrs. Peter M. McCann, M.D.
Mr. Edward McClew
Ms. Mary McGough
Ms. Kristen McLennan
Dr. & Mrs. David Mendelson
Mr. & Mrs. Randall Miller
Mr. & Mrs. Robert S. Miller
H. Keith Mobley
Dr. Van C. Momon, Jr. & Dr. Pamela Berry
Eugene & Sheila Mondry Foundation
Ms. Sandra Morrison
Megan Norris & Howard Matthew
Lisa & Michael O’Brien
GIVING OF $1,500 & MORE
Jacqueline D. Adams
Mrs. Lynn E. Adams
Dr. & Mrs. Gary S. Assarian
Mr. & Mrs. Russell Ayers
Mr. & Mrs. William C. Babbage
Drs. Richard & Helena Balon
Dr. & Mrs. William L. Beauregard
Mr. & Mrs. David W. Berry
Mr. and Mrs. John Bishop
John ◊ & Marlene Boll
Mr. & Mrs. Byron Canvasser
Steve & Geri Carlson
Dr. and Mrs. Robert Clark
Ms. Paula Cole
Mr. & Mrs. Robert J. Colombo
Catherine Compton
Mr. & Mrs. Alfred J. Darold
Ms. Joyce Delamarter
Gordon & Elaine Didier
Mrs. Connie Dugger
Mr. Howard O. Emorey
Mr. & Mrs. Francis A. Engelhardt
Burke & Carol Fossee
Mr. Joseph & Mrs. Lois Gilmore
Mr. & Mrs. Robert Obringer
Mr. & Mrs. Arthur T. O’Reilly
Mr. Tony Osentoski & Mr. David Ogloza
Cara Parsons Dietz
Mark Pasik & Julie Sosnowski
Priscilla & Huel Perkins
Peter & Carrie Perlman
Ms. Alice Pfahlert
Mr. Steven Read
Mr. & Mrs. William A. Reed
Dr. Claude & Mrs. Sandra Reitelman
Denise Reske
Mr. & Mrs. John Rieckhoff
The Steven Della Rocca Memorial Fund/ Courtenay A. Hardy
Ms. Marilyn Rodzik
Mr. James Rose
Ms. Martha A. Scharchburg & Mr. Bruce Beyer
Shirley Anne & Alan Schlang
Joe & Ashley Schotthoefer
Catherine & Dennis B. Schultz
Dr. & Mrs. Richard S. Schwartz
Sandy ◊ & Alan Schwartz
Mrs. Rosalind B. Sell
Mr. Jeffrey S. Serman
Carlo & Nicole Serraiocco
Shapero Foundation
Bill* & Chris Shell
Dr. Les Siegel & Ellen Lesser Siegel
Allan D. Gilmour & Eric C. Jirgens
Mrs. Andrea Harral
Dr. Susan Harold
Jean Hudson
Mr. & Ms. Charles Jacobowitz
Carole Keller
Mr. & Mrs. Gerd H. Keuffel
Elissa & Daniel Kline
Mr. & Mrs.◊ Gregory Knas
Mr. Robert Kosinski
Mr. & Mrs. Charles Laurencelle
Mr. Daniel Lewis & Ms. Valerie Dillon
Mr. Steven L. Lipton
Ms. Evelyn Micheletti
Dr. & Mrs. Richard Miller
Steve & Judy Miller
Carolyn & J. Michael Moore
Muramatsu America Flutes
Mr. James Murawski
Mr. & Mrs. George Nicholson
Mrs. Ruth Nix
Dr. William W. O’Neill
Ken & Geralyn Papa
Mr. Frank Polasek
Ralph & Peggy Skiano
Mr. Michael J. Smith & Mrs. Mary C. Williams
Ms. Susan Smith
Shirley R. Stancato
Mrs. Andreas H. Steglich
Nancy C. Stocking
Dr. & Mrs. Gerald Stollman
Mr. JT Stout
Mr. & Mrs.◊ John Streit
Dr. & Mrs. Sugawa
Dr. Neil Talon
Mr. Rob Tanner
Barbara & Stuart Trager
Barbara & Steve Tronstein
Tom & Laura Trudeau
Gerald & Teresa Varani
Mr. & Mrs. Gary Van Elslander
Ms. Caren Vondell
Mr. William Waak
Dr.◊ & Mrs. Ronald W. Wadle
Richard P. & Carol A. Walter
Mr. Patrick Webster
Elizabeth & Michael Willoughby
Rissa & Sheldon Winkelman
Ms. Eileen Wunderlich
Ms. Gail Zabowski
And six who wish to remain anonymous
Mr. & Mrs. Mark H. Peterson
Mr. & Mrs. Richard Rapson
Mr. & Mrs. Rodney Rask
Dr. Natalie Rizk
Ms. Carole Robb
Ms. Elana Rugh
Brian & Toni Sanchez-Murphy
Ms. Rosemarie Sandel
Mr. & Mrs. Kingsley G. Sears
Elliot Shafer
Ms. Sandra Shetler
Donna & Robert Slatkin
Dr. & Mrs. Martin Tessler
David & Lila Tirsell
Dennis & Jennifer Varian
Dr. & Mrs. Thomas E. Verhelle
Mr. Barry Webster
Ms. Janet Weir
Ms. Joan Whittingham
Mr. & Mrs.◊ Richard Wigginton
Mr. Robert S. Williams & Ms. Treva Womble
Mr. Francis Wilson
Ms. Gail Zabowski
And three who wish to remain anonymous
TRIBUTE GIFTS
Gifts received – November 1, 2024 to February 15, 2025
Tribute gifts to the Detroit Symphony Orchestra are made to honor accomplishments, celebrate occasions, & pay respect in memory or reflection. These gifts support current season projects, partnerships & performances such as DSO concerts, education programs, free community concerts, & family programming. For information about making a tribute gift, please call 313.576.5114 or visit dso.org/donate.
In Memory
Judy Adams
Mr. Darel Dickens
Mrs. Mona G Alonzo
The Schlang Family
Ms. Cassie Brenske
Gladys and Julius Barr
Mr. & Mrs. Benson J. Barr
Anna K. Bonde
Debra Bonde
Raymond Brenner
Amy Willets
Lloyd Cheney
Mrs. Marcia Cheney
Fred and Gloria Clark
Mrs. Harriet C. Webber
Dolores Gaeta
Elizabeth Erlich
Jane Clare Hollman
Mrs. Janet Stenger
Ms. Vera Kalnins
Ambassador Yousif B. Ghafari & Mrs. Mara Kalnins-Ghafari
Dr. Lourdes V. Andaya
Adel & Walter Dissett
Mr. and Mrs. Peter D. Cummings
The Clinton Family Fund
Mr. and Mrs. Alfred J. Fisher III
Adel & Walter Dissett
James S. Garrett
Mr. & Mrs. Timothy LeVigne
Josephine Kessler
Ms. Amy Kessler
Ted McClew
Paul Cadamagnani
Mrs. Patricia Nickol
Fred Brenner Jr.
Faye and Seymour Okun
Ms. Ruthanne Okun
William “Bill” Panzer
Karen Bean
Jean Casey
Mr. & Mrs. Edward E. Chielens
Couzens, Lansky, Fealk, Ellis, Roeder & Lazar, P.C..
Ann & Rick Edwards
Mark Farber
Carol Fridson
Lauren Gruber and Family
Brian Kutinsky
Laurie Myers
Sheryl Perry
Myra & Dennis Potocsky
Shelley & David Wainer
Rena Tepman
Elaine Rosenblatt
Frank Paone
Anthony Buccellato
Ms. Anne Parsons
The Clinton Family Fund
Gilbert Pendolino
Dayna Stein
Irv Poston
Karyn Ledbetter
Ruth Rattner
Steve and Margo Goodman
Sandy Schreier
Marc & Lori Siegel
Shelley Roland
Michelle Rice
Rosa Schindler
Richard Ng
In Honor
The Horwitz Family
Ms. Julie Ludwig-Overland
Dr. Raymond V. Landes
and Dr. Melissa McBrien
Ms. Victoria McBrien
Lorraine Lerner
Mrs. Anaruth Bernard
Betsy Winkelman
Margaret Shere
Susan Queen Will & Megann Smith
Marie Slotnik
Mrs. Judith Schultheiss
Mary Wilson
Ann McIlvain
Dr. David Wu
Mrs. Kristie Lawson
CORPORATE, FOUNDATION, AND GOVERNMENT GIVING
Giving of $500,000 & more
SAMUEL & JEAN FRANKEL FOUNDATION
STATE OF MICHIGAN
Giving of $200,000 & more
EMORY M. FORD JR. ENDOWMENT FUND
Giving of $100,000 & more
PAUL M. ANGELL FAMILY FOUNDATION
MARVIN & BETTY DANTO FAMILY FOUNDATION
Giving of $50,000 & more
William Randolph Hearst Foundation
The Kresge Foundation
Masco Corporation
Milner Hotels Foundation
National Endowment for the Arts
Donald R. Simon & Esther Simon Foundation
Myron P. Leven Foundation
Giving of $20,000 & more
MGM Grand Detroit
Eleanor & Edsel Ford Fund
Richard & Jane Manoogian Foundation
Stone Foundation of Michigan
Honigman LLP
Strum Allesee Family Foundation
Applebaum Family Philanthropy
The Cassie Foundation
Sun Communities Inc.
Fisher Funeral Home & Cremation Services
Benson & Edith Ford Fund
James & Lynelle Holden Fund
Coffee Express Roasting Company
Enterprise Holdings Foundation EY
Frank & Gertrude Dunlap Foundation
Matilda R. Wilson Fund
Wolverine Packing
Mandell & Madeleine Berman Foundation
Giving of $10,000 & more
Geoinge Foundation
Huntington
Oliver Dewey Marcks Foundation
Penske Foundation, Inc.
Karen & Drew Peslar Foundation
Giving of $5,000 & more
Hylant Group
Marjorie & Maxwell Jospey Foundation
KPMG LLP
Lithia Motors, Inc.
Giving of $1,000 & more
Japan Business Society of Detroit Foundation
Dolores & Paul Lavins Foundation
Ludwig Foundation Fund
Michigan First Credit Union
Taft
Young Woman’s Home Association
Burton A. Zipser & Sandra D. Zipser Foundation
Mary Thompson Foundation
Sigmund and Sophie Rohlik Foundation
Warner Norcross + Judd
HUB International
Plante Moran
Renaissance (MI) Chapter of the Links
Samuel L. Westerman Foundation
Louis & Nellie Sieg Foundation Anonymous
The DSO’s Planned Giving Council recognizes the region’s leading financial and estate professionals whose current and future clients may involve them in their decision to make a planned gift to the Detroit Symphony Orchestra. Members play a critical role in shaping the future of the DSO through ongoing feedback, working with their clients, supporting philanthropy and attending briefings twice per year.
Mrs. Katana H. Abbott*
Mr. Joseph Aviv
Mr. Christopher Ballard*
Ms. Jessica B. Blake, Esq.
Ms. Rebecca J. Braun
Mr. Timothy Compton
Ms. Wendy Zimmer Cox*
Mr. Robin D. Ferriby*
Mrs. Jill Governale*
Mr. Henry Grix*
Mrs. Julie Hollinshead, CFA
Mr. Mark W. Jannott, CTFA
Ms. Jennifer Jennings*
Ms. Dawn Jinsky*
Mrs. Shirley Kaigler*
Mr. Robert E. Kass*
Mr. Christopher L. Kelly
Mr. Bernard S. Kent
Ms. Yuh Suhn Kim
Mrs. Marguerite Munson Lentz*
Mr. J. Thomas MacFarlane
Mr. Christopher M. Mann*
Mr. Curtis J. Mann
Mrs. Mary K. Mansfield
Mr. Mark E. Neithercut*
Mr. Steve Pierce
Ms. Deborah J. Renshaw, CFP
Mr. James P. Spica
Mr. David M. Thoms*
Mr. John N. Thomson, Esq.
Mr. Jason Tinsley*
Mr. William Vanover
Mr. William Winkler
*Executive Committee Member
Share the music of the DSO with future generations Include the DSO as a beneficiary in your will. To learn more please call Alexander Kapordelis at 313.576.5198 or email akapordelis@dso.org.
CELEBRATING YOUR LEGACY SUPPORT
BARBARA VAN DUSEN, Honorary Chair
The 1887 Society honors individuals who have made a special legacy commitment to support the Detroit Symphony Orchestra. Members of the 1887 Society ensure that future music lovers will continue to enjoy unsurpassed musical experiences by including the DSO in their estate plans.
Ms. Doris L. Adler
Dr. & Mrs. William C. Albert
Mr. & Mrs. Robert A. Allesee ◊
Dr. Lourdes V. Andaya
Mr. & Mrs. Eugene Applebaum ◊
Dr. Augustin & Nancy ◊ Arbulu
Mr. David Assemany & Mr. Jeffery Zook
Ms. Sharon Backstrom
Sally & Donald Baker
Mr. & Mrs. Lee Barthel
Mr. Mark G. Bartnik & Ms. Sandra J. Collins
Stanley A. Beattie
Mr. Melvyn Berent & Ms. Barbara Spreitzer-Berent
Mr. & Mrs. Mandell L. Berman ◊
Virginia B. Bertram ◊
Mrs. Betty Blair◊
Ms. Rosalee Bleecker
Mr. Joseph Boner
Gwen & Richard Bowlby
Mr. Harry G. Bowles ◊
Mr. Charles Broh ◊
Mrs. Ellen Brownfain
William & Julia Bugera
CM Carnes
Dr. & Mrs. ◊ Thomas E. Carson
Cynthia Cassell, Ph. D.
Eleanor A. Christie
Ms. Mary F. Christner
Mr. Gary Ciampa
Robert & Lucinda Clement
Lois & Avern Cohn ◊
Drs. William ◊ & Janet Cohn
Mrs. RoseAnn Comstock ◊
Mr. Scott Cook, Jr.
Mr. & Ms. Thomas Cook
Dorothy M. Craig ◊
Mr. & Mrs. John Cruikshank
Julie & Peter Cummings
Joanne Danto & Arnold Weingarden
Mr. Kevin S. Dennis &
Mr. Jeremy J. Zeltzer
Ms. Leslie C. Devereaux◊
Mr. John Diebel ◊
Mr. Stuart Dow ◊
Mr. Roger Dye &
Ms. Jeanne A. Bakale
Mr. & Mrs. Robert G. Eidson ◊
Marianne T. Endicott
Ms. Dorothy Fisher◊
Mrs. Marjorie S. Fisher◊
Mr. & Mrs. Phillip Wm. Fisher
Dorothy A. & Larry L. Fobes
Samuel & Laura Fogleman
Mr. Emory Ford, Jr. ◊ Endowment
Dr. Saul & Mrs. Helen Forman
Barbara Frankel ◊ & Ron Michalak
Herman & Sharon Frankel
Mrs. Rema Frankel ◊
Jane French ◊
Mark & Donna Frentrup
Alan M. Gallatin
Janet M. Garrett
Dr. Byron P. ◊ & Marilyn Georgeson
Jim & Nancy Gietzen
Mr. Joseph & Mrs. Lois Gilmore
Victor & Gale Girolami ◊
Ruth & Al ◊ Glancy
David & Paulette Groen
Mr. Gerald Grum ◊
Rosemary Gugino
Mr. & Mrs. William Harriss
Donna & Eugene ◊ Hartwig
Gerhardt A. Hein ◊ &
Rebecca P. Hein
Ms. Nancy B. Henk ◊
Joseph L. Hickey ◊
Mr. ◊ & Mrs. Thomas N. Hitchman
Ronald M. & Carol ◊ Horwitz
Andy Howell
Carol Howell ◊
Paul M. Huxley & Cynthia Pasky
David & Sheri Jaffa
Mr. & Mrs. Thomas H. Jeffs II
Mr. & Mrs. Richard J. Jessup
Mr. George G. Johnson
Ms. Carol Johnston
Lenard & Connie Johnston
Carol M. Jonson
Drs. Anthony & Joyce Kales
Faye & Austin ◊ Kanter
Norb ◊ & Carole Keller
Dr. Mark & Mrs. Gail Kelley
June K. Kendall ◊
Dimitri ◊ & Suzanne Kosacheff
Douglas Koschik
Mr. & Mrs. Arthur J. Krolikowski ◊
Mary Clippert LaMont ◊
Ms. Sandra Lapadot
Mrs. Bonnie Larson
Ann C. Lawson ◊
Leslie Jean Lazzerin
Allan S. Leonard
Max Lepler & Rex L. Dotson
Dr. Melvin A. Lester◊
Mr. & Mrs. ◊ Joseph Lile
Eugene & Jeanne LoVasco Family
Eric & Ginny Lundquist
Harold Lundquist ◊ & Elizabeth Brockhaus Lundquist
Roberta Maki
Eileen ◊ & Ralph Mandarino
Judy Howe Masserang
Mr. Glenn Maxwell
Ms. Elizabeth Maysa ◊
Mary Joy McMachen, Ph.D.
Judith Mich ◊
Rhoda A. Milgrim ◊
Mr. & Mrs. Eugene A. Miller
John & Marcia Miller
Jerald A. & Marilyn H. Mitchell
Mr. ◊ & Mrs. L. William Moll
Shari & Craig Morgan
Ms. I. Surayyah R. Muwwakkil ◊
Joy & Allan Nachman
Geoffrey S. Nathan & Margaret E. Winters ◊
Beverley Anne Pack
David & Andrea Page ◊
Mr. Dale J. Pangonis
Ms. Mary Webber Parker◊
Mr. David Patria & Ms. Barbara Underwood ◊
Mrs. Sophie Pearlstein ◊
Helen & Wesley Pelling ◊
Dr. William F. Pickard ◊
Mrs. Bernard E. Pincus
Ms. Christina Pitts
Mrs. Robert Plummer◊
Mr. & Mrs. P. T. Ponta
Mrs. Mary Carol Prokop ◊
Ms. Linda Rankin & Mr. Daniel Graschuck
Mr. & Mrs. Douglas J. Rasmussen
Ms. Elizabeth Reiha ◊
Deborah J. Remer
Mr. & Mrs. Lloyd E. Reuss ◊
Barbara Gage Rex ◊
Ms. Marianne Reye ◊
Lori-Ann Rickard
Katherine D. Rines
Bernard & Eleanor Robertson
Ms. Barbara Robins ◊
Jack & Aviva Robinson ◊
John & Barbara Rohrbeck
Mr. & Mrs. Gerald F. Ross ◊
Mr. & Mrs. ◊ George Roumell
Marjorie Shuman Saulson
Ruth Saur Trust
Mr. & Mrs. Donald and Janet Schenk
Ms. Yvonne Schilla
David W. Schmidt ◊
Mr. & Mrs. Fred Secrest ◊
Mr. & Mrs. Robert L. Shaffer◊
Patricia Finnegan Sharf
Ms. Marla K. Shelton
Edna J. Shin
Ms. June Siebert
Mr. & Mrs. Donald R. Simon ◊
Dr. Melissa J. Smiley & Dr. Patricia A. Wren
David & Sandra Smith
Ms. Marilyn Snodgrass ◊
Mrs. Margot Sterren ◊
Mr. ◊ & Mrs. Walter Stuecken
Mr. ◊ & Mrs. Alexander C. Suczek
David Szymborski & Marilyn Sicklesteel
Alice ◊ & Paul Tomboulian
Roger & Tina Valade
Charles ◊ & Sally Van Dusen
Barbara C. Van Dusen
Mr. & Mrs. Melvin VanderBrug
Mr. & Mrs. George C. Vincent ◊
Mr. Sanford Waxer◊
Christine & Keith C. Weber
Mr. Herman Weinreich ◊
John ◊ & Joanne Werner
Mr. ◊ & Mrs. Arthur Wilhelm
Mr. Robert E. Wilkins ◊
Mrs. Michel H. Williams
Ms. Nancy S. Williams ◊
Mr. Robert S. Williams & Ms. Treva Womble
Ms. Barbara Wojtas
Elizabeth B. Work ◊
Dr. & Mrs. Clyde Wu ◊
Ms. Andrea L. Wulf
Mrs. Judith G. Yaker
Milton & Lois Zussman ◊
And six who wish to remain anonymous
YOUR EXPERIENCE AT THE MAX
Our Home on Woodward Avenue
The Max M. and Marjorie S. Fisher Music Center is one of Detroit’s most notable cultural campuses. The Max includes three main performance spaces: historic Orchestra Hall, the Peter D. and Julie F. Cummings Cube (The Cube), and Robert A. and Maggie Allesee Hall, plus our outdoor green space, Sosnick Courtyard. All are accessible from the centrally located William Davidson Atrium. The Jacob Bernard Pincus Music Education Center is home to the DSO’s Wu Family Academy and other music education offerings. The DSO is also proud to offer The Max as a performance and administrative space for several local partners.
Parking
The DSO Parking Deck is located at 81 Parsons Street. Self-parking in the garage costs $12 for most concerts (credit card payment only). Accessible parking is available on the first and second floors of the garage. Note that accessible parking spaces go quickly, so please arrive early!
Valet parking is also available for all patrons (credit card payment only), and a golf cart-style DSO Courtesy Shuttle is available for all patrons who need assistance entering The Max.
What Should I Wear?
You do you! We don’t have a dress code, and you’ll see a variety of outfit styles. Business casual attire is common, but sneakers and jeans are just as welcome as suits and ties. Please reference page 51 for our bag policy.
Food and Drink
Concessions are available for purchase on the first floor of the William Davidson Atrium at most concerts, and light bites are available in the Paradise Lounge on the second floor. Bars are located on the first and third floors of the William Davidson Atrium and offer canned sodas (pop, if you prefer), beer, wine, and specialty cocktail mixes.
Patrons are welcome to
take drinks to their seats at all performances except Friday morning Coffee Concerts; food is not allowed in Orchestra Hall. Please note that outside food and beverages are prohibited.
Accessibility
Accessibility matters. Whether you need ramp access for your wheelchair or are looking for sensory-friendly concert options, we are thinking of you.
• The Max has elevators, barrierfree restrooms, and accessible seating on each level. Security staff are available at all entrances to help patrons requiring extra assistance in and out of vehicles.
• The DSO’s Sennheiser MobileConnect hearing assistance system is available for all performances in Orchestra Hall. You can use your own mobile device and headphones by downloading the Sennheiser MobileConnect app, or borrow a device by visiting the Box Office.
• Available at the Box Office during all events at The Max, William Davidson Neighborhood Concert Series venues, and chamber recitals, the DSO offers sensory toolkits to use free of charge, courtesy of the Mid-Michigan Autism Association. The kits contain items that can help calm or stimulate a
THE MAX M. & MARJORIE S. FISHER MUSIC CENTER
3711 Woodward Avenue Detroit, MI 48201
Box
Visit the DSO online at dso.org For general inquiries, please email info@dso.org
person with a sensory processing difference, including noise-reducing headphones and fidget toys. The DSO also has a quiet room, available for patrons to use at every performance at The Max.
• A golf cart-style DSO Courtesy Shuttle is available for all patrons who need assistance entering The Max.
• Check out the Accessibility tab on dso.org/yourexperience to learn more
WiFi
Complimentary WiFi is available throughout The Max. Look for the DSOGuest network on your device. And be sure to tag your posts with #IAMDSO!
Shop DSO Merchandise
Visit shopdso.org to purchase DSO and Civic Youth Ensembles merchandise anywhere, anytime!
The Herman and Sharon Frankel Donor Lounge
Governing Members can enjoy complimentary beverages, appetizers, and desserts in the Donor Lounge, open 90 minutes prior to each concert through the end of intermission. For more information on becoming a Governing Member, contact friends@dso.org.
Gift Certificates
Gift certificates are available in any denomination and may be used towards tickets to any DSO performance. Please contact the Box Office for more information.
Rent The Max
Elegant and versatile, The Max is an ideal setting for a variety of events and performances: weddings, corporate gatherings, meetings, concerts, and more. Visit dso.org/rentals or call 313.576.5131 for more information.
POLICIES
BAG POLICY
For the safety of our patrons, musicians, staff, volunteers and vendors, we have implemented the following policies:
• All bags entering DSO facilities are subject to inspection.
• No backpacks, large/duffel bags, large purses, and suitcases are permitted. Purses, medical bags, diaper bags, and medical devices smaller than 14” x 14” x 6” are allowed.
• There is no storage available for bags that do not adhere to the above standards.
• No weapons or disruptive materials are allowed on DSO property.
SEATING
Please note that all patrons (of any age) must have a ticket to attend concerts. If the music has already started, an usher will ask you to wait until a break before seating you. The same applies if you leave Orchestra Hall and re-enter. Most performances are broadcast (with sound) on a TV in the William Davidson Atrium.
TICKETS, EXCHANGES, AND CONCERT CANCELLATIONS
n All sales are final and non-refundable.
n Even though we’ll miss you, we understand that plans can change unexpectedly, so the DSO offers flexible exchange and ticket donation options.
n Please contact the Box Office to exchange tickets and for all ticketing questions or concerns.
n The DSO is a show-must-go-on orchestra. In the rare event a concert is cancelled, our website and social media feeds will announce the cancellation, and patrons will be notified of exchange options.
PHONES
Your neighbors and the musicians appreciate your cooperation in turning your phone to silent and your brightness down while you’re keeping an eye on texts from the babysitter or looking up where a composer was born!
PHOTOGRAPHY & RECORDING
We love a good selfie for social media (please share your experiences using @ DetroitSymphony and #IAMDSO) but remember that having your device out can be distracting to musicians and audience members. Please be cautious and respectful if you wish to take photos or videos. Flash photography, extended video recording, tripods, and cameras with detachable lenses are strictly prohibited.
NOTE: By entering event premises, you consent to having your likeness featured in photography, audio, and video captured by the DSO, and release the DSO from any liability connected with these materials. Visit dso.org for more.
SMOKING
Smoking and vaping are not allowed anywhere in The Max.
To report an emergency during a concert, immediately notify an usher or DSO staff member. If an usher or DSO staff member is not available, please contact DSO Security at 313.576.5199
FERNANDE DECRUCK
ADMINISTRATIVE STAFF
EXECUTIVE OFFICE
Erik Rönmark
President and CEO
James B. and Ann V. Nicholson Chair
Jill Elder
Vice President and Chief Revenue Officer
Linda Lutz
Vice President and Chief Financial & Administrative Officer
Martin Sher Vice President and Chief Artistic & Operating Officer
Joy Crawford
Executive Assistant to the President and CEO
Anne Parsons ◊ President Emeritus
ARTISTIC OPERATIONS
ARTISTIC PLANNING
Jessica Ruiz
Senior Director of Artistic Planning
Jessica Slais
Creative Director of Popular & Special Programming
Stephen Grady Jr. Program Manager, Popular & Special Programming
Lindzy Volk Artistic Manager
LIVE FROM ORCHESTRA HALL
Marc Geelhoed
Executive Producer of Live from Orchestra Hall
ORCHESTRA OPERATIONS
Kathryn Ginsburg General Manager
Patrick Peterson Orchestra Manager
Dennis Rotell Stage Manager
Andrew Williams Director of Orchestra Personnel
Bronwyn Hagerty Orchestra and Training Programs Librarian
Benjamin Tisherman Manager of Orchestra Personnel
ADVANCEMENT
Alex Kapordelis
Senior Director of Advancement
Ali Huber
Director of Donor Engagement
Zach Suchanek
Associate Director of Annual Giving
Alex Anderson Manager of Advancement Events
Maggie Derthick Manager of Donor Hospitality
Bryana Hall Data & Research Specialist
Jane Koelsch
Major Gift Officer
Francesca Leo Manager of Governance & Donor Engagement
Elizabeth McConnell Specialist, Donor Communications
Susan Queen Gift Officer, Corporate Giving
Bethany Simmerlein Grant Writer
Samantha Taylor Manager of Foundation Relations
Amanda Tew Major Gift Officer
BUILDING OPERATIONS
Ken Waddington
Senior Director of Facilities & Engineering
Teresa Beachem Chief Engineer
Demetris Fisher Manager of Environmental Services (EVS)
William Guilbault EVS Technician
Robert Hobson Chief Maintenance Technician
Aaron Kirkwood EVS Lead
Anthony Lindsey EVS Technician
Daniel Speights EVS Technician
EVENT AND
PATRON
EXPERIENCE
Christina Williams Director of Event & Patron Experience
Neva Kirksey Manager of Events & Rentals
Alison Reed, CVA Manager of Volunteer & Patron Experience
Andre Williams Beverage Program Manager
COMMUNICATIONS
Matt Carlson
Senior Director of Communications & Media Relations
Sarah Smarch Director of Content & Storytelling
Natalie Berger Manager of Multimedia Brand Content
LaToya Cross Communications & Advancement Content Specialist
Hannah Engwall Elbialy Public Relations Manager
Marisa Jacques Coordinator of Public Relations
LEARNING & ENGAGEMENT
Karisa Antonio Senior Director of Social Innovation & Learning
Damien Crutcher Managing Director of Detroit Harmony
Debora Kang Director of Education
Clare Valenti Director of Community Engagement
Kiersten Alcorn Manager of Community Engagement
Chris DeLouis
Manager of Learning, Student & Program Deveopment
Erin Faryniarz
Detroit Harmony Partnerships & Services Coordinator
Claire Eileen Hall Coordinator of Engagement Operations
Samuel Hsieh Coordinator of Learning Operations
Kendra Sachs Manager of Learning, Enrollment & Communications
FINANCE
Adela Löw Director of Accounting & Financial Reporting
Tanisha Hester Accountant
Sophie Lall Accounting Clerk Assistant
Sandra Mazza Senior Accountant of Business Operations
Claudia Scalzetti Staff Accountant
HUMAN RESOURCES
Hannah Lozon Senior Director of Talent & Culture
Angela Stough Director of Human Resources
Sharon Tse Director of Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion
INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
William Shell Director of Information Technology
Pat Harris Systems Administrator
Michelle Koning
Web Manager
Aaron Tockstein
Database Administrator
MARKETING & AUDIENCE DEVELOPMENT
Connor Mehren Director of Growth Marketing
Juliana Nahas Director of Loyalty Marketing
Sharon Gardner Carr Tessitura Event Operations Manager
Jay Holladay Brand Graphic Designer
LaHeidra Marshall
Direct Marketing Manager
Thomas Monks
Loyalty Marketing Manager
Declan O’Neal
Marketing & Promotions Coordinator
Kristin Pagels-Quinlan
Digital Advertising Manager
Grace Venner Manager of Growth Marketing
PATRON SALES & SERVICE
Michelle Marshall Director of Patron Sales & Service
Valerie Jackson Group Sales Representative
James Sabatella Group & Tourism Sales Manager
Chantel Woodard Manager of Patron Sales & Service
SAFETY & SECURITY
George Krappmann Director of Safety & Security
Johnnie Scott
Safety & Security Manager
Willie Coleman
Security Officer
Joyce Dorsey
Security Officer
Tony Morris
Security Officer
Eric Thomas
Security Officer & Maintenance Technician
UPCOMING CONCERTS & EVENTS
LET’S MISBEHAVE: THE SONGS OF COLE PORTER
JUN 20–22
MAY
PVS CLASSICAL SERIES FRENCH SHOWPIECES
MAY 2–3
TINY TOTS KRIS JOHNSON GROUP
MAY 3
YOUNG PEOPLE’S FAMILY CARNIVAL OF THE ANIMALS
MAY 3
PVS CLASSICAL SERIES SHOSTAKOVICH’S TENTH SYMPHONY
MAY 8–10
PVS CLASSICAL SERIES RAVEL’S PIANO CONCERTOS
MAY 16–18
RAVEL’S PIANO CONCERTOS
MAY 16–18
BERTRAND CHAMAYOU, PIANO
CHRIS THILE JUN 26
PNC POPS SERIES BEN FOLDS
MAY 23–24
JUNE
PVS CLASSICAL SERIES SCHUMANN & STRAUSS
MAY 30–JUN 1
PVS CLASSICAL SERIES TCHAIKOVSKY’S PIANO CONCERTO JUN 5–7
PARDISE JAZZ SERIES CÉCILE McLORIN SALVANT
JUN 6
PNC POPS SERIES LET’S MISBEHAVE: THE SONGS OF COLE PORTER
JUN 20–22
SPECIAL CHRIS THILE ATTENTION! A narrative song cycle for extroverted mandolinist and orchestra
JUN 26
JULY
WILLIAM DAVIDSON NEIGHBORHOOD CONCERTS BEETHOVEN & BIZET
JULY 10–13
AT THE MOVIES BATMAN 1989 IN CONCERT
JUL 25
AT THE MOVIES THE LION KING IN CONCERT
JUL 27
AUBREY LOGAN
