WHERE THE JAZZ NEVER STOPS
The DSO’s jazz legacy at Orchestra Hall
FACES OF THE DSO Ambassador Corps volunteers bring the DSO experience to life
LEARNING & ENGAGEMENT
Community-driven connections
ANNE PARSONS LEADERSHIP FUND
Sustaining a vibrant future
JADER BIGNAMINI
Music Director
Hannah Engwall Elbialy, editor hengwall@dso.org
ECHO PUBLICATIONS, INC.
Tom Putters, publisher echopublications.com
Cover design by Jay Holladay
To advertise in Performance: visit echodetroit.com, call 248.582.9690 or email tom@echodetroit.com
Terence Blanchard
dso.org
Dear Friends,
Welcome to Orchestra Hall! We hope this message finds you well, and that you are ready to be moved by the extraordinary performance ahead.
Erik and Faye at Classical Roots 2025
We are fresh off a meaningful milestone: the celebration of another successful Classical Roots season, marking the 25th anniversary of the Dr. Arthur L. Johnson – Honorable Damon Jerome Keith Classical Roots Celebration and launching a multi-year journey toward the 50th anniversary of the Classical Roots Concerts in 2028. We were proud to unveil a new interactive exhibition honoring the history, impact, and legacy of Classical Roots—featuring immersive storytelling, historic images, artifacts, and oral histories. On display now on the third floor of the William Davidson Atrium through 2028, it is a journey well worth taking. We invite you to explore it before or after today’s concert.
We are also pleased to celebrate the launch of the Legato Memory Café—a new monthly gathering welcoming people experiencing dementia or other cognitive changes, along with their care partners and loved ones. Each gathering fosters connection and support through social engagement, light refreshments, and a rotating activity or craft. We hope you’ll join us for an upcoming session, happening monthly through August right here at The Max.
As the season heats up, there is much to look forward to. In May, legendary conductor Herbert Blomstedt returns to lead Mahler’s Ninth Symphony—a performance that promises to be transcendent. In June, the incomparable Hilary Hahn graces our stage to perform Mozart’s “Turkish” Violin Concerto. And throughout the warmer months, we have a diverse lineup of programs including Songs of America — a celebration of the nation’s 250th anniversary featuring vocalists Melinda Doolittle and Jimmie Herrod—as well as Pink Martini, Disney Pride in Concert, and unforgettable film concert experiences with Jurassic Park and Back to the Future.
We are also excited to continue partnerships this summer with The Henry Ford for our annual Salute to America program (this year conducted by Music Director Jader Bignamini!); with Interlochen for our residency up north; and with Detroit residents and local organizations for free concerts and events across our great city.
The season is in full bloom—and it is all the more vibrant because you are part of it. Thank you for being here. Now sit back, relax, and enjoy the concert.
With gratitude,
Erik Rönmark
Faye Alexander Nelson President & CEO Chair, Board of Directors
JADER BIGNAMINI , Music Director
Music Directorship endowed by the Kresge Foundation
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
OPEN
ASSISTANT CONCERTMASTER
Marguerite Deslippe*
Laurie Goldman*
Rachel Harding Klaus*
Eun Park Lee*
Nancy Schlichting and Pam Theisen Chair
Adrienne Rönmark*
William and Story John Chair
Laura Soto*
Greg Staples*
Mingzhao Zhou*
SECOND VIOLIN
Jiamin Wang PRINCIPAL
The Devereaux Family Chair
Adam Stepniewski
ASSISTANT PRINCIPAL
Connor Chaikowsky*
Will Haapaniemi*
David and Valerie McCammon Chairs
Hae Jeong Heidi Han*
David and Valerie McCammon Chairs
Sheryl Hwangbo Yu*
Sujin Lim*
Tianyu Liu*
Yu-Ming Ma*
Hong-Yi Mo *
Marian Tănău*
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
Mike Chen*
Hart Hollman*
Glenn Mellow*
Hang Su*
Han Zheng*
TERENCE BLANCHARD
Fred A. Erb Jazz Creative Director Chair
Wei Yu
PRINCIPAL
OPEN
ASSISTANT PRINCIPAL
Dorothy and Herbert Graebner Chair
Robert Bergman*
Jeremy Crosmer*
Victor and Gale Girolami Chair
David LeDoux*
Peter McCaffrey*
Joanne Danto and Arnold Weingarden
Chair
Úna 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
Emily Bieker
ACTING SECOND FLUTE
Morton and Brigitte Harris Chair
Amanda Blaikie
ACTING ASSISTANT PRINCIPAL
Bernard and Eleanor Robertson Chair
PICCOLO OPEN
OBOE
Alexander Kinmonth
PRINCIPAL
Jack A. and Aviva Robinson Chair
Erik Andrusyak
Sarah Lewis
ASSISTANT PRINCIPAL
Monica Fosnaugh
Donovan Bown§
ENGLISH HORN
Monica Fosnaugh
TABITA BERGLUND
Principal Guest Conductor
CLARINET
Ralph Skiano
PRINCIPAL
Robert B. Semple Chair
Kamalia Freyling
ACTING SECOND CLARINET
Jack Walters
ASSISTANT PRINCIPAL
PVS Chemicals Inc./
Jim and Ann Nicholson Chair
Shannon Orme
Triniti Rives§
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
Ryan Turano
CONTRABASSOON
Ryan Turano
HORN
Edmund Rollett
PRINCIPAL HORN
David and Christine Provost Chair
Helen Wargelin
Scott Strong
Ric and Carola Huttenlocher Chair
Lorenzo Robb
Patrick Walle
Cara Kizer
ACTING ASSISTANT PRINCIPAL
TRUMPET
Hunter Eberly
PRINCIPAL
Austin Williams
William Lucas
TROMBONE
Gracie Potter
PRINCIPAL
David Binder
Adam Rainey
Richard Sonenklar and Gregory Haynes Chair
BASS TROMBONE
Adam Rainey
TUBA
Dennis Nulty
PRINCIPAL
Chair generously endowed by an anonymous donor
INGRID MARTIN
Assistant Conductor, Phillip & Lauren Fisher Community Ambassador
TIMPANI
Jeremy Epp
PRINCIPAL
Richard and Mona Alonzo Chair
Jay Ritchie
ASSISTANT PRINCIPAL
PERCUSSION
Joseph Becker
PRINCIPAL
Ruth Roby and Alfred R. Glancy III Chair
Andrés Pichardo-Rosenthal
ASSISTANT PRINCIPAL
William Cody Knicely Chair
Jay Ritchie
LIBRARIANS
Robert Stiles
PRINCIPAL
Ethan Allen
LEGACY CHAIRS
Principal Flute
Women’s Association for the DSO
Principal Cello
James C. Gordon
Oboe
Maggie Miller
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
Isaac 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
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.
Celebrated for his charismatic stage presence, genre-defining collaborations, and passion for making orchestral music accessible to all, Enrico LopezYañez is one of the most innovative and in-demand conductors in North America. He currently serves as Principal Pops Conductor of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra and Pacific Symphony, Principal Conductor of Dallas Symphony Presents, and Principal Guest Conductor of Pops at the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra. He previously spent eight seasons conducting the Nashville Symphony, where he also served as their Principal Pops Conductor.
As a trailblazer in the symphonic world, Lopez-Yañez has premiered dozens of groundbreaking symphonic collaborations with artists including Dolly Parton, Kelsea Ballerini, and Tituss Burgess. His wide-ranging collaborations span genres and generations, featuring artists such as Nas, Itzhak Perlman, Gladys Knight, Ben Folds, The Beach Boys, and Kenny G.
As a composer and arranger, he has written for artists like Big Sean and Mariachi Los Camperos, and he has been commissioned by major orchestras across the U.S. A passionate advocate for Latin music, he has arranged and produced concerts featuring Latin Fire, Mariachi Los Camperos, and The Three Mexican Tenors, and collaborated with Aida Cuevas, Arturo Sandoval, Lila Downs, and Lupita Infante.
Lopez-Yañez is also Artistic Director and Co-Founder of Symphonica Productions, LLC, a creative production company developing innovative pops, family, and educational concerts for orchestras.
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 SFJAZZ.
Visit terenceblanchard.com for more.
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.◊
Peter D. Cummings
Mark A. Davidoff
Phillip Wm. Fisher
Stanley Frankel
Herman H. Frankel
Dr. Gloria Heppner
Ronald Horwitz
Harold Kulish
Bonnie Larson
Arthur C. Liebler
David McCammon
Marilyn Pincus
Laura Trudeau Treasurer
Renato Jamett Secretary
Ric Huttenlocher Officer at Large
Daniel J. Kaufman Officer at Large
EMERITI
Robert S. Miller
James B. Nicholson
David T. Provost
Glenda Price
Bernard I. Robertson
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
Governing Members Chair
Rev. Nicholas Hood III
Richard Huttenlocher
Renato Jamett, Trustee Chair
Daniel J. Kaufman
Xavier Mosquet
Faye Alexander Nelson, Board Chair
David Nicholson
Arthur T. O’Reilly
Shirley Stancato
Marian Tănău, Orchestra
Representative Yoni Torgow
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
Richard Alonzo
Hadas Bernard
Janice Bernick
Elizabeth Boone
Gwen Bowlby
Dr. Betty Chu, M.D.
Joanne Danto
Stephen D’Arcy
Maureen T. D’Avanzo
Cara Dietz
Afa Sadykhly Dworkin
Emily Elmer
James C. Farber
Amanda Fisher
Linda D. Forte
Carolynn Frankel
Christa Funk
Robert Gillette
Jody Glancy
Mary Ann Gorlin
Darby Hadley
Michele Hodges
Julie Hollinshead
Cheryl P. Johnson
Laurel Kalkanis
Jay Kapadia
Joel D. Kellman
John Kim
Jennette Smith Kotila
Leonard LaRocca
Linda Dresner Levy
Gene LoVasco
Anthony McCree
Kristen McLennan
Tito Melega
Lydia Michael
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
Rochelle Riley
Jim Rose, Jr.
Laurie DeMond-Rosen
Carlo Serraiocco
Lois L. Shaevsky
Elliot Shafer
Shiv Shivaraman
Dean P. Simmer
Richard Sonenklar
Dhivya Srinivasan
Lilly Stotland
Rob Tanner
Nate Wallace
Gwen Weiner
Donnell White
Jeffrey Williams
R. Jamison Williams
Maddie Wu
BY HANNAH ENGWALL ELBIALY
Detroit has always had something to say through music. Long before the city became synonymous with the rhythms of Motown, Detroit was a jazz mecca. From the intimate corners of Baker’s Keyboard Lounge on Livernois to the vibrant stages throughout Paradise Valley (the heart of African American cultural life for
decades), Detroit cultivated a distinctive jazz tradition. The city was a generator of talent, a place where the music was made and remade. Names that became legends—Tommy Flanagan, Kenny Burrell, Yusef Lateef, Betty Carter—were shaped on these streets. And at the corner of Woodward and Parsons, Orchestra Hall witnessed it all.
The DSO is the only major American orchestra to present a full jazz series on its main stage.
During the DSO’s hiatus from the venue, Orchestra Hall reopened on December 26, 1941 as the Paradise Theatre with a thunderous performance by Louis Armstrong. Over the next decade, the Paradise became one of America’s elite venues for Black entertainment, alongside New York’s Apollo, Chicago’s Regal, and Los Angeles’s Lincoln theaters. As Mark Stryker documents in Destiny: 100 Years of Music, Magic, and Community at Orchestra Hall in Detroit the roster of performers who headlined the Paradise reads like an encyclopedia of jazz’s golden age: Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Billie Holiday, Ella Fitzgerald, Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, Sarah Vaughan, Cab Calloway, Dinah Washington, and dozens more.
Many of the Detroit musicians who would go on to define jazz in the 1950s and ‘60s drew their earliest inspiration from what they heard on this stage— young listeners absorbing the energy of the touring giants, then channeling it into a thriving local scene that exported talent to the national stage. When the Paradise closed its doors in 1951, following the decline of the big band era and shifting popular tastes, the curtain came down on one chapter of Orchestra Hall’s story, but the spirit of jazz never left.
That legacy continues today, with intention. The Detroit Symphony Orchestra is the only major American orchestra to present a full jazz series on its main stage, and that series carries a name chosen to honor exactly what happened here from 1941 to 1951: the Paradise Jazz Series. Established in 1999, the series has evolved into one of the most distinctive jazz programming traditions in the country. From iconic mainstays to boundarypushing artists, each performance carries the soul and improvisational spirit that made Detroit a musical force. Over the years, the DSO has welcomed luminaries including Herbie Hancock, Ravi Coltrane, Ron Carter, Chucho Valdés, Cecile McLorin Salvant, and Endea Owens, alongside emerging artists who represent the genre’s future. At the heart of the series is Terence Blanchard, the acclaimed trumpeter, bandleader, and Oscar and GRAMMY® Awardwinning composer who has served as the DSO’s Fred A. Erb Jazz Creative Director Chair since 2012. Co-curating the Paradise Jazz Series with a deep understanding of both jazz’s history and its future, Blanchard brings a programming vision that spans avant-garde to traditional.
The DSO’s commitment to this legacy extends beyond the Paradise Jazz Series. In 2022, to celebrate the 80th anniversary of the Paradise Theatre’s opening, the DSO formed the Paradise Theatre Big Band—an ensemble honoring both the theatre and the broader cultural world that surrounded it: the Paradise Valley
and Black Bottom neighborhoods that served as a beacon of Black culture, commerce, and creativity in Detroit from 1920 through 1950. Led by GRAMMY® Award-nominated trumpeter, composer, and educator Kris Johnson— himself an alumnus of the DSO’s Civic Youth Ensembles—the band is a multi-generational group of Detroit musicians that prides itself on innovative arrangements and hard-hitting, genre-bending performances.
In February 2026, the Paradise Theatre Big Band returned to the Orchestra Hall stage, performing on a mashup Paradise Jazz Series and PVS Classical Series weekend spotlighting generations of Detroit musicians. The program
culminated in an electric side-by-side performance of Wynton Marsalis’s Swing Symphony with the musicians of the DSO, which was recorded for future release.
The DSO also looks to the future by celebrating and supporting young musicians. Before each Paradise Jazz Series concert, audiences are treated to Civic Jazz Live! in the Peter D. and Julie F. Cummings Cube—a showcase featuring student musicians from the Civic Youth Ensembles’ Civic Jazz Orchestra. The ensemble consists of advanced, high school age jazz students from across metro Detroit, many of whom have performed on stages such as the Detroit Jazz Festival, and who regularly gig throughout southeast Michigan. Starting off Friday jazz evenings with
these students sets a tone of possibility and represents the living continuation of the local jazz tradition.
The jazz experience at the DSO is something that has to be felt to be fully understood. It begins before a single note is played as guests gather in the William Davidson Atrium and enter to admire the ornate detail of Orchestra Hall. People strike impromptu poses on the grand staircase, soak in more than a century of history, and connect with fellow concert goers who share the same reverence for this music and this place. Then, when the music starts, the hall comes alive in a way that is uniquely Detroit: audiences swaying, standing, grooving freely, the boundary between performer and listener dissolving in the way only great live jazz can. It is, in every sense, a community gathering, reminiscent of the same spirit that packed the Paradise Theatre night after night.
settle into the spirit of the evening. And when the concert ends, the night doesn’t have to. The Late Set is a new post-concert event following each Paradise Jazz Series performance— a 90-minute, one-set showcase of the best in local Detroit jazz, with a full bar and small bites in an intimate club-like atmosphere. Debuting in December 2025 after the Terence Blanchard: Malcolm X Jazz Suite concert, The Late Set’s inaugural performance by The Vincent Chandler Experience turned the Paradise Lounge bandstand into an all-out celebration. The response was so enthusiastic that subsequent Late Sets had to move to larger venues to accommodate the crowd, and artists have been booked through the end of the 2025–26 season to keep the fun going.
For those who want to extend the evening, the newly revamped Paradise Lounge on the second level of Orchestra Hall offers an exquisite setting. With large windows overlooking Woodward Avenue and the corner of Parsons Street— adjacent to the original office of the DSO’s first Music Director, Ossip Gabrilowitsch— the lounge is steeped in history. Named as a direct nod to both the Paradise Valley neighborhood and the Paradise Theatre era, it features fully-coursed, sit-down dining from catering partner Abode Fine Dining, along with specially crafted cocktails. An offering worth considering for those who want to arrive early and
More than eight decades since Louis Armstrong christened the Paradise Theatre, that same stage is home to the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, and the music has never stopped. The DSO has proudly built a jazz culture that honors the past while embracing the full spirit of what jazz is and can become. It is programming with purpose, rooted in connection, and alive with the energy of Detroit.
This is jazz at the DSO—more than music, it is an experience of immaculate vibes and genuine community. It is the feeling of a great city remembering where it came from, and celebrating, with abundant joy and soul, where it is going.
Before guests enter Orchestra Hall, before the lights dim and the conductor raises the baton, there is someone at the door to welcome you. A person who might know your name, can help you to your seat, and genuinely wants you to have an unforgettable experience. That person is, in all likelihood, a member of the DSO Ambassador Corps—one of the dedicated volunteers who serve as the heart of the DSO, and who have, in many cases, been showing up for this organization for decades.
The Ambassador Corps is the DSO’s volunteer program, built around a simple idea: that a love of music is one of the most connective forces there is, and that the people who share it most enthusiastically should be at the center of the experience. Described as a magnet for volunteerism—with representation from across Detroit’s diverse communities, united by a love of music—the Ambassador Corps brings together people of all walks of life around a common purpose: to serve the DSO, its audiences, and its mission.
Usher Supervisor Bill Arendall, pictured above with his wife and fellow volunteer Karen, says this about his experience with the DSO: “I work with DSO staff and patrons because I enjoy the professionalism of staff at so many levels, and I enjoy our patrons and volunteers. I am proud to be a current face of the program and encourage people to join. As I approach 25 years as a Supervisor, I look forward to more.”
During any given concert at the Max M. & Marjorie S. Fisher Music Center or venues across the community, Ambassador Corps volunteers can be found throughout the building—greeting patrons at the door, directing guests to their seats, staffing the retail store and merchandise pop-ups, assisting at Will Call, and creating moments of warmth and connection that set the tone for the entire event. Their guiding motto says it all: happy, hospitable, and helpful.
For those more interested in day-to-day operations, the role of an Ambassador extends beyond the logistics of a concert night. The corps includes a Patron Loyalty
program through which volunteers build genuine, ongoing relationships with DSO audiences. Subscriber ambassadors help fellow subscribers connect around events, “surprise and delight” volunteers create unexpected moments of appreciation, and others reach out directly to donors by phone with a personal expression of gratitude that no email can replicate.
Volunteers also extend the DSO’s presence beyond Orchestra Hall itself. Many assist with special events, staff the Herman and Sharon Frankel Donor Lounge, or support DSO staff with operational needs. The breadth of the program means there is a role for virtually every interest and schedule.
For volunteers who feel called to community and education work, the Ambassador Corps offers opportunities that bring the DSO’s mission to life in the broader Detroit community. On Saturday mornings, volunteers support creative, hands-on activities for children during Tiny Tots and Young People’s Family Concerts, helping introduce the youngest audiences to the joy of live music. Others attend Educational Concert Series webcasts inside Detroit Public School classrooms— witnessing firsthand the impact the DSO’s educational programming has on students across the city.
not simply an institution they admire from the outside; it is a place they have made their own, a community they have helped to build, a musical home they return to.
Volunteerism at the DSO offers an experience of the orchestra that few other relationships with the organization can match. Ambassadors are present for the full arc of an event—the anticipation, the arrival of the audience, the performance itself, and the warmth of the conversation afterward. They witness the moments when a first-time concertgoer’s face lights up, when a subscriber of thirty years finds their favorite seat, when the music moves a crowd in a way that stops everyone in their tracks.
These roles reflect the DSO’s core values in action: collaboration, inclusion, innovation, and a deep commitment to the communities the orchestra serves. For volunteers, these experiences offer something equally valuable—the opportunity to engage with like-minded individuals and see the DSO’s mission ripple outward.
What keeps Ambassador Corps volunteers coming back season after season is something that is difficult to quantify but impossible to miss when you encounter it. It is the genuine sense of belonging that comes from being close to something you love. For many, the DSO is
The Ambassador Corps formally celebrates this devotion each year with Ambassador Appreciation Night, a dedicated evening of recognition that honors every member of the Corps for the extraordinary contributions they make. And each fall, an annual orientation brings together new and returning volunteers alike, setting the tone for a season of service and connection.
The Detroit Symphony Orchestra is grateful—deeply, genuinely grateful—to every Ambassador who has ever held open a door, answered a question, dialed a donor’s number, or made a patron feel that Orchestra Hall is their home too.
The Ambassador Corps is often a first impression, and a lasting one.
If you love the DSO and have ever wanted a closer connection to the music and the mission, the Ambassador Corps is waiting. Volunteering is an opportunity to give back to an organization that gives so much—and to find, in a group of fellow music lovers, something that feels a lot like home.
Learn more and sign up by scanning the code:
BY MARISA JACQUES
The Detroit Symphony Orchestra’s Detroit Neighborhood Initiative (DNI) is a process of dialogue and planning driven by community connection, resulting in productive partnerships that reflect a shared commitment to the growth and well-being of our city. Building and understanding the diverse experiences and perspectives of people across our city helps the DSO align with the priorities of Detroit residents in meaningful, impactful ways, leading to the co-creation of musical experiences that celebrate Detroit artists and musicians and offer connections to resources and future cultural experiences. Starting with just two focus neighborhoods in 2020, the DSO’s Detroit Strategy programming now engages people in every district of the city.
now informs experiences in early childhood, student development, economic growth, and health and social services. Thus, the Detroit Neighborhood Initiative was a branch that grew from this foundation of listening.
Now a tradition in neighborhoods like Southwest Detroit, Chandler Park, and Northwest Goldberg, DNI musical experiences will continue in summer 2026. Free and accessible to all, join the DSO and our partners to experience performances by DSO musicians, interact with the music, discover the work of local artists, and learn about a wide range of resources available for people of all ages. Performances will include Anthems of the World Cup at Mexicantown CDC Mercado Plaza on May 16, 2026, Chandler Park Sounds of Summer
The work that led to the creation of DNI has been a priority for over a decade, reaching a milestone in 2017 with the launch of the DSO’s Social Progress Initiative. With this initiative, the DSO committed to opening the dialogue around the transformative power of positive musical experiences. As this ongoing dialogue evolved, the Social Progress Initiative grew into Detroit Strategy in 2020—an organization-wide approach to respectful engagement with Detroiters and our city. Listening and responsiveness is at the core of Detroit Strategy, which
Concert on June 6, Legacy in Sound: A Tribute to Detroit at Second Ebenezer Church on June 17, Clark Park Culture and Arts Festival on June 27, and Chandler Park Community Arts and Music Festival on July 25. Through Detroit Strategy, the DSO has engaged more than 200,000 people over the past five years and partnered with 300 community-serving organizations, reaching over 50,000 people each year. Visit dso.org/dni to learn more about DNI performances.
ENRICO LOPEZ-YAÑEZ
Principal Pops Conductor
Devereaux Family Chair
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
Title Sponsor:
INGRID MARTIN
Assistant Conductor, Phillip & Lauren Fisher Community Ambassador
NORTHERN LIGHTS FESTIVAL | BERGLUND CONDUCTS PEER GYNT
Thursday, April 9, 2026 at 7:30 p.m.
Friday, April 10, 2026 at 8 p.m.
Saturday, April 11, 2026 at 8 p.m. in Orchestra Hall
TABITA BERGLUND, conductor JOHAN
Einojuhani Rautavaara Concerto For Birds and Orchestra, (1928–2016) “Cantus Arcticus”
Jean Sibelius Concerto for Violin and Orchestra in D minor, (1865–1957) Op. 47
I. Allegro moderato
II. Adagio di molto
III. Allegro, ma non tanto
Johan Dalene, violin
Intermission
Edvard Grieg Prelude from Peer Gynt (Im Hochzeitshof) (1843–1907)
Suite No. 2 from Peer Gynt, Op. 55
I. Ingrid’s Lamentation
II. Arabian Dance
III. Peer Gynt’s Homecoming
IV. Solveijg’s Song
Suite No. 1 from Peer Gynt, Op. 46
I. Morning Mood
II. Ase’s Death
III. Anitra’s Dance
IV. In the Hall of the Mountain King
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.
The Northern Lights Festival Begins
Principal Guest Conductor Tabita Berglund kicks off a two-week celebration of Nordic music, showcasing composers, soloists, and iconic melodies of her native region. Rautavaara’s Concerto for Birds and Orchestra sets the tone with the orchestra bringing the sounds of northern Finland’s landscape to the stage, layered with pre-recorded bird sounds. Sibelius’s Violin Concerto—performed by Swedish-Norwegian violinist Johan Dalene—follows, bringing storm clouds to our nature scene. The second half of this program features Grieg’s Peer Gynt Prelude and Suites 2 and 1. When played in this order, the program concludes with one of Grieg’s most recognizable melodies.
Composed 1972 | Premiered October 1972
B. October 9, 1928, Helsinki, Finland
D. July 27, 2016, Helsinki, Finland
Scored for 2 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 2 horns, 2 trumpets, trombone, timpani, percussion, harp, celeste, recorded birdsongs, and strings. (Approx. 17 minutes)
Theintriguingly titled Concerto for Birds, also known as “Cantus Arcticus,” is probably Rautavaara’s best-known work. It incorporates recordings of birdsongs made in the northernmost stretches of Finland, marking the influence that bird sounds have had on composers and musicians for centuries. In the composer’s own words, “Instead of the conventional festive cantata for choir and orchestra, I wrote a ‘Concerto for Birds and Orchestra.’ The first movement, Suo (The Marsh), opens with two solo flutes. They are gradually joined by other wind instruments and the sound of bog birds in spring. In Melankolia, the featured bird is the shore lark, and its song has been slowed down by two octaves to turn it into a ghost bird. The last movement, Joutsenet muuttavat (Swans migrating), is an aleatory [chance] texture featuring four independent instrumental groups. The texture increases in complexity, the sounds of the migrating swans are also multiplied, and there is a
long crescendo by the orchestra until at the end both birdsong and orchestra gradually fade as the sound seems to be lost in the distance.”
The DSO previously performed Einojuhani Rautavaara’s Concerto for Birds and Orchestra in May 2018, conducted by John Storgårds.
Concerto for Violin and Orchestra in D minor, Op. 47
Composed 1903 | Premiered February 1904 | Revised 1905
B. December 8, 1865, Hämeenlinna, Finland D. September 20, 1957, Ainola, Finland
Scored for solo violin, 2 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 4 horns, 2 trumpets, 3 trombones, timpani, and strings. (Approx. 31 minutes)
JeanSibelius wrote his lone concerto in 1903 and conducted its premiere about a year later. But the violinist he hoped could play it was unavailable, and the soloist he settled on had little time to prepare; as such, the concert was a disaster. When Sibelius revised the work in 1905, he made it considerably less difficult for the soloist—though any violinist will tell you that it’s still a very challenging piece!
The work dispenses with the classical convention of the orchestral exposition, leaving the presentation of the work’s first theme to the solo instrument. The music
begins with a muted rustling in the strings, a gesture that provides a cushion of sound for the long, rhapsodic subject sung by the violin. This idea grows increasingly animated, so much so that it soon dissolves into a cadenza for the featured instrument. As before, its conclusion is marked by a solo cadenza, whereupon a third theme, in character somewhat like a folk song, appears in the orchestra.
In the second movement, Sibelius builds the lyrical principal melody into a great romantic outpouring. The finale features a theme whose heavy-footed accompaniment prompted English conductor and writer Donald Francis Tovey to describe it as “a polonaise for polar bears.” This idea is countered by a rhythmically lively second subject. Sibelius’s delight in exploring these melodies is evident in the robust music he derives from them.
The DSO most recently performed Sibelius’s Concerto for Violin and Orchestra in D Minor in October 2021, conducted by Jader Bignamini and featuring
soloist Ray Chen. The DSO first performed this work in December 1932, conducted by Ossip Gabrilowitsch and featuring DSO concertmaster Ilya Schkolnik.
Composed 1874–75 | Premiered 1876 | Revised 1885
B. June 15, 1843, Bergen, Norway
D. September 4, 1907, Bergen, Norway
Scored for 2 flutes, piccolo, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 4 horns, 2 trumpets, 3 trombones, timpani, harp, and strings. (Approx. 10 minutes)
InJanuary 1874, Norwegian composer Edvard Grieg received an invitation to write incidental music for Henrik Ibsen’s play Peer Gynt. The play, with accompanying music, was first performed in February 1876 to great
acclaim, enjoying 37 performances during the spring of that year before a fire destroyed the scenery and costumes. Peer Gynt was revived in Copenhagen in 1885 with considerable revisions to the music, and audiences received the play with great enthusiasm.
Act I establishes the narrative with a wedding celebration, as Ingrid, the daughter of a wealthy famer, is to be married. Peer had harbored his own feelings for her, yet she is promised to someone else. The assembled guests ridicule Peer as a boastful fantasist, but he manages to abduct Ingrid and run off with her—an act for which he is cast out from the community, setting in motion his extraordinary journey across continents.
The DSO previously performed Edvard Grieg’s Peer Gynt Prelude in August 2007, conducted by Arild Remmereit.
Composed 1874–75 | Premiered 1876 | Revised 1885
B. June 15, 1843, Bergen, Norway
D. September 4, 1907, Bergen, Norway
Scored for 2 flutes (one doubling piccolo), piccolo, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 4 horns, 2 trumpets, 3 trombones, tuba, timpani, percussion, harp, and strings. (Approx. 16 minutes)
Afterthe revival of Peer Gynt in 1885, Grieg assembled two suites from the more extended portions of the incidental music with the aim of bringing the music to a wider audience. The suites were subsequently performed throughout the world, in the original orchestral versions as well as in countless arrangements, bringing Grieg considerable fame.
The Second Suite begins with turbulent music drawn from the start of Act II, set in the wake of a wedding gone wrong, as it frames Ingrid’s sorrowful cry. The “Arabian Dance” comes from the heart of Act IV, amid a Bedouin encampment. The
Act V Prelude captures a raging storm on the open water, as Peer suffers a shipwreck while sailing home to Norway. Peer broods over the paths he never pursued, lamenting a life he has come to see as wasted. He hears his deceased mother calling to him and engages in a somber exchange with Death; overcome with despair, he finds his way to the cottage of Solveig, the woman he had loved and abandoned at different moments throughout the earlier acts. She soothes him with a gentle lullaby, though it is her luminous song from the close of Act IV—a hint of the selfless love she will ultimately offer him—that brings the Second Suite to its end.
The DSO most recently performed Edvard Grieg’s Peer Gynt Suite No. 2 in August 2007, conducted by Arild Remmereit. The DSO first performed this work in April 1924, conducted by Victor Kolar.
Composed 1874–75 | Premiered 1876 | Revised 1885
B. June 15, 1843, Bergen, Norway
D. September 4, 1907, Bergen, Norway
Scored for 2 flutes, piccolo, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 4 horns, 2 trumpets, 3 trombones, tuba, timpani, percussion, and strings. (Approx. 13 minutes)
Thefirst of Grieg’s suites includes music from four of the play’s scenes. “Morning Mood,” originally the prelude to the fourth act, introduces the Suite with shimmering brightness and gentle successions of third-related chords. While to some listeners it may seem evocative perhaps of the Norwegian dawn, Grieg’s use of a pentatonic theme is meant to suggest the coast of Morrocco. Grieg wrote that where the first forte appears he was thinking of the sun breaking through the clouds.
The sorrowful movement that follows is
a meditation on the death of Åse, Gynt’s mother. Like “Morning Mood,” it showcases Grieg’s gift for creating graceful, song-like melodies. “Anitra’s Dance” evokes the dance of a Bedouin’s daughter in a light, delicate mazurka. “In the Hall of the Mountain King” depicts Gynt’s entry to the hall of a troll princess, wherein he sees the clumsy dance of dwarfs. Grieg wrote that the music was “something that I literally can’t stand to listen to because it absolutely reeks of cow pies, exaggerated
Tabita
Berglund has established herself as one of the most in-demand conductors of her generation. With a charismatic style that combines elegance, verve, and precision, she collaborates with leading orchestras worldwide. Berglund is Principal Guest Conductor of both Detroit Symphony Orchestra and Dresdner Philharmonie, having been appointed to each position following her respective debut.
Notable debut appearances across the season include Deutsches SymphonieOrchester Berlin, Staatskapelle Berlin, Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, St. Louis Symphony, hr-Sinfonieorchester Frankfurt, NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchester, and Sydney and Melbourne symphony orchestras, while return engagements include Dallas Symphony Orchestra, Gothenburg Symphony, Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra, Lahti Symphony Orchestra, Düsseldorfer Symphoniker, TonkünstlerOrchester Niederösterreich, and Trondheim Symphony Orchestra.
Berglund studied at the Norwegian Academy of Music, first as a cellist with Truls Mørk and later orchestral conducting with Ole Kristian Ruud. Her first titled position was as Principal Guest Conductor of Kristiansand Symphony
Norwegian provincialism, and trollish self-sufficiency!” It has, nevertheless, been greatly enjoyed by audiences, with elements of agitation and excitement rarely found elsewhere in Grieg’s music.
— Amy Kimura
The DSO most recently performed Edvard Grieg’s Peer Gynt Suite No. 1 in April 2024, conducted by Na’Zir McFadden as part of the Educational Concert Series. The DSO first performed this work in December 1916, conducted by Weston Gales.
Orchestra (2021 to 2024). Her debut CD, with Oslo Philharmonic and violinist Sonoko Miriam Welde, was released in 2021 (LAWO) and nominated for a Norwegian Grammy (Spellemann) in the 2022 Classical Music category.
HarrisonParrott represents Tabita Berglund for worldwide general management.
Winner of the 2019 prestigious Carl Nielsen Competition, Swedish-Norwegian violinist Johan Dalene has performed with leading orchestras and in celebrated recital halls both at home and abroad. In 2022, he was named Gramophone’s Young Artist of the Year.
An advocate for new music, Dalene will be showcasing Thomas Adès’s “Concentric Paths” Concerto, notably with the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra and Jukka Pekka Saraste, and with Netherlands Radio Philharmonic and Andrew Manze. He also plays Rautavaara’s Serenades, notably with the London Symphony Orchestra and Thomas Adès, as well as Niels Viggo Bentzon’s concerto with the Copenhagen Philharmonic and Thomas Dausgaard.
Dalene is equally passionate about
chamber music and will be performing a string of recitals throughout the UK with Jeneba Kanneh-Mason, notably at London’s Wigmore Hall, where he is now a regular guest. He has played at celebrated festivals such as Verbier and Rosendal, and at Carnegie Hall.
Recording exclusively for BIS, Dalene released his fifth album on the label in October 2024. Entitled Souvenirs, it is a recital disc comprising Tchaikovsky’s Souvenir d’un lieu cher, Ravel’s Tzigane, and a collection of short pieces by Amanda Rontgen-Maier.
Dalene began playing the violin at the age of four and made his professional concerto debut three years later.
Dalene plays the 1725 ‘Duke of Cambridge’ Stradivarius, generously on loan from the Anders Sveaas’ Charitable Foundation. He is managed by Enticott Music Management in association with IMG Artists.
ENRICO LOPEZ-YAÑEZ
Principal Pops Conductor
Devereaux Family Chair
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
Title Sponsor:
INGRID MARTIN
Assistant Conductor, Phillip & Lauren Fisher Community Ambassador
NORTHERN LIGHTS FESTIVAL | EXCELSIOR! AND NIELSEN
Saturday, April 18, 2026 at 8 p.m.
Sunday, April 19, 2026 at 3 p.m. in Orchestra Hall
TABITA BERGLUND, conductor ELDBJØRG HEMSING, violin
Wilhelm Stenhammar Excelsior!, Op.13 (1871–1927)
Anders Hillborg Violin Concerto No. 2 (b. 1954)
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Eldbjørg Hemsing, violin
Intermission
Carl Nielsen Symphony No. 5, Op. 50 (1865–1931) I. Tempo giusto - Adagio II. Allegro - Andante
The Northern Lights Festival Continues
The DSO’s celebration of Nordic music led by Norwegian native Tabita Berglund (Principal Guest Conductor) continues, invigorated by Wilhelm Stenhammar’s Excelsior! to kick off this program. Translating to “higher” or “upward,” this work is characterized by ever-ascending lines from all voices of the orchestra. Norwegian violinist Eldbjørg Hemsing makes her DSO debut with Anders Hillborg’s Second Violin Concerto—a strikingly ethereal work with powerful interjections from the orchestra providing forward momentum. This program, and our Northern Lights Festival, concludes with a work by one of Denmark’s most significant composers, Carl Nielsen. His captivating Fifth Symphony defies the standard symphonic structure and sends the festival off on a triumphant note.
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.
Scored for 3 flutes (one doubling piccolo), 3 oboes (one doubling English horn), 3 clarinets (one doubling bass clarinet), 3 bassoons, 4 horns, 3 trumpets, 3 trombones, tuba, timpani, and strings. (Approx. 13 minutes)
Excelsior! was dedicated to the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra. The title (Latin adjective meaning “higher” or “loftier”) unmistakably evokes the natural ambitions of a young artist, though the score’s epigraph drawn from Goethe’s Faust hints at something deeper—a tension between the soul’s yearning toward life’s great mysteries and the gravitational pull of earthly pleasures.
A spirit of uplift is immediately felt in the work’s urgent and impassioned opening. This energy is sustained through passages marked Heftig aufwärts dringend (violently urging upwards), Sehr feurig (very ardent), and wild aufschreiend (wildly crying out). True to these sentiments, the contours of Stenhammar’s melodies almost invariably reach heroically skyward.
This performance marks the DSO premiere of Wilhelm Stenhammar’s Excelsior!.
Scored for solo violin, 2 flutes (both doubling piccolo), 2 oboes (one doubling English horn), 2 clarinets, bassoon, contrabassoon, 4 horns, 2 trumpets, 2 trombones, percussion, and strings. (Approx. 24 minutes)
Of the Violin Concerto No. 2, Anders Hillborg writes the following:
“My Second Violin Concerto was written in 2016 and premiered by the Royal
Stockholm Philharmonic, conducted by Sakari Oramo with its dedicatee Lisa Batiashvili as soloist.
After a brief introduction the strings land on a minor chord that becomes the backdrop for the soloist’s entrance—an echo from Bach’s Sarabande in D minor. From there the violin goes into a fiery cadenza and the voyage has started.
Hyperactive passages with violent hammering strings, with the solo violin ‘talking’ in ‘out-of-tune’ passages, melt into long meditative parts where the solo violin soars over slowly paced chords. Towards the end, after a cadenza, the hyperactive music returns and finally resolves in a jubilant gesture.”
This performance marks the DSO premiere of Anders Hillborg’s Violin Concerto No. 2.
Scored for 3 flutes (one doubling piccolo), 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 4 horns, 3 trumpets, 3 trombones, tuba, timpani, percussion, celeste, and strings. (Approx. 35 minutes)
Onthe day of the premiere (January 24, 1922) of Carl Nielsen’s Symphony No. 5, the Danish newspaper Politiken printed an interview with the composer:
“My first symphony was nameless too. But then came ‘The Four Temperaments,’ ‘Espansiva,’ and ‘The Inextinguishable,’ actually just different names for the same thing, the only thing that music in the final analysis can express: the resting powers as opposed to the active ones. If I were to find a name for this, my new Fifth Symphony, it would express something similar. I have been unable to get hold of
the one word that is at the same time characteristic and not too pretentious—so I let it be.”
“But the idea or thought that lies behind it?”
“Yes, how should I explain it? I roll a stone up a hill; use the energy I have in me to get the stone up to a high point. And there the stone lies still. The energy is tied up in it—until I give it a kick, and the same energy is released and the stone rolls down again. But you just mustn’t see this as a programme!
These explanations and instructions for what the music ‘represents’ can only be bad, they distract the listeners and spoil the absolute grasp of the work. This time I have changed the form and I am content with two parts instead of the usual four movements. I’ve thought so much about this—that in the old symphonic form you usually said most of what you had on your mind in the first allegro. Then came the calm andante, which functioned as a contrast, but then it’s the scherzo, where you
get up too high again and spoil the mood for the finale, where the ideas have all too often run out.
I shouldn’t wonder if Beethoven felt that in his Ninth, when he got some assistance from the human voice towards the end!
So what I have done this time is to divide the symphony into two large, broad parts—the first, which begins slowly and calmly, and the second, more active. I’ve been told that my new symphony isn’t like my earlier ones. I can’t hear it myself. But perhaps it’s true. I do know that it isn’t all that easy to grasp, nor all that easy to play. We’ve had many rehearsals of it. Some people have even thought that now Arnold Schoenberg can pack his bags and take a walk with his disharmonies. Mine were worse. I don’t think so.”
The DSO most recently performed Carl Nielsen’s Symphony No. 5 in January 2005, conducted by Neeme Järvi. The DSO first performed this work in October 1964, conducted by Sixten Ehrling.
For Tabita Berglund’s biography, see page 21.
name in her native Norway since childhood, violinist Eldbjørg Hemsing is celebrated worldwide for her sensitivity, lyricism, and breathtaking virtuosity. Her fresh artistic voice transcends generations, inspiring new and emerging audiences. Hemsing’s recordings and performances are recognized for their depth, vision, and originality, brought to life on one of the world’s finest instruments, her 1707 Rivaz Baron Gutmann Stradivarius.
As an exclusive Sony Classical artist, Hemsing’s catalogue spans landmark and iconic concertos with leading orchestras, alongside trailblazing commissions dedicated to sharing the beauty and identity of her beloved North with audiences around the world. Hemsing is frequently featured in concert and film projects by today’s
leading composers, including Alexandre Desplat, Tan Dun, and Anders Hillborg. Her violin is the leading theme throughout the Abbey Road-recorded soundtrack to Netflix’s Frankenstein (2025). She also appears as a featured soloist in the acclaimed Netflix series Bridgerton.
Beyond the concert stage, Hemsing serves in a number of leadership roles. She is Artistic Director of the Oslo Chamber Music Festival, Co-Founder of the Hemsing Festival in her native Valdres mountain region, and head of the Dextra Musica Foundation’s selection jury, overseeing one of the world’s most-prized instrument collections, from which her Stradivarius is generously on loan.
Having represented Norway from an early age on official diplomatic missions and state visits, ranging from Crown-led visits to Asia and the United Nations, Hemsing is committed to public diplomacy and supporting the next generation at home and beyond.
ENRICO LOPEZ-YAÑEZ
Principal Pops Conductor
Devereaux Family Chair
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
INGRID MARTIN Assistant Conductor, Phillip & Lauren Fisher Community Ambassador
WILLIAM DAVIDSON NEIGHBORHOOD CONCERT SERIES
Thursday, April 23, 2026 at 7:30 p.m. at Heinz C. Prechter Educational and Performing Arts Center
Friday, April 24, 2026 at 8 p.m. at Plymouth First United Methodist Church
Saturday, April 25, 2026 at 8 p.m. at Our Lady Star of the Sea Catholic Church
Sunday, April 26, 2026 at 3 p.m. at The Hawk
ROBYN BOLLINGER, leader HAI-XIN WU, violin
Andrea Casarrubios Anthem (b. 1988)
Gioachino Rossini
Sonata No. 3 in C major for String Orchestra (1792–1868) I. Allegro II. Andante
III. Moderato
Ralph Vaughan Williams The Lark Ascending, (1872–1958) Romance for Violin and Orchestra Hai-Xin Wu, violin
Intermission
Franz Schubert
String Quartet No. 14 in D minor, D. 810, (1797–1828) “Death and the Maiden” arr. Gustav Mahler I. Allegro
ed. Matthews and Woods II. Andante con moto
III. Scherzo: Allegro molto
IV. Presto
Andrea Casarrubios’s Anthem opens the program, setting a serious and introspective tone. Written as a personal anthem, this is the soundtrack for the process, and eventual achievement, of letting go—preparing us for Schubert’s “Death and the Maiden” String Quartet at the end. In between, we reflect on Rossini’s life as a young composer, as he was only 12 years old when he composed his third Sonata for String Orchestra. Vaughan Williams’s The Lark Ascending features Assistant Concertmaster Hai-Xin Wu, and the trills and grace notes of his violin emulate the lark, bringing life, freshness, and joy before shifting focus to a more somber scene from Schubert.
Flash photography, extended video recording, tripods, and cameras with detachable lenses are strictly prohibited.
Composed 2022 | Premiered 2022
B. 1988, San Esteban del Valle, Spain
Scored for strings (Approx. 5 minutes)
Of
Anthem, Andrea Casarrubios writes the following:
“Anthem (2022) was originally written for cello quartet, and it was commissioned by the University of Iowa and Anthony Arnone for the 20th Anniversary of Cello Dayz. It is an introspective work conceived as a personal anthem. This music evokes the process and, ultimately, the acceptance of letting go of what is not in my control. I was inspired by the idea of an anthem as a way to provide solace and guidance, and it is my hope that those playing or listening can use this music as a release.”
This performance marks the DSO premiere of Andrea Casarrubios’s Anthem
Composed 1862
B. February 29, 1792, Pesaro, Italy
D. November 13, 1868, Passy, near Paris, France
Scored for string quartet, performed by string orchestra (Approx. 12 minutes)
Gioachino
Rossini was an influential late Classical, early Romantic composer celebrated for his operatic works, of which he composed 39. Rossini became a frontrunner in perfecting the comic opera, but he showed great versatility in his execution of opera seria as well. Long before gaining recognition for his signature wit,
energy, and dramatic flair heard in his most famous operas including L’italiana in Algeri, Il barbiere di Siviglia, La Cenerentola, and Guillaume Tell, Rossini showed great promise.
Rossini began composing at the age of 12. His first published compositions were a set of six string sonatas; the C major sonata being the third in this collection. These were composed when Rossini was spending the summer in Ravenna, Italy during the summer of 1804, living in the home of the amateur double bass enthusiast Agostini Triossi. The presence of the double bass in the home certainly inspired Rossini to explore the capabilities of the stringed instruments for which these sonatas were written. All six sonatas are in three movements, but the C major sonata is an outlier in that it breaks conventional “fast-slow-fast” tempo pattern by ending with a movement marked Moderato.
This performance marks the DSO premiere of Gioachino Rossini’s Sonata No. 3 in C major for String Orchestra.
Composed 1914 | Premiered 1920
B. October 12, 1872, Gloucestershire, England
D. August 29, 1958, London, England
Scored for solo violin, flute, oboe, clarinet, bassoon, triangle, and strings (Approx. 13 minutes)
Birdcalls have been imitated in music by legions of composers at least since the 14th century. Ralph Vaughan Williams’s Romance for Violin and Orchestra, The Lark Ascending, is one of the most famous birdsong pieces from modern times.
The Lark Ascending was composed in 1914, but it sat in Vaughan Williams’s desk throughout World War I until it was performed in 1920. Then, it was revised and performed in the new version by its dedicatee, violinist Marie Hall, who was one of the composer’s students.
Essentially, the piece is a series of rhythmically free solo cadenzas, gently imitating the song of a lark in trills, grace notes, little roulades, and a melodic line that swoops high and low as it suggests the bird’s flight pattern. A small amount of thematic material is inserted in orchestral interludes between the cadenzas, but the soloist hardly touches upon any of it, setting up the tonal image of a free, unhindered bird in contrast to earthbound humans watching it.
The DSO previously performed Vaughan Williams’s The Lark Ascending in February 2021, featuring James Ehnes.
“Death and the Maiden”
Composed 1824 | Premiered 1826
B. January 31, 1797, Vienna, Austria
D. November 19, 1828, Vienna, Austria
Scored for strings (Approx. 40 minutes)
Atthe age of eight, Franz Schubert started to learn the violin from his father, and six years later he was composing for the family string quartet with brothers Ignaz and Ferdinand on violin, Franz on viola, and his father on cello. However, the 11 or so quartets that Schubert wrote between the ages of 14 and 20 are now, like Mozart’s early quartets, rarely played. The exuberant “Trout” piano quintet of 1819 and the surviving first movement of a C minor quartet (“Quartettsatz”) written in 1820 set the scene for the great chamber works of his later years: in 1824, the Octet, the A minor “Rosamunde” quartet and the D minor “Death and the Maiden;”
in 1826 the G major quartet; in 1827 his two piano trios; and in his last year, 1828, the incomparable C major two-cello quintet.
The opening four bars of the D minor quartet set it in a different world from the understated charms of the “Rosamunde” quartet. The hammered out fortissimo triplet figure demands our serious attention but is immediately transformed into an almost apologetically tender pianissimo phrase. After a pause, the tension mounts, driven by the triplets, to a reinforced version of the opening. The repeated notes of the opening bars and their rhythm are echoed in the themes of the other three movements.
The theme for the variations of the G minor Andante comes from Death’s contribution to a short Schubert song of 1817, inviting a terrified young girl to sleep safely in his arms. The quartet version is altogether lighter—a fourth higher, more transparently scored and con moto. The calm of the first two variations is shattered by the brutal dactyls of the third, a more rapid version of the rhythm of the theme; calm returns only to be broken again by the long crescendo of the repeat of the fifth variation to yet more terrifying dactyls. The terror subsides to a serene end, and a Schubert hallmark switch to the major.
The fiercely syncopated energy of the Scherzo and its tranquil Trio lead to the tarantella-form finale. The tarantella folk dance hails from Taranto in southern Italy: a courting couple dance encircled by others as the music gets faster and faster. Taranto independently gave its name to the tarantula spider, the effects of whose allegedly serious bite could, it was thought, be ameliorated by wild dancing. It is quite possible that Schubert intends the allusion to cheating death, but either way this energetic dance with its prestissimo ending provides a rousing climax to the quartet. — Chris Darwin
This performance marks the DSO premiere of Franz Schubert’s String Quartet in D minor.
Concertmaster, Katherine Tuck Chair
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. A sought-after collaborator and recitalist, Bollinger is a popular figure on chamber music stages around the world.
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.” 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.
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 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.
Assistant Concertmaster, Walker L. Cisler/ Detroit Edison Foundation Chair
Violinist Hai-Xin Wu joined the Detroit Symphony Orchestra violin section in July 1995 and was appointed Assistant Concertmaster of the DSO in June 2004. He previously performed throughout the United States, Europe, and his native China.
At the age of 12, Wu was selected as the violin soloist of the Chinese Young Artists group to tour the former Yugoslavia. In May 1995, he made his Carnegie Hall debut in New York City performing Paganini’s Violin Concerto with the New York Concert Senior Orchestra. Wu was also featured as soloist with the Pro Arte Chamber Orchestra for its 25th Anniversary Gala Concert in Alice Tully Hall at Lincoln Center; with the Manhattan Chamber Orchestra on its recording and Midwest tour; and with the Bergen Philharmonic in New Jersey, among others.
Wu has won competitions including the Waldo Mayo Violin Competition, the Friends of Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra Competition, and the Manhattan School of Music Concerto Competition. He also won a special prize in the 2002 Lipizer International Competition. He earned his Bachelor of Music from the Manhattan School of Music as a scholarship student of Ariana Bronne.
In addition to performing with the DSO, Wu often plays with various chamber groups including the Detroit Chamber Winds and Strings and the Cuttime Players. He is currently an adjunct faculty member at Wayne State University and a violin and chamber music coach with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra’s Civic Youth Ensembles program.
ENRICO LOPEZ-YAÑEZ
Principal Pops Conductor
Devereaux Family Chair
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
THE MUSIC OF JOURNEY
Friday, April 24, 2026 at 8 p.m.
Saturday, April 25, 2026 at 8 p.m.
Sunday, April 26, 2026 at 3 p.m. in Orchestra Hall
BRENT HAVENS, conductor
JUAN DEL CASTILLO, vocals
INGRID MARTIN
Assistant Conductor, Phillip & Lauren Fisher Community Ambassador
Flash photography, extended video recording, tripods, and cameras with detachable lenses are strictly prohibited.
Berklee-trainedarranger/conductor
Brent Havens has written music for orchestras, feature films, and virtually every kind of television. His TV work includes movies for networks such as ABC, CBS, and ABC Family Channel Network, commercials, sports music for networks such as ESPN, and even cartoons. Havens has also worked with the Doobie Brothers and the Milwaukee Symphony, arranging and conducting the combined group for Harley Davidson’s 100th Anniversary Birthday Party Finale, attended by over 150,000 fans. A frequent symphonic collaborator, he has worked with some of the world’s greatest orchestras.
Havens is the Arranger/Guest Conductor for all of the symphonic rock programs for Windborne Music.
Del Castillo is a singer-songwriter born and raised in San Diego, California. Del Castillo is a polished, dynamic showman whose passion for performing, natural charisma, and innate ability to completely captivate audiences with his stage presence have led him down a path of artistry and success. A recording artist, formerly on Sony’s BMG US Latin, Del Castillo’s vocal timbre, range, and fierce control have more recently drawn comparisons to former Journey frontman, Steve Perry.
Del Castillo is also the founder and Lead Vocalist for the internationally touring DSB Band tapped by Ryan Seacrest and Mark Cuban’s AXS TV as “The World’s Greatest Journey Tribute Band.”
ENRICO LOPEZ-YAÑEZ
Principal Pops Conductor
Devereaux Family Chair
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
PVS CLASSICAL SERIES
Title Sponsor:
DVOŘÁK’S NEW WORLD SYMPHONY
Thursday, April 30, 2026 at 7:30 p.m.
Friday, May 1, 2026 at 8 p.m.
Saturday, May 2, 2026 at 8 p.m. in Orchestra Hall
JADER BIGNAMINI, conductor PACHO FLORES, trumpet
Alberto Ginastera Variaciones Concertantes (1916–1983)
Tema per Violoncello ed Arpa
Interludio per Corde
INGRID MARTIN
Assistant Conductor, Phillip & Lauren Fisher Community Ambassador
Variazione giocosa per Flauto
Variazione in modo di Scherzo per Clarinetto
Variazione drammatice per Viola
Variazione canonica per Oboe e Fagotto
Variazione ritmica per trombe e trombone
Variazione in modo di Moto perpetuo per Violino
Variazione pastorale per Corno
Interludio per Fiati
Ripresa dal Tema per Contrabasso
Variazione finale in modo di Rondo per Orchestra
Arturo Márquez Concierto de Otoño for Trumpet and Orchestra (b. 1950) Son de luz
Balada de Floripondios
Conga de Flores
Pacho Flores, trumpet
Intermission
Antonín Dvořák Symphony No. 9 in E minor, Op. 95, (1841–1904) “From the New World”
I. Adagio — Allegro molto
II. Largo
III. Molto vivace
IV. Allegro con fuoco
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.
Sounds from Across the New World
Music Director Jader Bignamini takes us on a musical journey through the New World, starting in Argentina with Alberto Ginastera’s Variaciones concertantes. Mexican-born composer Arturo Márquez’s Concierto de Otoño (Autumn Concerto) follows, featuring Pacho Flores as soloist, for whom the piece was written. Continuing north, the program concludes with Dvořák’s “New World” Symphony. Dvořák—a Czech composer—was invited to New York to help establish the American sound. He quickly discovered that Native American music and African American spirituals should be at the heart of America’s developing sonic identity, and he used this discovery to inspire his Ninth Symphony.
Composed 1953 | Premiered 1953
B. April 11, 1916, Buenos Aires, Argentina
D. June 25, 1983, Geneva, Switzerland
Scored for 2 flutes (one doubling on piccolo), oboe, 2 clarinets, bassoon, 2 horns, trumpet, trombone, timpani, harp, and strings. (Approx. 23 minutes)
Concertantes, Alberto Ginastera wrote the following:
“These variations have a subjective Argentine character. Instead of using folkloristic material, I try to achieve an Argentine atmosphere through the employment of my own thematic and rhythmic elements. The work begins with an original theme followed by eleven variations, each one reflecting the distinctive character of the instrument featured. All the instruments of the orchestra are treated soloistically. Some variations belong to the decorative, ornamental or elaborative type, others are written in the contemporary manner of metamorphosis, which consists of taking elements of the main theme and evolving from it new material.”
The DSO most recently performed Alberto Ginastera’s Variaciones Concertantes in April 2021, conducted by Asher Fisch. The DSO first performed this work in July 1971, conducted by Sixten Ehrling.
Composed 2018 | Premiered 2018
B. December 20, 1950, Álamos, Sonora, Mexico
Scored for solo trumpet, 2 flutes (one doubling on piccolo), 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, bassoon, 4 horns, 2 trumpets, 3 trombones, tuba, timpani, percussion, and strings. (Approx. 20 minutes)
Arturo Márquez was born in Alamos, Sonora, Mexico in 1950. He began his musical training in La Puente, California in 1966, later studying piano and music theory at the Conservatory of Music of Mexico and composition at the Taller de Composición of the Institute of Fine Arts of Mexico with such composers as Joaquín Gutiérrez Heras, Hector Quintanar, and Federico Ibarra. He also studied in Paris privately with Jacques Castérède, and at the California Institute of the Arts with Morton Subotnick, Stephen Mosko, Mel Powell, and James Newton.
About the Concierto de Otoño Márquez’s writes the following: “The trumpet is queen in the soul of Mexico; we find it in practically all popular musical expressions, it is the Mexican cry of joy and sadness. It is also fundamental in Latin American concert music and my Concierto de Otoño is a compilation of all these feelings, colors, and sorrows.”
This performance marks the DSO premiere of Arturo Márquez’s Concierto de Otoño
Composed 1893 | Premiered December 16, 1893
B. September 8, 1841, Nelahozeves, Czech Republic
D. May 1, 1904, Prague, Czech Republic
Scored for 2 flutes (one doubling on piccolo), 2 oboes (one doubling on English horn), 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 4 horns, 2 trumpets, 3 trombones, tuba, timpani, percussion, and strings. (Approx. 40 minutes)
Dvořák’s interest in folk music wound itself through the composer’s entire career, beginning with works inspired and informed by the traditions of his native Bohemia. By 1893, Dvořák’s interest had turned to the other side of the Atlantic—and focused on the ethnic music of Native Americans and African Americans. His understanding of these musical traditions was rather clunky, but the resulting piece of music is now one of his best-known and most well-liked.
Though Dvořák claims that no specific melodies were lifted from Native American or African American songs in composing
the symphony, at least one element of the work is very easy to trace: the celebrated English horn solo in the slow movement, which is consistently likened to an African American spiritual. Meanwhile, a literary source informs ideas in the middle movements—Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s epic poem The Song of Hiawatha.
Overall, the symphony sees Dvořák taking up certain formal experiments that had been developing in symphonic form since the time of Beethoven. In the “New World,” Dvořák interrupts the peaceful mood of the Largo movement with an interjection of the main broken-chord theme of the first movement. And instead of developing the themes of the last movement, he combines and re-works the themes of the first three movements in the central development section of the last.
The DSO most recently performed Dvořák’s “From the New World” Symphony in January 2023, conducted by Lidiya Yankovskaya. The DSO first performed the work at a “demonstration concert” for potential financial backers in February 1914, the year the orchestra was reconstituted after four years of inactivity. That performance was conducted by Weston Gales.
For Jader Bignamini’s biography, see page 6.
Venezuelan trumpeter
Pacho Flores is a First Prize Winner at the Maurice André International Trumpet Competition, Philip Jones International Competition, and the Cittá di Porcia International contest. His most recent recording for Deutsche Grammophon, Estirpe (2022), was nominated in three categories at the Latin Grammy Awards 2023, and his performance of Paquito D’Rivera’s Concerto Venezolano was awarded Best Classical Composition.
Flores made his Hollywood Bowl
debut in 2023 with the Los Angeles Philharmonic and Gustavo Dudamel, performing Arturo Márquez’s Concierto de Otoño following his season-long residency with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic and Chief Conductor Domingo Hindoyan.
In summer 2025, Flores made his debut at the BBC Proms with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Hindoyan. Further highlights in the 2025–26 season include performances with the Los Angeles Philharmonic at the Hollywood Bowl (Gemma New), Atlanta Symphony Orchestra (Giancarlo Guerrero), and Philharmonia (Rafael Payare), and tours with the Orchestre national d’Île-de-France (Dina Gilbert) and Sinfónica de Minería (Carlos Miguel Prieto).
ENRICO LOPEZ-YAÑEZ
Principal Pops Conductor
Devereaux Family Chair
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
Title Sponsor:
Saturday, May 9, 2026 at 8 p.m.
Sunday, May 10, 2026 at 3 p.m. in Orchestra Hall
INGRID MARTIN
Assistant Conductor, Phillip & Lauren Fisher Community Ambassador
Gustav Mahler Symphony No. 9 in D major (1860–1911) I. Andante comodo II. Im Tempo eines gemächlichen Ländlers
III. Rondo - Burleske
IV. Adagio
Conductor Herbert Blomstedt returns to Orchestra Hall for the first time since 1985 to lead the DSO in a poignant performance of Mahler’s Ninth Symphony. At 98 years old, Blomstedt’s illustrious career as a conductor is unprecedented, with over 70 years of experience on the podium. Mahler’s Ninth Symphony is widely known as the composer’s profound farewell to life. This final completed symphony was written as Mahler faced mortality—that of his daughter who had just passed, and that of himself as he grappled with a diagnosis of a fatal heart condition. The symphony explores the extremes of human emotion, coming to an intimate, gradual dissolve.
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.
Composed 1909 | Premiered June 26, 1912
B. July 7, 1860, Iglau, Bohemia D. May 18, 1911, Vienna, Austria
Scored for 4 flutes, piccolo, 4 oboes (one doubling English horn, 3 clarinets, bass clarinet, E-flat clarinet, 4 bassoons (one doubling contrabassoon), 4 horns, 3 trumpets, 3 trombones, tuba, 2 timpani, percussion, harp, and strings. (Approx. 87 minutes)
AsLeonard Bernstein famously noted, “The Ninth is the ultimate farewell…the closest we have ever come, in any work of art, to experiencing the very act of dying, of giving it all up.”
The first movement is ripe with romantic nostalgia. The opening rhythm, presented by cellos and a horn repeatedly intoning the same pitch, returns during crucial structural moments in the movement including its climax. This rhythm has been likened to
Noble,
charming, sober, modest. Such qualities may play a major role in human coexistence and are certainly appreciated. However, they are rather atypical for extraordinary personalities such as conductors. Whatever the general public’s notion of a conductor may be, Herbert Blomstedt is an exception, precisely because he possesses those very qualities which seemingly have so little to do with a conductor’s claim to power. His work as a conductor is inseparably linked to his religious and human ethos, and his interpretations combine great faithfulness to the score and analytical precision, with a soulfulness that awakens the music to
the irregular beating of a diseased heart and, thus, to Mahler’s own heart condition.
The second movement begins with a deliberate, jocular theme. Soon, however, it takes on the flavor of a dance of death with angular leaps, unexpected tempo changes, and complex textural combinations. The ensuing “Rondo-Burleske” offers a wide range of moods and ideas, including popular and folk-like musical gestures.
The final adagio opens with a hymn-like unison theme on the violin, recalling the lush musical language of both Bruckner and Wagner. The movement gradually disintegrates, seemingly resisting death and foregoing traditional bombast for reserved acquiescence. The music continues to evaporate, dying away until only the performers’ breath remains. — Michael Mauskapf
The DSO most recently performed Mahler’s Ninth Symphony in May 2024, conducted by Jader Bignamini. The DSO first performed this symphony in December 1969, conducted by Alexander Gibson.
pulsating life. In the more than 70 years of his career, he has acquired the unrestricted respect of the musical world.
Born in the US to Swedish parents and educated in Uppsala, New York, Darmstadt, and Basel, Blomstedt made his conducting debut in 1954 with the Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra and subsequently served as Chief Conductor of the Oslo Philharmonic, the Swedish and Danish radio orchestras, and the Staatskapelle Dresden. Later, he became Music Director of the San Francisco Symphony, Chief Conductor of the NDR Symphony Orchestra, and Music Director of the Gewandhaus Orchestra Leipzig.
At the high age of 98, he continues to be at the helm of all leading international orchestras with enormous presence, verve, and artistic drive.
ENRICO LOPEZ-YAÑEZ
Principal Pops Conductor
Devereaux Family Chair
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
Title Sponsor:
Thursday, May 14, 2026 at 7:30 p.m.
Friday, May 15, 2026 at 10:45 a.m.
Saturday, May 16, 2026 at 8 p.m. in Orchestra Hall
Stacy Garrop Spectacle of Light (b. 1969)
INGRID MARTIN
Assistant Conductor, Phillip & Lauren Fisher Community Ambassador
George Frideric Handel Music for the Royal Fireworks (1685–1759) I. Overture
II. Bourrée
III. La Paix
VI. La Réjouissance
V. Menuet I
VI. Menuet II
Intermission
Johann Sebastian Bach Brandenburg Concerto No. 3 in G major, (1685–1750) BWV 1048 (Allegro) Adagio Allegro
Franz Joseph Haydn Symphony No. 104 in D major, “London” (1732–1809) I. Adagio - Allegro
II. Andante
III. Menuet: Allegro
IV. Spiritoso
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.
Stacy Garrop’s Spectacle of Light opens the program, which musically depicts the experience of a fireworks show, beginning as one watches the sky in anticipation. Garrop was inspired by an artist’s etching of the same fireworks show that Handel’s Music for the Royal Fireworks accompanied in 1749. The DSO continues to dazzle with Bach’s Brandenburg Concerto No. 3. These quintessentially Baroque works prepare us for Haydn’s No. 104 in D major, “London.” Composed later in his life, this is Haydn’s final symphony—a culmination of his compositional prowess concerning counterpoint and melody.
Composed 2020
B. 1969
Scored for flute, piccolo, 2 oboes, 2 bassoons, 2 horns, 2 trumpets, harp, and strings. (Approx. 6 minutes)
OfSpectacle of Light, Stacy Garrop writes the following:
“When Music of the Baroque commissioned me to compose a piece in honor of their 50th anniversary season, I was delighted that my new piece would premiere on a concert entitled Baroque Fireworks. But what aspect of Baroque fireworks should I explore? I found the answer on Music of the Baroque’s website. In perusing the webpage for the Baroque Fireworks concert, I was mesmerized by the page’s backdrop image, which looked to be a handdrawn picture of a fireworks show. A little research uncovered that the image is an etching of a 1749 fireworks spectacle that took place on the River Thames in honor of Great Britain’s King George II. The king had signed the 1748 treaty at Aix-la-Chapelle that officially ended the War of Austrian Succession, and as was typical in this era, he wanted to celebrate with a grand show of music and fireworks. This is the very same event for which George Frideric Handel wrote Music for the Royal Fireworks I was intrigued by the manner in which the etching’s artist represented the path of each individual firework, starting with an
upward trajectory of a golden streak of light that inevitably bends and falls back towards the earth, blooming into glittering specks before flickering out. This inspired me to find other depictions and etchings of Baroque fireworks, as well as to view numerous modern-day fireworks shows on YouTube to study how they rise, bloom, and overlap with each other to create a rich, complex, and fleeting tapestry of color. I realized that fireworks and music share an ephemeral nature: they both delight our senses before fading into memory.
Ultimately, I decided that Spectacle of Light would represent the experience of a fireworks show. The music starts with great anticipation as the crowd waits in darkness, then a single firework illuminates the sky, followed by a massive eruption of light, color, and sound. After this initial frenzied burst, the fireworks quiet down into a slower-paced, mesmerizing display of colors before building to a big, fiery ending. As a tip of the hat to Music of the Baroque, I worked a few salient elements of the baroque style into my own musical language, as well as found a few choice spots to add a few subtle hints of Handel’s Music for the Royal Fireworks.”
This performance marks the DSO premiere of Stacy Garrop’s Spectacle of Light.
Composed 1749 | Premiered 1749
B. February 23, 1685, Halle, Germany
D. April 14, 1759, London, England
Scored for 3 oboes, 2 bassoons, contrabassoon, 3 horns, 3 trumpets, timpani, continuo, and strings. (Approx. 26 minutes)
Tocelebrate the signing of the Treaty of Aix-laChapelle—which ended the War of Austrian Succession between France on one side and Austria, the Dutch Republic, and England on the other—King George II commissioned a musical accompaniment by Handel for a triumphal fireworks display. Sketched to include strings, the work was changed into a wind work at the last moment as Handel complied with a request from the king to feature only “war-like” instruments. The premiere turned into a fiasco. Even with steady rain, the right pavilion of the “fireworks machine,” an elaborately decorated Dorian temple 410 feet long and 114 feet high made entirely of wood, caught fire and burned to the ground as the music played. An earlier public “rehearsal” organized to relieve the tension caused by huge crowds gawking at the wooden construction was performed by 100 musicians before an audience of 12,000 and was an unqualified success. A month later, Handel restored the strings to his score for a performance to benefit his favorite charity, the Foundling Hospital.
Following an ear-catching timpani roll, the characteristic long-short dotted rhythms of the French Overture’s opening section sound in the trumpets. About two minutes into the piece, an ornamented cadence sets up the lively contrasting section in triple meter. Featuring not the expected fugato but driving trumpet calls and lyrical responses from the horns and strings, the B section may depict a battle. The remaining four movements continue the alternation of duple and triple time set up by the contrasting sections of the
overture. The Bourrée is a quick and light duple meter French folk dance. La paix (peace) is a flowing, triple meter minuet with delicate writing for stings and reeds. La réjouissance (rejoicing) is a duple meter celebration featuring the clarion calls of trumpets. Two elegant triple meter minuets finish the work.
The DSO most recently performed Handel’s Music for the Royal Fireworks in November 2006, conducted by Thomas Wilkins. The DSO first performed this work in January 1961, conducted by Werner Torkanowsky.
B. March 21, 1865, Eisenach, Germany
D. July 28, 1750, Leipzig, Germany
Scored for continuo and strings. (Approx. 10 minutes)
Bachlearned the art of concerto by transcribing the works of others. Vivaldi was his model, and during Bach’s youth, he arranged several of Vivaldi’s string concertos for organ and harpsichord.
So equipped, Bach was ready to compose concertos of his own, the first notable batch of which goes today under the name Brandenburg Concertos. The title is not Bach’s own: In his handwritten dedication to the Margrave of Brandenburg, he called them concertos avec plusieurs instruments concertos for several instruments. Each has a strikingly different instrumentation, designed to show off the players of the Margrave’s court orchestra, and the traveling virtuosi who frequently called there.
The third does not follow the model of Vivaldi’s solo concertos, but of his chamber or orchestral concertos, in which instruments within the ensemble vie with one another. The sound, with nine obbligato string parts, is old-fashioned, but the figuration and the rhythmic impulse are thoroughly modern.
The DSO previously performed Bach’s Brandenburg Concerto No. 3 in January 2013.
Composed 1795 | Premiered 1795
B. March 31, 1732, Rohrau, Austria
D. May 21, 1809, Vienna, Austria
Scored for 2 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 2 horns, 2 trumpets, timpani, and strings. (Approx. 29 minutes)
Following the death of his long-time patron Prince Nicolaus Esterházy in 1790, Haydn had access to an unprecedented level of freedom with his compositions. Londoner Johann Peter Salomon came along soon after the passing to offer Haydn an opportunity, along with a large sum of money, to compose six new works for a tour of England, which would take place in 1791–92.
Haydn accepted the offer, which also included a much larger orchestra than he ever had at his disposal. An experimental composer by nature, he thrived on his new
British con-
ductor Jane Glover, named Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire in the 2021 New Year’s Honours, has served as Music Director of Music of the Baroque since 2002, and Principal Guest Conductor of the Fort Worth Symphony since 2025.
Glover has conducted all the major symphony and chamber orchestras in Britain, as well as orchestras in Europe, the United States, Asia, and Australia. She has worked with the period-instrument orchestras Philharmonia Baroque, and the Handel and Haydn Society, and she has made frequent appearances at the BBC Proms.
In demand on the international opera stage, Glover has appeared with numerous
ability to play with new orchestral effects, which led to the six works he wrote for his second residency in London from 1794–95, with Symphony No. 104 being his last.
The first movement, which is in sonata form, opens with a slow and dramatic introduction that is one of the most intensely personal statements in all of Haydn’s work. The darkness, however, gives way to a cheerful main theme, which dances across the orchestra. A peaceful second movement contains innocence and grace with formal clarity. Given the grand treatment by Haydn, the minuet is powerfully bold and majestic with a strikingly tender trio section punctuated by oboe and bassoon.
The finale, which fittingly returns Haydn to his great love of folk music, draws from a Croatian ballad called Oj, Jelena, which the composer may have heard sung within the Croatian colony when he lived in Eisenstadt.
The DSO most recently performed Haydn’s Symphony No. 104 “London” in May 2021, conducted by Jader Bignamini. The DSO first performed this symphony in November 1921, conducted by Ossip Gabrilowitsch.
companies including The Metropolitan Opera, Royal Opera, Covent Garden, English National Opera, and others.
Glover’s discography includes a series of Mozart and Haydn symphonies with the London Mozart Players and various recordings with the London Philharmonic, the Royal Philharmonic, Trinity, Wall Street, and the BBC Singers. She is the author of the critically acclaimed books Mozart’s Women and Handel in London, and recently published Mozart in Italy. She holds a personal professorship at the University of London, is a Fellow of the Royal College of Music, an Honorary Member of the Royal Academy of Music, and the holder of several honorary degrees. In 2020, she was awarded the Royal Philharmonic Society’s Gamechanger Award for her work in breaking new ground for other female conductors.
ENRICO LOPEZ-YAÑEZ
Principal Pops Conductor
Devereaux Family Chair
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
Made possible with support from:
INGRID MARTIN
Assistant Conductor, Phillip & Lauren Fisher Community Ambassador
PARADISE JAZZ SERIES: ARTURO SANDOVAL
Friday, May 15, 2026 at 8 p.m. in Orchestra Hall
ARTURO SANDOVAL, trumpet
Selections to be announced from the stage.
A Living Legend
Arturo Sandoval is a Cuban-born trumpeter and composer who has made a name for himself as one of the most dynamic, virtuosic, and decorated jazz trumpet players of all time. A musician from humble beginnings, Sandoval began teaching himself the trumpet at age 12. He met his hero Dizzy Gillespie, who was immediately impressed by Sandoval’s potential and took him under his wing. Inspired by Gillespie—the first trumpeter to combine Afro-Cuban rhythms and bebop jazz—Sandoval’s signature sound is profoundly versatile. His exhilarating stage presence has captivated and inspired millions throughout his career. His influence has reached far beyond the stage, transforming lives as an author, educator, and philanthropist.
Aprotégé of the legendary Dizzy Gillespie, Arturo Sandoval was born in Artemisa, Cuba on November 6, 1949—just two years after Gillespie first introduced Latin influences into American jazz. From humble beginnings, Sandoval began studying classical trumpet at 12, but it wasn’t long before the fire of jazz took hold. Today, he stands as one of the most brilliant and multifaceted musicians of our time: a virtuoso of trumpet and flugelhorn, a masterful pianist, timbalero, and composer, and a fearless innovator whose artistry has captivated millions around the globe. Sandoval is renowned as one of the most dynamic performers alive. He has lit up the stage at the Oscars, the GRAMMY
Awards®, and the Billboard Awards, dazzling audiences with both breathtaking technique and sheer joy. The accolades match the legend: 10 GRAMMY Awards® (19 nominations), 6 Billboard Awards, and an Emmy Award for composing the acclaimed underscore to HBO’s For Love or Country starring Andy Garcia. Widely recognized as one of the greatest trumpet players in history, Sandoval’s astonishing range, agility, and control allow him to execute the most intricate passages with power and emotion. His unique gift lies in his ability to seamlessly blend jazz, classical, and Latin traditions, creating a voice that is unmistakably his own. Beyond performance, he is a prolific composer, arranger, and educator, inspiring generations of musicians with his passion and dedication.
Gifts received between September 1, 2024, and February 15, 2026.
The DSO is a proud, community-supported orchestra. Whether enjoying world-class performances in Orchestra Hall, picking up an instrument for the first time, or experiencing unforgettable music experiences in their own neighborhoods, your gift can transform lives and ignite imaginations across Detroit, Southeast Michigan, and beyond. 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 unforgettable musical 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, 2024, and February 15, 2026. 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
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David & Valerie McCammon
LeFevre Family
Bud & Nancy Liebler
Mr. & Mrs. Eugene A. Miller
Xavier & Maeva Mosquet
Sammy & David Nicholson
Ms. Ruth Rattner ◊
Mr. Jerome Salesin
Laura & Jimmy Sherman
Mr. & Mrs. Larry Sherman
Mr. & Mrs. Gary Torgow
Barbara & Steve Tronstein
Peter & Carol Walters
Mr.◊ & Mrs. Jonathan T. Walton
S. Evan & Gwen Weiner
Wolverine Packing Company
And one who wishes to remain anonymous
Dr. Lourdes V. Andaya
Janet & Norman Ankers
Pamela Applebaum
Drs. Brian & Elizabeth Bachynski
Ms. Therese Bellaimey
Drs. John ◊ & Janice Bernick
Bill & Caitlin Beuche
Dr. George & Joyce Blum
Elena Bogliani & Pietro Gorlier
Ms. Kristin Bolitho
Gwen & Richard Bowlby
Sara Braverman
Robert N.◊ & Claire P. Brown
Michael & Geraldine Buckles
Sandra & Paul Butler
Ms. Elena Centeio & Tony R. Smith
Thomas W. Cook & Marie L. Masters
Ms. Elizabeth Correa
Mr. Kevin S. Dennis & Mr. Jeremy J. Zeltzer
Mr. & Mrs. Richard L. DeVore
Adel & Walter Dissett
Mr. Charles L. Dunlap & Mr. Lee V. Hart
Margie Dunn & Mark Davidoff
Dr. & Mrs. A. Bradley Eisenbrey
Randall & Jill* Elder
Margo & Jim Farber
Sally & Michael Feder
Amanda Fisher & Ben Hubert
Dr. Saul & Mrs. Helen Forman
Barbara Frankel◊ & Ronald Michalak
Lynn & Bharat Gandhi
Keith & Eileen Gifford
Girolami Family Charitable Trust
Mrs. Denise Abrash
Richard & Jiehan Alonzo
Dr. & Mrs. Joel Appel
Drs. Kwabena & Jacqueline Appiah
Pauline Averbach & Charles Peacock
Mrs. Jean Azar
Ms. Elizabeth Baergen
Ms. Ruth Baidas
Dr. David S. Balle
James A. Bannan
Mr. Mark G. Bartnik & Ms. Sandra J. Collins
Joseph Addison Bartush
W. Harold & Chacona W. Baugh
Mr. & Mrs. Martin S. Baum
Mr. & Mrs. Richard Beaubien
Mr. William Beluzo
Hadas & Dennis Bernard
Mr. & Mrs. Jeffrey A. Berner
Mr. Michael G. Bickers
Nancy & Lawrence Bluth
Mr.◊ & Mrs. James A. Green
Mr. & Mrs. Darby Hadley
Mr. & Mrs. Robert Hage
Judy ◊ & Kenneth Hale
Mr. Sanford Hansell◊ & Dr. Raina Ernstoff
Ms. Lori Harbour
Michael E. Hinsky & Tyrus N. Curtis
Mr.◊ & Mrs. Norman H. Hofley
Mr. & Mrs. Peter Hollinshead
Mr. Matthew Howell & Mrs. Julie Wagner
Ms. Carole Ilitch
Mr. and Mrs. Sharad P. Jain
Mr. & Mrs. Richard J. Jessup
Lenard & Connie Johnston
Paul & Marietta Joliat
Betsy & Joel Kellman
Dr. David & Mrs. Elizabeth Kessel
Mr. & Mrs. Kosch
Robert & Laurie Kunz
Drs. Lisa & Scott Langenburg
Mr. & Mrs. Joseph Lile ◊
Dana Locniskar & Christine Beck
Mrs. Sandra MacLeod
Dr. Stephen & Paulette Mancuso
Ms. Deborah Miesel
Dr. Robert & Dr. Mary Mobley
Cyril Moscow ◊
Geoffrey S. Nathan & Margaret E. Winters ◊
Mr. & Mrs. Albert T. Nelson, Jr.
Eric & Paula Nemeth
Jim & Mary Beth Nicholson
Patricia & Henry Nickol◊
Gloria & Stanley Nycek
Timothy J. Bogan
Ms. Debra Bonde
Ms. Nadia Boreiko
The Honorable Susan D. Borman & Mr. Stuart Michaelson
Mr. Anthony F. Brinkman
Dr. Robert Burgoyne & Tova Shaban
Ms. Kathy Burkhart
Dr. & Mrs. Roger C. Byrd
Richard Caldarazzo & Eileen Weiser
Philip & Carol Campbell◊
Steve & Geri Carlson
Mrs. Carolyn Carr
Mr.◊ & Mrs. François Castaing
Mrs. Patricia Cencek
Dr. Carol S. Chadwick & Mr. H. Taylor
Burleson
Ronald ◊ & Lynda Charfoos
The Cheresko Family Foundation
Dr. Betty Chu & Mr. Navot Shoresh
George & Jo Elyn Nyman
Debra & Richard Partrich
Mrs. Anna M. Ptasznik
Kathryn & Roger Penske
Dr. Glenda D. Price
Dr. & Mrs. John Roberts
Dr. Erik Rönmark* & Mrs. Adrienne Rönmark*
Mr. Ronald Ross & Ms. Alice Brody
Martie & Bob Sachs
Peggy & Dr. Mark B. Saffer
Sandy Schreier
Elaine & Michael Serling
Carlo & Nicole Serraiocco
Lois & Mark Shaevsky
Mr. Norman Silk & Mr. Dale Morgan
Dean P. & D. Giles Simmer
Mr. Steven Smith
Dr. Doris Tong & Dr. Teck M. Soo
Mrs. Kathleen Straus & Mr. Walter Shapero
Mr. & Mrs. John Stroh III
Emily & Paul Tobias
Mr. James G. Vella
Mr. & Mrs. R. Jamison Williams
Ms. Mary Wilson
Lucia Zamorano, M.D.
And three who wish to remain anonymous
Mr. Fred J. Chynchuk
Dr. & Mrs. Charles G. Colombo
Mr. & Mrs. Brian G. Connors
Dr. & Mrs. Bryan & Phyllis Cornwall
Patricia & William ◊ Cosgrove, Sr.
Mr.◊ & Mrs. Gary L. Cowger
Mr. & Mrs. Matthew P. Cullen
Phyllis & Kevin Cullen
Dr. Edward & Mrs. Jamie Dabrowski
Deborah & Stephen D’Arcy Fund
Maureen T. D’Avanzo
Lillian & Walter Dean
Ms. Jane Deng
Nina Dodge Abrams
Dr. Anibal & Vilma Drelichman
Elaine C. Driker
Ms. Ruby Duffield
Mrs. Connie Dugger
Edwin & Rosemarie ◊ Dyer
Mr. Lawrence Ellenbogen
Ms. Laurie Ellias & Mr. James Murphy
Ms. Emily Elmer & Mr. Andrew Lerma
Mr. & Mrs. John M. Erb
Fieldman Family Foundation
Hon. Sharon Tevis Finch
John & Karen Fischer
Ms. Joanne Fisher
Dorothy A. & Larry L. Fobes
Amy & Robert Folberg
Mr. & Mrs. Calvin Ford
Ms. Linda Forte & Mr. Tyrone Davenport
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
Dr. & Mrs. Theodore Golden
Ms. Jacqueline Graham
Dr. Herman & Mrs. Shirley Mann Gray
Ms. Chris Gropp
Leslie Groves & Joseph Kochanek
Sharon Lopo Hadden
Ms. Gail Haines
Robert & Elizabeth Hamel
Thomas & Kathleen Harmon
Cheryl A. Harvey
Ms. Barbara Heller
Eric Hespenheide & Judith Hicks
Mr. Donald & Marcia Hiruo
James Hoogstra & Clark Heath
Dr. Karen Hrapkiewicz
William Hulsker & Aris Urbanes
Larry & Connie Hutchinson
Jane Iacobelli
Mr. & Mrs. A. E. Igleheart
Dr. Raymond E. Jackson & Dr. Kathleen Murphy
Mr. John S. Johns
Mr. George G. Johnson
Paul & Karen Johnson
Carol & Rick Johnston
Connie & Bill Jordan
Mr. & Mrs. Steven Kalkanis
Diane ◊ & John Kaplan
Judy & David Karp
Mike & Katy Keegan
Mrs. Frances King
Mr. & Mrs. Joel Adelman
William Aerni & Janet Frazis
Mr. Juan Alvarez
Mr. & Mrs. Robert L. Anthony
Drs. Richard & Helena Balon
Mr. Thomas Basile
Richard K. Baumgarten & Cheryl A. Wesen
Robyn Bollinger* & Dane Lighthart*
Rud ◊ & Mary Ellen Boucher
Don & Marilyn Bowerman
Sharon & Lance Boylan
Mrs. Janice King ◊
Dr. & Mrs. Edward L. Klarman
Mr. & Mrs. Ludvik F. Koci
Dr. Sandy Koltonow & Dr. Mary Schlaff
Ms. Susan Deutch Konop
Douglas Korney & Marieta Bautista
James Kors & Victoria King
Barbara & Michael◊ Kratchman
Mrs. Maria E. Kuznia
Robert & Elizabeth LaBelle
Dr. & Mrs. Gerald Laker
Mr. David Lalain & Ms. Deniella OrtizLalain
Dr. Raymond Landes & Dr. Melissa McBrien-Landes
Bill & Kathleen Langhorst
Ms. Sandra Lapadot
Dr. Lawrence O. Larson
Mr. & Mrs. Scott Leemaster
Max Lepler & Rex L. Dotson
Mr. & Mrs. Robert K. Leverenz
Drs. Donald & Diane Levine
Mr. & Mrs. Richard Lewnau
Mr. & Mrs. Eugene LoVasco
Mr. John Lovegren & Mr. Daniel Isenschmid
Bob & Terri Lutz
Daniel & Linda Lutz
Mr. & Mrs. Winom J. Mahoney
Cis Maisel
Mr. Sean Maloney & Mrs. Laura PepplerMaloney
Maurice Marshall
Mr. Anthony Roy McCree
Patricia A.◊ & Patrick G. McKeever
Dr. & Mrs. David Mendelson
Lynn & Randall Miller
Dr. Susan & Mr. Stephen* Molina
Dr. Van C. Momon, Jr. & Dr. Pamela Berry
Mr. & Mrs. Daniel E. Moore
Ms. Jennifer Muse
Mr. Tony Osentoski & Mr. David Ogloza
Ms. Jacqueline Paige & Mr. David Fischer
Randy & Betty Paquette
Valerie & Boris Pasche
Mark Pasik & Julie Sosnowski
Peter & Carrie Perlman
Mr. David Phipps & Ms. Mary Buzard
William H. & Wendy W. Powers
Charlene & Michael Prysak
Drs. Stuart & Hilary Ratner
Drs. Yaddanapudi Ravindranath & Kanta Bhambhani
Mr. & Mrs. Dave Redfield
Mr. & Mrs. Gerrit Reepmeyer
Drs. Heather & Erich Richter
Mr. & Mrs. Jon Rigoni
Ms. Patricia Rodzik
Michael & Susan Rontal
Mr. Wm. Christopher Sachs
Mr. David Salisbury & Mrs. Terese Ireland Salisbury
Marjorie Shuman Saulson
Ms. Martha A. Scharchburg & Mr. Bruce Beyer
Mr. & Mrs. Donald & Janet Schenk
Shirley Anne & Alan Schlang
Joe & Ashley Schotthoefer
Mrs. Rosalind B. Sell
Shapero Foundation
Robert & Patricia Shaw
Mr. Martin Sher*
Shiv Shivaraman
Mr. & Mrs. Matthew Simoncini
William & Cherie Sirois
Michael E. Smerza & Nancy Keppelman
Mr. Michael J. Smith & Mrs. Mary C. Williams
Ms. Susan Smith
John Solecki
Peter & Patricia Steffes
Dr. Gregory Stephens
Mr. JT Stout
Mr. & Mrs.◊ John Streit
Mr. and Mrs. David T. Strong
David Szymborski & Marilyn Sicklesteel
Joel & Shelley Tauber
Dr. & Mrs. Howard Terebelo
Dr. Barry Tigay
Alice ◊ & Paul Tomboulian
Yoni & Rachel Torgow
Tom & Laura Trudeau
Charles ◊ & Sally Van Dusen
Mrs. Eva von Voss
Mr. William Waak
Mr. Michael Walch & Ms. Joyce Keller
Richard P. Walter & Carol A. Walter
Mrs. Judith Weiner
Beverly & Barry Williams
Dr. & Mrs. Ned Winkelman
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
Mr. Mark R. Buchanan
Jason Bucholz & Lee Kirtley
Mr. Andrew Christians
Mrs. Andrea Clark
Dr. & Mrs. Robert Clark
Mr. William Cole & Mrs. Carol Litka Cole
Catherine Compton
Mr. & Mrs. David Conrad
Ms. Joy Crawford* & Mr. Richard Aude
Mrs. Barbara Cunningham
Ms. Joyce Delamarter
Michelle Devine & Brian Mahany
Cathy & James Deutchman
Donald Dietz & Cara Dietz
Dr. & Mrs. Thomas Ditkoff
Ms. Marla Donovan
Mr. & Mrs. Walter E. Douglas
Paul◊ & Peggy Dufault
Mr. Jay Fishman
Ms. Laurie Frankel
Frances Franklin
Mr. George Georges
Stephanie Germack
Thomas M. Gervasi
Mr. Joseph & Mrs. Lois Gilmore
Dr. Kenneth ◊ & Roslyne Gitlin
Ms. Jody Glancy
Judie Goodman & Kurt Vilders
Dr. William & Mrs. Antoinette Govier
Dr. Darla Granger & Mr. Luke Ponder
Diane & Saul Green
Dr. Robert Greenberger
Anne & Eugene Greenstein
Dr. & Mrs. Razmig Haladjian
Dr. Susan Harold
Mr. & Mrs. Robert Holcomb
Jean Hudson
Sally Ingold
Carolyn & Howard Iwrey
Mr. & Ms. Charles Jacobowitz
Erica E. Peresman & David B. Jaffe
Lucy & Alexander* Kapordelis
Ron Fischer ◊ & Kyoko Kashiwagi
Carole Keller
Bernard & Nina Kent Philanthropic Fund
John Kim & Sabrina Hiedemann
Mr. & Mrs. Norman R. King
Aileen & Harvey Kleiman
Tom ◊ & Beverly Klimko
Mr. & Mrs. Robert Koffron
Mr. Michael Kuhne
Deborah Lamm
Ms. Anne T. Larin
Marguerite & David Lentz
Arlene & John Lewis
GIVING OF $1,500 & MORE
Jacqueline D. Adams
Mrs. Lynn E. Adams
Ms. Aimee Anderson
Dr. & Mrs. Gary S. Assarian
Mr. & Mrs. William C. Babbage
Dr. Jeffrey D. Band & Mrs. Meredith Weston-Band
Ms. Mary Anne Barczac
Mr. & Mrs. David W. Berry
Mr. & Mrs. John Bishop
Ms. Terry Book
Mr. Larry Brown & Mrs. Marilynn Silberman
Mr. & Mrs. Richard Burstein
Ms. Paula Cole
Mr. & Mrs. David Colman
Carol & Kevin Conrad
Douglas & Minka Cornelsen
Gordon & Elaine Didier
Diana & Mark Domin
Mr. Howard O. Emorey
Burke & Carol Fossee
Mr. Allan D. Gilmour & Mr. Eric C. Jirgens
Mr. Paul Glantz
Mr. Steven Goldberg
Mr. & Mrs. Matthew Goodman
Mr. Henry Grix & Mr. Howard Israel
Dale & Jeannette Lewis
Mr. Steven L. Lipton
David & Clare Loebl
Dr. Stephen Lu
Mr. & Mrs. Charles W. Manke, Jr.
Barbara J. Martin
Cheryl & Chris Mazzoli
Dr. & Mrs. Peter M. McCann, M.D.
Ms. Mary McGough
Ms. Kristen McLennan
Steve & Brenda Mihalik
H. Keith Mobley ◊
Eugene & Sheila Mondry Foundation
Ms. Sandra Morrison
Mr. Frederick Morsches & Mr. Kareem
George
Megan Norris & Howard Matthew
Mr. & Mrs. Arthur T. O’Reilly
Ken & Geralyn Papa
Priscilla & Huel Perkins
Ms. Alice Pfahlert
Mr. Steven Read
Mr. & Mrs. William A. Reed
James E. & Kimberly A. Reinert
Dr. Claude & Mrs. Sandra Reitelman
Denise Reske
Mr. & Mrs. John Rieckhoff
Ms. Marilyn Rodzik
Mr. James Rose
Mr. & Mrs. Robert B. Rosowski
Brian & Toni Sanchez-Murphy
Ms. Joyce E. Scafe
Sandy ◊ & Alan Schwartz
Mrs. Andrea Harral
Mr. & Mrs. Mark R. High
James Jacob
Khalil Jackson
Mrs. & Mr. Clara Jenkins
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. & Mrs. Arthur Liss
Clara & Federico Mariona
Ms. Mary Ann McCloskey
Ms. Nancy McGunn
Camille & Ian McLeod
Ms. Evelyn Micheletti
Steve & Judy Miller
Carolyn & J. Michael Moore
Mr.◊ & Mrs. George Nicholson
Mrs. Ruth Nix
Ms. Ruthanne Okun
Mr. & Mrs. Mark H. Peterson
Mr. Frank Polasek
Mr. & Mrs. Rodney Rask
Ms. Libby Robinson
Mr. Jeffrey S. Serman
Bill* & Chris Shell
Kim & Richard Shenkan
Dr. Les Siegel & Ellen Lesser Siegel
Ralph & Peggy Skiano
Mr. & Mrs. Stephan J. Speth
Ms. Dhivya Srinivasan
Shirley R. Stancato
Daniel & Tracey Stavale
Nancy C. Stocking ◊
Dr. & Mrs. Gerald Stollman
Dr. and Mrs. Choichi Sugawa
Danielle Susser
Dr. Neil Talon
Mr. Rob Tanner
Mr. & Mrs. Harry Thomalla
Barbara & Stuart Trager
John & Lois VanStipdonk
Ms. Amanda Van Dusen & Mr. Curtis
Blessing
Mr. Gary Van Elslander
Gerald & Teresa Varani
Ms. Caren Vondell
Mr. Patrick Webster
Mr. Michael J. Smith & Mrs. Mary C.
Williams
Rissa & Sheldon Winkelman
Mr. William Wonfor & Ms. Kathy White
Ms. Gail Zabowski
And two who wish to remain anonymous
Mr. & Mrs. John Rohrbeck
Dr. & Mrs. Lewis Rosenbaum
Ms. Rosemarie Sandel
Ms. Joyce E. Scafe
Dr. & Mr. Joyce R. Schomer
Ms. Sandra Shetler
Kathleen & Michael Schwartz
Ms. Polly Tan
Ruth & Mark Theobald
Ms. Cynthia Turchetti
Mr. & Mrs. Krister Ulmanis
Mr. & Mrs. Paul Vantol
Dennis & Jennifer Varian
Dr. & Mrs. Thomas E. Verhelle
Dr. Elliot & Mrs. Wendy Wagenheim
Mr. Barry Webster
Ms. Janet Weir
Ms. Joan Whittingham
Joe Wichowski & Michelle Aimone
Mr. & Mrs.◊ Richard Wigginton
Mr. Robert S. Williams & Ms. Treva Womble
Cathy Cromer Wood
And two who wish to remain anonymous
Gifts received November 1, 2025, through February 15, 2026
Tribute gifts to the Detroit Symphony Orchestra are made to honor accomplishments, celebrate occasions, and pay respect in memory or reflection. These gifts support current season projects, partnerships and performances such as DSO concerts, education programs, free community concerts, and family programming. For information about making a tribute gift, please call 313.576.5114 or visit dso.org/donate.
Peter and Julie Cummings
The Clinton Family Fund
Joanne Danto & Arnold
Weingarden
Mr. & Mrs. John Levy
Dr. & Mrs. Lewis Rosenbaum
James Garrett
Jeanne Paton
Doris Adler
Mr. & Mrs. Charles Alberts
Donald and Shirley Allison
Ms. Beth Flannery
Gustaf “Fred” Bolling
Valerie Withington
Anna Bonde
Debra Bonde
Phil and Carol Campbell
Mr. Daniel Carmody
Janice Cohen
Joel & Sheila Pitcoff
Armando Delicato
Mr. Thomas Ronzi
Maurine K. Fisher (1907–1995)
Michael J. Fisher
Ruth Glancy
Dr s. David & Bernadine Wu
Janice Goldman
Lyle Goldman
Margaret Graham
Donald Kohn
Nancy Hunt
Marshall J. Hunt, Jr.
Catherine Jewell
Paul and Meg Borland
Missy Kinyon
Ms. Pamela Binson
Renato & Elizabeth Jamett
Sally & Michael Feder
Sarah Lewis*
Dale & Jeannette Lewis
Patty & Jack MacCracken Adel & Walter Dissett
Steve & Jill Miller
Mr. & Mrs. Greg Barber
Jonathan Michael Landers
Ms. Jane Steinger
H. Keith Mobley
Auto Club Group
W. Harold & Chacona W. Baugh
Ms. Taryn Bisaillon
Mr. Jon Bitner
Rachel & Carl Dakin
Ms . Emily Elmer & Mr. Andrew Lerma
Mr. Greg Freeman & Mrs. Nicole Sherard-Freeman
Mr. Ronald Ross & Ms. Alice Brody
Ms. Bettina Lindstam
Mr. Sean Maloney & Mrs. Laura Peppler-Maloney
Ms. Pamela McClain
Ms. Siewhiang McCreight
Ms . Cherisse Montgomery
Mr. Matthew Nasworthy
Priscilla & Huel Perkins
Dr. Glenda D. Price
Dr. Erik Rönmark* & Mrs. Adrienne Rönmark*
Mr. Gabrial Saddler
Mr. Zach Suchanek*
Ms. Adrienne Woodland
Anne Parsons*
The Clinton Family Fund
Donald Dietz & Cara Dietz
Richard Place
Joel & Sheila Pitcoff
Mary Egan Price
John A. Egan
Mr. and Mrs. William Ramroth
Ms. Erica Seidel
Carol Sarvello
Emily & Dominic Jamett
Ralph Skiano*
St anley E. & Diane D. Henderson
George Krappman* & the DSO
Security Staff
Mr. Joseph Aoun
Ruth Rattner
Ms. Cassie Brenske
Mr. & Mrs. Mark Lewis
Dr s. David & Bernadine Wu
Dominic Sarvello
Emily & Dominic Jamett
Shelley Schwaderer Roland Brianne Kemm
Maurine Sillman
Mrs. Julie August
Ms. Phyllis Brickner
Susan Dishell
David Gans
Mr. & Mrs. Robert Gordon
Emily Minns
Howard Luckoff
Mr. & Mrs. Robert J. Powers
Ms. Marisa Ruby
Dr. & Mrs. Howard Shapiro
Mr. Robert Sher
Ms. Claudia Sills
Mr. Steve Sucher
S. Evan & Gwen Weiner
Mrs. Lisa Weisman
An d one who wishes to remain anonymous
Otis O’Solomon
Ms. Norma Ceaser
Carrie Stewart-Gulan
Paul Bruer
Joan & Charlie Velis
Mr. Jeff Velis
Giving of $500,000 & more
SAMUEL & JEAN FRANKEL FOUNDATION
THE 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
Jack, Evelyn, & Richard Cole Family Foundation
CultureSource
Masco Corporation
Milner Hotels Foundation
Donald R. Simon & Esther Simon Foundation
Myron P. Leven Foundation
Detroit Pistons
MGM Grand Detroit
Eleanor & Edsel Ford Fund
Strum Allesee Family Foundation
Comerica Incorporated
Ernesi 1978
Geoinge Foundation
Honigman LLP
Applebaum Family Philanthropy
The Cassie Family Foundation
Coffee Express Roasting Company
Benson & Edith Ford Fund
Sieg Dunlap Foundation
Enterprise Holdings Foundation EY
Sigma Gamma Foundation
Japan Business Society of Detroit
Stone Foundation of Michigan
Wolverine Packing
Mandell & Madeleine Berman Foundation
Richard & Jane Manoogian Foundation
Oliver Dewey Marcks Foundation
Penske Foundation, Inc.
Karen & Drew Peslar Foundation
Michigan Arts & Culture Council
James & Lynelle Holden Fund Hylant Group
Marjorie & Maxwell Jospey Foundation
Beatrice & Reymont Paul Foundation
Dolores & Paul Lavins Foundation
Ludwig Foundation Fund
Michigan First Credit Union
Michigan First Foundation Plante Moran
Taft Law
Young Woman’s Home Association
Burton A. Zipser & Sandra D. Zipser Foundation
Varnum LLP
Mary Thompson Foundation
Renaissance (MI) Chapter of the Links
Sun Communities Inc.
HUB International
Sigmund and Sophie Rohlik Foundation
Samuel L. Westerman Foundation
Louis & Nellie Sieg Foundation
And one who wishes to remain 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 Dane Lighthart at 313.576.5115 or email dlighthart@dso.org.
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. Mark G. Bartnik & Ms. Sandra J. Collins
Stanley A. Beattie
Mr. Melvyn Berent & Ms. Barbara Spreitzer-Berent
Mr. & Mrs. Mandell L. Berman ◊
Mrs. Betty Blair ◊
Ms. Rosalee Bleecker
Mr. Joseph Boner
Gwen & Richard Bowlby
Mr. Harry G. Bowles ◊
Mr. Charles Broh ◊
Mr. Lawrence Brown
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
Drs. William ◊ & Janet Cohn
Lois & Avern Cohn ◊
Mrs. RoseAnn Comstock◊
Mr. Scott Cook, Jr.
Mr. & Ms. Thomas Cook
Dorothy M. Craig ◊
Mr. & Mrs. John Cruikshank
Phyllis & Kevin Cullen
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
Barbara Frankel ◊ & Ron Michalak
Mrs. Rema Frankel ◊
Virginia B. Bertram ◊
Patricia Finnegan Sharf ◊
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
Herman & Sharon Frankel
Jane French ◊
Stephanie Baer Fricker
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 Renato & Elizabeth Jamett
Mr. & Mrs. Thomas H. Jeffs II
Mr. & Mrs. Richard J. Jessup
Mr. George G. Johnson
Lenard & Connie Johnston
Mr. & Mrs. Richard 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 ◊
Harold Lundquist ◊ & Elizabeth
Brockhaus Lundquist
Eric & Ginny 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
Ms. I. Surayyah R. Muwwakkil◊
Joy & Allan Nachman
Geoffrey S. Nathan & Margaret E. Winters ◊
Eric & Paula Nemeth
Beverley Anne Pack
David & Andrea Page ◊
Edna J. Shin
Mr. Dale J. Pangonis
Ms. Mary Webber Parker ◊
Mr. David Patria & Ms. Barbara
Underwood ◊
Mrs. Sophie Pearlstein ◊
Alice A. Peitzsch ◊
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 ◊
Mr. & Mrs. John Rohrbeck
Mr. & Mrs. Gerald F. Ross ◊
Mr. & Mrs. George Roumell◊
Marjorie Shuman Saulson
Ruth Saur Trust
Mr. & Mrs. Donald & Janet Schenk
Ms. Yvonne Schilla
David W. Schmidt ◊
Mr. & Mrs. Fred Secrest ◊
Ms. Marla K. Shelton
Ms. June Siebert
Mr. & Mrs. Donald R. Simon ◊
Dr. Melissa J. Smiley & Dr. Patricia A. Wren
BY LATOYA CROSS
Your support through the Anne Parsons Leadership Fund (APLF) is helping bring music, education, and opportunity to communities across Detroit. Established in 2022, the endowed fund advances the vision of former DSO President and CEO Anne Parsons, whose leadership redefined the orchestra’s role as a vital, community-connected institution. Across her 17-year tenure, Anne spearheaded an increase in accessibility and connectivity to experience music from the Orchestra Hall stage to neighborhoods and communities throughout southeast Michigan, local churches, and classrooms; and globally through Live from Orchestra Hall—the DSO’s state-of-the art digital stage.
over 12,000 students visited Orchestra Hall for lively educational experiences, and 64,000 educators and students tuned in via livestream.
These programs are just a glimpse of your support in action through APLF.
“This is opening doors for possibility, and carrying forward Detroit’s rich arts legacy,” says Damien Crutcher, Director of Detroit Harmony. “It’s enjoyable seeing [students] shape their musical journey. We must continue opening as many avenues as possible to success for our young people across the city.”
Guided by Anne’s undeterred belief in the power of arts and music as an agent for connection and changemaking, the APLF secures institutional sustainability and honors the DSO’s key values: Excellence, Collaboration, Inclusion, Innovation, and Care.
Integral to Detroit’s cultural DNA is music and its significance in shaping opportunities and bringing people together. Anne’s vision mirrored this, and through programs such as the DSO’s Detroit Harmony—a citywide collaboration with other arts nonprofits, community organizations, and schools— access to not only musical experiences, but also quality instruments and music education has soared. In February 2026, Detroit Harmony reached a milestone of 2,500 instruments distributed to students across the city since launching in 2019.
The Educational Concert Series encourages youth engagement with a creative approach to lessons on science, history, and art through exploratory classical music activities. In the 2024–25 season,
The Anne Parsons Leadership Fund honors several leaders who have stepped forward to help achieve Anne’s ultimate goal of raising endowment sufficient to ensure stability that transcends economic or political crises while advancing artistic excellence for future generations. Additional support for this shared vision remains invaluable and contributes to securing Anne’s vision of a vibrant future—one where people can experience and expand their world through music.
The Anne Parsons Leadership Fund serves as a promise to honor and build upon Anne’s legacy. Through this support, the DSO will always remain deeply rooted in the cultural fabric of Detroit—committed to delivering the inspiration of music and human connection to all.”
Erik Rönmark, DSO President and CEO
Join us in this arts-forward movement to secure a legacy of artistic excellence, creative innovation, and connection. Your support sustains the DSO as a prominent cultural entity in Detroit and beyond.
Visit dso.org for more information.
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.
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.
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.
Concessions are available for purchase on the first floor of the William Davidson Atrium at most concerts, and plated dinner options 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.
THE MAX M. & MARJORIE S. FISHER MUSIC CENTER
3711 Woodward Avenue Detroit, MI 48201
Box Office: 313.576.5111
Group Sales: 313.576.5111
Administrative Offices: 313.576.5100
Facilities Rental Info: 313.576.5131
Visit the DSO online at dso.org For general inquiries, please email info@dso.org
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, barrier-free 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.
• 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 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.
• Check out the Accessibility tab on dso.org/ yourexperience to learn more
Complimentary WiFi is available throughout The Max. Look for the DSOGuest network on your device. And be sure to tag your posts with #IAMDSO!
Visit shopdso.org to purchase DSO and Civic Youth Ensembles merchandise anywhere, anytime!
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 are available in any denomination and may be used towards tickets to any DSO performance. Please contact the Box Office for more information.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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!
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 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
Foundation for Southeast Michigan
With decades of experience and a profound understanding of southeast Michigan’s unique challenges and opportunities, we help you direct your giving where it will make the most significant difference.
From donor-advised funds to legacy planning, we offer a variety of giving options designed to align with your personal and professional goals.
Your generosity can create lasting change. We work with you to establish a philanthropic legacy that reflects your values and supports the causes you care about, well beyond your lifetime.
Randy Ross
Vice President, Donor Services
Lindsey Rossow-Rood
Associate Vice President, Donor Services
Stay in touch: Learn more and subscribe to philanthropic news and view resources from our team of experts. cfsem.org/Experts
Erik Rönmark
President and CEO
James B. and Ann V. Nicholson Chair
Tanzalea Daniels Chief Financial Officer
Jill Elder Chief Revenue Officer
Martin Sher Chief Artistic & Operating Officer
Joy Crawford Administrative Assistant
Carol Davis Executive Assistant
Anne Parsons ◊ President Emeritus
Ian Kivler
Senior Director of Artistic Planning
Jessica Slais
Creative Consultant for Popular & Special Programming
Stephen Grady Jr. Program Manager, Popular & Special Programming
Jacquelynn Wealer Artistic Coordinator
LIVE FROM ORCHESTRA HALL
Marc Geelhoed
Executive Producer of Live from Orchestra Hall
ORCHESTRA OPERATIONS
Kathryn Ginsburg Vice President and General Manager
Patrick Peterson Orchestra Manager
Dennis Rottell Stage Manager
Andrew Williams Director of Orchestra Personnel
Laura Scales Production Manager
Benjamin Tisherman Manager of Orchestra Personnel
Alexander Kapordelis Vice President, Strategic Philanthropy
Ali Huber Director of Donor Engagement
Dane Lighthart Director of Individual Giving
Cat Lockman Director of Institutional Partnerships and Strategic Giving
Zach Suchanek
Associate Director of Annual Giving
Alex Anderson Manager of Advancement Events
Andrew Doré Manager of Donor Hospitality
Courtney Gonzales Institutional Giving Specialist
Molly Lipham Major Gift Officer
Elizabeth McConnell Major Gift Officer
Samantha Taylor Manager of Institutional Giving
Amanda Tew Major Gift Officer
Rachel Volpe-Kurzhals Advancement Operations Manager
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
Christina Williams Senior Director of Event & Patron Experience
Neva Kirksey Manager of Events & Rentals
Alison Reed, CVA Manager of Volunteer & Patron Experience
Karisa Antonio Vice President of Social Innovation & Learning
Damien Crutcher Director of Detroit Harmony
Debora Kang Director of Education
Clare Valenti
Director of Engagement
Kiersten Alcorn Manager of Program Accessibility
Chris DeLouis Manager of Student Development
Erin Faryniarz
Detroit Harmony Partnerships Coordinator
Bronwyn Hagerty Library & Programs Manager
Claire Eileen Hall Coordinator of Engagement Operations
Kendra Sachs Manager of Student Enrollment
Josh George Staff Accountant
Tanisha Hester Accountant
Sophie Lall Accounting Clerk Assistant
Sandra Mazza Senior Accountant of Business Operations
Claudia Scalzetti Staff Accountant
Hannah Lozon Vice President of Talent & Culture
Angela Stough Director of Human Resources
Sharon Tse Director of Culture & Inclusion
Severina Oliver HR Specialist
William Shell Senior Director of Information Technology
Patrick Harris Systems Administrator
Michelle Koning Web Manager
Aaron Tockstein Database Administrator
Kelly Striewski
Vice President of Marketing & Patron Experience
Connor Mehren Director of Growth Marketing
Juliana Nahas Director of Loyalty Marketing
Sharon Gardner Carr Tessitura Event Operations Manager
Jay Holladay Brand Graphic Designer
Valerie Jackson Group Sales Representative
Marisa Jacques Email Marketing Manager
LaHeidra Marshall Direct Marketing Manager
Thomas Monks Loyalty Marketing Manager
Declan O’Neal
Marketing & Promotions Coordinator
James Sabatella Group & Tourism Sales Manager
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
PATRON SALES & SERVICE
Michelle Marshall Director of Patron Sales & Service
Chantel Woodard Manager of Patron Sales & Service
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
HILARY HAHN PERFORMS MOZART
JUNE 11–13
PVS CLASSICAL SERIES BAROQUE FIREWORKS
MAY 14—16
PARADISE JAZZ ARTURO SANDOVAL
MAY 15
PVS CLASSICAL SERIES TCHAIKOVSKY’S SWAN LAKE & OTHER TALES
MAY 22—24
PNC POPS SERIES SONGS OF AMERICA
MAY 29— 31
WAGNER, TCHAIKOVSKY, & STRAUSS
JUNE 5—7
PINK MARTINI JUNE 19–21
PVS CLASSICAL SERIES WAGNER, TCHAIKOVSKY, & STRAUSS
JUNE 5—7
PARADISE JAZZ SERIES CHRISTIAN MCBRIDE & URSA MAJOR JUNE 5
PVS CLASSICAL SERIES HILARY HAHN PERFORMS MOZART
JUNE 11—13
PNC POPS SERIES PINK MARTINI JUNE 19—21
SPECIAL EVENT DISNEY PRIDE IN CONCERT JUNE 27
DSO PRESENTS JURASSIC PARK IN CONCERT JULY 11
DSO PRESENTS BACK TO THE FUTURE IN CONCERT JULY 12
WILLIAM DAVIDSON NEIGHBORHOOD SE RIES HAYDN’S “CLOCK” SYMPHONY
JULY 23–26
A SHORT DRIVE ACROSS THE BORDER LEADS
WHERE THE ODDS ARE ALWAYS IN FAVOUR OF A GOOD TIME! A SHORT DRIVE ACROSS THE BORDER LEADS TO AN EXTRAORDINARY ESCAPE
APRIL – NOVEMBER THE TEMPEST | GUYS AND DOLLS | SOMETHING ROTTEN! | WAITING FOR GODOT DEATH OF A SALESMAN | THE HOBBIT | THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING EARNEST SATURDAY, SUNDAY, MONDAY | A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM | OTHELLO THE TAO OF THE WORLD | THE KING JAMES BIBLE PLAY STRATFORD,
