Metro Detroit

Detroit Symphony Orchestra delights neighborhoods

By Jennie Miller
C & G Staff Writer

‘Twas once thought to be an occasion for the more privileged folk to don their fancy frocks and head downtown to take in a mass of musical delights.

That’s simply not the case anymore.

The Detroit Symphony Orchestra recently launched its Neighborhood Concert Series, a succession of more intimate and accessible traveling performances in communities across metro Detroit, much to the delight of local residents.

“We wanted to start the series to reach out to those patrons that we’ve lost or who won’t come downtown for whatever reason… and attract some new patrons who hadn’t thought of the DSO as an entertainment option or an arts and culture option,” said Heather Mourer, spokesperson for the DSO.

The DSO is the first major American symphony orchestra to hold such performances over a long-term series, Mourer said. It has been and will continue to pay visits to venues in Beverly Hills, Bloomfield Hills, Southfield, West Bloomfield Township, Grosse Pointe and Dearborn.

“This series is open to the public and it benefits our congregants and the general community,” said Steve Margolin, president of Congregation Shaarey Zedek in Southfield, which is hosting the series on four occasions this winter and spring. “It’s a win-win. It’s a magnificent facility and an extremely famous design, and on top of everything else, the acoustics are wonderful. (Plus), to be in the presence of a world-class orchestra, how can you not be thankful and impressed? It’s a great way for people who don’t necessarily have a classical interest to experience something for the first time in more of a community setting in an area where they’re comfortable, being in their neighborhood.”

The concert series is a part of a larger program called the Neighborhood Residency Initiative, which includes school partnerships as well as free concerts at local hospice centers and nursing homes.

“They’re educational (programs), music therapy and healing programs, or just to boost morale to people living in retirement centers and seniors centers,” Mourer said, adding that it’s all possible because of the Neighborhood Concert Series. “The series brings in all the revenue for all of that to happen.”

The DSO is paying four visits each in the six communities, and tickets are available individually or as a subscription to all four.

“What people can expect from their concert experiences is it’s going to be a little more casual and intimate than what is at Orchestra Hall,” Mourer explained. “In Dearborn, Southfield and Beverly Hills, we’re presenting the full orchestra and we’ll be performing what’s going on in the hall that weekend. It’s the same stuff that’s going on in the hall. In West Bloomfield Township, Grosse Pointe and Bloomfield Hills, they’re chamber orchestra venues, because they’re smaller in size. Those will have 35-45 musicians performing chamber orchestra pieces that we may not be able to perform in Orchestra Hall. We may leave out the brass or do just winds and strings. It’s not a watered-down version by any means from what we do downtown. It’s just an opportunity to do something different. There are some pieces that we performed the first weekend that haven’t been performed by the DSO in 20 years. It gives us the opportunity to perform something we may not have had the opportunity to perform in Orchestra Hall.”

The DSO is internationally acclaimed, and the fourth-oldest symphony orchestra in the U.S.

Each show is two hours long, with an intermission. Tickets are $25 for adults, or $10 for individuals under the age of 18 and students with a valid student ID.

“It’s general admission, so everybody’s on equal ground,” Mourer said of the first-come, first-served seating arrangements. “People can sit anywhere they want. In the different venues, the acoustics are so all over the place that it may be best to sit in the front row in some venues, and others it may be nice to sit in the middle.”

Mourer said the DSO has already seen a surge in patrons since they kicked off the concert series in early December.

“We have over 1,600 subscribers now just for this series,” she said. “I’ve seen that 80 percent of them have no subscription history with the DSO in the last five years and a third have no history whatsoever. We’re really excited about those numbers.”

Upcoming shows include 3 p.m. on March 25 and April 22 at Seligman Performing Arts Center in Beverly Hills; 7:30 p.m. on March 8 and April 26 at the Berman Center for the Performing Arts in West Bloomfield Twp.; 8 p.m. on March 10 and April 28 at Kirk in the Hills Presbyterian Church in Bloomfield Hills; 3 p.m. March 11 and April 29 at Grosse Pointe Memorial Church; and 7:30 p.m. on March 22, April 19 and May 10 at Congregation Shaarey Zedek in Southfield; and 10:45 a.m. on March 23 and June 8 at the Ford Community and Performing Arts Center in Dearborn.

For more information or to purchase tickets, call (313) 576-5111 or visit the website www.dso.org/ neighborhood.

You can reach C & G Staff Writer Jennie Miller at jmiller@candgnews.com or at (586)279-1108.