In Friday’s (2/17) Detroit Free Press, Mark Stryker writes, “Detroit Symphony Orchestra musicians will offer high school students a week of intensive coaching, master classes, and rehearsals and performances as part of a new summer festival in mid-July. The Avanti Summer MusicFest will include workshops for 140 students culminating in a concert in which students and DSO musicians will perform side by side. … But what’s most unique about the Avanti Summer MusicFest is its collaborative development, structure and funding that show the musicians, management, board and staff working together in the wake of last year’s bitter strike to fill a local music-education gap that they all believe should be a DSO priority. … The Avanti initiative originated with DSO musicians, who brought the idea to management and also worked with members of Save Our Symphony, a community support group that favored the musicians during the strike. The players will be fund-raising for the workshops but, working with SOS, have already secured $60,000 in commitments from donors to cover any deficit. DSO executive vice president Paul Hogle said the overall budget for the festival is about $130,000. DSO management has pledged $30,000 toward the costs from the so-called ‘bucket money’ that was set aside for community engagement efforts by the terms of the contract settlement.”
Posted February 21, 2012
