“Monday was a very good day for the Detroit Symphony Orchestra,” writes Michael Hodges in Monday’s (10/30) Detroit News. “DSO officials announced a $15 million gift from the William Davidson Foundation. Of that, $5 million comes in the form of a challenge grant, which, if matched, will add to the DSO’s small-but-growing endowment. The balance will support a variety of DSO programs. Three other foundations already jumped in to make that happen. The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the Fred A. and Barbara M. Erb Family Foundation, and the Dresner Foundation pledged a total of $3.5 million … for a total of $18.5 million. ‘I am ecstatic,’ said DSO President and CEO Anne Parsons…. The foundation has sponsored the DSO’s popular neighborhood concert series over the past seven years…. The atrium at the Max M. and Marjorie S. Fisher Music Center will be named the William Davidson Atrium…. The family has a relationship with the DSO that goes back three generations, said Ralph J. Gerson, Davidson Foundation director and executive committee member…. The orchestra’s endowment currently stands at $46.3 million, up from $27.4 million in 2012. If the Davidson’s $5 million is fully matched, the endowment will jump to $56.3 million.”
Posted October 31, 2017
Music Director Leonard Slatkin and the Detroit Symphony Orchestra take a bow at Shanghai Oriental Art Center during the DSO’s Asia Tour in July 2017. Photo courtesy of the DSO
