The Detroit Symphony Orchestra in performance at Orchestra Hall in Detroit.
“Like music and cultural sites around the globe, Orchestra Hall—the venerated Detroit [Symphony Orchestra] venue built a century ago during a pandemic—has been shuttered the past three months,” writes Brian McCollum in Sunday’s (6/21) Detroit Free Press. “Having flexed its digital savvy during the shutdown with assorted online projects, the DSO is now quietly weighing plans to get back in front of audiences, albeit in reimagined formats and contingent on evolving health orders…. DSO president and CEO Anne Parsons said live ensemble performances of some kind will likely return in July, even if just private backyard events.… While health and safety remain paramount, she said, by late summer, the DSO may be staging chamber ensemble concerts at unconventional outdoor spots across metro Detroit or scaled-down performances in other spaces at the Max M. and Marjorie S. Fisher Music Center.… Perhaps by autumn, the full orchestra will convene at last in an otherwise empty Orchestra Hall for a concert to be streamed live online…. The DSO has canceled all previously scheduled performances through Aug. 31. The launch of the 2020-21 season is still on the December calendar, including the planned official debut of new music director Jader Bignamini.”
