The production room a few minutes before the start of a Detroit Symphony Orchestra virtual concert.
“During the pandemic, one organization helped ease the sense of lost community by bringing people together with music,” writes Jon Ruggiero in Friday’s (5/27) Toledo City Paper (OH). “The Detroit Symphony Orchestra, headed up by President and CEO Erik Rönmark, put on numerous virtual concerts … when people needed it the most. Rönmark [helped] to run the completely virtual 2020-2021 season…. ‘For the past decade the orchestra has invested in the technology and infrastructure to record our concerts for web performances … so we were in a good position to pivot into a virtual season,’ [Rönmark says]. That entire virtual season, and concerts going all the way back to 2016, are available for free through the DSO’s Live From Orchestra Hall site…. Rönmark explained, ‘During quarantine it was a real morale boost for the performers and the crew to come together and work.… When not working with the DSO, Rönmark [a saxophonist] also helps work on New Music Detroit, a musical collective that puts on performances in the city…. ‘The ability to pick up and play an instrument, either with a band or with my kids, helps me connect with what got me into the field in the first place.’ ”
