The Detroit Symphony Orchestra (DSO) is an American orchestra based in Detroit, Michigan. The orchestra performs from the stage of Orchestra Hall at the Max M. Fisher Music Center in Detroit's Midtown neighborhood.

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History

The Detroit Symphony was founded in 1914 by ten Detroit society women who each contributed $100 to the organization and pledged to find 100 additional subscribers. They soon hired the orchestra's first music director, Weston Gales, a 27-year-old church organist from Boston. The orchestra's first performance was held on February 26, 1914 at the old Detroit Opera House.

The appointment of famed Russian pianist Ossip Gabrilowitsch as music director in 1918 brought instant status to the new orchestra. A friend of composers Gustav Mahler and Sergei Rachmaninoff, Gabrilowitsch demanded a new auditorium be built as a condition of his accepting the position. Orchestra Hall was completed for the new music director in 1919 in a remarkable four months and twenty-three days. Under Gabrilowitsch, the Detroit Symphony Orchestra quickly became one of the most prominent orchestras in the country, performing with the leading artists of the day. In 1922, the orchestra gave the world's first radio broadcast of a symphony orchestra concert with Gabrilowitsch conducting and guest artist Artur Schnabel at the piano. From 1934 to 1942, the orchestra performed for millions across the country as the official orchestra of the Ford Symphony Hour national radio show.

In 1939, three years after Gabrilowitsch's premature death, the orchestra moved from Orchestra Hall to the Masonic Temple Theatre due to major financial problems caused by the Great Depression. The orchestra disbanded twice in the 1940's as it moved around three different performing venues. In 1956, the orchestra moved to Ford Auditorium on the waterfront of the Detroit River, where it remained for the next 33 years. The orchestra once again enjoyed national prestige under music director Paul Paray, winning numerous awards for its 70 recordings on the Mercury label. Paray was followed by noted music directors Sixten Ehrling, Aldo Ceccato, Antal Doráti, and Günther Herbig. It should be noted that most, if not all, of the recorded string accompaniments on Motown's classic hits were performed by the Detroit Symphony Orchestra.

In 1970 the DSO instituted the Detroit Symphony Youth Orchestra as a training group, under Maestro Paul Freeman.

In 1989, following a 20-year rescue and restoration effort, the Detroit Symphony Orchestra returned with great acclaim to Orchestra Hall. Music director Neeme Järvi began his tenure in 1990, the second-longest in the orchestra's history upon Järvi's departure in 2005.

In 2003, the Detroit Symphony completed further renovations to Orchestra Hall and added a $60 million addition, including a recital hall and education wing, named the Max M. Fisher Music Center. The Detroit School of Arts was added to the DSO campus in 2005.

The Orchestra today

After a five-year search, the DSO announced on October 7, 2007, that Leonard Slatkin, music director of the National Symphony Orchestra, would become its twelfth music director, succeeding Neeme Järvi. ^[1] Peter Oundjian, currently Music Director of the Toronto Symphony, is the DSO's current Artistic Advisor and Principal Guest Conductor. The current Resident Conductor is Thomas Wilkins. (See below for a complete list of DSO Music Directors)

Music directors

• Leonard Slatkin (2008-)
• Neeme Järvi (1990-2005)
• Günther Herbig (1984-1990)
• Antal Doráti (1977-1981)
• Aldo Ceccato (1973-1977)
• Sixten Ehrling (1963-1973)
• Paul Paray (1951-1962)
• Orchestra disbanded 1949-1951
• Karl Krueger (1944-1949)
• Victor Kolar (1940-1942)
• Ossip Gabrilowitsch (1918-1936)
• Weston Gales (1914-1917)

Notes

1. {{harvnb|Stryker|2007}}

References and further reading

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