Educational Concert Series

Tickets are $6 each and are for General Admission, regardless of whether you are a student, teacher, or chaperone. $1 tickets are available for any school located within the city limits of Detroit, and for Title I schools with 80% or more of their students eligible for reduced or free lunch (as determined by the National Center for Educational Statistics at nces.ed.gov).

Registration opens September 1st on the ECS website and is processed on a first-come, first-served basis. The registration form temporarily holds your group’s place, and confirmation of your participation is not finalized until payment is received. If the event is full, groups may be placed on a waitlist. Please notify ecs@dso.org immediately if you have registered and no longer plan to attend.

Seats fill up quickly. However, cancellations do happen. Once seats become available, staff will reach out to those on the waitlist according to the number of seats and order on the waitlist. If you are not able to attend an ECS, we recommend registering for another ECS performance, or check out other events through Group Sales.

Full payment is due 30 days before the concert date. If payment is not made by that time and/or you have not communicated to us your payment situation, your reservation is not guaranteed and your seats may be opened up to someone on the waitlist.

Since ECS performances are exclusive to educational institutions and alternative education/homeschool groups (i.e. not open to the public), payment must be mailed via check or paid via credit card over the phone through ECS staff. Mailing and phone instructions will be included in your confirmation email once you submit your registration. Please do not call the Box Office.

In lieu of physical tickets, a Concert Pass will be sent out two weeks prior to the concert date if payment has been finalized. This Concert Pass is required for each group to check in upon arriving at Orchestra Hall, and you may need to print several concert passes for larger groups arriving separately.  Please print and fill out your Concert Pass(es) with your headcount and school info ahead of time to ensure a smooth check-in process.

All tickets are non-refundable.

Yes, if payment has not yet been processed or if you are adding tickets after paying. Please email ecs@dso.org with an updated number. Please do not call the Box Office.

All webcasts are streamed live from the Detroit Symphony’s Live from Orchestra Hall website, as well as their Youtube and Facebook accounts. View past ECS webcasts here.

If arriving by car, view arrival and parking information here. Specific bus arrival instructions will be sent out two weeks prior to the concert, but assuming there are no road closures or construction, buses are instructed to drop off on Parsons Street and pick up on Selden Street to minimize stopped traffic. DSO security in red jackets will direct you where to park. Do not park or unload on Cass or Woodward Avenues.

Doors will open 30 minutes prior to your concert start time. Due to the high number of attendees at these concerts, unloading the buses and getting seated will take some time, so please plan accordingly. We kindly ask those attending the 10:30 AM concert to leave right afterwards as there is another performance at 11:45 AM.

ECS Attendees will be seated on a first-come, first-served basis. Buses and groups who arrive and check in at different times will not be seated together. If you would like your entire group to sit together, we kindly ask that you wait outside until your whole group is present to enter, as space in the Atrium is limited. If you need accessible seating, please email ecs@dso.org ahead of time; otherwise your group may have to be split up.

As stated above, ECS Attendees will be seated on a first-come, first-served basis, so buses or groups who arrive and check in at different times will not necessarily be seated together. If you have contact with someone in another group and they saved you a seat, you may find that person yourself.

All seating assignments are at the discretion of the ECS program staff. If you require accessible seating please email ecs@dso.org ahead of time.

If you or your students require special seating (e.g. wheelchair accessibility, hearing/vision impaired assistance, etc.), please indicate this in your registration form and email ecs@dso.org for any specific requests (i.e. seating near the front, assistive listening device, live captions, etc.). All floors are accessible via elevator. We also have a Quiet Room located on the 3rd floor of our Atrium with sensory-friendly tools available. Click here for more info on accessibility at the DSO.

Yes. If a part of your group arrived earlier, it may be difficult to be seated with them.

Photography is permitted during performances; however, flash photography, extended video recording, tripods, and cameras with detachable lenses are strictly prohibited.  Please read our policy on Phones, Cameras, and Video, as well as our Notice of Photography and Video Recording at the DSO, here.

The Shop @ The Max is typically not open during ECS concerts; however, DSO fans can visit dso.org/shop to shop the store anytime.

There is no official dismissal process, so once the concert ends, please gather your group and exit via the exit doors inside Orchestra Hall or through the Oval Lobby (not the Atrium doors where you arrived). Please note that if you are attending the 10:30 AM concert, there is another performance at 11:45 AM, so the Atrium may be crowded with incoming groups. This is also why we request that buses pick up on Selden Street to minimize confusion and keep the flow of traffic as efficient as possible.

Unfortunately, we don’t have space for schools to eat lunch at the hall, but there are plenty of green spaces in the surrounding streets, such as Sosnick Courtyard by the DSO Garage, across the street on Woodward Avenue by The Plaza, or behind the DSO by St. Patrick Senior Center. If you are willing to walk a few blocks, there are nice corner parks on 2nd Ave between Condado Tacos and Selden Standard, or next to Season’s Market.