Friday, May 16 concert broadcast and streamed live on 90.9 WRCJ in Detroit and network of stations across Michigan
Saturday, May 17 performance webcast for free on YouTube and via Facebook Live as part of the DSO’s Live from Orchestra Hall series
Tickets on sale now at dso.org
Detroit, (April 29, 2025) – The Detroit Symphony Orchestra (DSO) is pleased to welcome pianist Alexandra Dariescu to Orchestra Hall for a program on the PVS Classical Series conducted by Music Director Jader Bignamini on May 16–18 in Orchestra Hall. In celebration of the 150th anniversary of Maurice Ravel’s birth, the DSO showcases a few of the composer’s most beloved and acclaimed works on this program. Please note: Originally announced soloist Bertrand Chamayou is no longer able to appear due to a visa issue.
The program opens with one of Ravel’s most popular works, Le Tombeau de Couperin. Originally a six-movement suite for solo piano, this work was later orchestrated into the four-movement work heard on this program. Ravel's talent for composing for the piano is showcased in his Piano Concerto in G major, featuring Dariescu. Rimsky-Korsakov’s lively Capriccio espagnol and Ravel’s beloved Boléro close out the program.
Jader Conucts Boléro will take place on Friday, May 16 at 10:45 a.m., Saturday, May 17 at 8 p.m., and Sunday, May 18 at 3 p.m. in Orchestra Hall. The Friday, May 16 concert will be broadcast and streamed live on 90.9 WRCJ in Detroit and network of stations across Michigan. The Saturday, May 17 performance will be webcast for free on YouTube and via Facebook Live as part of the DSO’s Live from Orchestra Hall series.
Tickets for these performances start at $20 and can be purchased at dso.org or by calling the Box Office at 313.576.5111, open Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
The title sponsor of the DSO’s Classical Series is PVS Chemicals, Inc. DSO Live is presented by Ford Philanthropy. Technology support comes from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation. Digital programming is produced from the Al Glancy Control Room.
PVS Classical Series
Friday, May 16 at 10:45 a.m.
Saturday, May 17 at 8 p.m.
Sunday, May 18 at 3 p.m.
Orchestra Hall
Jader Bignamini, conductor
Alexandra Dariescu, piano
Jader Bignamini leads Ravel’s nod to the past with Le Tombeau de Couperin and the composer’s Piano Concerto in G, a work that combines Ravel’s flair for orchestral color with pianistic virtuosity and the influence of jazz. The concert concludes with Boléro, Ravel’s hypnotic masterpiece built on relentless rhythm and gradual crescendo. Rimsky-Korsakov’s Capriccio espagnol began as a feature for the violin but ended up a showpiece for the entire orchestra.
MAURICE RAVEL Le Tombeau de Couperin
MAURICE RAVEL G Major Concerto
NIKOLAI RIMSKY-KORSAKOV Capriccio espagnol
MAURICE RAVEL Boléro
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About Jader Bignamini
Jader Bignamini was introduced as the 18th music director of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra in January 2020, commencing with the 2020–21 season. His infectious passion and artistic excellence set the tone for the seasons ahead, creating extraordinary music and establishing a close relationship with the orchestra. During his tenure in Detroit, Bignamini has collaborated with such artists as Branford Marsalis, Daniil Trifonov, Yo-Yo Ma, Hilary Hahn, Alisa Weilerstein, and Yuja Wang, as well as composers Michael Abels and Carlos Simon, and conducted major symphonic works by Beethoven, Brahms, and Mahler, and also Leonard Bernstein, Duke Ellington, Florence Price, and Margaret Bonds. A jazz aficionado, he has immersed himself in Detroit’s rich jazz culture and the influences of American music. In 2023, the DSO extended Bignamini’s contract for a second five-year term, through 2031.
A native of Crema, Italy, Bignamini studied at the Piacenza Music Conservatory and began his career as a musician (clarinet) with Orchestra Sinfonica di Milano, later serving as the group’s resident conductor. Captivated by the works of legends like Mahler and Tchaikovsky, Bignamini explored their complexity and power, puzzling out the role that each instrument played in creating a larger-than-life sound.
In the years since, Bignamini has conducted some of the world’s most acclaimed orchestras and opera companies in venues across the globe including working with Riccardo Chailly on concerts of Mahler’s Eighth Symphony in 2013 and his concert debut at La Scala in 2015 for the opening season of La Sinfonica di Milano. Recent highlights include debuts with Opera de Paris (La Forza del Destino and Adriana Lecouvreur) and Deutsche Opera Berlin (Simon Boccanegra); debuts with Accademia di Santa Cecilia Orchestra, the Washington National Symphony, Houston, Dallas, Atlanta, Milwaukee, and Minnesota symphonies; The Cleveland Orchestra at the Blossom Festival and the Grand Teton Festival; with the BBC Orchestra and London Philharmonic; with the Metropolitan Opera, Canadian Opera Company, Vienna State Opera, and Dutch National Opera (Madama Butterfly); Bayerische Staatsoper (La traviata); in Montpellier for the Festival of Radio France; La traviata in Tokyo directed by Sofia Coppola; return engagements with Oper Frankfurt (La forza del destino, Trovatore, and Carmen) and Santa Fe Opera (Rigoletto and La bohème); La traviata, Madama Butterfly, and Turandot at Arena of Verona; Il Trovatore and Aida at Rome’s Teatro dell’Opera; Madama Butterfly, I Puritani, Manon Lescaut, and Otello at Teatro Massimo in Palermo; Simon Boccanegra and La Forza del destino at the Verdi Festival in Parma; Ciro in Babilonia and Eduardo e Cristina at Rossini Opera Festival; and La bohème, Madama Butterfly, and Elisir d’amore at La Fenice in Venice.
Bignamini also has a great career in Asia, including Japan where he has conducted the Osaka Philharmonic, Yomiuri Nippon Symphony Orchestra in Tokyo, the Sendai Philharmonic Orchestra, the New Japan Philharmonic Orchestra, and opera productions of Andrea Chenier at NHK and La Traviata by Sofia Coppola with costumes by Valentino in Tokyo and on tour with Rome’s Teatro dell’Opera that is available on Blu-ray.
Recent highlights include collaborations with artists such as Alexander Gavrylyuk, Sergei Babayan, Emanuel Ax, Jean-Yves Thibaudet, Simon Trpčeski, Kian Soltani, Sheku Kanneh-Mason, Ray Chen, Gil Shaham, James Ehnes, Augustin Hadelich, María Dueñas, Karen Gomyo, Nemanja Radulović, and Leonidas Kavakos.
One of Bignamini’s greatest passions is working with the next generation of musicians, and during the summer he is a regular guest of the Interlochen Center for the Arts with the DSO and of the Asian Youth Orchestra, leading tours featuring the most talented young musicians from Asia.
About Alexandra Dariescu
Alexandra Dariescu, creator of The Nutcracker and I, is a trailblazing pianist who demonstrates fearless curiosity in performing diverse and thought-provoking programs; from the staples of Tchaikovsky, Grieg, Rachmaninoff, and Ravel to the exquisite concerto works by Clara Schumann, Nadia Boulanger, George Enescu, and Florence Price, Dariescu stands out as an original voice in the international pianistic scene.
In demand as a soloist worldwide, Dariescu has performed with eminent orchestras such as Orchestre National de France, London Philharmonic Orchestra, the Oslo and Copenhagen philharmonics, and the Sydney, Houston, Detroit, Indianapolis, and Vancouver symphony orchestras. The list of conductors she has worked with includes Ádám Fischer, Cristian Măcelaru, Alain Altinoglu, Sakari Oramo, John Storgårds, Fabien Gabel, Vasily Petrenko, Ryan Bancroft, James Gaffigan, and JoAnn Falletta.
In the 2024–25 season, Dariescu makes her debut with the Seattle Symphony under the baton of Tianyi Lu. She then embarks on an Australian tour alongside Fabien Gabel, making her debut with the West Australian Symphony Orchestra and returning to the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra. In Scandinavia, Dariescu makes debuts with the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic and Danish Philharmonic Orchestras, whereas in the UK, she gives subscription concerts with the BBC Symphony Orchestra, Academy of St Martin in the Fields, and Royal Northern Sinfonia. Two significant highlights further complement Dariescu’s season: her debut with the London Symphony Orchestra as part of the LSO Discovery series in the education project "Count Me In", and her participation as presenter at the 2024 Leeds International Piano Competition, where she supports "the Alexandra Dariescu Award for an outstanding performance of a piece by a female composer", the first time for such an accolade to be introduced in an international competition.
In 2017, Dariescu took the world by storm with her piano recital production The Nutcracker and I, an original ground-breaking multimedia performance for piano solo with dance and digital animation. It has since enjoyed international acclaim and drawn thousands of young audiences into concert halls across Europe, Australia, China, the Emirates, and the US, realizing Dariescu’s vision of building bridges and making classical music more accessible to the wider public. The 2024–25 season celebrates the project’s 100th performance at Barbican Centre’s Milton Court. Further presentations will take place in Paris at La Seine Musicale, Konzerthaus Dortmund, Opéra de Dijon, Megaron Athens Concert Hall, and the Macao International Music Festival.
Testament to her ethos of championing a more inclusive repertoire, recent milestones in Dariescu’s career include opening the 2023–24 season for the BBC Symphony Orchestra with Sakari Oramo in the UK premiere of Dora Pejačević’s Phantasie Concertante. Last season, Dariescu also gave the world premiere of the new piano concerto Shades of Unbroken Dreams with the Detroit Symphony and BBC Philharmonic Orchestra, written for her by James Lee III in honor of the 60th anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech. In 2022, Dariescu made the world premiere recording of a newly discovered piano concerto by Leokadiya Kashperova (1900) with the BBC Symphony Orchestra for BBC Radio 3.
Dariescu has released nine albums to critical acclaim, the latest disc being the Clara Schumann and Grieg Piano Concertos with the Philharmonia Orchestra and Tianyi Lu. Her discography includes a Decca album with Angela Gheorghiu and Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No. 1 with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra.
Dariescu has been mentored by Sir András Schiff and Dame Imogen Cooper. A Laureate at the Verbier Festival Academy, she received the UK’s Women of the Future Award in the Arts and Culture category. In 2020, Dariescu received the Order 'Cultural Merit' in the rank of Knight by the Romanian President and became an Associated Member of the RNCM, where she also held the position of Professor of Piano for two years. From September 2024, Dariescu assumes the role of Professor of Piano at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London.
About the DSO
The acclaimed Detroit Symphony Orchestra is known for trailblazing performances, collaborations with the world’s foremost musical artists, and a deep connection to its city. Led by Music Director Jader Bignamini since 2020, the DSO makes its home at historic Orchestra Hall within the Max M. and Marjorie S. Fisher Music Center, offering a robust performance schedule that features classical, pops, jazz, and family concerts, plus community performances. Enrico Lopez-Yañez was named Principal Pops Conductor in 2023, trumpeter and composer Terence Blanchard serves as the orchestra’s Fred A. Erb Jazz Creative Director Chair, and Tabita Berglund began her tenure as Principal Guest Conductor in the 2024–25 season. A dedication to broadcast innovation and technology began in 1922, when the DSO became the first orchestra in the world to present a live radio broadcast of a concert and continues today with the groundbreaking Live from Orchestra Hall series of free webcasts.
The DSO’s distinguished history of recordings—many led by its renowned music directors—spans nearly a century, beginning with the orchestra’s first 78 rpm singles with Ossip Gabrilowitsch released on the Victrola label in 1928. A steady recording output has continued since then, with highlights including more than 20 releases with Paul Paray for Mercury’s Living Presence series, and 27 under the baton of Neeme Järvi, mostly on the Chandos label. In the 1970s, the DSO took part in the historic Black Composers Series for Columbia Records led by its then-Associate Conductor Paul Freeman and later made several acclaimed recordings with Antal Doráti for the Decca label. More recently, under the direction of Leonard Slatkin, the DSO recorded music by Rachmaninoff, Copland, and John Williams for the Naxos label, earning its first GRAMMY® nomination in 2017 for Copland’s Third Symphony / Three Latin American Sketches. The first recording with Jader Bignamini, of Wynton Marsalis’s Blues Symphony, was released in March 2025 on the Pentatone label.
Since its first school concerts a century ago, and particularly since the founding of the Civic Youth Ensembles in 1970, the DSO has been a national leader in bringing the benefits of music education to students, teachers, and families in Detroit and surrounding communities. The DSO remains committed to expanding its participation in the growth and well-being of Detroit through programs like its Detroit Neighborhood Initiative—cultural events co-created with community partners and residents—and Detroit Harmony, a promise to provide an instrument and instruction to any student in the city who wants to learn. With unwavering support from the people of Detroit, the DSO actively pursues a mission to impact lives through the power of unforgettable musical experiences.