Detroit’s premier fall gala experience returns with Opening Night Gala, including red-carpet entrance with photo opportunities, cocktail reception, seated dinner, and afterparty for gala patrons
Marsalis is featured soloist in concert programs throughout the weekend, including jazz-infused showpieces by Schulhoff, Milhaud, and Williams
September 27 concert webcast for free on dso.org as part of DSO’s Live from Orchestra Hall series.
Concert and gala tickets on sale now at dso.org
Detroit, (September 17, 2024) – The Detroit Symphony Orchestra (DSO) and Music Director Jader Bignamini will welcome Grammy Award-winning saxophonist Branford Marsalis to Orchestra Hall for a thrilling weekend of concerts to open the 2024–2025 PVS Classical Series, including Bernstein & Gershwin concerts on September 26 and 27, and the Opening Night Gala on September 28.
The illustrious black-tie gala evening on September 28 will include a red-carpet entrance with photo opportunities, cocktail reception, formal seated dinner for gala supporters, and afterparty. The concert in Orchestra Hall will be conducted by Bignamini and feature Marsalis as soloist in John Williams’s Escapades from Catch Me If You Can and Darius Milhaud’s Scaramouche. The program also includes Rhiannon Giddens and Michael Abels’ Overture from Omar, Leonard Bernstein’s Three Dance Episodes from On the Town, and George Gershwin’s An American in Paris. The Opening Night Gala supports the DSO's mission to ensure young people have access to music education and a path to all that is possible.
The Bernstein & Gershwin concerts on September 26 and 27 will also feature Marsalis and several of the same works by Milhaud, Bernstein, and Gershwin, plus Gershwin’s Cuban Overture. The program also includes Joan Tower’s celebratory Fanfare for the Uncommon Woman No. 6 and Erwin Schulhoff’s Hot Sonate with Marsalis as soloist.
The Friday, September 27 concert will be webcast for free on dso.org as part of the DSO’s Live from Orchestra Hall series.
Tickets for Bernstein & Gershwin on September 26 and 27 start at $20 and can be purchased at dso.org or by calling the Box Office at 313.576.5111, open Monday through Friday, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. (9 a.m. to 5 p.m. beginning September 16.) Concert-only tickets for Opening Night Gala with Branford Marsalis start at $40 and include pre-concert reception access. Tickets for the full Opening Night Gala experience start at $1000.
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.
The DSO thanks WWJ Newsradio 950 and Hour Detroit Magazine for their media sponsorship of Opening Night Gala.
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PVS Classical Series
Thursday, September 26 at 7:30 p.m.
Friday, September 27 at 8 p.m.
Orchestra Hall
Jader Bignamini, conductor
Branford Marsalis, saxophone
Saxophone virtuoso Branford Marsalis returns to Orchestra Hall for jazz-infused showpieces, and Music Director Jader Bignamini leads popular musical postcards by Bernstein and Gershwin capturing city vibes, Cuban beats, and the bustling cafés and streets of Paris. A celebratory fanfare by Joan Tower kicks off our season-opening concert.
JOAN TOWER Fanfare for the Uncommon Woman No. 6
ERWIN SCHULHOFF Hot Sonate
GEORGE GERSHWIN Cuban Overture
DARIUS MILHAUD Scaramouche
LEONARD BERNSTEIN Three Dance Episodes from On the Town
GEORGE GERSHWIN An American in Paris
OPENING NIGHT GALA WITH BRANFORD MARSALIS
PVS Classical Series
Saturday, September 28 at 5 p.m.
Orchestra Hall
Jader Bignamini, conductor
Branford Marsalis, saxophone
The Detroit Symphony Orchestra is proud to kick off another exciting season of performances and programming! Music Director Jader Bignamini leads an evening of musical escapades joined by saxophone star Branford Marsalis. Milhaud brought Brazilian vibes back to Paris with a jazz-infused vehicle for virtuosity. Bernstein’s dances give lively impressions of New York and Marsalis breathes life into John Williams’s ultra-cool score. Gershwin’s masterpiece captures the busy cafés and bustling streets of Paris.
RHIANNON GIDDENS AND MICHAEL ABELS Overture from Omar
JOHN WILLIAMS Escapades from Catch Me If You Can
LEONARD BERNSTEIN Three Dance Episodes from On the Town
DARIUS MILHAUD Scaramouche
GEORGE GERSHWIN An American in Paris
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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 2020–2021 season. He kicked off his tenure as DSO Music Director with the launch of DSO Digital Concerts in September 2020, conducting works by Copland, Puccini, Tchaikovsky, and Saint-Georges. His infectious passion and artistic excellence set the tone for the season ahead, creating extraordinary music and establishing a close relationship with the orchestra. A jazz aficionado, he has immersed himself in Detroit’s rich jazz culture and the influences of American music.
A native of Crema, Italy, Bignamini studied at the Piacenza Music Conservatory and began his career as a musician (clarinet) with Orchestra Sinfonica La Verdi in Milan, later serving as the group’s resident conductor. Captivated by the music 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. When he conducted his first professional concert at the age of 28, it didn’t feel like a departure, but an arrival.
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 Verdi Orchestra. Recent highlights include debuts with Opera de Paris conducting La forza del destino and with Deutsche Opera Berlin conducting Simon Boccanegra; appearances with the Pittsburgh and Toronto symphonies; debuts with the Houston, Dallas, and Minnesota symphonies; Osaka Philharmonic and Yomiuri Nippon Symphony Orchestra in Tokyo; with the Metropolitan Opera, Vienna State Opera, and Dutch National Opera (Madama Butterfly); Bayerische Staatsoper (La traviata); I puritani 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) and Santa Fe Opera (La bohème); Manon Lescaut at the Bolshoi; La traviata, Madama Butterfly, and Turandot at Arena of Verona; Il trovatore and Aida at Rome’s Teatro dell’Opera; Madama Butterfly, I puritani, and Manon Lescaut at Teatro Massimo in Palermo; Simon Boccanegra and La forza del destino at the Verdi Festival in Parma; Ciro in Babilonia at Rossini Opera Festival and La bohème, Madama Butterfly, and Elisir d’amore at La Fenice in Venice.
When Bignamini leads an orchestra in symphonic repertoire, he conducts without a score, preferring to make direct eye contact with the musicians. He conducts from the heart, forging a profound connection with his musicians that shines through both onstage and off. He both embodies and exudes the excellence and enthusiasm that has long distinguished the DSO’s artistry.
About Branford Marsalis
Branford Marsalis is an award-winning saxophonist, bandleader, featured classical soloist, and a film and Broadway composer. Over the span of his decades long career, he has become a multi award-winning artist with three Grammy Award, and Emmy and Tony Award nominations, a citation by the National Endowment for the Arts as a Jazz Master, and an avatar of contemporary artistic excellence.
Marsalis is increasingly sought after as a featured soloist with acclaimed orchestras including the New York and Los Angeles philharmonics, and the Chicago, Detroit, North Carolina, and Düsseldorf symphonies, with a repertoire that includes compositions by Debussy, Glazunov, Ibert, Mahler, Milhaud, Rorem, Vaughn Williams, and John Williams. He has toured with chamber orchestras such as the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia, and City Chamber Orchestra of Hong Kong.
Emerging from the global pandemic in January 2022, Marsalis first returned to the New York Philharmonic to perform John Adams’s Saxophone Concerto, which highlighted his incredible agility and the instrument’s lyrical voice. Marsalis then launched a tour with the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, in a program which explored the intersectionality of jazz and classical music with repertoire selections including Debussy’s jazz-inspired Rhapsody for alto saxophone and chamber orchestra. Later that year, he performed John Williams’s Escapades in Tanglewood’s celebration of Williams’s 90th birthday. In 2023, Marsalis performed with symphonies in Miami,
Greensboro, Toledo, and Corpus Christi, as well as with the Warsaw Philharmonic and Calgary Philharmonic. Marsalis recently composed a symphony commissioned by the Kalamazoo Symphony Orchestra, which premiered in March 2024.
Even as he tours the world as a featured classical soloist, Marsalis continues to perform with The Branford Marsalis Quartet, which he formed in 1986. His work on Broadway has garnered a Drama Desk Award and Tony nominations for the acclaimed revivals of Children of a Lesser God, Fences, and A Raisin in the Sun. As a composer for film and television, his screen credits include original music composed for The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks starring Oprah Winfrey, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom starring Viola Davis and Chadwick Boseman,
Rustin starring Colman Domingo, and the Emmy-nominated Tulsa Burning: The 1921 Race Massacre.
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 performance schedule that features the PVS Classical, PNC Pops, Paradise Jazz, and Young People’s Family Concert series. In addition, the DSO presents the William Davidson Neighborhood Concert Series in metro area venues, as well as eclectic multi-genre performances in its mid-size venue The Cube, constructed and curated with support from Peter D. & Julie F. Cummings. A dedication to broadcast innovation 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.
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.