Please note: As announced on February 28, Lukáš Vondráček will step in for Cédric Tiberghien, who is no longer able to appear due to a visa processing delay. The program is unchanged.
Guest soloist Cédric Tiberghien performs Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 5, "Emperor"
March 8 performance webcast for free on dso.org, YouTube, and via Facebook Live as a part of DSO’s Live from Orchestra Hall series
Tickets on sale now at dso.org
Detroit, (February 12, 2025) – The Detroit Symphony Orchestra’s (DSO) PVS Classical Series continues with Pictures at an Exhibition, with the famous work by Mussorgsky (arranged by Ravel) led by Principal Guest Conductor Tabita Berglund at Orchestra Hall on March 6–8. This program will also highlight pianist Cédric Tiberghien in a performance of Beethoven’s iconic Piano Concerto No. 5, “Emperor”.
Berglund is in the midst of her extraordinary first season as Principal Guest Conductor of the DSO. During her tenure, she will have an extended artistic collaboration with the orchestra over multiple weeks each season. At the time of her appointment, Berglund remarked, “What struck me the first time I worked with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra is that this is an orchestra which knows that music matters. Their ambition to shape the future of their community through artistic excellence very much coincides with my belief that music has the power to change lives.” To learn more about Tabita, click here.
Pictures at an Exhibition will take place Thursday, March 6 at 7:30 p.m., Friday, March 7 at 8 p.m., and Saturday, March 8 at 8 p.m. in Orchestra Hall. The March 8 performance will be webcast for free on dso.org, YouTube, and via Facebook Live as a part of 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.
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PVS Classical
Thursday, March 6 at 7:30 p.m.
Friday, March 7 at 8 p.m.
Saturday, March 8 at 8 p.m.
Orchestra Hall
Tabita Berglund, conductor
Cédric Tiberghien, piano
Pictures at an Exhibition is the ultimate art gallery soundtrack. Movement by movement, we’re drawn further into each frame of little chicks, an underground crypt, an argument, a witch, and finally the all-encompassing Great Gate of Kiev. Principal Guest Conductor Tabita Berglund leads an orchestral spectacle and guest soloist Cédric Tiberghien plays Beethoven’s monumental “Emperor” Concerto.
LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN Piano Concerto No. 5, "Emperor"
MODEST MUSSORGSKY ARR. RAVEL Pictures at an Exhibition
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About Tabita Berglund
Tabita Berglund is one of today’s most exciting, talented and in-demand young conductors who has gained a reputation for her alert, charismatic and inspiring style, which elicits “exceptional music-making” (The Arts Desk). This season, Berglund begins her four-year tenure as Principal Guest Conductor of Detroit Symphony Orchestra, and from the 2025–26 season, she holds the same title with Dresdner Philharmonie; she was appointed to each position following her respective debut.
Symphonic highlights of the 2024–25 season include debuts with the Houston Symphony, Minnesota Orchestra, Gothenburg Symphony, Gürzenich-Orchester Köln, Orchestre dechambre de Paris, Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra, Iceland Symphony Orchestra, and Lahti Symphony Orchestra, as well as Berglund’s inaugural weeks as Detroit Symphony Orchestra’s Principal Guest Conductor—the first featuring the US premiere of Anna Clyne’s violin concerto Time and Tides with fellow Harrison Parrott artist Pekka Kuusisto. Other notable season highlights include Berglund’s Asian debut with TokyoMetropolitan Symphony Orchestra, her Salzburg Easter Festival debut together with Mozarteum Orchester Salzburg, a European tour with Orchestra della Svizzera Italiana, and returns to Dresdner Philharmonie, Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra, Orchestre national de Lyon, Tonkünstler-Orchester Niederösterreich, and Trondheim Symphony Orchestra. In December 2024, she conducts The Norwegian National Ballet in 12 performances of Tchaikovsky’s The Nutcracker.
Berglund regularly collaborates with internationally renowned soloists; recent and upcoming partnerships include Jean-Yves Thibaudet, Leila Josefowicz, Truls Mørk, Cédric Tiberghien, Nicolas Altstaedt, Håkan Hardenberger, Alexander Malofeev, the Jussen brothers, and Camilla Tilling, to name a few. In 2024–25, she continues to champion the music of Nordic compatriots such as Thorvaldsdottir, Saariaho, Sibelius, Svendsen, and Irgens Jensen, as part of a wide-ranging repertoire from Mozart and Beethoven to Dvořák, Mussorgsky, Poulenc, Lutosławski, and Britten, among many others.
Recent engagements include appearances with the Dallas Symphony Orchestra, Detroit Symphony Orchestra, Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra, Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra, Dresdner Philharmonie, Philharmonia Orchestra, Orchestre national de Lyon, Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra, Berner Symphonie orchester, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, and Düsseldorfer Symphoniker, among many others. Festival appearances include Festival Internacional de Músicay Danza de Granada and Grafenegg. Additionally, Berglund made her Garsington Operadebut in summer 2024, conducting a revival production of Mozart’s Le nozze di Figaro. She concluded her three-year tenure as Principal Guest Conductor of Kristiansand Symphony Orchestra at the end of the 2023–24 season. In August 2024, she chaired the jury for the grand finale of the Eurovision Young Musicians competition, broadcast live on television throughout Europe via the major networks.
Berglund studied at the Norwegian Academy of Music, first as a cellist with Truls Mørk and later orchestral conducting with Ole Kristian Ruud. She played regularly with the Oslo and Bergen Philharmonic orchestras, as well as the Trondheim Soloists, before conducting became her main focus. Her debut album, with Oslo Philharmonic and violinist Sonoko Miriam Welde, was released in 2021 (LAWO) and nominated for a Norwegian Grammy (Spellemann) in the 2022 Classical Music category.
HarrisonParrott represents Tabita Berglund for worldwide general management.
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, will be released in 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.