Program features Benjamin Britten’s Four Sea Interludes from Peter Grimes, Anna Clyne’s Time and Tides (US Premiere) with Pekka Kuusisto, and Jean Sibelius’s Lemminkäinen Suite
October 19 performance webcast for free at dso.org, YouTube, and via Facebook Live as part of DSO’s Live from Orchestra Hall series; October 18 concert broadcast and streamed live on 90.9 WRCJ in Detroit and a network of stations across Michigan
Subscriptions and single tickets on sale now at dso.org
Detroit, (October 7, 2024) – The Detroit Symphony Orchestra (DSO) and newly appointed DSO Principal Guest Conductor Tabita Berglund will welcome Pekka Kuusisto to Orchestra Hall for three concerts on the PVS Classical Series on October 18 through 20.
Conducted by Berglund in her debut as DSO Principal Guest Conductor, the sea-inspired program features Benjamin Britten’s Four Sea Interludes from Peter Grimes, the United States premiere of Grammy-nominated composer Anna Clyne’s Time and Tides violin concerto with Kuusisto as soloist, and Jean Sibelius’s epic Lemminkäinen Suite.
In her new role with the DSO, Berglund will have an extended artistic collaboration with the orchestra over multiple weeks each season, beginning in the 2024–2025 season with an initial 4-year contract. She is recognized as one of today’s most talented young conductors, fast gaining a reputation for her alert, charismatic, and inspiring style. Berglund developed an immediate connection with the DSO in January 2023 when she made her highly successful US debut at Orchestra Hall. In March 2025, Berglund will return to Detroit to conduct Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 5 with Cédric Tiberghien and Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition. (Click here to learn more about Berglund.),
The Saturday, October 19 performance will be webcast for free at dso.org, YouTube, and via Facebook Live as part of DSO’s Live from Orchestra Hall series; The Friday, October 18 concert will be broadcast and streamed live on 90.9 WRCJ in Detroit and a network of stations across Michigan.
Tickets for Sea Scenes: Sibelius & Britten 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. 2024–2025 PVS Classical Series and Create Your Own subscription packages are also available.
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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SEA SCENES: SIBELIUS & BRITTEN
PVS Classical Series
Friday, October 18 at 10:45 a.m.
Saturday, October 19 at 8 p.m.
Sunday, October 20 at 3 p.m.
Orchestra Hall
Tabita Berglund, conductor
Pekka Kuusisto, violin
The sea inspires high-risk, high-reward music-making. Newly appointed DSO Principal Guest Conductor Tabita Berglund, “one of Europe’s greatest promises” (Helsingin Sanomat, Finland) leads sea-inspired scenes by Benjamin Britten plus Jean Sibelius’s take on a Finnish epic. Pekka Kuusisto, who “surely has the most personal sound of any classical violinist now alive,” (The Telegraph, London), plays a new concerto by Grammy Award-nominated composer Anna Clyne.
BENJAMIN BRITTEN Four Sea Interludes from Peter Grimes
ANNA CLYNE Time and Tides (US Premiere)
JEAN SIBELIUS Lemminkäinen Suite
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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 de chambre 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 HarrisonParrott artist Pekka Kuusisto. Other notable season highlights include Berglund’s Asian debut with Tokyo Metropolitan 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 Symphonieorchester, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, and Düsseldorfer Symphoniker, among many others. Festival appearances include Festival Internacional de Música y Danza de Granada and Grafenegg. Additionally, Berglund made her Garsington Opera debut 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 Pekka Kuusisto
Violinist, conductor, and composer Pekka Kuusisto is renowned for his artistic freedom and fresh approach to repertoire. Kuusisto is Artistic Director of Norwegian Chamber Orchestra and Principal Guest Conductor & Artistic Co-Director of Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra from the 2023–24 season. He is also a Collaborative Partner of San Francisco Symphony and Artistic Best Friend of Die Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen.
In the 2023–24 season, Kuusisto performed with Mahler Chamber Orchestra, Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchester, Helsinki Philharmonic, San Francisco Symphony, Norwegian Chamber Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, NHK Symphony Orchestra, and Boston Symphony Orchestra. He appeared as guest conductor with Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra, Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra, Scottish Chamber Orchestra, Swedish Chamber Orchestra, and Orchestre de chambre de Paris. As Council, Kuusisto also toured North America and Australia with American singer-songwriter Gabriel Kahane.
In the 2022–23 season, Kuusisto debuted with Berliner Philharmoniker and performed with Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra. He returned to orchestras such as The Cleveland Orchestra, San Francisco and Cincinnati symphony orchestras, Gürzenich-Orchester Köln, and Mahler Chamber Orchestra. Kuusisto made his debuts as a conductor with Philharmonia Orchestra and Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra. He was also Sinfonieorchester Basel’s Artist-in-Residence, with whom he appeared as conductor, soloist, and recitalist.
Kuusisto is an enthusiastic advocate of contemporary music and a gifted improviser and regularly engages with people across the artistic spectrum. Uninhibited by conventional genre boundaries and noted for his innovative programming, recent projects have included collaborations with Hauschka and Kosminen, Dutch neurologist Erik Scherder, pioneer of electronic music Brian Crabtree, eminent jazz-trumpeter Arve Henriksen, juggler Jay Gilligan, accordionist Dermot Dunne, and folk artist Sam Amidon.
In 2023, Kuusisto’s releases included an album for BIS, on which he features as conductor of Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra performing the first recording of Jaakko Kuusisto’s Symphony, Op. 39; and another for Alba as violinist with Malin Broman and Ostrobothnian Chamber Orchestra, performing works by Tarrodi, Byström, Larsson, and Zinovjev. In 2022, Kuusisto released his first album as conductor, partnering with Vilde Frang and Die Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen.
As soloist, he performed the world premiere recording of Ades’ Märchentänze for violin and orchestra with Nicholas Collon and Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra for Ondine. With Pentatone, Kuusisto and Norwegian Chamber Orchestra presented the album First Light in 2021, which features the world premiere recording of Nico Muhly’s violin concerto, Shrink. Other recent releases include Ades’s Violin Concerto Concentric Paths recorded with Aurora and Nicolas Collon for Deutsche Grammophon; Hillborg’s Bach Materia and Bach’s Brandenburg Concertos No. 3 and No. 4 with Swedish Chamber Orchestra and Thomas Dausgaard for BIS; and Daníel Bjarnason’s Violin Concerto with Iceland Symphony Orchestra, with the composer conducting for Sono Luminus.
Kuusisto plays the Antonio Stradivari Golden Period c.1709 ‘Scotta’ violin, generously loaned by an anonymous patron.
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.