January 5-8: Jayce Ogren conducts music by Mozart, Sibelius, and Jessie Montgomery, plus Glazunov's Saxophone Concerto with Timothy McAllister
January 12-13 & 15: Lidiya Yankovskaya conducts Dvořák’s “New World” Symphony, Reinecke’s Flute Concerto with DSO Principal Flute Hannah Hammel Maser, and selections from Margaret Bonds’s Montgomery Variations
Subscriptions and tickets on sale now at dso.org
Detroit, (December 22, 2022) – This January, the Detroit Symphony Orchestra (DSO) will open its William Davidson Neighborhood Concert Series with two weekends of concerts at community venues across Metro Detroit conducted by Jayce Ogren and Lidiya Yankovskaya, respectively.
On January 5-8, Ogren will lead the DSO in a program including beloved works by Mozart (Overture to Don Giovanni and Symphony No. 40), contemporary composer Jessie Montgomery’s Strum (which draws on American folk music), Jean Sibelius’s Valse triste, and Alexander Glazunov’s Saxophone Concerto with Timothy McAllister as featured soloist. The concerts will take place on January 5 at 7:30 p.m. at The Berman Center for the Performing Arts in West Bloomfield, January 6 at 8 p.m. at NorthRidge Church in Plymouth, January 7 at 8 p.m. at Kirk in the Hills Presbyterian Church in Bloomfield Hills, and January 8 at 3 p.m. at Our Lady Star of the Sea Catholic Church in Grosse Pointe
On January 12, 13, and 15, Yankovskaya will lead the DSO in a program of Dvořák’s “New World” Symphony, Carl Reinecke’s Flute Concerto with DSO Principal Flute Hannah Hammel Maser, and selections from Margaret Bonds’s Montgomery Variations, which pays tribute to Martin Luther King, Jr. The concerts will take place on January 12 at 7:30 p.m. at Congregation Shaarey Zedek in Southfield, January 13 at 8 p.m. at the Meyer Theater in Monroe, and January 15 at 3 p.m. at the Seligman Performing Arts Center in Beverly Hills.
William Davidson Neighborhood Concert Series subscriptions and single tickets (beginning at $30, with $10 tickets available for students) are on sale now and can be purchased at dso.org/neighborhood or by calling the Box Office at 313.576.5111. The Box Office is open Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Currently in its twelfth year, the William Davidson Neighborhood Concert Series brings world-class DSO performances to seven Metro Detroit communities. Featuring repertoire curated especially for intimate venues, the series creates musical impact by connecting with audiences in their communities. DSO Chamber Recitals feature DSO musicians in a variety of settings in Detroit and across the entire metro area. In addition, DSO musicians regularly perform at schools, hospitals, senior living facilities, places of worship, parks, and other community gathering spaces.
The William Davidson Neighborhood Concert Series is made possible by a generous grant from the William Davidson Foundation. WRCJ 90.9 FM also supports the series. Renamed in 2014 in honor of philanthropist William Davidson, the William Davidson Neighborhood Concert Series brings even more opportunities for Metro Detroiters to experience the DSO close to home. In October 2017, the William Davidson Foundation made a $15 million gift of support to the DSO—one of the orchestra’s largest ever–including continued sponsorship of the series.
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MOZART, MONTGOMERY & MORE
William Davidson Neighborhood Concert Series
Thursday, January 5 at 7:30 p.m. at The Berman Center for the Performing Arts (6600 W. Maple Rd., West Bloomfield Township, MI)
Friday, January 6 at 8 p.m. at NorthRidge Church (49555 N Territorial Rd, Plymouth, MI)
Saturday, January 7 at 8 p.m. at Kirk in the Hills Presbyterian Church (1340 W. Long Lake Rd., Bloomfield Hills, MI)
Sunday, January 8 at 3 p.m. at Our Lady Star of the Sea Catholic Church (467 Fairford Rd., Grosse Pointe Woods, MI)
Jayce Ogren, conductor
Timothy McAllister, saxophone
Bookending this concert are two of Mozart’s most beloved works: the overture to his opera about a doomed lothario, and his 40th Symphony, an expressive statement of deep emotion. In between, Jessie Montgomery’s piece for strings contains a driving rhythm that draws on American folk music and dance, and Sibelius’ plaintive waltz evokes both grief and hope. Timothy McAllister solos in Glazunov’s lyrical concerto for saxophone and orchestra.
WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART Overture to Don Giovanni
JESSIE MONTGOMERY Strum
ALEXANDER GLAZUNOV Saxophone Concerto
JEAN SIBELIUS Valse triste
WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART Symphony No. 40
REINECKE’S FLUTE CONCERTO
William Davidson Neighborhood Concert Series
Thursday, January 12 at 7:30 p.m. at Congregation Shaarey Zedek (27375 Bell Rd, Southfield, MI)
Friday, January 13 at 8 p.m. at La-Z-Boy Center – Meyer Theater on the Monroe County Community College campus (1555 S. Raisinville Rd., Monroe, MI)
Sunday, January 15 at 3 p.m. at the Seligman Performing Arts Center on the Detroit Country Day School campus (22305 W. 13 Mile Rd., Beverly Hills, MI)
Lidiya Yankovskaya, conductor
Hannah Hammel Maser, flute
Dvořák's "New World" Symphony, written while the composer was living in the United States, embraces the audience with stirring melodies and powerful harmonies. Margaret Bonds’ set of variations pays tribute to Martin Luther King, Jr., and Principal Flute Hannah Hammel solos in Reinecke’s flute concerto, a work of melodic fluidity and warmth.
MARGARET BONDS Selections from Montgomery Variations
CARL REINECKE Flute Concerto
ANTONÍN DVOŘÁK Symphony No. 9, "From the New World"
About Jayce Ogren
Jayce Ogren has established himself as one of the most innovative and versatile conductors of his generation. From symphonic concerts to revolutionary community service programs to operatic world premieres, he is a leader in breaking down barriers between audiences and great music.
Ogren is Music Director of the Monterey Symphony in Carmel-by-the-Sea, California, and was recently appointed Assistant Professor of Music at the University of Michigan, where he conducts the Philharmonia Orchestra, Contemporary Directions Ensemble, and the Michigan Youth Symphony Orchestra. Additionally, he serves as Principal Guest Conductor of Philadelphia’s new music ensemble Orchestra 2001.
In the 2022-2023 season, Ogren will lead the Dallas, Detroit and Oregon symphonies, the Oklahoma City Philharmonic, Symphony San Jose, and Westchester Philharmonic, among others. In January 2023 he will conduct a two concert tribute to the life, work and influence of George Crumb, to be presented by the University of Michigan Contemporary Directions Ensemble and Philharmonia Orchestra.
Ogren began his career as Assistant Conductor of The Cleveland Orchestra and Music Director of the Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra, an appointment he held from 2006-2009. In the years since, he has conducted many of the world’s most prominent orchestras, including the BBC Symphony, Boston Symphony, Ensemble Intercontemporain, Hong Kong Philharmonic, Los Angeles Philharmonic, New York Philharmonic, the Dallas and San Francisco Symphonies, and the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra.
Among the numerous progressive projects, Ogren has conducted are Basil Twist’s The Rite of Spring with the Orchestra of St. Luke’s at Lincoln Center; the world premiere of David Lang’s symphony for a broken orchestra, bringing together 400 amateur and professional musicians in Philadelphia; 30th anniversary performances of Frank Zappa’s The Yellow Shark with Orchestra 2001; and the world premiere of Jack Perla’s Shalimar the Clown at Opera Theatre of St. Louis.
For over a decade, Ogren has been closely associated with the Leonard Bernstein Office, conducting the New York premiere of Bernstein’s only opera, A Quiet Place, at Lincoln Center; the European premiere of the film with live orchestra version of West Side Story at London’s Royal Albert Hall; and the world premieres of new orchestrations of Fancy Free and Dybbuk with Lost Dog New Music Ensemble.
A longtime collaborator of singer/songwriter/composer Rufus Wainwright, Ogren conducted the U.S. premiere of his opera Prima Donna at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, the Scandinavian premiere at the Royal Swedish Opera, and led its recording with the BBC Symphony on Deutsche Grammaphon. Ogren and Wainwright have since appeared together throughout the world, with ensembles such as the National Arts Centre Orchestra in Ottawa, the Orchestre national d’Île-de-France in Paris, and the Toronto Symphony.
A devoted educator, he was invited by renowned poet Paul Muldoon to create an interdisciplinary studio class at Princeton University for the 2017-2018 academic year. He has worked with students at the Bowdoin International Music Festival, Brevard Music Center, Cleveland Institute of Music, the Juilliard School, Manhattan School of Music, Music Academy of the West, and Verbier Festival. In 2016, he presented a unique workshop in orchestral rehearsal techniques for music teachers at Carnegie Hall in collaboration with the Carnegie Hall Weill Music Institute and the Juilliard School Pre-College.
As a composer, Ogren has received commissions from ensembles throughout the United States. His Symphonies of Gaia for symphonic wind ensemble has been performed extensively throughout the world, and is published by C. Alan Publications.
Ogren holds degrees from St. Olaf College, New England Conservatory and the Royal College of Music in Stockholm, where he studied as a Fulbright Scholar with Alan Gilbert and Jorma Panula. His wife, Carly Berger Ogren, is an architect, and together they have an adventurous 4 year old son, Alistair. An avid athlete, he has competed in the Big Sur, Boston and New York City marathons, the JFK 50 Miler trail run, and the Ironman Lake Placid triathlon. As an individual member of 1% for the Planet, Ogren is proud to connect his artistic work with his deep love of nature and concern for the environment.
About Timothy McAllister
Soprano chair of the renowned PRISM Quartet and one of the world’s leading artists, Timothy McAllister has been hailed as “a virtuoso…one of the foremost saxophonists of his generation” (The New York Times), an “exemplary soloist” (Gramophone Magazine), and “a titan of contemporary music and the instrument, in general” (The Cleveland Plain Dealer). Since his solo debut at age sixteen with the Houston Civic Symphony, his career has taken him throughout the United States, Australia, Russia, Canada, Japan, China, Mexico, France, Slovenia, Croatia, Switzerland, Great Britain, The Netherlands, Belgium, and Austria, garnering prizes at many prestigious national and international competitions, with solo performances in such venues as Prince Royal Albert Hall in London, the Sydney Opera House, Carnegie Hall’s Isaac Stern Auditorium, Zankel Hall and Weill Recital Hall, Boston’s Jordan Hall, Hong Kong Cultural Centre, Los Angeles’ Walt Disney Concert Hall, Sumida Triphony Hall in Tokyo, Dallas’ Meyerson Symphony Center, and the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam.
McAllister’s celebrated, internationally released recordings can be heard on the Nonesuch, Stradivarius, XAS/Symphonic, Summit, OMM, Einstein, NAXOS, AUR, New Dynamic, Albany, Equilibrium, New Focus, Centaur, G.I.A. Publications, Parma, and Innova labels. Mark Stryker of the Detroit Free Press recognized his albums as among the top classical saxophone recordings in the industry, and he has been featured on three Grammy Award-winning albums.
McAllister has premiered over 200 new works by today’s most eminent and emerging composers ranging from solo compositions by Gunther Schuller, Caleb Burhans, Jennifer Higdon, Benjamin Broening, Kati Agocs, Karalyn Schubring, Nina Shekhar, Mischa Zupko, Gregory Wanamaker, Roshanne Etezady, Kristin Kuster to saxophone quartets and chamber works by William Bolcom, Martin Bresnick, Juri Seo, George Lewis, Fang Man, Erik Santos, Steven Mackey, Lee Hyla, Libby Larsen, Lei Liang, Huang Ruo, Bright Sheng, David Rakowski, Zhou Long, Chen Yi, Joel Puckett, Brian Fennelly, Evan Chambers, Ken Ueno, Donnacha Dennehy, David T. Little among many others.
In October 2009, he appeared as saxophonist with the Los Angeles Philharmonic for Maestro Gustavo Dudamel’s Inaugural Gala concert performing the world premiere of Pulitzer Prize and multiple Grammy winning composer John Adams’ major new work, City Noir (released on DVD by Deutsche Grammophon), and performed the work with the orchestra throughout its May 2010 U.S. Tour, with appearances in San Francisco, Chicago, Phoenix, Philadelphia, and New York City’s Avery Fisher Hall at Lincoln Center. In March 2015, he reprised his City Noir role with the LAPhil and Dudamel for an acclaimed Asian Tour, including concerts in Hong Kong, Beijing, Seoul and Tokyo. He reunited with Dudamel in June 2017 to perform the work with the famed Berlin Philharmonic, which appears on the Digital Concert Hall and was recorded for the Berlin Philharmonic’s Grammy Award-nominated “John Adams Edition” anthology.
In August 2013, he gave the World Premiere of John Adams’ Saxophone Concerto - described by The Sydney Morning Herald as “an astonishing performance” - with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra under the baton of the composer in the Sydney Opera House. Subsequent United States premieres and international performances throughout 2013 and 2014 occurred with Marin Alsop and the Baltimore and Sao Paulo State (Brazil) symphonies, along with a recording of the Concerto and City Noir for Nonesuch Records with David Robertson and the St. Louis Symphony, which won the 2015 Grammy Award for Best Orchestral Performance. Other engagements with the Concerto have included the BBC Proms with the BBC Symphony Orchestra, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra, New World Symphony, Hong Kong Philharmonic, Croatian Radiotelevision Symphony, and the Cabrillo Festival Orchestra. As part of the 70th Birthday celebrations worldwide honoring Adams in 2017, he performed the Concerto with the Houston Symphony Orchestra, Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra, Orchestre National de Lyon, Indianapolis Symphony, along with other performances of Adams’s music with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, San Diego Symphony, and the Berlin Philharmonic.
Other recent performances as soloist and recording artist include the London Symphony Orchestra, Brussels Philharmonic, Strasbourg Philharmonic Orchestra, CityMusic Cleveland Chamber Orchestra, Fort Wayne Philharmonic, Elgin Symphony, Cabrillo Festival Orchestra, Reno Philharmonic, the Hot Springs Festival Orchestra, Texas Festival Orchestra at Round Top, Dallas Wind Symphony, United States Navy Band, Hong Kong Wind Philharmonia, Tokyo Wind Symphony, Detroit Chamber Winds and Strings, Albany Symphony Orchestra and the Oberlin Contemporary Music Ensemble. An in-demand orchestral musician, he has been invited to perform in the wind sections of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Detroit Symphony Orchestra, Chicago Philharmonic, National Symphony, Toronto Symphony, Oregon Symphony, Houston Symphony, Milwaukee Symphony, Phoenix Symphony, New World Symphony, Grand Rapids Symphony, and the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra.
During the 2021-2022 season, he gives the World Premiere of American icon John Corigliano’s “Triathlon for Saxophonist and Orchestra” with the San Francisco Symphony, under the baton of Grammy Award-winning conductor Giancarlo Guerrero, and he will be featured in For Wadada Leo Smith for saxophone and orchestra by the virtuoso performer/composer and MacArthur Foundation Fellow Tyshawn Sorey at the historic Lucerne Festival in Switzerland.
With the PRISM Quartet, he has appeared with The Crossing, Pacific Symphony, Boston Modern Orchestra Project, Opera Colorado, Columbus Symphony, Jacksonville Symphony, Ocean City Pops (NJ), Augusta Symphony, Cantori New York, Talujon Percussion Quartet, SO Percussion, Partch Ensemble, and the Nashville Symphony, in addition to numerous chamber music engagements and festivals nationwide such as the SONIC Festival, Bang On A Can Marathon and the Big Ears Festival. He has been a featured soloist at the national/international conferences of SEAMUS, the North American Saxophone Alliance Biennial meetings, the New England Saxophone Symposium, and the U.S Navy Band International Saxophone Symposium. Additionally, he has appeared as a concerto soloist at three World Saxophone Congresses in Minneapolis, Strasbourg, and Zagreb.
Since joining PRISM as soprano saxophonist and co-artistic director in 2001, he has premiered compositions by composer/performers Greg Osby, Tim Ries, Matt Levy, Tim Berne, and has collaborated with guitarist/composer Ben Monder and drummer Anthony Pinciotti. Recent seasons involved innovative crossover projects between PRISM and jazz saxophonists/composers Joe Lovano, Dave Liebman, Greg Osby, Steve Lehman, Rudresh Mahanthappa, Miguel Zenon and Tim Ries. Upcoming collaborations, commissions, and recordings over the next two seasons involve Hannah Kendall, Marcos Balter, Flannery Cunningham, Arturo O’Farrill, Michael Gordon, Melissa Aldana, Martin Bresnick, Juri Seo, Bright Sheng, Roberto Sierra, George Lewis, Jungyoon Wie, James Aikman, Susie Ibarra, Tyshawn Sorey, Ravi Coltrane, Chris Potter, Nina C. Young, Joe Lovano, Emily Cooley, Terell Stafford, & Robert Capanna.
A dedicated teacher, McAllister is Professor of Saxophone at The University of Michigan School of Music, Theatre and Dance, following the legacies of Larry Teal and Donald Sinta. This followed the same post at Northwestern University, succeeding the legendary Frederick Hemke, where he also served as Co-Director of the inaugural Institute for New Music from 2012-2015. Other faculty positions have included Arizona State University’s Herberger Institute School of Music, The University of Arizona Fred Fox School of Music, and SUNY Potsdam’s Crane School of Music. He spends his summers as a distinguished Valade Fellow/Instructor of Saxophone for the Interlochen Center for the Arts. He has given clinics and recitals at many of the nation’s elite universities and conservatories, and in 2003, he was invited by French virtuoso Claude Delangle to serve as a Guest Professor at the famed Conservatoire National Superieur de Musique in Paris. In 2013, he was a co-founding faculty member of the annual American Saxophone Academy first convened at the Eastman School of Music, and he is the first American saxophonist to serve as an instructor at the European University for Saxophone in Gap, France in 2015. He holds regular summer workshops at the Arosa (Switzerland) and Orford (Quebec, Canada) Music Academies and for the University of Michigan MPulse Program. In 2018, he was appointed to the Royal Northern College of Music (RNCM), Manchester UK, as International Visiting Tutor in Saxophone.
He holds the Doctor of Musical Arts and other degrees in music education, conducting and performance from The University of Michigan where he studied saxophone with Donald Sinta and conducting with H. Robert Reynolds. He is the only saxophonist to ever receive the School of Music’s most distinguished performance award—the Albert A. Stanley Medal. Alongside composer Derek Bermel, acclaimed tenor Nicholas Phan and New York Metropolitan Opera coach Howard Watkins, McAllister has been honored with the Paul C. Boylan Award from the Michigan School of Music Alumni Society for his significant contributions to the field of music. He and his PRISM colleagues received the inaugural Christopher Kendall Alumni Award, bestowed upon chamber groups or individuals who have demonstrated great achievement in performance, outreach, innovation and entrepreneurship. As a student, he was the featured soloist for the University of Michigan Symphony Band Centennial Anniversary Tour in 1997 and soprano chair of the Ninth Circle Saxophone Quartet, which was awarded the 2001 Grand Prize at the Fischoff International Chamber Music Competition.
Timothy McAllister is on the artist roster of Jonathan Wentworth Associates, Ltd. Additionally, he is a Conn-Selmer artist/clinician, while also serving as a Backun Woodwind Artist, assisting with research and mouthpiece design. He endorses Key Leaves and Peak Performance Woodwind products.
About Lidiya Yankovskaya
Lidiya Yankovskaya is a fiercely committed advocate for Slavic masterpieces, operatic rarities, and contemporary works on the leading edge of classical music. She has conducted more than 40 world premieres, including 17 operas, and her strength as a visionary collaborator has guided new perspectives on staged and symphonic repertoire from Carmen and Queen of Spades to Price and Prokofiev. Since her appointment as Elizabeth Morse and Genius Music Director of Chicago Opera Theater in 2017, Yankovskaya has led the Chicago premieres of Jake Heggie’s Moby-Dick, Rachmaninov’s Aleko, Joby Talbot’s Everest, Tchaikovsky’s Iolanta, and Adamo’s Becoming Santa Claus, as well as the world premiere of Dan Shore’s Freedom Ride. Her daring performances before and amid the pandemic earned recognition from the Chicago Tribune, which praised her as “the very model of how to survive adversity, and also how to thrive in it,” while naming her 2020 Chicagoan of the Year.
In the 2022-2023 season, Yankovskaya makes a series of major orchestral debuts, including performances with Los Angeles Philharmonic, New York Philharmonic, National Symphony Orchestra, Detroit Symphony Orchestra, Sacramento Philharmonic, Knoxville Symphony, and Richmond Symphony. She returns to the Chicago Symphony Orchestra for their MusicNOW series, conducting a work by CSO Composer-in-Residence Jessie Montgomery. She also debuts at Santa Fe Opera in a new production of Dvořák’s Rusalka, at Staatsoper Hamburg with Eugene Onegin, and at English National Opera, conducting a new staged production of Górecki’s Symphony of Sorrowful Songs. She leads the long-awaited world premieres of Edward Tulane at Minnesota Opera and The Life and Death(s) of Alan Turing at Chicago Opera Theater, where she also conducts the Chicago premiere of Szymanowski’s Król Roger.
Yankovskaya has recently conducted Carmen at Houston Grand Opera, Don Giovanni at Seattle Opera, Pia de’ Tolomei at Spoleto Festival USA, Der Freischütz at Wolf Trap Opera, Ellen West at New York’s Prototype Festival, and Taking Up Serpents at Washington National Opera and the Glimmerglass Festival. On the concert stage, recent engagements include Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Dallas Symphony Orchestra, Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra, Omaha Symphony, Rhode Island Philharmonic, and Julia Wolfe’s Anthracite Fields with Bang on a Can All-Stars and The Choir of Trinity Wall Street at Carnegie Hall.
Yankovskaya is Founder and Artistic Director of the Refugee Orchestra Project, which proclaims the cultural and societal relevance of refugees through music, and has brought that message to hundreds of thousands of listeners around the world. In addition to a National Sawdust residency in Brooklyn, ROP has performed in London, Boston, Washington, D.C., and the United Nations. She has also served as Artistic Director of the Boston New Music Festival and Juventas New Music Ensemble, which was the recipient of multiple NEA grants and National Opera Association Awards under her leadership.
As Music Director of Harvard’s Lowell House Opera, Yankovskaya conducted sold-out performances of repertoire rarely heard in Boston, including Tchaikovsky’s The Queen of Spades, Britten’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and the U.S. Russian-language premiere of Rimsky-Korsakov’s The Snow Maiden. Her commitment to exploring the breadth of symphonic and operatic repertoire has also been demonstrated in performances of Rachmaninoff’s Aleko and the American premieres of Donizetti’s Pia de’ Tolomei, Rubinshteyn’s The Demon, and Rimsky-Korsakov’s Kashchej The Immortal and Symphony No. 1.
An alumna of the Dallas Opera’s Hart Institute for Women Conductors and the Taki Alsop Conducting Fellowship, Yankovskaya has also served as assistant conductor to Lorin Maazel, chorus master of Boston Symphony Orchestra, and conductor of Boston Youth Symphony Orchestra. She has been featured in the League of American Orchestras Bruno Walter National Conductor Preview and Cabrillo Festival for Contemporary Music, and assisted Vladimir Jurowski via a London Philharmonic fellowship.
Yankovskaya holds a B.A. in Music and Philosophy from Vassar College, with a focus on piano, voice, and conducting, and earned an M.M. in Conducting from Boston University. Her conducting teachers and mentors have included Lorin Maazel, Marin Alsop, Kenneth Kiesler, and Ann Howard Jones.
Yankovskaya’s belief in the importance of mentorship has fueled the establishment of Chicago Opera Theater’s Vanguard Initiative, an investment in new opera that includes a two-year residency for emerging opera composers. Committed to developing the next generation of artistic leaders, she also volunteers with Turn The Spotlight, a foundation dedicated to identifying, nurturing, and empowering leaders – and in turn, to illuminating the path to a more equitable future in the arts.
Recipient of Solti Foundation U.S. Career Assistance Awards in 2018 and 2021, Yankovskaya has been a featured speaker at the League of American Orchestras and Opera America conferences, and served as U.S. Representative to the 2018 World Opera Forum in Madrid.
About Hannah Hammel Maser
Hannah Hammel Maser joined the Detroit Symphony Orchestra as Principal Flute in January 2020. She also plays regularly with Detroit Chamber Winds and Strings and New Music Detroit. Before joining the DSO, Hannah held the position of Principal Flute of the Knoxville Symphony Orchestra from 2017-2019.
As an orchestral musician, Hammel Maser has performed with the New York Philharmonic, Cleveland Orchestra, Pittsburgh Symphony, Nashville Symphony, Houston Grand Opera, Richmond Symphony, and New World Symphony. Hammel Maser has attended summer festivals including Tanglewood Music Center, Music Academy of the West, Pacific Music Festival, Spoleto Festival USA, and Round Top Music Festival.
Hammel Maser is a sought after teacher and orchestral excerpt coach and has been invited to teach for the Cleveland Institute of Music, Oberlin Conservatory, Cincinnati Conservatory of Music, University of North Texas, University of Alabama, University of Michigan, and Michigan State University and was a coach for Sphinx's 2022 Audition Intensive at New World Symphony. Hammel Maser has an active private studio in Detroit and also enjoys coaching flutists virtually.
As a soloist, Hammel Maser has won first place in the 2016 National Flute Association's Young Artist Competition, 2016 Houston Flute Club Byron Hester Competition, the 2015 Atlanta Flute Association Young Artist Competition, the 2014 National Flute Association Orchestral Excerpt & Masterclass Competition, 2013 Central Ohio Flute Association Collegiate Division Competition and second place in the 2013 Mid-South Flute Society’s Young Artist Competition. Hammel Maser now serves as the Competition Coordinator for the NFA's Orchestral Excerpt & Masterclass Competition.
A native of Richmond, VA, Hammel Maser began studying the flute with her mother, Alice Hammel. She holds a BM in flute performance and a minor in music theory from The Oberlin Conservatory (2015) where she studied with Alexa Still. She graduated with her MM in flute performance in 2017 from Rice University's Shepherd School of Music as a student of Leone Buyse.
Hammel Maser plays on an 18K gold Muramatsu flute and a Keefe piccolo. She lives in Detroit with her husband, trombonist Ian Maser, and their two labradoodles, Evelyn and Cooper.
About the DSO
The most accessible orchestra on the planet, 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. As a community-supported orchestra, generous giving by individuals and institutions at all levels drives the continued success and growth of the organization. In January 2020, Italian conductor Jader Bignamini was named the DSO’s next music director to commence with the 2020-2021 season. Celebrated conductor, arranger, and trumpeter Jeff Tyzik is the orchestra’s Principal Pops Conductor, while Oscar-nominated trumpeter and composer Terence Blanchard holds the Fred A. Erb Jazz Creative Director Chair.
Making its home at historic Orchestra Hall within the Max M. and Marjorie S. Fisher Music Center, the DSO offers a performance schedule that features PVS Classical, PNC Pops, Paradise Jazz, and Young People’s Family Concert series. One of the world’s most acoustically perfect concert halls, Orchestra Hall celebrated its centennial in 2019-2020. In addition, the DSO presents the William Davidson Neighborhood Concert Series in seven metro area venues, as well as a robust schedule of 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, which also reaches tens of thousands of children with the Classroom Edition expansion. With growing attendance and unwavering philanthropic support from the people of Detroit, the DSO actively pursues a mission to embrace and inspire individuals, families, and communities through unsurpassed musical experiences.