DETROIT SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA

JADER BIGNAMINI , Music Director

Music Directorship endowed by the Kresge Foundation

TERENCE BLANCHARD

Fred A. Erb Jazz Creative Director Chair

NA’ZIR MCFADDEN

Assistant Conductor, Phillip & Lauren Fisher Community Ambassador

LEONARD SLATKIN

Music Director Laureate

RESPECT: A TRIBUTE TO ARETHA FRANKLIN

Friday, May 26, 2023 at 10:45 a.m. & 8 p.m.

Saturday, May 27, 2023 at 8 p.m.

Sunday, May 28, 2023 at 3 p.m. in Orchestra Hall

NA’ZIR MCFADDEN, conductor

TAMIKA LAWRENCE , vocals

SHALEAH ADKISSON, vocals

BLAINE ALDEN KRAUSS, vocals

JOHN BOSWELL , piano

Program to be announced from the stage

NEEME JÄRVI

Music Director Emeritus

PROGRAM AT-A-GLANCE | RESPECT: A TRIBUTE TO ARETHA FRANKLIN

Remembering the Queen of Soul

Aretha Franklin was crowned the “Queen of Soul” by Chicago DJ Pervis Spann in 1967—the same year “Respect” hit the charts, launching her to a status of global renown. Born in Memphis, Tennessee, Franklin moved to Detroit when she was two years old after her father accepted a job as the minister at the New Bethel Baptist Church. She grew up in the church parish house on Boston Boulevard and Oakland Avenue and was exposed at an early age to music legends including Art Tatum and Nat King Cole, who would often come to her house to visit with her father. Her childhood home was in the same neighborhood that produced Motown legends Smokey Robinson, The Four Tops, Diana Ross, and Jackie Wilson.

After her 1967 release of “Respect,” she earned more than 20 Grammy Awards and number one R&B hits, recorded on major labels such as Columbia, Atlantic, and Arista, and received a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 1994. She also sang at inaugurations of three US presidents and was the first woman to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. At Sir Elton John’s “Farewell Yellow Brick Road” concert at Comerica Park in July 2022, John reminisced about his friendship with Franklin, and recalled how she insisted on performing at his AIDS Foundation fundraiser in a New York church just months before her death. On this performance, he remarked, “for an hour and a quarter, she blew the roof off the cathedral.”