Board Leadership

DETROIT SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA, INC.

LIFETIME DIRECTORS CHAIRS EMERITI

Samuel Frankel◊ Stanley Frankel David Handleman, Sr.◊ Dr. Arthur L. Johnson◊ James B. Nicholson Anne Parsons,

President Emeritus◊ Barbara Van Dusen Clyde Wu, M.D.◊ Peter D. Cummings Mark A. Davidoff Phillip Wm. Fisher Stanley Frankel Robert S. Miller James B. Nicholson

DIRECTORS EMERITI

Floy Barthel Chacona Baugh Penny B. Blumenstein Richard A. Brodie Lois Cohn Marianne Endicott Sidney Forbes Barbara Frankel Herman H. Frankel Dr. Gloria Heppner Ronald Horwitz Bonnie Larson Arthur C. Liebler Harold Kulish David McCammon David R. Nelson William F. Pickard, Ph.D. Marilyn Pincus Lloyd E. Reuss Marjorie S. Saulson Alan E. Schwartz Jane Sherman Arthur A. Weiss

David T. Provost Chair Erik Rönmark President & CEO OFFICERS OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Faye Alexander Nelson Vice Chair Laura Trudeau Treasurer

James G. Vella Secretary Ralph J. Gerson Officer at Large

Glenda D. Price, Ph.D. Officer at Large Shirley Stancato Officer at Large

BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Directors are responsible for maintaining a culture of accountability, resource development, and strategic thinking. As fiduciaries, Directors oversee the artistic and cultural health and strategic direction of the DSO.

David Assemany, Governing Members Chair Michael Bickers Amanda Blaikie Orchestra Representative Elena Centeio Dave Everson Orchestra Representative Aaron Frankel Herman B. Gray, M.D., M.B.A. Laura HernandezRomine Rev. Nicholas Hood III Richard Huttenlocher Renato Jamett Trustee Chair Daniel J. Kaufman Michael J. Keegan Xavier Mosquet David Nicholson Arthur T. O’Reilly Stephen Polk Bernard I. Robertson Nancy Tellem Laura J. Trudeau David M. Wu, M.D. Ellen Hill Zeringue

BOARD OF TRUSTEES

Renato Jamett, Chair Trustees are a diverse group of community leaders who infuse creative thinking and innovation into how the DSO strives to achieve both artistic vitality and organizational sustainability.

Renato Jamett, Trustee Chair Ismael Ahmed Richard Alonzo Hadas Bernard Janice Bernick Elizabeth Boone Gwen Bowlby Dr. Betty Chu Karen Cullen Joanne Danto Stephen D’Arcy Maureen T. D’Avanzo Jasmin DeForrest Afa Sadykhly Dworkin James C. Farber Abe Feder, Musician Representative Linda Forte Carolynn Frankel Maha Freij Christa Funk Robert Gillette Jody Glancy Malik Goodwin Mary Ann Gorlin Donald Hiruo Michelle Hodges Julie Hollinshead Sam Huszczo John Jullens Laurel Kalkanis Jay Kapadia David Karp Joel D. Kellman John Kim Jennette Smith Kotila Leonard LaRocca William Lentine Linda Dresner Levy Florine Mark Anthony McCree Kristen McLennan Tito Melega Lydia Michael H. Keith Mobley Scott Monty Shari Morgan Sandy Morrison Frederick J. Morsches Jennifer Muse, NextGen Chair Sean M. Neall Eric Nemeth Maury Okun Jackie Paige Vivian Pickard Denise Fair Razo Gerrit Reepmeyer James Rose, Jr. Laurie Rosen Elana Rugh Marc Schwartz Carlo Serraiocco Lois L. Shaevsky Mary Shafer Ralph Skiano, Musician Representative Richard Sonenklar Rob Tanner Yoni Torgow Gwen Weiner Donnell White Jennifer Whitteaker R. Jamison Williams Margaret E. Winters

MAESTRO CIRCLE EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE

Janet & Norm Ankers, Chairs

Cecilia Benner Joanne Danto Gregory Haynes Bonnie Larson Lois Miller Richard Sonenklar

classical roots Beyond the music

By Hannah Engwall

This March, the DSO will honor composer and pianist Anthony Davis and Reverend Dr. Charles G. Adams at the 22ND ANNUAL ARTHUR L. JOHNSON-HONORABLE DAMON JEROME KEITH CLASSICAL ROOTS CELEBRATION. Originated in 1978, Classical Roots honors African American composers, musicians, educators, and leaders for lifetime achievement and raises funds to support the DSO’s African American music and musician development programs.

This year’s Classical Roots concerts will be conducted by DSO Assistant Conductor Na’Zir McFadden and include John Rosamond Johnson’s Lift Every Voice and Sing (arr. Roland Carter) and Florence Price’s Concert Overture No. 2 alongside works by contemporary Black artists: You Have the Right to Remain Silent by Anthony Davis and Concerto No. 1: SERMON, an array of music and literary texts assembled by bass-baritone Davóne Tines.

We sat down with Davis and Tines to discuss their works and what it means to be part of Classical Roots.

Davis’s You Have the Right to Remain Silent is a four-movement concerto inspired by the composer’s own experience of “driving while Black” in the 1970s. A person matching Davis’s description had robbed a bank, and in a case of mistaken identity, Davis and his wife were pulled over by police.

“To have a policeman point a gun at you is scary, and it showed me how perilous it is that certain assumptions were made,” said Davis. “For Black people, particularly Black males of a certain age, this is something that we all experience while driving.”

Davis emerged physically unharmed, but the encounter left a lasting impression that he later channeled in You Have the Right to Remain Silent.

In the piece’s first movement, Interrogation, Davis explores the vulnerability of the solo instrument’s relationship to the orchestra. “When I began the project, the first thing I thought about was the orchestra interrogating the clarinetist. The piece starts almost as if it’s in the middle of a scene—I wanted this feeling of being plunged into something right away.”

With the DSO at Classical Roots, the piece will feature Anthony McGill, Principal Clarinet of the New York Philharmonic and a champion of Davis’s work in recent years. McGill previously performed at Classical Roots in 2021, under conductor William Eddins.

“McGill is a brilliant clarinetist who brings a certain vulnerability and emotion to the piece,” said Davis. “With him, the clarinet becomes a

Anthony McGill performs at a 2021 Classical Roots concert (by Sarah Smarch) Internationally renowned poet, playwright, performance artist, and producer jessica Care moore (by Kennette Lamar, Annistique Photography)

character, and he finds moments of real lyricism.”

Alongside avant-garde pioneer Earl Howard on the Kurzweil synthesizer, McGill explores multiphonics and other more extended techniques on the contra-alto clarinet.

In the Incarceration movement, we hear the speech rhythms of the complete Miranda warning accompanied by percussion, expanding upon the haunting “you have the right to remain silent” refrain that is prominent throughout the work.

The final movement, Dance of the Other, expresses what it’s like to walk or dance in someone else’s shoes. “It’s about the hope for transcending these negative experiences, and the fact that we can empathize,” said Davis.

“When the piece begins, it has the percussion and the clarinet. It’s almost like an African folk song, which is what I wanted to evoke. There’s a sense of the hopefulness in that, and the idea of reclaiming one’s innocence—meaning innocence at all levels: in terms of being charged with a crime, and then innocence in terms of not being jaded, not being so affected by these experiences that we can’t accept love or compassion from others.”

For Tines, Concerto No. 1: SERMON was born of an invitation he received in late 2020 to perform with The Philadelphia Orchestra.

The original invitation was to do John Adams’s The Wound-Dresser, but Tines felt compelled to go in a different direction. “I wanted to explore what else I could I say with this opportunity to sing something in the contemporary vein, but that was also truer to what I felt like I needed to say at that time in our collective history, which was some sort of statement that dealt head-on with this revitalized racial reckoning. Concerto No. 1: SERMON was my attempt to speak honestly in this context where art about Black trauma was being expected.”

For the work, Tines assembled an array of music and literary texts, including musical selections by Davis (“You Want the Truth, but You Don’t Want to Know” from X: The Life and Times of Malcolm X) and John Adams, along with a piece Tines co-wrote with Igée Dieudonné and Matthew Aucoin. The texts include excerpts by James Baldwin, Langston Hughes, and Detroit poet jessica Care moore, who is also featured in the performance.

Tines originally met moore during his

residency at Detroit Opera, which culminated in May 2022 with his performance in the title role of Davis’s X: The Life and Times of Malcolm X. With Moore, Tines felt an immediate connection, one that grew as he became more familiar with her work and the broader network of artists that she was a part of. “I realized the depth of her love for her city, and her conviction about telling the truth of her experience.”

Concerto No. 1: SERMON draws audiences in with the proclamation that “I am going to shake heaven and earth,” something that Tines achieves not through anger or aggression, but through a simple display of humanity and emotion. The piece aims to hold a mirror to the audience, inviting them to interrogate why it is even necessary to make art that calls out the degradation of humanity.

“Jessica is able to address Black lived experience in a very direct, clear, and poetic way,” said Tines. “Having her writing as the centerpiece does exactly what we need it to do—turn the proposition on its head and say yes, I’m here, proving my humanity to you, but why is it even necessary for me to do that in the first place?”

Through previous collaborations, Davis and Tines have built a strong mutual respect and appreciation for one another.

“He’s an incredible artist and I really enjoy working with him,” said Davis of Tines. “He’s been a real trailblazer in devising and transforming the role of what the opera singer/soloist is supposed to be by creating his own programs using other music to tell a different kind of story.”

Of Davis, Tines shares similar admiration: “Anthony is a genius in many ways. He creates music that is at the intersection of so many different ideas, histories, aesthetics, and ways of being, and I find myself contending with those

intersections as well. It was amazing to meet somebody who had done such incredible work to coalesce the diversity of their experience and the Black experience and make that incarnate within a classical music context, generations before myself.” Born in 1951, Davis has been active for decades as a composer, educator, and pianist, and in the 1990s, took part in the DSO’s Unisys African American Composer Residency Program. Both he and Tines look forward to continuing the legacy of African American music at the DSO with Classical Roots. “I’ve enjoyed my experiences in Detroit and am excited to bring this piece to the city,” said Davis. “Detroit is a serious center for African and African American music from R&B and jazz to classical, and Classical Roots sheds light on the fact that African Americans are deeply involved in Davóne Tines classical music and that it is part of our whole spectrum of expression.” Tines echoed Davis’s sentiments: “All of the people that I’ve engaged with in Detroit are very passionate and curious about what’s going on in their city. There’s a certain je ne sais quois about the Detroit energy and spirit that is unique from other places. I’ve seen a certain kind of unified identity that also is unable to fully articulate itself, but you can actually feel it. And that’s something I’m thrilled to experience again.” “I’m very glad that the work that I make, that engages identity, can be experienced in a context where people are open minded in that way. Concerto No. 1: SERMON is very direct to the exact context in which Classical Roots is also trying to make change, and I hope that I’m able to show a contemporary method for addressing the necessity for equitable engagement of other histories by predominantly white institutions. I hope that the work strikes a chord with people to try to interrogate how they are contributing to making change.”