“The Detroit Pistons are aiming to widen musical opportunities for young students in the city through a new partnership with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra,” writes Brian McCollum in Monday’s (5/7) Detroit Free Press. “The multiyear initiative will expand the DSO’s Civic Youth Ensembles program—including formation of a percussion group and bucket band—and subsidize free attendance to DSO performances for fourth graders in the Detroit Public Schools Community District…. Funding will also go to the nonprofit Sphinx Organization and its Sphinx Honors Competition at Orchestra Hall, where young black and Latino classical musicians compete annually…. Following decades in Oakland County, the DSO partnership is a sign of the team’s growing entrenchment in the city.… Pistons owner Tom Gores … Pistons vice chairman Arn Tellem and the Detroit Pistons Foundation are financially supporting the effort. Funding amounts were not immediately disclosed…. The new percussion group and bucket band will be part of the DSO’s long-running Civic Youth Ensembles program, which provides music instruction and, over time, full scholarships for participating students.… The new effort will fund free access for fourth-grade students and teachers … during the next three years.”
Posted May 8, 2018
Pictured: Student musicians in the Detroit Symphony Orchestra’s Civic Youth Ensembles
