Challenge Detroit: Detroit Symphony Orchestra Returns with 37/11

Saturday night, 7:50 p.m. After enjoying a wonderful dinner at Cass Café, a very stylish group of classy Challenge Detroit fellows prepare to leave. Chairs are pushed back, jackets and shawls draped around shoulders, and heels are tightened. As the group makes its way down the stairs and out into the breezy night air, the fellows chat excitedly about their next destination—the Max M. Fisher Music Center.

 The Fisher Center itself is a gorgeous building. The glass doors opened, and we were welcomed into a spacious foyer by the sounds of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra. While waiting for the rest of the group to congregate, I had a few minutes to explore the space. I walked up the four flights of stairs, and looked around at the various posters, photographs, and light displays celebrating music within the community.

From my upper balcony seat, I enjoyed the show with my fellow fellows. It was an incredible musical event, where the renowned DSO performed three pieces (Aaron Copland’s Rodeo Ballet, John Williams’ The Five Sacred Trees, and Sergei Rachmaninoff’s Symphony No. 1 in D minor). It was an exhilarating movement as we transitioned from piece to piece. It really didn’t even seem like we were sitting still, listening to classical music. They were more exciting; more like movie scores, perhaps. Really incredible scores.

The thing that struck me the most about the performance was the bigness of it all. I couldn’t believe that the group of people sitting on the stage below me was making all that music. No speakers, no microphones. Just individual artists playing their instruments. The acoustics, the volume, the feeling, the grandeur of it all left me with the most spectacular sensation.

There is something about music, isn’t there? Because music says the things we can’t say ourselves. And the DSO certainly said it well. 

love,

bcl.