Detroit Symphony Orchestra

 The first time I attended the Detroit Symphony Orchestra was not by choice. I was taking a history of music class at Macomb Community College and one of our assignments was to attend a DSO concert of our choice before the semester ended and write a three page paper on our experience and how the experience related the lessons covered through out the semester. Of course, I waited until the last minute, as I do with everything, and left work early to attend to very last concert available the day before the assignment was due. The concert was held at the Fox Theater in downtown Detroit, and although I was forced to attend I was actually pretty excited about it since I had never seen the Detroit Symphony Orchestra or the Fox Theater and love classical music.

My professor had told the class the dress was “pretty casual,” and I realized as soon as I walked through the door I completely misread what she was talking about. At the time I worked at Moosejaw, a mountaineering store filled with fun loving hippies. We loved to camp, travel and we could care less what we looked like. As I left work that night I figured my Moosejaw hoodie and jeans would work just fine for the “pretty casual event” so my attire was anything but magnificent. When I walked in I felt out of place. As I looked around I realized everyone was dressed to the nine; black suits and long flowing gowns filled the cocktail lobby. I wanted to ground to swallow me; people looked at us like we were lost. My boyfriend at the time worked at Moosejaw too and he attended the concert with me looking a mess, just as I did. We looked at each other and laughed, realizing the only thing that was going to get us through this experience was going to be overpriced cocktails . . . . $9.00 cocktails to be exact.

“Kelly, you know more about classical music than most of the people in this room,” Brandon said to me. In that moment, I decided he was right, and I was going to enjoy the experience and look past the fact that I didn’t exactly fit in with the crowd.

The DSO performance was based on Beethoven, the great, and I was really excited. I grew up with classical music in my home, as my dad played the piano everyday, the guitar, and basically any instrument he could get his hands on. Before I took the class, I knew more about Beethoven, Brahms, and Tchaikovsky than most people my age because it was a part of my daily life. As I found my seat the feeling of anxiety started to fade. Typically, the wait before a show annoys me; I tend to find myself getting antsy, saying “come on hurry up” in my head, but this time I felt like I needed more than the twenty minutes given to take in everything I was seeing before the Orchestra started. The building was amazing; each tiny square foot of the Theater was intricate, covered in gold, gorgeous statues with hand painted ceilings above.

The performance was amazing too. It’s a blessing and a curse when you can read and hear music as it is suppose to be performed because it makes it easy to find the flaws and pick the performers apart without even knowing that you’re doing it. The DSO never missed a beat; they played each Beethoven piece as if he were standing in front of them, guiding them through their performance. The DSO performs at many different places in the Detroit community, and each performance is just as good as the last. If you ever get a change to see a concert it will change your life. If classical music is not for you, I still recommend attending an event at the Fox Theater, it is an amazing experience and the building is an art all its own.