Music
Ossip Gabrilowitsch
1878–1936 · pianist, conductor, composer
Russian-born pianist who became the first music director of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra and made the city build Orchestra Hall for it in 1919.
- Born
Saint Petersburg, Russian Empire- Died
Detroit, Michigan
aged 58- Birth name
- Osip Solomonovich Gabrilovich
- Also known as
- Osip Gabrilovich
- Detroit years
- 1918–1936
- Field
- Music
01 / The Detroit story
The Detroit story
A celebrated concert pianist trained in St. Petersburg and Vienna, Gabrilowitsch married Clara Clemens, Mark Twain's daughter, in 1909. In 1918 he became the founding music director of the reorganized Detroit Symphony Orchestra, while continuing to tour as a soloist. In 1919 he threatened to leave unless the orchestra got a hall worthy of it; within about five months Orchestra Hall rose on Woodward Avenue at Parsons Street and opened that October. In 1922 he conducted what is described as the first complete symphony concert on radio, over Detroit station WWJ, and he later launched the Ford Sunday Evening Hour broadcasts. He also started youth concert series that offered up to ten free performances a year for students. He and Clara took an active part in Detroit society during the city's boom years. He led the orchestra until his death from stomach cancer in Detroit in 1936, and he is buried beside Mark Twain in Elmira, New York.
Highlights
- Founding music director of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra (1918–1936)
- Orchestra Hall was built in 1919 at his insistence
- Conducted the first complete symphony concert on radio (WWJ, 1922)
- Son-in-law of Mark Twain
02 / Their Detroit places
Their Detroit places 1
Where they lived, worked, performed and liked to hang out. Closed and demolished places stay here too, because they are part of the city's history.
Worked here · 1919–1936
Detroit Symphony Orchestra — Orchestra Hall
Concert hall built in 1919 at his insistence as the Detroit Symphony Orchestra's home; after the orchestra left in 1939 it served as the Paradise Theatre jazz venue, was saved from demolition in 1970 and has been the orchestra's home again since 1989.