Detroit Symphony Orchestra — Orchestra Hall

Famous Detroiters

Famous people tied to this place 17

Lexicon entries for the people who lived, worked, performed or liked to spend time here.

• Betty Carter 1929–1998 · jazz singer, bandleader, educator

  Performed here

  As the Paradise Theatre (1941–1951) this hall hosted the amateur contest the teenage singer won in 1946; it is now the Detroit Symphony's Orchestra Hall.

• Neeme Järvi born 1937 · conductor

  Performed here

  The restored 1919 hall where Järvi led the orchestra for fifteen seasons and which grew into the Fisher Music Center in 2003.

• Leonard Slatkin born 1944 · conductor, composer, author

  Performed here

  The DSO's home hall, where Slatkin conducted for a decade and where the free Live from Orchestra Hall webcasts began in 2011.

• Horace Dodge 1868–1920 · machinist, automobile manufacturer, co-founder of Dodge Brothers

  Related place

  Horace and Anna Dodge were key backers of the hall built for the Detroit Symphony Orchestra; still the DSO's home.

• Paul Paray 1886–1979 · conductor, composer, organist

  Recorded here

  The then-empty old Orchestra Hall, where Paray and the DSO recorded Mercury albums such as Ravel's Boléro (1958); restored from 1970, it is again the orchestra's home.

• Ossip Gabrilowitsch 1878–1936 · pianist, conductor, composer

  Worked here

  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.

• Günther Herbig born 1931 · conductor

  Performed here

  Herbig led the orchestra in its first season back in the restored hall.

• Sugar Chile Robinson born 1938 · jazz and boogie-woogie pianist, singer

  Performed here

  As the Paradise Theatre (1941–1951) this hall was Detroit's top Black variety stage; three-year-old Robinson won a talent show here. It is now the Detroit Symphony's Orchestra Hall.

• Franco Ghione 1886–1964 · conductor, violinist

  Performed here

  The DSO's own hall until 1939, when Depression-era debts forced the orchestra out; it later became the Paradise Theatre jazz house and was restored from 1970.

• Lettie Beckon Alston 1953–2014 · composer, pianist, professor

  Performed here

  Her piano music was performed at the Unisys African-American Forum Chamber Music Concert here in April 1993.

• Max Fisher 1908–2005 · businessman, philanthropist, presidential adviser

  Memorial

  Home of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, joining historic Orchestra Hall with a new wing and a performing-arts high school; named for Fisher and his wife.

• Victor Kolar 1888–1957 · conductor, composer, violinist

  Performed here

  The Detroit Symphony's home hall during Kolar's years; restored and again the orchestra's home, now part of the Max M. and Marjorie S. Fisher Music Center.

• Harry Begian 1921–2010 · band director, conductor, arranger

  Performed here

  Begian was invited to conduct the Detroit Symphony Orchestra here in 1987.

• Jader Bignamini born 1976 · conductor, clarinetist

  Performed here

  The DSO's home, where Bignamini made his emergency debut and has led the orchestra's seasons since 2020.

• Anna Thompson Dodge 1866–1970 · philanthropist, heiress of Dodge Brothers

  Related place

  The DSO's hall, built with the Dodges' backing in 1919.

• Aaron Dworkin born 1970 · violinist, arts leader, educator

  Related place

  Orchestra Hall hosts the finals of the annual Sphinx Competition that Dworkin created.

• Paul Ganson ?–2021 · bassoonist, preservationist, orchestra historian

  Memorial

  The 1919 hall Ganson saved from demolition through the Save Orchestra Hall campaign; the DSO returned in 1989 and it anchors the Fisher Music Center.