The Detroit Symphony Orchestra’s 43rd annual Classical Roots Celebration featured virtual performances.
Photo credit Sarah Smarch
It was a whole mood on Saturday, March 6: sophisticatedly lit as classical music and Black culture collided powerfully during Detroit Symphony Orchestra’s 43rd annual Classical Roots Celebration.
The first-time virtual event pulled out all the stops (that COVID-19 couldn’t cancel) as the DSO Digital Concert performances were live-streamed from Orchestra Hall and creatively developed due to health safety precautions.
The DSO created the historically-renowned annual event to draw greater attention to Black composers and musicians’ contributions to the classical music genre. The money raised offers even greater opportunities for Black people in classical music and supports the DSO’s music development programs, including the African-American Orchestra Fellowship. This year, according to their programming description, two fellows were recognized, Jaqauin Sloan and Cole Randolph.
The Celebration is organized by a steering committee, co-chaired this year by Jasmin DeForrest and Linda Forte.
DeForrest said that it is “critical” to make sure there is diversity in classical music or otherwise “kids won’t know what to attain for” and to “see what they can become.”
The event raised about $315,0000 — nearly $50,000 more than their goal through sponsorship, advertising, and ticket revenue.
“This celebration would not be possible without the tireless work of our dedicated volunteer steering committee — this year had 40 volunteers meet monthly to make tonight a night to remember,” DeForrest said. “It was a challenge to pivot virtually. … without your support, time, and dedication, we would not have been able to make this happen.”
“It’s been amazing to see this all come together,” Forte said. “When we started planning last summer we didn’t know what it would lool kike … were we surprised and so proud.”
“It’s hard to believe the last time we all gathered at the 2020 Classical Roots — the energy and excitement continues,” DeForrest said during a hype virtual pre-celebration that included wine tasting with a master sommelier, a hearty steak meal, and performances.
Spirits and energy were high as the DSO performed with The Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis, special guest clarinetist Anthony McGill, and conductor William Eddins.
The Celebration included DSO honoring Vera Heidelberg, Marsalis, and Marlowe Stoudamire.
“Tonight we will honor … people who exemplify DSO’s Classical Roots’ mission,” Forte said.
Heidelberg is a community leader, longtime DSO supporter, and philanthropist. She served as co-chair on the inaugural Classical Roots Steering Committee along with Dr. Arthur L. Johnson. She was critical in laying the framework for subsequent committees while continuing to expand the mission of Classical Roots. Heidelberg and her late husband, Dr. Robert P. Heidelberg, founded Heidelberg Dermatology in northwest Detroit in 1971.
Heidelberg said that she first heard about classical roots in 1978.
“During the time when so many people became more aware of what was happening in the Black communities and becoming more aware of our history, and the lack of our history, we felt it was just very important to support that concert,” she said. “They asked me as a community person to help them develop a committee and it started very basically (through a) mailing list, talking, spreading the word and trying to get the word out and that is what we intended to do,” she said.
Ellen Hill Zeringue, the Classical Roots Steering Committee’s past chair, described her as elegant, graceful, kind, and loving.
“Never forceful, always kind and her kindness wants to make you show up and do the best that you possibly can and I’ve learned from Mrs. Heidelberg that you are to bring others along. The only way things will get better is if more and more people are involved,” Zeringue said.
The first Classical Roots concert took place in 1978 at Detroit’s historic Bethel AME Church. Co-founded by the DSO’s then-Resident Conductor Paul Freeman, arts patron, civil rights activist Arthur L. Johnson, choral director, artistic administrator Brazeal Dennard, and other prominent African American leaders, Classical Roots soon outgrew Bethel AME. According to a press release, they moved to Orchestra Hall in 1981, where it has been a beloved annual tradition ever since.
According to a press release, Stoudamire helped guide the mission of Classical Roots and inspired innovation and creativity as a member of the Steering Committee for the past six years. He was an enthusiastic and engaged supporter of the arts and youth development in Detroit and served as a mentor to innumerable young professionals and community leaders. In March 2020, Stoudamire tragically lost his life to COVID-19 at the age of 43.
Peppered throughout the concert were powerful musical performances, including Anthony McGill, who played “Lift Every Voice and Sing” on his clarinet. The soft sounds exuded boldness and a rich tapestry of emotions. Dressed in a black suit and bowtie, a warm spotlight shone down on him as blue lights surrounded the lone player.
Other performances kicked off, including Damon Dandridge’s “I know I’ve Been Changed,” and Marsalis’s “Meeelaan,” performed by Michael Ke Ma on the bassoon.
Marsalis is an internationally acclaimed musician, composer, bandleader, educator, and a leading advocate of American cultural elements. He has recorded over 70 jazz and classical albums that have garnered him nine Grammy Awards. In 1983, Marsalis became the first and only artist to win both classical and jazz Grammy Awards in the same year, according to a press release.; he repeated this feat in 1984. In 1997, he became the first jazz artist to be awarded the prestigious Pulitzer Prize in music for his oratorio Blood on the Fields, commissioned by Jazz at Lincoln Center. Marsalis has created and performed an expansive range of music from quartets to big bands, chamber music ensembles to symphony orchestras, and tap dance to ballet, expanding the vocabulary for jazz and classical music, a vital body of work that places him among the world’s finest musicians and composers.
Marsalis started playing trumpet at six years old, and he would go to a lot of gigs with him, as Marsalis explained in a video during the virtual event.
“One time my mother got us together and we went to a symphony concert … we were definitely the only Black people near the concert and we were some of the youngest people there,” Marsalis said. “We noticed there was one brother in the orchestra and he played the flute.”
Marsalis said that he always saw his father, Ellis Marsalis, a renowned jazz pianist and educator (who died last year), teaching.
“If you can recognize creativity in other people, huh, then you are comfortable sharing space, you don’t feel like you have to take up all the space. And if you love music, you have a life of enjoyment. There is so much great music, you will never touch the surface,” Marsalis said.
Visit dso.org/classicalroots for more information on the Celebration.
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