


































103-Article Text-327-3-11-20200511


 

 

 

 

VOL. 9, NO. 1 
SPRING 2020 

 

 SPECIAL ISSUE: DETROIT  

Making Detroit Sound Great  
The Detroit Symphony Orchestra and Its Post-Strike Transformations 

Nathinee Chucherdwatanasak 
University of Michigan 

ABSTRACT: After its 2010–11 contentious strike, the Detroit Symphony Orchestra 
(DSO) reinvented itself as “the most accessible orchestra on the planet.” This post-
strike vision and its subsequent strategies reflected corporate entrepreneurship’s 
two phenomena: corporate venturing and strategic renewal. The DSO’s 
entrepreneurial turn enabled the orchestra to be more flexible strategically and 
structurally, broadened its role to become both nonprofit cultural organization and 
social-service institution, and helped the DSO contribute to revitalizing Detroit. Still, 
as most activities took place in Downtown/Midtown and Metro Detroit 
neighborhoods, the DSO was still far from being a true advocate for citizens of its 
very own city. 

Monday, October 4, 2010 was supposed to be a day off for the musicians of the Detroit 
Symphony Orchestra (DSO). About sixty players, however, chose to go to work that morning. 
They put on their formal black concert attire and headed toward Orchestra Hall. Yet, instead of 
entering the stage doors at the back, unpacking their instruments, and beginning their warm-
up routine as they would normally do, the musicians positioned themselves in front of the hall, 
as if they were a group of audience members waiting for the front doors to open. Instead of 
sitting on stage, they strode in circles along the sidewalk. Instead of symphonies, a horn quartet 
played marches and anthem-like music, while musicians murmured in the background. Instead 
of musical scores and parts, the only texts presented that morning appeared on the picket signs 
carried by the marching musicians reading, for example, “The DSO Musicians MAKE 
DETROIT ‘SOUND’ GREAT!” and “Bringing Detroit’s Music to The World.” The ninety-
minute show marked the downbeat of what would become a six-month strike (Associated Press 



ARTIVATE 9.1 

 44 

2010; WSWS 2010; WXYZ_TV Detroit 2010). 
The strike, spanning a total of twenty-six weeks, was one of the most tumultuous periods 

in the history of the DSO. It was the longest work stoppage of the institution’s ninety-six years 
of operation. In the wake of the bitter walkout, the DSO became the first major American 
orchestra to shorten its contract to fewer than fifty-two weeks (Johnson 2010). Ten musicians 
left the orchestra, including concertmaster Emmanuelle Boisvert who had served the orchestra 
for over two decades (Stryker 2012). Its financial status was wobbly, with debt and deficits 
rapidly piling up while an endowment drastically declined (Johnson 2008; Stryker 2011a). 

 
Table 1. DSO’s Revenues and Expenses by Concert Season 

 
Two years after the strike was resolved, however, the picture was completely different. The 

orchestra closed its 2012–13 season with a small financial surplus (Cooper 2013). It then 
continued to balance its operating budget in the following six seasons (see Table 1). Its 
subscription base grew for five consecutive years, both in terms of revenue and the number of 
households (DSO 2016a, 31–32). A popular new initiative, Live from Orchestra Hall, which 
streamed classical concerts on the DSO website, accumulated over one million views during its 
first five years of service (DSO 2016a, 22). These favorable outcomes not only defied a national 
trend that saw increasing deficits and dwindling audiences throughout the symphonic world 
(Flanagan 2012; League 2016, 7–8), but also resisted Detroit’s economic decline that persisted 
for decades (Smith and Kirkpatrick 2015). How did the DSO manage to stand firm on this shaky 
ground? How did the orchestra thrive when its counterparts struggled for survival and its 
hometown was on the verge of bankruptcy?  

The DSO’s ability to reinvent itself as “the most accessible orchestra on the planet”—a 
slogan that emerged in the wake of the strike—was the key to this accomplishment. This brand-

 2011–
2012 

2012–
2013 

2013–
2014 

2014–
2015 

2015–
2016 

2016–
2017 

2017–
2018 

Ticket revenuea $5.61 $6.29 $7.20 $6.86 $6.79 $7.28 $7.08 

Contributed 
revenuea 

$14.75 $17.93 $33.64 $22.34 $23.27 $26.75 $19.27 

Total revenuea $25.06 $28.68 $47.38 $35.04 $35.30 $46.11 $33.45 

Total expensesa $32.95 $31.56 $32.84 $32.93 $33.68 $36.34 $34.64 

Net surplus/deficita -$7.89 -$2.88 $14.54 $2.11 $1.62 $9.77 -$1.19 

Net surplus/deficit 
from operationsb 

-$2.81 $0.02 $0.06 $0.03 $0.42 $0.10 $0.04 

Note. Dollars in millions 
aSources: DSO 2012, 2013b, 2014b, 2015b, 2016b, 2017a, and 2018b. 

bSources: DSO 2013a, 2014a, 2015a, 2016a, 2018a.  



ARTIVATE 9.1 

 45 

new vision transformed the DSO’s fundamental approach to operation. It altered the orchestra’s 
products and services, built different target customer segments, and adjusted the post-strike 
musician contract to accommodate new accessibility initiatives. Through this vision, the DSO 
offered more than the traditional symphonic music programs via different media outlets and 
performing venues to reach people of more diverse communities throughout Metro Detroit and 
beyond with reduced or even free admission. As a result, the DSO became a more inclusive and 
culturally relevant institution that helped contribute to revitalizing the city of Detroit and its 
surrounding area. 

Corporate Entrepreneurship 
By reshaping the organization’s key ideas and creating new services, the post-strike vision and 
its subsequent strategies could be perceived as the DSO’s entrepreneurial efforts to transform 
itself. Entrepreneurship at a firm-level like this is called corporate entrepreneurship, although 
other terms are used to describe a similar condition such as corporate venturing, 
intrapreneurship, or strategic renewal (Cuervo, Ribeiro, and Roig 2007). The scope of corporate 
entrepreneurship’s definition varies depending on scholars and their research. Hornsby et. al. 
(1993, 30), for example, broadly define it as “the develop of new business endeavors within the 
corporate framework,” while Block and MacMillan (1993, 14) take a much narrower approach 
when constructing conditions for corporate venture: 

A project is a Corporate Venture when it (a) involves an activity new to the organization, (b) is 
initiated or conducted internally, (c) involves significantly higher risk of failure or large losses 
than the organization’s base business, (d) is characterized by greater uncertainty than the base 
business, (e) will be managed separately at some time during its life, (f) is undertaken for the 
purpose of increasing sales, profit, productivity or quality.  

While the creation of any new business in a firm would count as a corporate 
entrepreneurial effort for the former, it would not be considered so by the latter unless that new 
business is risk-taking, profit-driven, and temporarily managed by an autonomous unit.  

A widely accepted definition of corporate entrepreneurship by Guth and Ginsberg, 
however, encompasses two phenomena: corporate venturing and strategic renewal (Guth and 
Ginsberg 1990, 5; Sharma and Chrisman 2007, 90). The first, corporate venturing, refers to “the 
birth of new business within existing organization,” which “may or may not lead to the 
formation of new organizational units” (Guth and Ginsberg 1990, 5; Sharma and Chrisman 
2007, 93) The second, strategic renewal, means “the transformation of organizations through 
renewal of the key ideas on which they are built,” which “result[s] in significant changes to an 
organization’s business or corporate level strategy or structure” (Guth and Ginsberg 1990, 5; 
Sharma and Chrisman 2007, 93). In other words, creating new businesses (with or without a 
new organizational unit) constitutes only one part of corporate entrepreneurship; renewing the 
organization’s strategy and structure also signifies entrepreneurial efforts in a firm-level. In this 
sense, innovation is not a necessary condition for corporate entrepreneurship. In fact, Guth and 



ARTIVATE 9.1 

 46 

Ginsberg view the newness within the scope of the organization itself. Entrepreneurial behavior 
is in view as long as “changes in the pattern of resource deployment—new combinations of 
resources in Schumpeter’s terms—transform the firm into something significantly different 
from what it was before—something ‘new’” (Guth and Ginsberg 1990, 6). An organization 
engages in corporate entrepreneurship when it transforms itself from the old to the new.  

The DSO’s accessibility vision and its subsequent approaches reflect the two phenomena 
of corporate venturing and strategic renewal. The vision itself has renewed the DSO’s strategy 
and structure to be not only a nonprofit cultural institution that is preoccupied with the 
traditional role as a custodian of a musical tradition but also a community-service organization 
that engages with audiences of a more diverse socioeconomic status and musical preferences. 
Putting vision into action, the DSO incorporated various approaches of accessibility in many 
parts of its organization (Sphinx Organization 2016). Making the tickets more affordable, the 
orchestra reduced the average price to as low as that of the 1999 season, with half of the seats 
being $25 or less. It also came up with a tiered ticket pricing strategy to accommodate a broad 
range of customer demographics, including discounted tickets for young professionals ($10 per 
ticket with $40 annual membership fee), rush tickets for Detroit residents ($15 per ticket), and 
a very low-cost Soundcard student membership (free tickets to most concerts with $25 annual 
membership fee). Its musical programming encompassed a variety of musical genres and 
activities in addition to the typical classical, jazz, and pop series offered by American orchestras 
of this period. Programming selections offered by different parts of DSO organization today 
include hip-hop, techno, funk, soul, world music, film scores, contemporary classical music, 
salsa dances, and yoga with live music. Each stood alone on programs tailored to entertain the 
audience of that particular genre or activity—a successful strategy to counter the “dumbing 
down” criticism that often stigmatized concerts featuring classical and “non-classical” musical 
genres on the same program (Pollard 2013; Broad 2019).  

Arguably, the DSO’s strategic change was most apparent in its accessibility approaches that 
involved initiatives to engage with the audience beyond the walls of its Orchestra Hall in 
Midtown Detroit. Three initiatives were particularly influential: community engagement 
programs, a neighborhood concert series, and a livestreaming service. Although the DSO, as 
well as some other orchestras, had participated in those three activities to some degree prior to 
the advent of the new vision, the pre-strike forms of those initiatives were—in the words of 
former DSO executive vice president Paul Hogle—“random and occasional” (personal 
interview, March 26, 2018). It was not until the post-strike strategic change that community 
engagement, neighborhood concerts, and livestreaming became an integral part of the 
organization, taking place systematically throughout the entire concert season. Through the 
three initiatives, the DSO created a new concert series, established a new work rule with the 
musicians, and formed two new administrative units. These post-strike initiatives thus 
transformed the DSO from the old to the new and put the orchestra in the position of corporate 
entrepreneur.  



ARTIVATE 9.1 

 47 

Neighborhood Concert Series 
The Neighborhood Residency Initiative (now the William Davidson Neighborhood Concert 
Series) brings the orchestra to local churches, synagogues, and performing arts centers of seven 
neighborhoods around the City of Detroit. These neighborhoods include Beverly Hills, 
Bloomfield Hills, Clinton Township, Grosse Pointe, Plymouth, Southfield, and West 
Bloomfield—each receives four performances per a concert season. Three of the locations stage 
a standard full-orchestra repertory not unlike that of the main classical series. The other smaller 
venues host a more modest version of the DSO and often feature chamber orchestral works by 
Baroque and Classical composers such as Antonio Vivaldi, Franz Joseph Haydn, and Wolfgang 
Amadeus Mozart that are rarely heard in Orchestra Hall. Despite the repertorial differences, all 
neighborhood performances retain the same concert format of a typical classical concert: the 
lights dim, signaling the concertmaster and then the conductor to take the stage. The 
intermission divides the performance into two halves, each lasts about forty-five minutes. The 
first often begins with an overture or a short introductory piece, followed by a solo concerto. 
The second is commonly reserved for a rather monumental work, usually a multi-movement 
symphony. Throughout the entire course of the performance, the audience is to remain silent, 
only to applaud after the end of each piece.  

Rigid and conventional, the neighborhood concert series is nonetheless a powerful renewal 
strategy for the DSO. The series introduces a new model for the DSO’s concert season. All 
neighborhood performances are planned specifically in conjunction with in-house classical 
concerts as part of one season-long series. Prior to the strike, the orchestra offered 
approximately eighty classical concerts at Orchestra Hall. Now the DSO performs fifty classical 
programs at its main house and nearly thirty concerts in the communities. In other words, the 
neighborhood concerts do not constitute a separate, one-week series of local performances as 
they did before the strike but appear in alternation with the classical series at Orchestra Hall 
throughout the months of January through July. With this model, the DSO claims to be the first 
orchestra to hold performances at community venues over the course of a long-term series 
(Miller 2012). 

The neighborhood initiative can be perceived as a credit to an entrepreneurial effort of the 
DSO musicians. It demonstrates how the musicians created new opportunities for themselves 
under their own new organization when they could not continue their usual employment 
during the work stoppage. The ad-hoc concert plan came about when the musicians could no 
longer enter the music hall once they decided to go on strike. Because of the space restriction, 
the players had to find different venues to organize their own concerts in order to make a case 
for their action and to raise support from the community. In the words of DSO cellist Haden 
McKay, who was also a member of the orchestra’s bargaining committee and a spokesman for 
the musicians during the work stoppage, the self-organized concerts occurred “by force of 
necessity” to “raise a few dollars for ourselves and keep together and present ourselves to the 
public and carry our message” (personal interview, March 12, 2018). The self-produced concerts 
under the banner of “The Musicians of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra” first appeared at the 
Kirk in the Hills Presbyterian Church in Bloomfield Hills, a neighborhood twenty-five miles 



ARTIVATE 9.1 

 48 

northwest of Detroit (PR Newswire 2010; Stryker 2010b). Twelve performances ensued in the 
following six months, with two to four concerts in each month. The locales of the performing 
venues spanned across the greater Metro Detroit region, from St. Patrick Catholic Church 
located just around the corner from the musicians’ then-off-limits musical home to Our Lady 
Star of the Sea Church in Grosse Pointe to Stoney Creek High School in Rochester Hills, and St. 
Patrick Parish in White Lake.   

Given the success of the musicians’ ad-hoc performances, management adopted their idea 
of the neighborhood concerts when the strike had ended (Stryker 2011e). Thanks to generous 
support from the William Davidson Foundation (DSO, n.d.-b), the DSO launched the initiative 
in the 2012–13 season targeting former patrons who had once been the orchestra’s prime 
subscribers but were no longer able—or willing to—commute to Midtown Detroit. The data 
from the inaugural season revealed that 86% of the neighborhood concert series’ subscribers  
had never subscribed to the DSO series in more than ten years, compared to 14% of the patrons 
who simultaneously signed up for the DSO classical series (Moran 2012). Over time, however, 
the strategy shifted. Nicki Inman, Senior Director of Patron Development and Engagement, 
explained that “[the audience] is starting to become people who’ve only ever gone to those 

Figure 1. Locations of the DSO’s Neighborhood Concert Series. Note: the highlighted area 
designates the city of Detroit. 



ARTIVATE 9.1 

 49 

neighborhoods because we draw new audiences in all the time” (personal interview, February 
16, 2018). The neighborhood concert model allowed the DSO to reconnect with its previous 
patrons while attracting new ones. These concerts thus helped broaden the DSO’s influence on 
Detroit’s neighborhoods. 

But the neighborhood series had a negligible impact on the city. All of those seven 
neighborhoods were located outside of the city in Detroit suburbs (see Figure 1). Except for 
Southfield, those suburbs were much wealthier than Detroit (see Figures 2 and 3). The median 
household income between 2014–18 of most of these neighborhoods were at least three times 
more than that of Detroit. Bloomfield residents had the highest median household income, 
which was four times more than that of Detroiters. On the other hand, Detroit’s poverty rate 
was at least nine times higher than most of the suburbs’, and twenty-four times higher than that 
of Beverly Hills. Even in the case of Southfield, the location for the DSO’s neighborhood 
concerts (Congregation Shaarey Zedek) was far outside of Southfield city and closer to the very 
well-to-do Southfield township. The Neighborhood Concert Series made the DSO more 
accessible to more people, but its focus on patrons in well-off neighborhoods left the destitute 
Detroit rather unattended. Its contribution to the revitalization of the Motor City was arguably 
scant.  

Community Engagement Programs 
Community engagement, later dubbed the “Social Progress Initiative,” brings chamber groups 
of DSO musicians—mostly a duet—to public and private spaces around the city of Detroit and 
its suburbs to perform an hour of light classical music free of cost in informal or semi-formal 
settings. It allows the DSO to appear in places where an orchestral performance is impracticable, 
as the reduced scale of chamber ensembles allows the musicians to appear in small spaces that 
cannot accommodate an entire orchestra. The more intimate settings also help the DSO engage 
with its listeners in a more personal level, encouraging interactive presentations and 

Figure 2. Median household income of Detroit and Detroit suburbs. United States Census 
Bureau, 2019. 



ARTIVATE 9.1 

 50 

communication between performers and listeners beyond musical sounds and applause. 
Although the list of programs and venues fluctuates every now and then depending on 

partnerships and funding, five categories direct the settings, activities, and repertoires of DSO 
outreach work: lobby performances, chamber recitals, focused groups, interactive presentations, 
and music therapy sessions. Lobby performances take place at the main entrances of major 
Detroit hospitals, including all sixteen hospitals within the Beaumont Health system, Children’s 
Hospital of Michigan, and John D. Dingell Veterans Affairs Medical Center (DSO, n.d.-a). 
These performances often involve two musicians who play duets of familiar classical music 
tunes such as Bach’s Minuets, Brahms’s Hungarian Dance No. 5, and Pachelbel’s Canon in D. 
Rush Hour Chamber Recitals occur in parks, bars, or breweries during happy hours. Despite 
the friendly atmosphere, the recital programs are in general more serious than those of the lobby 
performances, featuring original chamber music or substantial arrangements to showcase the 
performers.  

While the first two outreach programs are open to any listeners who happen to be at the 
venue at showtime, the other three categories are reserved for exclusive, small groups of 
audience members. Partnering with the American House Senior Living Communities and the 
Greater Michigan chapter of the Alzheimer’s Association, the DSO offers informal recitals for 
focused groups of audience, namely the residents, members, and caretakers of those senior or 
medical centers. There, a small group of musicians, usually a duet, perform music not unlike 
that of the lobby performances interspersed with lively conversations with the audience to 
provide brief background information of the instruments, composers, and repertoire. 
Interactive presentations take place in a similar fashion but at social service organizations such 
as the Coalition of Temporary Shelter (COTS) in Midtown Detroit and often involve activities 
with children such as a musical chairs game and an instrument petting zoo. Finally, DSO 
musicians work with music therapists in music therapy sessions at the Children Hospital of 
Michigan and Kadima Mental Health Services. Following the lead of the therapists, the 
musicians play nursery rhymes and classical tunes, often accompanied by patients and staff on 

Figure 3. Percentage of persons in poverty in Detroit and Detroit suburbs. United States Census 
Bureau, 2019. 

 



ARTIVATE 9.1 

 51 

shakers, rhythm sticks, or toy marimbas throughout the session. 
These community engagement activities are managed by the Community and Learning 

department, a new DSO administrative unit that emerged at the wake of the strike. This 
department designs, develops, and implements strategies and activities related to educational 
programs and community engagement activities. While an education department had existed 
in the DSO before the strike, no administrative unit designated specifically to community 
engagement appeared until after the work stoppage. Post-strike DSO features two staff 
members—a manager and a coordinator—who are responsible solely in community 
engagement activities and work under a senior director who supervises both the community 
and the education subdivisions.  

Community Engagement also brought about new work rules for DSO musicians. Prior to 
the strike, the musicians’ duties included only traditional orchestral work—rehearsing and 
performing substantial repertoires on stage. The new work rules expanded their responsibilities 
to encompass playing lighter music and interacting with the general public at various venues 
outside of the concert hall. Beyond excellent playing skills, the orchestral players should be able 
to teach, entertain, and speak in public. Although not every community engagement work 
required the DSO musicians to acquire those extra abilities, the work rule changes transformed 
their job descriptions.  

In spite of contentious negotiations between the musicians and management during the 
strike brought up by the work rule changes (Stryker 2010a), the new responsibilities helped 
broaden financial opportunities for the musicians individually, as well as the DSO as a whole. 
Community engagement programs allowed the institution to receive extra funding from 
individuals and organizations who reserved their donations only for social-cause issues. 
Beginning on the heels of the strike, donors, foundations, and corporations specifically 
designated $2-million-dollar to the DSO’s community engagement initiatives (Stryker 2011d). 
When this funding was exhausted, the DSO collaborated with local partners for sponsorship. 
For instance, the American House paid for all of the musicians’ services at their retirement 
homes; the Fiat Chrysler Automobiles Foundation financed performances at the Veteran Affairs 
Medical Center; and the Ford Motor Company Fund sponsored DSO on the Go programs that 
included performances at COTS and other Detroit-based social service organizations that the 
Fund also supported such as Vista Maria, Alternatives for Girls, and Ford Resource and 
Engagement Center (C. Valenti, personal interview, April 16, 2018). 

For the musicians, community work payment helped offset the deep pay cuts established 
by the agreement that ended the strike—that deal not only shortened the contract to fewer than 
fifty-two weeks but also decreased the musicians’ base pay almost 23% (Stryker 2011c). Yet, not 
every musician in the orchestra obtained this additional wage or was expected to commit 
themselves to the outreach work. Participating in these initiatives was optional. Only twenty-
two musicians per season could sign up for this program as what the DSO called opt-ins, who 
had the first priority to accept or reject all outreach offers. These opt-ins received a certain 
amount of compensation throughout the season in installments; in return, they had to fulfill a 
certain number of outreach hours per concert year. Unfilled offers went to ad-hocs. As the 



ARTIVATE 9.1 

 52 

number of community engagement services increased over the years, the rest of the DSO 
musicians could also secure an offer when it was not taken in the opt-in or ad-hoc levels. Only 
on occasion, particularly around the end of the season when opt-ins and ad-hocs had already 
met their requirements and the concert schedules were loaded, some outreach opportunities 
remained available. The musicians on the DSO’s substitute list would then assume the outreach 
representative positions and fulfill the tasks. The voluntary nature of the opt-in system had 
proven favorable among musicians. “If you’re somebody that doesn’t like doing these things, 
you don’t have to,” said Cellist Úna O’Riordan, “There are so many people who do, so we don’t 
have trouble getting people to go out and do these concerts. I’m an opt-in and I sign on for 
whatever things they send me an offer . . . if it works with my schedule. [The system] works 
really well” (personal interview, March 12, 2018). Community engagement benefited every 
party involved: local partnerships used the music and outreach activities to enrich the lives of 
the people affiliated with their sponsored institutions or organizations, the musicians had 
opportunities to serve the community through their musical talents and received additional 
income for their services, the DSO formed personal relationships with its patrons and secured 
financial resources for the institution. 

The city of Detroit, however, did not seem to benefit much from the DSO’s community 
engagement activities. Although the DSO presented community work in the Detroit area, the 

Figure 4. Locations of DSO’s community engagement activities. Note: The highlighted area 
designates the city of Detroit. 



ARTIVATE 9.1 

 53 

majority of the activities were still elsewhere. All Beaumont hospitals, the Alzheimer’s 
Association, Kadima Mental Health, and American House Senior Living communities that the 
DSO serves were located in the rich Detroit suburbs (see Figure 4). The Children’s Hospital and 
almost all of the rush-hour recital venues were situated within Detroit’s boundaries, but 
clustered in the Midtown and Downtown neighborhoods that covered only 5% of the city’s 140 
square miles (Reese, 2017). The DSO seemed to affect Detroiters the most only when its 
musicians visited Ford-sponsored, Detroit-based social service organizations. Still, except for 
several interactive performances at COTS, other organizations received only one or two visits 
per concert season. The DSO’s impact on Detroit residents through community work was much 
bigger compared to the neighborhood concerts. Yet, only a small number of Detroiters—and 
only occasionally—benefited from this new venture of the DSO. Community engagement might 
have helped revitalize the city, but presumably in a very small way.  

Live from Orchestra Hall  
Live from Orchestra Hall webcast series is arguably the most innovative among the DSO’s 
accessibility strategies. This digital strategy made it possible for the DSO to offer a more 
convenient, alternative mode of access to its live performances. The webcast series livestreamed 
virtually every classical concert program on the DSO website and Facebook page to audiences 
the world over with no charge. Anyone from any part of the world with internet access could 
experience the DSO performances for free. Live from Orchestra Hall enabled the organization 
to be accessible across the seven continents of the globe and allowed far-flung audiences to 
concurrently engage in a live musical event albeit their disparate locations.  

Live from Orchestra Hall reinvents the DSO’s live concert experience. It offers a closer look 
at the orchestra, conductor, and soloists beyond the panoramic view of the stage, both literally 
and figuratively. Instead of a single, distant perspective from an audience seat, the webcast 
alternates different camera shots and angles. A high angle displays a view of the whole orchestra 
from the best seat in the house. A close-up reveals each instrumental section, bringing out 
discreet melodies and harmonies underneath the massive orchestral sound. An extreme, close-
up zoom on the performers’ expressions, inviting the viewers to feel the tension, eye contact, 
and body language of the musicians up on the stage. “[The webcast] is definitely a different 
experience,” claims Marc Geelhoed, the Director of Digital Initiatives, “we talk a lot in the 
production about telling the story of the music. And the most effective way to do that is timing 
the shots—which instrument is on screen in a given time. Is that the melody? Is that the 
countermelody? . . . Can you get them all in one shot? I think a lot of that creates the intimacy, 
that you’re able to see the music unfold” (personal interview, February 19, 2018). While some 
may find the visual presentation distracting, others rely on it to enhance their aural sensation, 
particularly with up-close shots that allow both the eyes and the ears to attentively grasp the 
musical experience.  

The webcast audience also gains insider access to the performance during the intermission 
when the audience at Orchestra Hall simply witnesses an empty stage. While the musicians and 



ARTIVATE 9.1 

 54 

the in-house patrons take a break, viewers on the DSO website can explore behind-the-scene 
dialogues through interviews with a soloist, a guest composer, or a musicologist. These 
interviews—sometimes live, other times pre-recorded—provide musical insight beyond 
information inserted in the program notes. In one webcast from the 2018–19 season, conductor 
Leonard Slatkin interviewed two DSO musicians who were the soloists of that evening’s 
program (DSO 2017b). They discussed the performers’ musical backgrounds, challenging 
aspects of the pieces, their interpretations of the music, and different approaches the two players 
took in serving as a soloist as opposed to an orchestra member or a section leader. An interview 
like this may help viewers engage with the performers and music on a more personal level. The 
webcast refocuses the spotlight on the accessibility vision, as the online audience can appreciate 
the entire show—and more—without having to get off of their couch or step out of their door. 

All these livestreaming features, however, are not new to the orchestral world. TV 
broadcasts of classical concerts have long offered such similar experiences as close-ups and 
interviews. The BBC Proms has been televised since 1947 (BBC, n.d.). In the United States, 
conductor Leonard Bernstein made his first television appearance in 1954 on the culture-
oriented program Omnibus and continued to do so with the Young People’s Concerts series 
until the early 1970s (Leonard Bernstein Office, n.d.-a&b). Through these educational 
programs, Bernstein provided in-depth knowledge about featured composers and 
compositions. The Omnibus debut episode on Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony, for instance, 
involved Bernstein’s meticulous analysis and demonstration of the symphony’s first movement 
based on several of the composer’s rejected sketches (Saudek and McCullough 2010). Insider 
access of the well-known symphony was available directly to the broadcast viewers. Even in the 
world of concert live-streaming, the DSO was not the first orchestra to pursue this form of 
digital technology. Berlin Philharmonic had offered concert webcasts through its Digital 
Concert Hall website since 2008. A year later, Los Angeles Philharmonic streamed its first 
concert from the Hollywood Bowl (Ng 2009). Closer looks at the orchestra and conversations 
with musicians were ordinary experience for the audience of these online media. 

The DSO’s Live from Orchestra Hall webcast series, nonetheless, is distinctive from other 
digital concert services for its regular streaming schedule and free subscription. While other 
orchestras livestream their performances only occasionally or demand certain fees,1 the DSO is 
able to greatly reduce a production cost of the webcasts and offers them regularly with no 
charge, thanks to negotiations during the strike. Most orchestra musicians in the United States 
are protected under a national contract by the American Federation of Musicians, which 
requires the orchestra to pay extra fees to the players when broadcasting and/or recording a 
performance (American Federation of Musicians 2018). The amount of the extra fees is variable 
depending on, for instance, the length of the media service, the number of musicians involved 
in that service, and the medium of the broadcast or the recording. In the DSO’s strike, these fees 

 
1 The New York Philharmonic, for instance, usually streams only season opening concerts on its Facebook page. 
The Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra offers more free webcasts, but of selected programs. On the other hand, 
through the Digital Concert Hall Berlin Philharmonic streams its performances regularly throughout the 
concert season, but charges for approximately $15 per month. 



ARTIVATE 9.1 

 55 

and the dissension around the whole media issue became a major negotiating point. Initially, 
management wanted complete access to performances for media use without compensating the 
musicians. Cellist Haden McKay, who was a member of the orchestra’s bargaining committee, 
recalled that management’s initial bargain position as “‘we can take anything and show it 
anywhere and the audience will come in and they will tape you in concerts and put on social 
media and all is going to be great.’ That’s a sensitive area for musicians. What we do when we 
perform, that’s our value, that’s our product” (personal interview, March 12, 2018). Ultimately, 
the management and the Federation settled on a new agreement involving an Electronic Media 
Guarantee. Instead of making an additional payment for each media service—or not paying the 
musicians at all for their media work—management designated a percentage of media work in 
the musicians’ weekly pay (McKay, email message to author, October 16, 2018; Fleming 2015, 
6). McKay explains that “it’s all sort of incorporated into salary—a certain amount of your salary 
[is] considered to be for media work” (personal interview, March 12, 2018). In other words, 
Electronic Media Guarantee resembled a fixed, discounted media rate—a calculated pool of 
money allocated specifically for media-related performance—that was added to the musicians’ 
salaries. Once the budget for livestreaming had been settled, the DSO got the cameras rolling in 
short order.  

An autonomous DSO administrative unit emerged after the strike handles the digital 
streaming venture. This Digital Initiatives unit takes care of the entire process of online 
performances, from setting up cameras to storing the webcast on the DSO’s website. The process 
actually begins a few weeks prior to the webcasting with a score reader studying the works on 
the program to determine camera shots, moment to moment throughout the music, and later 
discussing those shots with the video director. In the early days of webcasting, Leonard Slatkin 
took some command over shooting. Oriol Sans, the score reader at that time, reflected on his 
experience working with the maestro: “We would sit on a couch in his office and go through the 
score. [Slatkin would say,] ‘Here, instead of going to the flute, go to another instrument.’ He was 
more interested in things that would look better on camera” (personal interview, April 23, 
2019). That is not the case in later webcasts, in which the conductor is no longer involved in the 
process. On the week of the webcast, the director, three crew members, and an audio engineer 
convene in the control room at an orchestra rehearsal to work out those shots and preset them 
on six robotic video cameras. These presets streamline the shooting by moving the cameras 
automatically to a predetermined spot, whether that be a performer, an instrument, or a section. 
During the actual livestreaming, a floor manager communicates between the camera director in 
the control room and the crew on the floor to ensure that the entire broadcast goes smoothly 
and timely. The webcast is subsequently posted on the DSO Replay, an on-demand archive 
available free of charge to all subscribers or donors who contribute $50 or more to the 
orchestra’s annual fund. 

Despite its free service, the impact of Live from Orchestra Hall on the DSO’s health has been 
quite positive. This digital initiative extensively broadens the DSO’s base audience, making its 
classical performances available in both local and international levels. Within the first five years 
of service the webcasts accumulated over one million views (DSO 2016a, 22). About 70% of the 



ARTIVATE 9.1 

 56 

webcast viewers were from the United States, with 41% of that share from Michigan (Fleming 
2015, 5). Management also claimed that the digital streaming attracted more patrons to 
Orchestra Hall and increased the orchestra’s financial gifts. The DSO’s President and CEO Anne 
Parsons pointed out that the webcast series was an important factor of the institution’s 
turnaround: “Ticket sales, donations, all the trends are up. . . Pre-strike attendance was about 
50% of capacity. Now we have more than 90% of the hall sold on a regular basis. . . I think the 
digital world makes us hungrier for the real world” (Fleming 2015, 3). A DSO survey supported 
Parsons’s presumption: 66% Michigan viewers attended the DSO in person in the 2014–15 
season, with 40% attending three or more concerts (Fleming 2015, 3, 5). Similarly, former 
Director of Digital Initiatives Eric Woodhams perceived DSO Replay to inspire more donations 
to the orchestra. “[DSO] Replay is a great incentive for people to give philanthropically to the 
DSO,” explained Woodhams on a webpage of Brightcove, a software company that the DSO 
hired to produce an online video platform (Brightcove, n.d.). Brightcove asserted that within 
only a few months after the DSO launched the on-demand service, the DSO’s donor base grew 
by hundreds of new households, most of whom were first-time donors (Brightcove, n.d.). Direct 
correlation between the DSO’s digital services and its improved financial standing was yet 
ambiguous, since other causes such as growing economic, marketing strategies, or audience 
development might have also contributed to the orchestra’s uptrend. Still, the fact that the DSO 
recently received $2.5 million from Knight Foundation to substantially upgrade its digital 
system—including new robotic cameras, new studio equipment for the control room, and new 
fiber-optic wiring that would allow for ultra-high-definition visual quality and livestreaming 
from the DSO’s rehearsal hall and second concert venue (DSO 2020)—revealed the confidence 
that management, as well as the funder, had in these two digital initiatives and benefits that they 
brought to the organization. 

Although the intention of Live from Orchestra Hall is to share the DSO with a worldwide 
audience (DSO 2020), Detroit schoolers benefit from the webcasts, especially through the DSO’s 

Figure 5. Percentage of households with a broadband internet subscription 2014–2018. United 
States Census Bureau 2019. 



ARTIVATE 9.1 

 57 

Classroom Edition. This didactic series brings live performances of the DSO’s educational 
concerts to classrooms in Detroit pubic and charter schools. The series’s inaugural season 
debuted in 300 Detroit schools, as well as 125 others nationwide, reaching about 40,000 students  
with one performance (Karoub 2014); the season’s subsequent webcasts reached about 30,000 
Detroit schoolers from K-8 in nearly seventy schools (DSO 2015c, 32). Despite the proximity to 
Orchestra Hall, many of these schools were not able to bring their students to DSO’s educational 
performances in person due to transportation issues (DSO 2015c, 32). The educational webcast 
series solved the problem and allowed young Detroiters to experience live classical 
performances. Outside of Classroom Edition, however, DSO’s webcasts probably have a very 
small impact on Detroiters. Streaming two hours of a high-definition video requires at least 2 
Mbps internet speed and 5 GB internet data (Event Bandwidth Calculator, n.d.; Internet Data 
Calculator, n.d.). In other words, the DSO webcast audience needs either a broadband internet 
subscription or a very expensive wireless plan for a cell phone to stream a DSO’s performance. 
With most households having very limited income (see Figure 2) and less than 60% of them 
having a broadband internet subscription (see Figure 5), Detroit residents arguably can take 
only little advantage of the DSO’s digital services.  

Conclusion 
The DSO’s entrepreneurial turn to be “the most accessible orchestra on the planet” helped 
transform the organization to be more flexible strategically and structurally. It broadened the 
DSO’s role to be both a nonprofit cultural organization, as well as a social-service institution. 
On the one hand, the post-strike DSO still offered serious art and sustained the symphonic 
tradition to serve its core audiences of classical music. The classical series remained relatively 
the same in both its programs and procedures. Patrons at Orchestra Hall experienced little to 
no change, except less expensive ticket and subscription sales, when attending DSO concerts 
after the strike.  

On the other hand, the strategic shifts and new ventures pushed the DSO to be more social-
minded. They urged the orchestra to expand its concert programs and services to serve more 
diverse groups of people beyond the walls of the concert hall. Neighborhood concerts brought 
the DSO to community venues and offered performances to local residents who preferred not—
or could not—commute to Midtown Detroit. Community engagement helped the DSO reach 
out to the general public in the midst of their everyday life, whether that be seeing a doctor, 
drinking with colleagues at happy hours, socializing with other elderly, sheltering in a 
temporary home, or healing from an illness. Live from Orchestra Hall made DSO’s performances 
available virtually to anyone around the world, and at any time with its archived webcasts on 
DSO Replay. While the first two initiatives allowed the orchestra to engage more with local 
residents—from elders at senior living homes to hip, urban young professionals, from 
underserved populations in Metro Detroit to middle-class families in the city’s suburban 
neighborhoods—the last made it possible for the DSO to connect with audiences on a local, 
national, and international level. 



ARTIVATE 9.1 

 58 

The three DSO initiatives have continued well after the strike. In fact, all of them have 
recently been expanded and improved, suggesting their positive impact on the organization. 
The neighborhood concert series has added two more performances per season in Monroe, a 
new venue in southwest of Detroit (Wisler 2019). Community engagement services have 
increased in numbers and locations. Interactive visits at COTS, for instance, have grown from 
a few performances up to ten sessions per season (Alcorn, K., email message to author, March 
6, 2020). Live from Orchestra Hall has registered over two million views (DSO 2020); its recent 
technological upgrade will soon allow the DSO to livestream events beyond the DSO’s classical 
and educational concert series (DSO 2019b). Moreover, labor peace—rather than a work 
stoppage—has been a recurrent theme of the organization. Both management and musicians 
were able to ratify all subsequent contracts well in advance every three years after the strike 
(Welch 2014; Hodges 2017; Welch 2020). Their agreements to maintain and expand the 
initiatives seem to validate individual and organizational satisfaction, as well as favorable 
outcomes, brought about by the accessibility vision.  

Detroit residents, however, seem to be left out for the most part of this successful picture. 
Most DSO activities take place in Downtown/Midtown and Metro Detroit neighborhoods, 
overlooking the majority of its city and population. And given how impoverished most 
Detroiters have long been (Kennedy 2015; MacDonald and Chambers 2018), it would be quite 
impossible to imagine them buying even the cheapest seat at Orchestra Hall, dining at DSO 
Rush Hour Recital venue in Downtown, or driving to attend a concert in the suburb. Except for 
some of the DSO’s community works, most Detroiters are arguably strangers to the very 
orchestra that bears their city’s name. 

 Yet, the DSO’s accessibility shifts have turned the orchestra into a more relevant and 
approachable organization compared to its pre-strike version. The DSO has become a nimbler 
institution that is no longer preoccupied solely with the traditional role as a custodian of a 
musical tradition but has assumed a new position as a supporter of the community. The post-
strike DSO has reached out more to its audience, physically and conceptually. The ability to 
adapt has also led the DSO to new kinds of partnerships, whether with civic, foundation, or 
business partners. The webcasts, neighborhood concerts, and community engagement 
programs indicate the DSO as a cultural hub that connects nonprofit corporations and for-
profit businesses with residents in and around Detroit. Strategic and structural flexibility has 
proven successful for the DSO to secure more financial opportunities to serve more people. But 
the DSO is still a long way away from being a true advocate for citizens of its very own city. 
Hopefully, future collaborations will narrow the gap, and in that spirit the entirety of Detroit, 
in resonance with its motto, will rise from the ashes and sound great—again.2 

 
2 Two Latin phrases make up Detroit’s motto: “Speramus Meliora” and “Resurget Cineribus,” meaning “We 
hope for better things; it will rise from the ashes” (Detroit Historical Society, n.d.). 



ARTIVATE 9.1 

 59 

References 

American Federation of Musicians of the United 
States and Canada. n. d. Symphony, Opera, or 
Ballet: Audio Visual Agreement – February 1, 
2006–January 31, 2008. 
https://americanorchestras.org/knowledge-
research-innovation/electronic-media/rights-
clearances/afm.html.  

Antoncic, Bostjan, and Robert D. Hisrich. 2003. 
“Clarifying the Intrapreneurship Concept.” 
Journal of Small Business and Enterprise 
Development 10 (1): 7–24. 

Associated Press. 2010. “Musician: Strike at Detroit 
Symphony Orchestra.” YouTube video, October 
4, 2010. 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ocDqxZRQv
Ws.     

ATT. n. d. “Internet Data Calculator.” Accessed 
March 19, 2020. 
https://www.att.com/esupport/data-
calculator/index.jsp. 

BBC. n. d. “The Proms and the BBC.” Accessed 
March 17, 2020. 
https://www.bbc.co.uk/historyofthebbc/research/
the-proms-and-the-bbc#thetvdebut.  

Bernstein, Leonard. 2010. Historical TV Broadcast: 
Leonard Bernstein - Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony. 
Directed by Andrew McCullough.  Toronto, ON: 
Entertainment One Ltd. 
https://video.alexanderstreet.com/watch/historic
al-tv-broadcast-leonard-bernstein-beethoven-s-
fifth-symphony. 

Block, Zenas, and Ian C. Macmillan. 1993. Corporate 
Venturing: Creating New Businesses within the 
Firm. Boston, MA: Harvard Business School 
Press.  

Brightcove. 2016. “Video Amplifies the Detroit 
Symphony Orchestra’s Reach and Donor 
Opportunities.” Case Study. October 25, 2016. 
https://web.archive.org/web/20171023233837/htt
ps://www.brightcove.com/en/customers/dso. 

Cooper, Michael. 2013. “Detroit Symphony Hails Its 
Healthier Finances.” New York Times, December 
13, 2013. 
https://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/12/11/d
etroit-symphony-hails-its-healthy-
finances/?mtrref=www.google.com&gwh=E89B3
1AD3EEA699A0A1C29D82E174AA1&gwt=pay
&assetType=PAYWALL.   

Cuervo, Alvaro, Domingo Ribeiro, and Salvador 
Roig, eds. 2007. Entrepreneurship: Concepts, 
Theory and Perspective. New York: Springer. 

Desouza, Kevin C. 2011. Intrapreneurship: Managing 
Ideas within Your Organization. Toronto: 
University of Toronto Press. 

Detroit Historical Society. n.d. “Flag of Detroit.” 
Encyclopedia of Detroit. Accessed March 21, 
2020. 
https://detroithistorical.org/learn/encyclopedia-
of-detroit/flag-detroit.  

Detroit Symphony Orchestra. 2010. “Detroit 

Symphony Musicians Reach Out to Audiences 
for Support; Present Two September Concerts.” 
PRNewswire, August 10, 2010. 
https://search.proquest.com/docview/741060732
?pq-origsite=summon.    

Detroit Symphony Orchestra. 2012. Form 990 – Final 
Return 2011. https://www.dso.org/about-the-
dso/reports-and-financials/.  

Detroit Symphony Orchestra. 2013a. Annual Report 
2013. 
https://issuu.com/detroitsymphony/docs/2013an
nualreport.  

Detroit Symphony Orchestra. 2013b. Form 990 – 
Final Return 2012. https://www.dso.org/about-
the-dso/reports-and-financials/.  

Detroit Symphony Orchestra. 2014a. Annual report 
2014. 
https://issuu.com/detroitsymphony/docs/2014an
nualreport. 

Detroit Symphony Orchestra. 2014b. Form 990 – 
Final Return 2013. https://www.dso.org/about-
the-dso/reports-and-financials/.  

Detroit Symphony Orchestra. 2015a. Annual report 
2015. 
https://issuu.com/detroitsymphony/docs/annual
_report_2015_final.  

Detroit Symphony Orchestra. 2015b. Form 990 – 
Final Return 2014. https://www.dso.org/about-
the-dso/reports-and-financials/. 

Detroit Symphony Orchestra. 2015c. DSO 
Performance Magazine, no. 1 (Spring): 1–47. 
https://issuu.com/detroitsymphony/docs/perfspri
ng_m/17.  

Detroit Symphony Orchestra. 2016a. Annual report 
2015–2016. 
https://issuu.com/detroitsymphony/docs/annual
_report_2016-final.  

Detroit Symphony Orchestra. 2016b. Form 990 – 
Final Return 2015. 
https://www.dso.org/upload_files/content_pdfs/f
inancials/DSO9902016.pdf.  

Detroit Symphony Orchestra. 2017a. Form 990 – 
Final Return 2016. https://www.dso.org/about-
the-dso/reports-and-financials/.  

Detroit Symphony Orchestra. 2017b. “Leonard 
Slatkin Interviews Eric Nowlin and Wei Yu.” Live 
from Orchestra Hall. 
https://livefromorchestrahall.vhx.tv/2017-18-
season/season:3/videos/leonard-slatkin-
interviews-eric-nowlin-and-wei-yu. 

Detroit Symphony Orchestra. 2018a. Annual report 
2017–2018. 
https://issuu.com/detroitsymphony/docs/18-
19_annual_report-final-interacti.  

Detroit Symphony Orchestra. 2018b. Form 990 – 
Final Return 2017. https://www.dso.org/about-
the-dso/reports-and-financials/.  

Detroit Symphony Orchestra. 2019a. Annual report 
2018–2019.  
https://issuu.com/detroitsymphony/docs/fy19-



ARTIVATE 9.1 

 60 

annual_report-f.  
Detroit Symphony Orchestra. 2019b. “DSO Reveals 

State-of-the-Art Tech and Camera Upgrades for 
‘Live from Orchestra Hall’ Webcast Series.” 
December 4, 2019. https://www.dso.org/watch-
listen-and-connect/newsroom-2/dso-reveals-
state-of-the-art-tech-and-camera-upgrades-for-
live-from-orchestra-hall-webcast-series/.  

Detroit Symphony Orchestra. 2020. “Sight & Sound 
Series – Part I: Sight.” January 17, 2020. 
https://www.dso.org/watch-listen-and-
connect/latest-news/sight-and-sound-a-2-part-
series/.  

Detroit Symphony Orchestra. n.d.-a. “Community 
Engagement.” Accessed March 19, 2020. 
https://www.dso.org/community-and-
learning/our-impact.   

Detroit Symphony Orchestra. n.d.-b. “William 
Davidson Foundation.” Accessed March 19, 
2020. https://williamdavidson.org/featured-
grants/detroit-symphony-orchestra/. 

DiMaggio, Paul. 1982. “Cultural Entrepreneurship in 
Nineteenth-Century Boston: The Creation of an 
Organizational Base for High Culture in 
America.” Media, Culture and Society 4 (1): 33–
50. 

Event Bandwidth Calculator. n.d. “Trade Show 
Internet.” Accessed March 19, 2020. 
https://tradeshowinternet.com/resources/bandwi
dth-calculator. 

Flanagan, Robert J. 2012. The Perilous Life of 
Symphony Orchestra. New Haven, CT: Yale 
University Press. 

Fleming, John. 2015. “The Detroit Symphony Live-
Streamed Its Way to Success.” In “Digital 
Streaming: Reaching a Larger Audience through 
Digital Means,” edited by Susan Elliott. Special 
issue. Music America Special Report (June): 3, 5–
7. 
http://www.musicalamerica.com/specialreports/S
TREAMING_2015.pdf.  

Guth, William D., and Ari Ginsberg. 1990. “Guest 
Editors’ Introduction: Corporate 
Entrepreneurship.” Strategic Management 
Journal 11 (Summer): 5–15. 

Harris, Laurie Lanzen, and Paul Ganson. 2016. The 
Detroit Symphony Orchestra: Grace, Grit, and 
Glory. Detroit, MI: Wayne State University Press. 

Hart, Philip. 1973. Orpheus in the New World: The 
Symphony Orchestra as an American Cultural 
Institution. New York: W.W. Norton. 

Hodges, Michael H. 2017. “Musicians Ratified New, 
Three-Year Contract with DSO.” The Detroit 
News, January 10, 2017. 
https://www.detroitnews.com/story/entertainme
nt/music/2017/01/10/musicians-ratify-new-
three-year-contract-dso/96415280/. 

Hornsby, Jeffrey S., Douglas W. Naffziger, Donald F. 
Kuratko, and Ray V. Montagno. 1993. “An 
Integrative Model of the Corporate 
Entrepreneurship Process.” Entrepreneurship 
Theory and Practice 17 (2): 29–37. 

Johnson, Lawrence B. 2008. “Economy Hits Hard on 

DSO Budget.” The Detroit News, November 26, 
2008. 
https://search.proquest.com/docview/404417024
?pq-origsite=summon.    

Johnson, Lawrence B. 2010. “Orchestras Struggle to 
Remain Viable: Cleveland Strike Highlights 
Crisis that DSO, Other Symphonies Face.” The 
Detroit News, January 20, 2010. 
https://search.proquest.com/docview/404430011
?pq-origsite=summon.  

Karoub, Jeff. 2014. “Detroit Symphony Orchestra 
Goes to School, Launching Webcast for the 
Classroom.” Crain’s Detroit Business, November 
12, 2014. https://www.crainsdetroit.com. 

Kennedy, Bruce. 2015. “America’s 11 Poorest Cities.” 
CBS News, February 18, 2015. 
https://www.cbsnews.com/media/americas-11-
poorest-cities/.  

League of American Orchestras. 2016. Orchestra 
Facts: 2006–2014 – A Study of Orchestra Finances 
and Operations. 
https://americanorchestras.org/knowledge-
research-innovation/orchestra-facts-2006-
2014.html. 

Leonard Bernstein Office. n.d.-a. “Omnibus.” 
Educator. Accessed March 17, 2020. 
https://leonardbernstein.com/about/educator/o
mnibus.  

Leonard Bernstein Office. n.d.-b. “Young People’s 
Concerts.” Educator. Accessed March 17, 2020. 
https://leonardbernstein.com/about/educator/yo
ung-peoples-concerts.  

Levine, Lawrence W. 1988. Highbrow/Lowbrow: The 
Emergence of Cultural Hierarchy in America. 
Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. 

MacDonald, Christine, and Jennifer Chambers. 2018. 
“Detroiters’ Income Rises for Second Year but 
Poverty Rate Doesn’t Improve.” The Detroit 
News, September 13, 2018. 
https://www.detroitnews.com/story/news/local/d
etroit-city/2018/09/13/census-detroiters-income-
rise/1268641002/. 

Mauskapf, Michael G. 2012. “Enduring Crisis, 
Ensuring Survival: Artistry, Economics, and the 
American Symphony Orchestra.” PhD diss., 
University of Michigan. ProQuest (Order No. 
35199859). 

Miller, Danny. 1983. “Entrepreneurship Correlates in 
Three Types of Firms.” Management Science 29 
(7): 770–91. 

Miller, Jennie. 2012. “Detroit Symphony Orchestra 
Delights Neighborhoods.” C&G Newspapers, 
February 8, 2012. https://www.candgnews.com/.  

Moran, K. Michelle. 2012. “Neighborhoods Welcome 
DSO Back – Last Hurrah.” Grosse Pointe Times, 
September 13, 2012. 

Mueller, John Henry. 1951. The American Symphony 
Orchestra: A Social History of Musical Taste. 
Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press.  

Ng, David. 2009. “L.A. Philharmonic Eyes Future 
Webcasts Following Gustavo Dudamel’s 
Hollywood Bowl Concert.” Los Angeles Times, 
October 7, 2009. 



ARTIVATE 9.1 

 61 

https://latimesblogs.latimes.com/culturemonster/
2009/10/la-philharmonic-eyes-future-webcasts-
following-gustavo-dudamels-bowl-concert.html. 

Peyser, Joan, ed. 2006. The Orchestra: A Collection of 
23 Essays on its Origins and Transformations. 
Milwaukee, WI: Hal Leonard. 

Reese, Laura A. 2017. “Is Detroit Really Making a 
Comeback?” Citylab, February 19, 2017. 
https://www.citylab.com/equity/2017/02/detroits
-recovery-the-lass-is-half-full-at-most/517194/. 

Rorick, Laura Dallman. 2017. “The Significance of 
Accessibility in American Orchestral Music.” 
PhD diss., Indiana University,. 

Schumpeter, Joseph A. 1934. The Theory of Economic 
Development: An Inquiry into Profits, Capital, 
Credit, Interest, and the Business Cycle. 
Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. 

Sharma, Pramodita, and James J. Chrisman. 1999. 
“Toward a Reconciliation of the Definitional 
Issues in the Field of Corporate 
Entrepreneurship.” Entrepreneurship Theory and 
Practice 23 (3): 11–27. 

Simon, Nina. 2016. The Art of Relevance. Museum 
2.0. http://www.artofrelevance.org/read-online/. 

Smith, Michael P., and L. Owen Kirkpatrick, eds. 
2015. Reinventing Detroit: Urban Decline and the 
Politics of Possibility. New Brunswick, NJ: 
Transaction Publishers. 

Sphinx Organization, The. 2016. “Building the Most 
Accessible Orchestra on the Planet – 
SphinxCon.” YouTube video, February 5, 2016. 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YyLqoc_Jek
0.  

Spitzer, John, ed. 2012. American Orchestras in the 
Nineteenth Century. Chicago, IL: The University 
of Chicago Press.  

Stryker, Mark. 2010a. “Money Not the Only Issue for 
DSO.” Detroit Free Press, September 19, 2010. 
https://www.freep.com.  

Stryker, Mark. 2010b. “Musicians Plan Non-DSO 
Show.” Detroit Free Press, August 13, 2010. 
https://www.freep.com. 

Stryker, Mark. 2011a. “3 More Years for DSO 
President Anne Parsons.” Detroit Free Press, June 
4, 2011. https://www.freep.com. 

Stryker, Mark. 2011b. “DSO Resumes Rehearsal; Vote 
on Contract Continues. Detroit Free Press, April 
8, 2011. https://www.freep.com. 

Stryker, Mark. 2011c. “DSO Musicians Officially OK 
23% Cut.” Detroit Free Press, April 9, 2011. 
https://www.freep.com. 

Stryker, Mark. 2011d. “DSO Season in Jeopardy as 
Offer Turned Down.” Detroit Free Press, 
February 10, 2011. https://www.freep.com. 

Stryker, Mark. 2011e. “Symphony in the Suburbs.” 
Detroit Free Press, May 21, 2011. 
https://www.freep.com. 

Stryker, Mark. 2012. “Star Cellist Gets L.A. Offer: 
DSO Principal Considering Move to Top Post at 
West Coast Orchestra.” Detroit Free Press, 
October 9, 2012. https://www.freep.com.  

United States Census Bureau. 2019. “Plymouth City, 
Michigan; Southfield City, Michigan; Southfield 
Township, Oakland County, Michigan; 
Bloomfield Charter Township, Oakland County, 
Michigan; Beverly Hills village, Michigan; Detroit 
City, Michigan.” QuickFacts. 
https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/fact/table/ply
mouthcitymichigan,southfieldcitymichigan,south
fieldtownshipoaklandcountymichigan,bloomfield
chartertownshipoaklandcountymichigan,beverly
hillsvillagemichigan,detroitcitymichigan#.  

Welch, Sherri. 2014. “DSO Reaches 3-year Contract 
with Musicians.” Crain’s Detroit Business, 
January 15, 2014. https://www.crainsdetroit.com. 

Welch, Sherri. 2020. “DSO, Musicians Ratify New 3-
year Contract.” Crain’s Detroit Business, January 
30, 2020. https://www.crainsdetroit.com. 

Wisler, Suzanne Nolan. 2019. “DSO to Play Twice in 
Monroe Next Year.” The Monroe News, July 22, 
2019. https://www.monroenews.com.   

Wolf Organization, The. 1992. “The Financial 
Condition of Symphony Orchestras: Part 1 – The 
Orchestra Industry.” American Symphony 
Orchestra League. 
https://iml.esm.rochester.edu/polyphonic-
archive/wp-
content/uploads/sites/13/2012/04/The_Financial
_Condition_of_Symphony_Orchestras.pdf.    

WSWS. 2010. “Detroit Musicians Go on Strike.” 
YouTube video, October 4, 2010. 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XpbjBqIBaO
0.  

WXYZ-TV Detroit. 2010. “DSO on Strike.” YouTube 
video, October 4, 2010. 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RAOruMVe
gHs.  

Zahra, Shaker A. 1996. “Goverance [sic], Ownership, 
and Corporate Entrepreneurship: The 
Moderating Impact of Industry Technological 
Opportunities.” The Academy of Management 
Journal 39 (6): 1713–35. 

  



 

 

 


