arts&life

music

We Can Be

Heroes

The DSO honors supporters Penny and
Harold Blumenstein and Leonard Slatkin.

Leonard Slatkin

A

lthough Leonard Slatkin has had
a role very different from those of
Penny and Harold Blumenstein
in advancing the Detroit Symphony
Orchestra (DSO), all three share a commit-
ment to encouraging musical interests in
young people.
That shared commitment has resulted
in their selection for honors at the eighth
annual Heroes Gala and Benefit Concert
to be held Saturday
evening, June 23,
at the Max M. and
Marjorie S. Fisher
Music Center in
Detroit.
The event marks
the transition of
Slatkin from 10 years
as music director of
the orchestra into
work as music direc-
tor laureate while a
new director is being
selected. It also marks
the leadership of the
Blumensteins as they
Harold and Penny Blumenstein

SUZANNE CHESSLER
CONTRIBUTING WRITER

48

June 21 • 2018

jn

continue to donate time and funds to
elevate symphony initiatives.
Slatkin and his wife, composer Cindy
McTee, have established a $100,000
Emerging Artists Fund to provide support
for up-and-coming artists in performance
with the symphony. The Blumensteins have
been at the helm of subsidizing student
and teacher ticket costs for concert atten-
dance.
The gala will be held after the concert,
which features conductor Teddy Abrams,
music director of the Louisville Orchestra
and former DSO assistant conductor. He
will lead the musicians in classical and pop
selections.
Singer Storm Large will present her
original renditions of Cole Porter hits,
and Grammy Award-winning pianist and
former Erb Jazz Chair Michel Camilo will
play selections by George Gershwin and
others. Eighteen-year-old cellist Joshua
McClendon, a Sphinx Competition laure-
ate, will be soloist in the third movement
of Haydn’s Cello Concerto No. 1.
Also on the program will be
McTee’s arrangement of the folk song

“Shenandoah.”
“A virtual committee chooses the honor-
ees, and the choices were unanimous,” says
Anne Parsons, president and CEO of the
DSO, of the tradition begun in 2010. “We
have a lot of people on our radar to cel-
ebrate. Former honorees, board chairs and
the staff leadership team make recommen-
dations, and we think about the timing.”
Among other Jewish members of the
community selected as Heroes have been
Dan Gilbert, founder and chairman of Rock
Ventures, in 2014; the Davidson/Gerson
family, supporters of the DSO’s William
Davidson Neighborhood Concert Series, in
2015; and the late Mandell and Madeleine
(Bill and Madge) Berman, also supporters
of DSO education programs, in 2017.
Slatkin expressed surprise at being
named an honoree.
“In the past, the honor has always gone
to people who have given philanthropically
to the orchestra and city,” he says. “I am
just a musician and never thought about
what my contributions to Detroit have
been.”
During his DSO tenure, Slatkin has led