1 Destiny
So, it took me 55 years to write my first book but about six months to write the second. I'm proud to say that "Destiny: 100 Years of Music, Magic, and Community at Orchestra Hall in Detroit" will be published in October by @DetroitSymphony
So, it took me 55 years to write my first book but about six months to write the second. I'm proud to say that "Destiny: 100 Years of Music, Magic, and Community at Orchestra Hall in Detroit" will be published in October by @DetroitSymphony
@DetroitSymphony 2. The DSO commissioned me and designer Julie Pincus to create the book in honor of the 100th anniversary of the hall, which opened October 23, 1919. It's gorgeous: large format, more than 150 pages, about 160 photos/images, many of them rare, some previously unpublished.
@DetroitSymphony 3. The book is substantive too. The text is about 23,000 words and digs deep, not only into DSO history but also Detroit's broader social and cultural history.
@DetroitSymphony 4. While the history of the DSO and the history of Orchestra Hall overlap, they are also fundamentally different. Though the hall was built for the DSO, the orchestra left in 1939 and did not return for 50 years.
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@DetroitSymphony 5. I uncovered new information about the creation and early years of Orchestra Hall that correct some long-standing myths.
@DetroitSymphony 6. And there are textured explorations of the years when the hall was known as the Paradise Theatre , 1941-51 (when everyone from Ellington, Basie, and Dizzy to Sarah, Ella, and Billie appeared) and the role of race at key junction points in the hall's history.
@DetroitSymphony 7. The book details the near-death of the hall in the 1960s and '70s, the heroic grass roots effort to save it, and the 20-year drama of its restoration.
@DetroitSymphony 8. The story ends with the expansion to create the Max M. and Marjorie S. Fisher Music Center in the early 21st Century and contemporary currents as the hall turns 100.
@DetroitSymphony 9. There are also in-depth discussions of Orchestra Hall's magical acoustics, the many recordings made at the hall, some legendary concerts, and a lot of previously hidden history that I discovered doing the research.
@DetroitSymphony 10. The book will be published in hard and softbound editions. More details to come.
