Mark Stryker

Detroit Free Press Staff Writer

The Yankees are coming! But instead of pinstripes, they'll don formal wear and wield violins, oboes and other instruments rather than bats, balls and gloves.

The University Musical Society announced today a five-year residency partnership that will bring the New York Philharmonic to Ann Arbor for three extended appearances between 2015 and 2020. The residencies, underwritten by a seven-figure donation to UMS, will include multiple concerts each year, master classes and workshops for students and a range of public activities designed to connect the orchestra with the community in southeastern Michigan.

The partnership begins next fall with three concerts Oct. 9-11, 2015 in Hill Auditorium, including two led by music director Alan Gilbert. The philharmonic will return in the 2017-18 and 2019-20 seasons. The Berlin Philharmonic and another orchestra to be named later will appear in the alternating seasons.

The New York Philharmonic's residency is being underwritten by a gift of at least $1 million, according to UMS officials, who declined to release more details except to note that the donor specifically values both UMS and the New York Philharmonic.

UMS president Ken Fischer said that a lot of the fun for the public and the university will be the philharmonic's willingness to experiment and its commitment to get into the bloodstream of the campus and surroundings. The public activities, which could include panel discussions, educational work, community partnerships and performances, have yet to be determined.

"Who knows what will happen with respect to the community?" said Fischer. "We're doing this with an orchestra that's open to new ways to connect, and we know that our objective is to go deep and to go broad."

Fischer said the 2017-18 season is particularly ripe with possibilities since it coincides with U-M's bicentennial, the 100th anniversary of the birth of former philharmonic music director Leonard Bernstein and the 175th anniversary of the founding of orchestra.

Orchestras nationwide are looking for ways to deepen ties with local communities. The Detroit Symphony Orchestra's neighborhood concerts in the suburbs, for example, have expanded the ensemble's audience and its reach into metro Detroit. But orchestras with larger international and national profiles are also looking for ways of putting down roots a long way from their own backyards. UMS, which has a long history as one of the country's most progressive arts presenters, is a logical partner.

In a statement, philharmonic executive director Matthew VanBesien said the partnership will extend beyond "performance and practice to a spirit of experimentation and creation."

The philharmonic's concerts next year led by Gilbert will include music by the orchestra's former resident composer Magnus Lindberg, Maurice Ravel and Beethoven (Oct. 9) and Esa-Pekka Salonen and Gustav Mahler (Oct. 10). The final program on Oct. 11 will be a film project conducted by David Newman — the orchestra will provide live accompaniment to a movie.

Contact Mark Stryker: 313-222-6459. mstryker@freepress.com