Mark Stryker

Detroit Free Press Staff Writer

The Detroit Symphony Orchestra is going where no DSO has gone before — China.

DSO officials will announce on Tuesday that music director Leonard Slatkin and the orchestra are headed to Asia in July 2017 as part of a landmark three-week tour that will include 11 concerts in Japan and China. Budgeted at about $1.8 million, the trip marks the DSO's first international tour in 16 years and its first visit to China.

For the DSO, which has been rebuilding its finances, community profile and ensemble ranks since the 2010-11 musicians' strike, the trip symbolizes growing confidence about its future and an important reaffirmation of its major-league artistic aspirations. The DSO's high-profile return to Carnegie Hall in 2013 was a step toward re-establishing a national presence for the orchestra. The Asia tour represents the next step up the ladder.

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"I do think it's important for an orchestra of this stature," said principal clarinetist Ralph Skiano, who joined the orchestra in 2014. "When we’re looking for a place to call home, we’re looking for an orchestra that is recording and attracting the best talent, and touring is part of all that. Touring puts us on the world stage, and it's good to know the DSO is still committed to that."

More broadly, the tour promises to trumpet a two-pronged comeback story — that of the DSO and post-bankruptcy Detroit — to not only the wider classical music world, but also important business markets for metro Detroit companies, particularly key sponsor Ford, which has growing concerns in China.

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"We can carry a message about the health of the city and state that needs to be delivered," said DSO president Anne Parsons. "The city has a recovery story, and we have one, too."

Beyond the alignment with the interests of corporate sponsors, a tour specifically to Asia made sense for the DSO on a variety of other fronts. Slatkin has a significant commercial profile in Japan and China, where he has often conducted, and the DSO's high-definition live webcasts from Orchestra Hall have found a fan base in both countries, which combine to make up about 8% of the international viewers for the concerts. Japan has long boasted large and passionate audiences for Western classical music, and interest in China is in the midst of monumental growth spurt.

The tour, scheduled for July 11-30, will take the orchestra to some of the most populated urban areas in the world, including Tokyo (38 million people) and Shanghai (22 million people). Even some of the smaller cities on the itinerary in China boast enormous populations. Changsha, China, for example, has an urban population of about 5 million.

Plans for an Asian tour have been in the works for years, though DSO leaders were wary about going all-in on the venture until they were confident they could raise all of the orchestra's out-of-pocket costs before the plane took off from Detroit Metro Airport.

So far, the DSO has commitments for $1.5 million (including concert fees) of the projected $1.8 million cost of the tour. Parsons said the orchestra was still soliciting funds, and she expressed confidence that the money would be raised to close the $300,000 gap. The total budget might also come in lower, depending on final tallies for airfare and cargo.

The largest philanthropic support is $500,000 from the William Davidson Foundation — whose late namesake believed passionately in DSO touring and whose company, Guardian Industries, provided leadership gifts to the DSO's European tours in 1998 and 2001.

Ford is also a leading sponsor of the Asian tour, ponying up $250,000. The company's nonprofit charitable arm, the Ford Motor Company Fund, contributed most of that, with the rest coming from the car company. Jim Vella, president, Ford Motor Company Fund and Community Services, said that Ford's motivation was rooted in both traditional philanthropic notions of good corporate citizenship and brand building in China, where Ford sold more than a million vehicles last year.

China has become the largest market for new vehicles in the world across the industry. Ford has 10 plants in China, five of which are in Chongqing, one of the stops on the DSO itinerary. The orchestra concludes the tour with a concert in Shanghai, the home of Ford's Asia Pacific headquarters.

"We are building a culture in some of our newer markets like China, and part of that culture is: How do we engage not only our business partners but our communities?" said Vella.

In a twist of fate, the DSO's Asian tour comes on the heels on a contentious U.S. presidential election in which President-elect Donald Trump's rhetoric on trade took aim at China and Japan. The controversy that arose late last week — when Trump broke with decades of diplomatic protocol by speaking on the phone with the president of Taiwan — angered China and suggests that U.S. relationships with the Far East are likely in for a bumpy ride.

While no one would expect a symphony to solve the world's geopolitical problems, Vella does see a positive role for an institution like the DSO to play.

"You can go anywhere on this planet, whether it's China, India or Africa, and one of the common things about humankind is that everybody loves music," he said. "It brings people together. I think things like the Detroit Symphony tour can help connect people."

In addition to the Davidson Foundation and Ford, a number of other corporate partners, foundations and other nonprofits and individuals have provided support, among them Shinola, Toyota and the Japan Business Society of Detroit.

The Asian tour will be the DSO's sixth international sojourn and its first since a two-week European tour in October 2001, when it became the first American orchestra to travel overseas after 9/11. (Due to illness, then-music director Neeme Jarvi was replaced on the tour by conductor Leif Segerstam.) The only previous trip to Japan came in 1998, when the DSO played five educational concerts and three public concerts in two smaller cities, Toyota City (a sister city to Detroit) and Otsu in the Shiga Prefecture, a sister state to Michigan.

Chronic financial problems have kept the DSO from traveling internationally in the past 16 years, though Slatkin's Detroit tenure has included two week-long trips to Florida. Slatkin, who is in his final full season as music director, said he did not see the Asian tour as a valedictory. But he said it was an important morale builder for the orchestra and reminder of what is possible.

"We endured the worst of times, and even though there are obstacles and hurdles to overcome, we are back on the radar as an international ensemble," he said.

A stalwart champion of American music, Slatkin has programmed a big chunk of homegrown music for the tour, including works by Aaron Copland, Samuel Barber, Leonard Bernstein, George Gershwin and Cindy McTee (Slatkin's wife). Music by Tchaikovsky, Erich Korngold and Toru Takemitsu is also planned. Soloists announced so far are Makoto Ozone and violinist Akiko Suwanai (both Japanese-born) and Hong Kong-born cellist Trey Chui-yee Lee.

The Chinese-born musicians in the DSO — there are nine of them, or about 11% of the total — are especially excited about the opportunity to return to their homeland with their American orchestra. Assistant concertmaster Hai Xin Wu, who joined the DSO in 1995, said that he was inspired to play the violin as a kid in his hometown of Shanghai by seeing the Boston Symphony on television performing in China in the 1970s.

"This is a very proud moment for me," said Wu. "A lot of my classmates and teachers will be there. I hope something more can come out of the DSO's reach into China."

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

DSO Asia Tour 2017

July 11-30. Eleven concerts, including six in Japan and five in China.

(DSO will also perform a free send-off concert at Orchestra Hall on July 9),

JAPAN

1. July 14: Tokyo Seitoku University (Kawanami Memorial Hall), Kita (metro Tokyo)

2. July 15: Toyota City (Toyota-Shi Concert Hall)

3. July 16: Osaka (Symphony Hall)

4. July 17: Tokyo (Bunkyo Civic Hall)

5. July 19: Tokyo Nippon Festival (Tokyo Opera City, Concert Hall)

6. July 20: Fukui (Harmony Hall Fukui)

CHINA

7. July 22: Suzhou (Suzhou Kunshan Poly Theater)

8. July 23: Wuhan (Qintai Concert Hall)

9. July 25: Changsha (Poly Concert Hall)

10. July 27: Chongqing (Chongqing Grand Theatre)

11. July 29: Shanghai (Oriental Arts Center)

Music director: Leonard Slatkin

Soloists: Makoto Ozone, piano; Akiko Suwanai, violin; Trey Chui-yee Lee, cello; additional soloist to be announced.

Repertoire: Aaron Copland, Symphony No. 3; Samuel Barber, “Adagio for Strings”; Leonard Bernstein, “Candide Overture”; Cindy McTee, “Double Play”; George Gershwin, “Rhapsody in Blue”; Tchaikovsky, Symphony No. 4; Erich Korngold, Violin Concerto, Toru Takemitsu, “Far Calls. Coming, Far!”