{{Short description|Music venue in Detroit, Michigan}} {{Use American English|date=December 2019}} {{Use mdy dates|date=December 2024}} {{Infobox venue | name = Max M. and Marjorie S. Fisher Music Center | image = Max M Fisher Music Center.jpg | image_alt = | caption = Orchestra Hall and Max M. and Marjorie S. Fisher Music Center | image_map = | map_caption = | pushpin_map = | pushpin_map_caption= | address = 3711 Woodward Avenue | city = [[Detroit]], [[Michigan]] | country = United States | designation = | owner = | tenant = | operator = [[Detroit Symphony Orchestra]] | capacity = {{ubl|Orchestra Hall: 2,000|The Cube: 450}} | type = Concert hall | opened = 1919 | reopened = 1989, 2003 | years_active = | rebuilt = | closed = | demolished = | other_names = Paradise Theater | production = | current_use = | website = {{URL|http://www.dso.org}} | embedded = {{Infobox NRHP | embed = yes | name = Orchestra Hall | nrhp_type = | location = | coordinates = {{coord|42|20|55.49|N|83|3|33.48|W|display=inline,title}} | area = | architect = [[C. Howard Crane]] | architecture = [[Beaux-Arts architecture|Beaux-Arts]] | added = April 16, 1971 | refnum = 71000429<ref name="nris">{{NRISref|2007a}}</ref> | designated_other1 = Michigan State Historic Site }} }}
'''Orchestra Hall''' is a [[concert hall]] at 3711 [[M-1 (Michigan highway)|Woodward Avenue]] in [[Midtown Detroit]], [[Michigan]], United States. The hall is renowned for its superior [[acoustics|acoustic]] properties<ref name="aia">{{cite book |last1=Hill |first1=Eric J. |author2=John Gallagher |title=AIA Detroit: The American Institute of Architects Guide to Detroit Architecture |url=https://archive.org/details/aiadetroitameric0000hill |url-access=registration |quote=orchestra hall. |year=2002 |publisher=Wayne State University Press |isbn=978-0-8143-3120-0 |page=[https://archive.org/details/aiadetroitameric0000hill/page/112 112] |access-date=January 22, 2020}}</ref><ref name="sharoff">{{cite book| last=Sharoff| first=Robert| title=American City: Detroit Architecture, 1845–2005| publisher=Wayne State University Press| year=2005| isbn=978-0-8143-3270-2| author-link=Robert Sharoff| page=33}}</ref> and serves as the home of the internationally known [[Detroit Symphony Orchestra]] (DSO), the fourth oldest orchestra in the United States.<ref>{{cite news| url=http://www.pri.org/about/press-releases/detroit-symphony-pri.html| title=The Detroit Symphony Orchestra' premieres on PRI| date=March 30, 2008| last=Jensen| first=Dan| publisher=[[Public Radio International]]| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080512153627/http://www.pri.org/About/press-releases/detroit-symphony-pri.html| archive-date=May 12, 2008| url-status=dead}}</ref> With the creation of an adjoining auditorium for jazz and chamber music in 2003, Orchestra Hall became part of the '''Max M. and Marjorie S. Fisher Music Center'''. It was listed on the [[National Register of Historic Places]] in 1971.<ref name="nris"/>
==History== The Detroit Symphony Orchestra had previously played at the old Detroit Opera House. However, [[Ossip Gabrilowitsch]] demanded that the DSO build a suitable auditorium before he assumed his position as music director.<ref name="aia"/> Construction on Orchestra Hall began on June 6, 1919, and was completed in barely six months.<ref name="aia"/><ref name="sharoff"/>
The 2,014-seat hall was designed by the noted theater architect, [[C. Howard Crane]]. The first concert took place on October 23, 1919 and the hall remained the home of the [[Detroit Symphony Orchestra]] until 1939.<ref name="aia"/> In 1924 Mr. and Mrs. William H. Murphy gifted a large 4-manual, 72-rank, 4,355-pipe [[Casavant Frères]] organ to the DSO and Orchestra Hall "so long as the society remained integrally what it was". The organ's dedicatory concert was given March 17, 1924 by [[Marcel Dupré]].<ref name=":0">{{Cite journal |date=December 1, 1943 |title=Large Detroit Organ Installed in Church – Stood in Orchestra Hall |url=https://sgcimages.s3.amazonaws.com/Diapason/Digitized%20Issues/1940_s/1943/December%201943.pdf |journal=[[The Diapason]] |volume=35 |issue=1 |page=1}}</ref>
Due to the financial difficulties of the [[Great Depression]], the orchestra was compelled to leave Orchestra Hall and enter into a more economical arrangement to share the [[Detroit Masonic Temple|Masonic Temple Theatre]]. Orchestra Hall was vacant for two years until it was purchased by new owners. For ten years Orchestra Hall presented jazz artists under the name Paradise Theater, opening on Christmas Eve 1941. The Paradise hosted the most renowned jazz musicians, including [[Ella Fitzgerald]], [[Billie Holiday]], [[Count Basie]], and [[Duke Ellington]]. The entertainment at Paradise Theater often included a live act and a movie from a B movie studio like [[Republic Pictures]], [[Monogram Pictures]], or [[Producers Releasing Corporation]]. A typical show on October 27, 1944 featured [[Cab Calloway]] and his Cotton Club Orchestra on stage and the movie ''[[That's My Baby! (1944 film)|That's My Baby!]]'' (Monogram, 1944, [[Richard Arlen]], [[Ellen Drew]]).<ref>Detroit Free Press archives, 1942–1948, Newspapers.com.</ref>
The terms of the Murphy organ's donation to Orchestra Hall were such that the title of the organ reverted back to the Murphys when the DSO vacated Orchestra Hall in 1929. The Murphys arranged for the organ to be donated to Detroit's Calvary Presbyterian Church. A lawsuit was filed to compel Paradise Theater management to allow the organ's removal; the move was eventually carried out by the Toledo Pipe Organ Company and church members in the middle of the night.<ref name=":0" />
[[File:Detroit Orchestra Hall c1970 089771pu.jpg|thumb|Orchestra Hall in 1970]] The Paradise closed in 1951 and now Orchestra Hall sat vacant for nearly twenty years until the late 1960s when it was slated for demolition and the land used to construct a restaurant. Paul Ganson, the assistant principal bassoonist of the DSO, spearheaded a movement to rediscover the hall and raise funds to restore it. Renovation work started in 1970 and continued for about two decades, costing roughly $6.8 million. The original building required extensive renovations including: a new stage, all new seating, plaster and lath work, and restoration of historical decorations. All of the restoration work was completed with the goal of maintaining the fine acoustic properties that the hall was historically known for. The hall was added to the [[National Register of Historic Places]] in 1971. The DSO moved back into Orchestra Hall in 1989.<ref name="aia"/>
Additional work on the hall was done in the summer months of 2002 and 2003 as part of the creation of the new Max M. and Marjorie S. Fisher Music Center, or "the MAX", as it is known. The work included renovations to the original facility as well as an expansion which houses additional lobbies and reception areas, dressing rooms and storage facilities, rehearsal space and a 450-seat venue for more intimate performances.
The [[mayor of Detroit]] delivers the annual State of the City address at Orchestra Hall.
==References== {{Reflist}}
==Further reading== * {{cite book |author1=Hauser, Michael |author2=Marianne Weldon | title=Downtown Detroit's Movie Palaces (Images of America) |year=2006 |publisher=Arcadia Publishing |isbn=978-0-7385-4102-0}} * {{cite book| author=Heiles, Ann Mischakoff |title=America's Concertmasters (Detroit Monographs in Musicology) |publisher=Harmonie Park | year=2007 | isbn=978-0-89990-139-8}} * {{cite book |author1=Hill, Eric J. |author2=John Gallagher |title=AIA Detroit: The American Institute of Architects Guide to Detroit Architecture |year=2002 |publisher=Wayne State University Press |isbn=978-0-8143-3120-0 |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/aiadetroitameric0000hill }} * {{cite book |author=Meyer, Katherine Mattingly and Martin C.P. McElroy with Introduction by W. Hawkins Ferry, Hon A.I.A. |title=Detroit Architecture A.I.A. Guide Revised Edition |year=1980 |publisher=Wayne State University Press |isbn=978-0-8143-1651-1 |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/detroitarchitect0000unse}}
==External links== * {{Commons category-inline|Detroit Orchestra Hall}} * [http://www.detroitsymphony.com/ Detroit Symphony Orchestra official website]
{{Theatre in Detroit}} {{Detroit}} {{Architecture of metropolitan Detroit}} {{National Register of Historic Places listings in Wayne County, Michigan}} {{Authority control}}
[[Category:1919 establishments in Michigan]] [[Category:Beaux-Arts architecture in Michigan]] [[Category:Concert halls in Michigan]] [[Category:Event venues established in 1919]] [[Category:Event venues on the National Register of Historic Places in Michigan]] [[Category:Music venues in Michigan]] [[Category:National Register of Historic Places in Detroit]] [[Category:Performing arts centers in Michigan]] [[Category:Theatres in Detroit]] [[Category:Detroit Symphony Orchestra]]