Music Hall Center for the Performing Arts Inc

In 1928 when Matilda Dodge Wilson built the Wilson Theater, as Music Hall was originally known, she applied a very long-term view.

Her vision for social justice included an open-hearted welcome and firm commitment to groups that were not included by major venues of the day, including African-Americans. Her vision for sustainability included a ‘broad net’ variety-house approach to programming, as a means of creating creative outlet for music, theater, and dance performances across the spectrum – ensuring that as interests shift, our Hall remains relevant. And her vision for longevity would surely have included keen memories of the terror experienced just a decade prior, when the influenza epidemic of 1918 shook the foundations of society.

Music Hall’s foundations are incredibly strong and will remain so throughout the tough days of the pandemic, ready for the moment when we can once again open the doors for 300 nights per year of annual programming, as we were doing just five months ago.

As of this writing in late July 2020, we are optimistic that performances can resume, with carefully designed modifications, in early 2021. There is tremendous interest on the part of all who not only dearly miss this work that we love but depend on it for their livelihoods – performing artists, stagehands, front-of-house and box office staff, administrative personnel, promoters, and more. Following the success of the July 24-25 Detroit Music Weekend event in our adjacent parking lot, we are examining the potential to continue outdoor performances throughout the fall as an alternative to presenting shows inside the Theater. Some of the re-scheduled performances on our 2020-21 calendar include The Moth Radio Hour, the Danish National Ballet, BalletX, Jersey Boys, Michigan Opera Theater’s ‘Frida’, Heather McMahan, ‘Set It Off’, and Brit Floyd. Performance listings can always be found on our website: https://www.musichall.org/.

Consistent with recent years, the ‘spine’ of our programming is organized into several grouped Series – Contemporary Dance, Music, Broadway, Urban Theater, and Family Theater. Public safety permitting and with likely modifications, we will create community engagement activities for performances in each Series. These activities draw aspiring artists and non-artists into the creative process. They are facilitated by teaching & touring artists appearing on our stages together with the group of seven Music Hall Resident Artists & Companies (profiles attached in our personnel document). A wonderful recent profile of the Hall and its history can be seen here: https://www.clickondetroit.com/live-in-the-d/2020/03/31/this-venue-is-home-to-the-stars/.

No matter what happens, beginning in the fall of 2020, our energies and resources are focused on our education portfolio – seven performing arts instruction programs that open doors for students aged 3-18, predominantly in the Detroit Public Schools Community District. We have spent much of the summer preparing to be able to offer these lessons virtually and are invigorated by the challenge of finding new ways to ensure that kids have access to the performing arts. Our conversations with the District are centered on the capacity for flexibility, knowing that we may have opportunity for in-person instruction or may not, or may toggle between the two situations as needs change.

Our performing arts education programs synergize with our stage programming, together reaching 22,000 students each year - mainly in the Detroit schools. For over a decade, Music Hall’s teaching artists have sustained the rare privilege of working in the classrooms during the school day alongside regular faculty, and the District’s new leadership has confirmed that our programs will continue to be a trusted part of its in-school curriculum. The programs are the core of our efforts to ensure access to under-served communities, as well as to cultivate the next generation of performing arts fans. We know that for many of these students, our programs are their only structured exposure to the performing arts – a discipline proven to benefit students’ academic and eventual career success.

They are:

• Lincoln Center’s Jazz for Young People --- an introduction to the form, core concepts, major figures, and its relationship to current music (IN-SCHOOL)

• Jazz Vocal Education – a pre-professional program for talented middle and high schoolers (IN-SCHOOL)

• Theatre for Young People – an early-childhood introduction to classic literature and its presentation on the stage -- rigorously designed to improve school readiness for children from low-income families (IN-SCHOOL)

• Contemporary Dance Master Classes – the teaching artists from our touring companies, bringing the world’s latest steps & movement ideas to Detroit students (IN-SCHOOL)

• Music education at the School at Marygrove -- basic music theory, choral singing and instrumental instruction at DPSCD’s new and innovative campus (AFTER-SCHOOL)