Orchestra Hall, Detroit

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Orchestra Hall, in Detroit, Michigan, is a major music hall as well as the home of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra (DSO). It is located on Woodward Avenue across from the Detroit Medical Center. The hall is renowned for its marvellous acoustic properties.

Orchestra Hall was built in 1919, in barely five months, because Ossip Gabrilowitsch demanded that the DSO build a suitable auditorium before he assumed his position as music director. The Orchestra used to play at the old Detroit Opera House.

With the creation of an adjoining auditorium for jazz and chamber music in 2003, Orchestra Hall became part of the Max M. Fisher Music Center which included and a new store for DSO merchandise.

The 2014-seat hall was designed by architect C. Howard Crane. The first concert took place on October 23, 1919. It was home to the orchestra until 1939, when due to the financial difficulties of the Great Depression, they had to enter a more economical arrangement at the Masonic Temple Theater. Orchestra Hall was renamed Paradise Theater in 1941, and became a major jazz venue, hosting such renowned jazz musicians as Ella Fitzgerald, Billie Holiday, Count Basie and Duke Ellington.

But in 1951, the Paradise closed. The building was abandoned for several years and was even scheduled for demolition. Principal DSO bassoonist Paul Ganson spearheaded a fundraiser movement to restore Orchestra Hall and add it to the National Register of Historic Places.

Renovation work started in 1970 and went on for about two decades. A lot of things had to be worked on, such as the box seats, a new stage, aisle lighting, restoration of historical decorations, all the while trying to maintain the acoustic properties the hall was historically known for. The DSO moved back into Orchestra Hall in 1989. Additional work on the hall was done in the summer months of 2002 and 2003 as part of the creation of the "MAX" as it is known.