Detroit Symphony opens its season Saturday with Joshua Bell and $69 tickets

The Detroit Symphony Orchestra opens its 2026-2027 season on Saturday, September 26, with an Opening Night Gala at Orchestra Hall in the Max M. Fisher Music Center.

Grammy-winning violinist Joshua Bell headlines the concert, performing Édouard Lalo's Symphonie espagnole under Music Director Jader Bignamini. It is Bignamini's sixth season leading the orchestra. The program also includes Emmanuel Chabrier's España and Alberto Ginastera's Four Dances from Estancia.

The evening starts at 5 p.m. with red-carpet arrivals and a pre-concert reception, and the concert begins at 7 p.m. Concert tickets start at $69 and include access to the pre-concert reception. Gala packages, which add a formal seated dinner and an afterglow, start at $1,000. The gala honors Phillip Wm. Fisher, the DSO's Chair Emeritus.

For anyone who has never walked into Orchestra Hall, at 3711 Woodward, there is no dress code for the concert. You can wear the tuxedo or the flannel and take the same seat.

The night is the front door to a season the DSO is calling "Your City, Your Sound," a run that leans hard on music being written right now. The season features 12 works by living composers.

One of them is leaving a mark on his way out. The 2026-2027 season marks the final year of composer-in-residence Michael Abels's tenure with the orchestra. His Emerge, a DSO co-commission, gets its performances October 15 to 17, 2026.

The season also brings the Midwest premiere of Valerie Coleman's Piano Concerto, another DSO co-commission, with pianist Michelle Cann as soloist. Both pieces exist in part because Detroit's orchestra helped pay to bring them into the world, which is a quieter kind of civic investment than a new tower but a real one.

Bell is the draw Saturday, and he earns the billing. The Symphonie espagnole is a showcase built to let a soloist sing and sprint, and pairing it with Chabrier and Ginastera makes for a night of color rather than solemnity.

Tickets and gala packages are available at dso.org or by calling 313.576.5111. The DSO announced ticket availability in a press release dated April 30, 2026.