Detroit Symphony Orchestra is collecting donated instruments across Michigan through October 31

If you have got a trumpet in the closet or a clarinet under the bed, the Detroit Symphony Orchestra wants it this month.

The DSO has launched a statewide Detroit Harmony instrument drive running October 5 to 31, gathering donated instruments for Detroit students. Residents and organizations anywhere in Michigan can take part, with drop-off sites stretching from Ann Arbor to Lansing.

Donations run all month at ten locations during regular business hours: McCourt's Music and A&G Central Music in Troy, Marshall Music in Troy, Lansing, and Portage, Shar Music in Ann Arbor, A&R Music in Lincoln Park, Pursell Lutherie in Ferndale, and the DSO's own Fisher Building and Orchestra Hall in Detroit.

The headline event is Go 4 It, a drive-through collection on Wednesday, October 28, from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. at the Detroit Harmony Building, 3632 Cass Avenue. The DSO is running it with WDIV Local 4, so you can pull up, hand over an instrument, and keep moving.

Condition is not a dealbreaker. The DSO says it accepts instruments in any condition. The one exception is that acoustic pianos and organs are not being accepted right now.

The drive builds on a program that has already moved real numbers. Detroit Harmony has collected more than 5,000 instruments to date, and 3,100 of them are already in students' hands. That means most of what has been donated is being played, not sitting in storage. For a lot of young players, getting hold of an instrument is the whole barrier, and a drive like this is how the city chips away at it.

"Each donated instrument is another opportunity for students to experience the transformative power of music," said Damien Crutcher, Director of Detroit Harmony.

Detroit Harmony works with nonprofits, schools, community organizations, and civic leaders to widen access to music education, and it supports the technicians, educators, and teaching artists who keep instruments repaired and lessons going.

The practical part is simple. Find the instrument gathering dust, make sure it is not an acoustic piano or organ, and bring it to any of the ten sites before October 31 or to the Cass Avenue drive-through on the 28th.