It’s probably not the way Jader Bignamini envisioned starting his tenure as the Detroit Symphony Orchestra’s 18th Musical Director.
For a normal classical season’s opening night he’d be standing on the podium in front of the full orchestra, with a full house behind him and anxious to see what the new guy has to offer. But the COVID-19 pandemic has ensured this is not a normal season.
Instead Bignamini starts off this week — Thursday and Friday, Sept. 10-11 — conducting pieces by Copland, Gabrieli, Strauss, Herbert and Morricone in Orchestra Hall but with a reduced-sized orchestra (no more than 30 musicians at a time) and nobody in seats. Instead, the concerts — like all of the DSO’s programs through at least the end of the year — will be streamed and ticketed, meaning the ovations will be implied for the time being.
Nevertheless, Bignamini, 44, is nothing but excited to begin what he calls “my new artistic journey.
“I can’t wait to start,” he…
