Source: School of Music, Theatre & Dance
Peter Smith Photography
Peter Smith Photography
On a Sunday afternoon last March, students in the University of Michigan Concert Band, led by Courtney Snyder, gathered at Hill Auditorium to get ready for that day’s concert, preparing in much the same way they had done several times throughout the season. But this concert stood out from the others in an important aspect: on that day, March 17, the Concert Band performed alongside high school students from Crescendo Detroit and Detroit Harmony, marking the first time these groups of students would share the stage and perform together.
Crescendo Detroit is a nonprofit organization that offers after-school and summer programs for school-age children in the city, teaching instrumental music, vocal music, music production, and dance. It was cofounded in 2013 by Damien Crutcher (MM ’96, wind conducting), the nonprofit organization’s CEO and a vocal advocate for accessible and inclusive arts education. SMTD and Crescendo Detroit have collaborated for many years in many ways, including the Crescendo Detroit/SMTD Pathways Program, which brings Crescendo Detroit participants to Ann Arbor on Saturdays to be taught by SMTD students. A native Detroiter, Crutcher also serves as the managing director of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra’s Detroit Harmony initiative, which seeks to increase opportunities for music education in the city, in part by providing instruments to every K-12 student who wants to learn to play.
