For over a century, the Detroit Symphony Orchestra (DSO) has been world-renowned for the immaculate acoustics of Orchestra Hall, but on Saturday, June 27, the orchestra will trade the velvet-seated confines for the open air and cultural richness of Southwest Detroit’s Clark Park.
The Clark Park Culture and Arts Festival, located at 1130 Clark Ave, from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m., represents a shift in how a major institution connects with the community. Over the last several years, the DSO has been working behind the scenes to change its entire approach to community engagement, moving away from the old model of just popping into a neighborhood for a day and leaving.
Clare Valenti, Director of Community Engagement at the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, noted that it’s been about six years since the DSO marked a shift in how it would continue engaging with the community, specifically in Detroit.
“It was less about us sort of coming into a place and saying, ‘This is what we’re going to do,’ but really wanting to work together with community partners and local residents to co-create and curate these experiences together,” Valenti said.
That collaborative mindset completely flips the script on how classical music has traditionally interacted with urban neighborhoods. For decades, major symphonies operated under a “build it and they will come” mentality, which often created an invisible wall between the arts organizations and working-class communities. By bringing high-caliber music directly to the Southwest Detroit residents in “their own backyard”, the DSO is actively dismantling those walls by listening to what the community wants.
“This is really not about what we want. It’s about what everyone (local Detroit residents) have told us that they want to see happen in their neighborhood. It really all just started with a few questions: ‘What do you want to celebrate? What do you love about living in Southwest Detroit? What do you love about your community, and how can we work together to highlight what that is?,'” Valenti said.
When the DSO enters a space with that much history, they are guests in the community’s living room. The lineup itself is a mix of classical and local culture, featuring a DSO string quartet playing selections by Central and Latin American composers, alongside young violin students from the Sphinx Overture program at Caesar Chavez Academy, the senior Ballet Folklorico group from the LA SED Youth and Senior Center, and local rock band Mondo Kane.
For Mondo Kane, a band with a combined 50-plus-year legacy, the Clark Park festival is a homecoming. Bassist and Mondo Kane band manager Joe Ramón emphasized that the Southwest neighborhood is the ultimate inspiration for their sound.
“It is an honor to present our music and showcase rare oldies and doo-wop exactly as it was performed back then,” the band leader shared.
“We want the audience to just sit back, enjoy, or dance, while enjoying a trip down memory lane.”
This festival is about cultural equity, sharing resources, and meeting people where they are. To keep the collaborative connection going, the DSO meets with the planning committee, made up of local residents and organizations, monthly to develop community programming.
“Especially given the climate that we’re in right now, we need these moments for joy,” Valenti noted.
“When we had our first meeting of 2026, people just wanted a moment to experience joy and experience being together in community. So that’s part of why our tagline ended up being: Celebrate Together.“
To make sure that the celebration is accessible to everyone, the festival is completely free, ticketless, and packed with community resource booths alongside local food vendors.
Beyond the food and performances, the festival is also creating a pipeline for the next generation of Detroit musicians. The DSO will have its Detroit Harmony initiative on-site, providing hands-on instrument exploration for kids and linking families with local music programs right in their neighborhood.
“We believe at the DSO that music is for everyone. You don’t have to come to Orchestra Hall to experience music; there’s music throughout this entire city,” Valenti said.
“Detroit Harmony provides instruments to any student in the city of Detroit who wants to learn how to play, and they can get connected with all of this for free. We want everyone to come out and have a wonderful day, but then we really want them to be able to connect with music throughout the entire year.”
The DSO isn’t interested in being a pop-up presence in Southwest Detroit because, as Valenti emphasized, Clark Park is like the backyard of the entire community, and events like these are an ongoing community effort.
“We’re continuing to build other events throughout the year where we’re (the DSO) able to engage with our partners and Detroit residents; not just have it feel like we’re fly-by-night, popping up one day and then you’re not going to see us again for the year,” Valenti said.
