Listening, Together: Community, Connection & the Ann Arbor Symphony Orchestra

The Ann Arbor Symphony Orchestra is a cultural cornerstone of Ann Arbor, Michigan—one that brings people together through the shared experience of live music. To sit in a room and listen collectively, to feel something in unison as an audience, is profoundly healing.

In 2025, like many arts organizations, this nonprofit faced a decrease in funding—an all-too-common challenge for essential community programming. Yet the value of live music cannot be measured solely in numbers. It exists in the connection between musicians and audience, in the quiet moments of listening, and in the collective sense of belonging that fills the space.

The performances of the A2SO offer comfort, reflection, and joy. The relationship between performers and listeners is reciprocal—each depends on the other to create something meaningful. No matter the challenges they face, music and the arts endure, because of their unmatched ability to heal, to connect, and to bring people together.

A brick building with a marquee that reads "Michigan A2SO Beethoven and Chopin Saturday Eight PM" is illuminated while blurry people walk in front of the building in the foreground.
A behind the scenes perspective of the backs of musicians holding instruments with an audience in the background in a theater with stage lighting.
A staff member at hill auditorium stands framed in a doorway while helping two people find their seats.
A silhouetted musician plays their trumpet on stage with a blue backdrop. The musician is a part of the Ann Arbor Symphony Orchestra.
Ann Arbor Symphony Conductor, Earl Lee, looks out at the audience while he walks on stage in front of an orchestra.
An overhead, wide view of the entire Ann Arbor Symphony Orchestra on stage.
A young man sits with his eyes closed in theater seating.
A young man sits with closed eyes holds a stringed instrument.
A close up photo of volinist Clara-Jumi Kang playing her violin with her hair whipping around her face.
Musician Chris Thile yells on stage, illuminated by red and orange lighting, while facing musician Jacob Collier, during a concert.
A spotlight of orange illuminates a crowded audience, surrounded by blue lighting during an Ann Arbor Symphony Orchestra concert.
A pianist performs a solo on stage while musicians from the orchestra smile in the background.
Young men in an audience listen to an orchestra performance while one of the men in the group holds his hands to his mouth in astonishment.
An audience gives a standing ovation after a performance in an auditorium.
A group of people stand around a balcony in an ornate theater with chandeliers hanging the ceiling.
Two people smiling and hugging each other while other people walk past in a lobby of the Michigan Theater.
A group of violinists and cellists play with their instruments while bathed in purple stage lighting.
A man in the audience listens to a performance from the Ann Arbor Symphony Orchestra while bathed in orange light.
A group of people sit in theater seating are backlit by stage lighting in an auditorium.
Stage lights frame the Ann Arbor Symphony Orchestra onstage.
Conductor Earl Lee stands on stage directing the orchestra, framed in a round window.
Conductor Earl Lee smiling on stage with the Ann Arbor Symphony Orchestra as the audience claps.
Two women, one audience member standing near the stage, reaches out and holds the hand of a musician onstage.