Hear Cellist Robert deMaine Perform on Detroit Today
deMaine performs Saturday at 8 p.m. at the Seligman Performing Arts Center in Beverly Hills.
Classical musician Robert deMaine was the principal cellist at the Detroit Symphony Orchestra for 10 years before leaving during the strike in 2010.
DeMaine left Detroit for a solo career, and then a position with the Los Angeles Philharmonic. But he says he never stopped missing his time in Detroit and with the DSO.
Now deMaine has returned to Detroit for a concert Saturday, September 16, at the Seligman Performing Arts Center in Beverly Hills, as part of the Chamber Music Society of Detroit series.
He joins Detroit Today with Stephen Henderson to perform some music, discuss his career, and talk about his passion for both classical music and Detroit.
Henderson and deMaine talk about their shared love for the cello as an instrument. deMaine says each string on the cello has a unique voice.
“The A string is sort of our more heroic string – that’s our Maria Callas or Luciano Pavarotti,” he says. “Our C string is more of our Samuel Ramey. Our G string is our Frank Sinatra. And our D string is our Cat Stevens, Yusuf Islam.”
deMaine also talks about how much he misses Detroit since leaving for Los Angeles.
“I’m sort of a dyed in the wool Midwesterner,” he says. “Detroit gets under your skin in a very positive way. And those who have dissed Detroit to my face pay the price.”
Click on the audio player above to hear the full conversation.
