
Together We Sound is a 2-week, 14-event free festival in Detroit.
This festival has three goals: 1. Expand and diversify access to world class contemporary music in Detroit
2. Increase artistic and scholastic achievement of youth at three Detroit high schools
3. Broaden Detroit’s national profile as a major cultural center. In collaborating with students, workers, local artists, and all Detroiters, Together We Sound aims to use our music to encourage togetherness.
May 4 at 7 pm at Playground Detroit
Yakropolis: Yak / Akropolis / Ahya Simone, visuals by Ben Keeler
May 5 at 7:30 pm at Kerrytown Concert House
Yakropolis Concert: Yak / Akropolis
May 24 at 12 pm at Skillman Foundation
Lunch & Listen Concert
May 25 at 9am at Detroit Leadership Academy
Elementary Presentation
May 25 at 12 pm at Hunt Street Station
Public Concert & Office Lunch & Listen
May 29 at 9:15am at Martin Luther King, Jr. Senior High School
HS Band Clinic & Composition Workshop
May 29 at 11:40 am at the Detroit Riverfront Conservancy
Lunch & Listen Concert
May 30 at 12pm at Beacon Park
Free Pop-Up Concert
May 30 at 2pm at Detroit School of the Arts
HS Band Clinic & Composition Workshop
May 31 at 8am at Cass Tech High School
HS Band Clinic & Composition Workshop
May 31 at 11:15am at Bates Academy
Elementary Presentation
May 31 at 1 pm at Ellington Conservatory
Elementary Presentation
June 1 at 7 pm at the Detroit Institute of Arts
Final Festival Concert with Shara Nova + Akropolis
About the 14 Events

3 Concerts In Collaboration with YAK and Shara Nova
May 4 at 7 pm at Playground Detroit
May 5 at 7:30 pm at Kerrytown Concert House
June 1 at 7 pm at the Detroit Institute of Arts
In our first Detroit concert on May 4 at Playground Detroit, Akropolis meets amplified viola da gamba, cymbals, and signal processing in a Tibetan throat singing-inspired collaboration with Detroit-based YAK. YAK has devoted itself to broadening Detroit audiences’ musical horizons, and serving Detroit’s hungry experimental music scene is a shared goal bringing us both together. Akropolis will perform a second concert with YAK at the Kerrytown Concert House in Ann Arbor, MI.
In our final Detroit concert, Akropolis collaborates with Shara Nova of My Brightest Diamond on a work for soprano and reed quintet by Nico Muhly titled “Hymns for Private Use.” Not many people can front a rock band, sing Górecki’s Third Symphony, lead a marching band processional down the streets of the Sundance film festival and perform in a baroque opera of their own composing all in a month’s time. But Shara Nova can. This concert will also feature compositions created by 3 Detroit High School students.
3 High Schools
Cass Technical High School
Martin Luther King. Jr. Senior High School
Detroit School of the Arts
Currently designing a year-long residency with Detroit Public Schools to begin this fall, Akropolis began its work with students at Cass, MLK, and DSA by selecting a student from each school to create a new chamber music composition for Akropolis. Akropolis will make an in-person visit to each school during the 2018 festival and will perform a student composition from each school on its second Detroit concert.
3 Detroit Offices
Lunch-and-Listen Concerts
To help encourage cultural exploration in Detroit, Akropolis will deliver three lunch time concerts (and lunch!) to the Detroit Riverfront Conservancy, Skillman Foundation, and Hunt Street Station Co-Working space.
3 Elementary Schools
Detroit Public Schools
Akropolis firmly believes the strongest way to foster appreciation, access, and the growth of classical music is through interactive educational experiences. These three elementary school visits will feature interactive games and a musical reenactment of a children’s story.
2 Pop-Up Concerts
Spontaneous Shows in Downtown Detroit
Akropolis will give 2 super-secret pop-up performances in large-scale public spaces during the 2018 festival. In the past, their pop-up performances have taken place at outdoor gathering spots, grocery stores, coffee shops, malls, and more. This year, we’ll be popping up at Beacon Park and then again at the GM Wintergarden Court. Come catch these free spontaneous shows!