The Dexter Community Orchestra began in the fall of 2005, following an announcement published in the Ann Arbor News and Ann Arbor Observer.

The indispensable person in the founding of the DCO was conductor Don Parrish. Don, assisted by his wife Sally, was one of those rare people that knew what he could do, consistently set big goals and realized them. A remarkable individual, a successful band and orchestra teacher of many years in the Ann Arbor Public Schools, Don was also at the same time a well-known builder of many custom homes in the Ann Arbor area, specializing in reproductions of 18th century New England designs. For his second act, Don retired from the Ann Arbor Schools and began the Dexter Schools orchestra program. When the Dexter Schools Orchestra program was mature and graduating its first students, and the new Dexter High School opening, Don Started the DCO. While the Dexter Orchestra program would have been started by someone else sooner or later, and probably not as well, there is no reason to believe the DCO would have begun without him. If the founding of a successful community orchestra was a natural consequence of having a school orchestra program, it would have more likely happened first at Ann Arbor or Saline, both of which had arguably a higher tax base, better facilities, and a thirty-five-year or more head start.

The DCO membership is not exclusively tied to Dexter, it is in fact a regional orchestra, drawing musicians from as far as thirty miles away. Don visualized it as filling the role formerly provided by the Ann Arbor Symphony Orchestra, prior to when it was semi-professionalized in the mid 1980’s. At that time new auditions for the AASO were held, and many amateur musicians were let go to wander in the desert for twenty years. It is a bit misleading to say that the Ann Arbor Symphony wasn’t semi-professional before this time, but not everyone was paid and the payment mostly covered driving expenses. These were of course different times, before the expectation that most students would attend college, and before there was a large contingent of aspiring professional orchestral musicians, graduates of music conservatories, attempting to make a career from performing in one or more local orchestras and teaching on the side. This brings up the subject of what a community orchestra is, which is often not well understood.

While the membership of the DCO includes many highly skilled players, most are not, due to other priorities, able to make the same level of commitment that aspiring professional players can make, and they in turn do not expect to be compensated. Still, there is a delicate balance that must be made between keeping the membership as open as possible and attracting and maintaining highly skilled players, because of the way orchestral music is scored. The principal players, high woodwinds in particular, are full-time soloists, and need to be very good players to maintain a high-performance level. We are fortunate in Dexter to have a large talent pool from which to draw, and our concert quality continues to improve. I think that orchestras such as the DCO, without a lot of pushing, will naturally rise to be as good as they possibly can be, so long as they are not being held back.

Ideally, perhaps, a community orchestra would be open to all regardless of skill level, and there is a successful model for that; the New Horizons Bands, where all players are potentially beginners. The problem with this model is that concerts are very expensive to put on, so a completely open orchestra would require a substantial internal or external funding source to operate, as the quality of performance would probably not be high enough to generate sufficient concert donations.

Arguably the Ann Arbor Symphony remains a community orchestra, even if compensated. Probably, what constitutes a community orchestra differs in every community based on the available talent and other opportunities for musicians to play. Since the Dexter Community Orchestra does not charge concert admission, our advantage is that we are the ground floor of classical music, attracting an audience of potential new listeners that probably wouldn’t have paid to attend an Ann Arbor Symphony concert.

Don Parrish shared DCO conducting duties with fellow trombonist and longtime Redford orchestra director Doug McQueen, father of Carole of our trombone section. After the success of its first concert, the DCO continued to attract new members and improve in quality. Don was helped in the beginning by several DCO board members, including long time board president Mike Garahan, Cindy Kamish, Joe Lange, Marolin Belefleur, and Margaret Weiss.

Early priorities for the DCO Board included writing the DCO bylaws, obtaining IRS 501(c)(3) non-profit status, funding the purchase of a grand piano for the Dexter High School auditorium, funding an investment account (for a rainy-day fund or special projects), and establishing the DCO Youth Soloist Competition. These goals were mostly completed by the winter of 2007, with the first piano concerto performance being presented on the March 11th 2007 featuring U of M doctoral student Dimitri Vorobiev, and the first DCO Youth Soloist performance featured Dainiel Park, clarinet performing on May 20th 2007.

During the winter of 2009, a change in Don Parrish’s personality became noticeable. We were saddened to learn that summer that he had been diagnosed with a malignant brain tumor. Don let us know he would fight as long as he could, but it would eventually become necessary to find a new conductor, so a search was begun. Don was determined to conduct the final concert of the 2010 season, which he did, but it would be his last performance.

From three conductor candidates, the orchestra members choose Anthony Elliott, professor of cello at the University of Michigan, one of the most prominent cello teachers in the US, and the first African American musician to be appointed to a “first desk” position in a major symphony orchestra. Tony “auditioned the DCO” by having us perform one of Tchaikovsky’s least accessible pieces, Francesca da Rimini. The concert was a success and Tony accepted the position. In a long and successful career, Tony hadn’t previously had his own orchestra to conduct; he was determined to make the most of this opportunity, and he did.

Don Parrish passed away in July of 2011. Tony organized a memorial concert which the DCO performed on September 11th, after enough DCO members volunteered to come in early to rehearse for it. The concert was a great success, but it was a very emotional day for those of us who knew Don. Later it was suggested that the DCO could continue this early concert concept as a way of kick-starting our concert season. Tony thought that it would be impractical to do this every year, and he came up instead with the idea of sharing a concert in conjunction with local high school orchestras, so that their students would have the opportunity to meet players from other schools and get to play with the wind and percussion instruments that they normally do not in the fall, as these players are usually in the school bands. So, a new tradition began, one of which Don Parrish would certainly have approved.

Tony Elliot has a great baritone voice, and one of his first contributions to the orchestra was to organize a collaboration between the DCO and the Washtenaw Orchestra Choir, a choir formed to play with us. The Choir usually performed on our Holiday concerts during this time. The DCO performed some major choral literature, including Vivaldi Gloria, Bach Magnificat, and Vaughn Williams Hodie.

Another initiative of Tony’s was to start a program of small ensembles from the orchestra. He thought that the best way to improve the orchestra was to encourage ensemble playing. DCO ensembles performed at the Dexter Library, St. Joseph Catholic Church, and the Kerrytown concert house. These concerts helped to raise the profile of the DCO in the Dexter community. During this time, we had Angie Noble as our ensemble coordinator, and she was the perfect personality to connect with musicians and create opportunities for performances.

The DCO board during this period was concerned with finances and attracting a larger audience. We were experiencing conflicts with other groups for rehearsal space and percussion instruments, and we considered that we might have to purchase our own. To address this, Laura Hogan, our principal flute, organized the Musical Taste of Dexter, a summer fund raiser held in the Dexter Knights of Columbus building. We put up a banner over Main Street in Dexter, various local restaurants provided food, and DCO ensembles provided entertainment. These events were successful in raising money, generating about double what we would make in a typical concert donation, and they helped raise the DCO profile in the community. Another effort was Brass and Brews, organized by Angie Noble, which was a fundraiser at a local brew pub. The Dexter Brass Quintet performed with DCO volunteers selling food. Compared with the MToD, the Brass and Brews events were much easier to put on, but they didn’t generate as much revenue. For a few years the DCO provided an “Instrument Petting Zoo” at the August Dexter Days festival, where young children could try string instruments provided by Shar Music, the DCO’s principal sponsor. Organized by Martha DeCamp, DCO members staffed the booth and passed out our season program information. Over several years, these events ran their course and became increasingly difficult to staff. The MToD stopped working for the restaurants, probably because we needed a larger space, large enough to make their investment worthwhile, and one wasn’t one available. Ultimately, the board decided that the Musical Tase had done its job, our concert attendance was up, and that we didn’t feel that we could ask the membership, which was already performing for free, to donate even more.

Possibly the highlight of our years with Tony was the DCO performance at Hill Auditorium on December 14, 2014, featuring the DCO, the Washtenaw Orchestra Choir, and the Dexter High School orchestra. That concert was a real high that I’m sure will be long remembered by everyone that attended. Over time, the orchestra choir fell apart, probably because we couldn’t give them enough work. The DCO needed a collaboration with a completely independent choir that could function without us.

Tony Elliott decided to retire at the end of the 2018 season, and a new conductor audition was held the following year. His audition debut was snowed out, and had to be rescheduled, but David Shultz was chosen as the new director, because of the three candidates, he seemed to be both the best fit with an amateur orchestra, and the most likely to stay, as he is a Dexter resident with other local conducting responsibilities. The DCO has continued to grow under his direction.

The Covid years were a challenge for the DCO as they were for the rest of the nation, with lockdowns, controversies about mask-wearing during rehearsals and concerts, vaccinations, and safety in the Dexter Schools. One casualty was our ensemble program, which had lapsed. We lost Angie Noble, and some of us who were very involved in the program had to go back to work to make up for all the money we had lost during the lockdowns and had less spare time available to contribute. Hopefully we can reestablish this program in the future.

One highlight under David Shultz, was the last-minute piano soloist he was able to find to perform Rachmaninoff’s Third Piano concerto on November 6th, 2022, when the original soloist fell ill the night before the concert. Another was the DCO performance of Beethoven’s 9th on May 5th, 2024, marking the return of performing with choir and soloists. Hopefully there will be many more highlights to come.

Future goals for the orchestra, in addition to reestablishing the ensembles, may be to investigate collaborations with dance groups, which could be as simple as having a couple of dancers on stage during a concert, or as elaborate as performing Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker with a local ballet company.

The 2025-2026 season marks the 20th anniversary of the Dexter Community Orchestra — a remarkable accomplishment for any organization, especially one in the arts. Funding is always a challenge and never guaranteed, so the fact that we are still here after two decades is a testament to our volunteer musicians, our conductors, and the community that has supported us. My husband and I are incredibly proud to have been here from the very beginning, witnessing firsthand the growth, educational experiences, and family-friendly atmosphere that have developed within our orchestra. In my opinion, it is a diamond in the rough. We get to play interesting, challenging, and exciting repertoire. We welcome all ages — teenagers sitting next to 90-year-olds and everyone in between. A music degree is neither expected nor required; we simply welcome those who love to play. We are also known for the many families who participate together, including siblings, married couples, and multi-generational households. Our orchestra has something rare and wonderful, and I am so grateful to be a part of it.

Dan and I began playing in the orchestra in September 2005, after spotting flyers advertising a new community orchestra in the windows of Dexter's downtown businesses. We had just closed on our house in Dexter, and Dan was eager to find a place to play his French horn again regularly. Eureka — this was perfect! I am a trombone player, but had only ever played in bands and never considered joining an orchestra. What did I know about orchestral playing? Absolutely nothing. Dan was persistent, though, and urged me to just come and try it out. So, I did. Twenty years later, we are both still playing. My parents were musicians as well, and when we told them about the orchestra, they were intrigued. By the second year, my mother was playing string bass and my father had joined us on trombone and as assistant conductor. Those were some of the most precious years of our lives — we saw my parents every week, sharing something all four of us loved.

During our years with the orchestra, Dan and I also had two children of our own. They have attended every single DCO concert since they were born, and both are now teenagers and brass players themselves. Not only have we had the joy of playing alongside my parents, but we have also had the privilege of sharing the stage with both of our daughters. Where else can something like that happen? In a community orchestra — the Dexter Community Orchestra.

Dan and I have each played our instruments since fifth grade, performing throughout our lives in a wide variety of ensembles. Yet these past 20 years stand out as some of the best of our musical lives. We have each grown as players, embraced a hobby that has woven itself into the fabric of our family, and made some of our closest friends along the way. We are grateful for everyone who has been part of DCO's journey to this milestone. Here's to 20 more!