DETROIT — The Detroit Symphony Orchestra has named Caen Thomason-Redus as community catalyst, director of community programs.
No stranger to the DSO, his relationship with the ensemble began long before taking on this new role. He performed with the orchestra in the flute section for two years as the African-American orchestra fellow and worked extensively with the Civic Youth Ensembles as a coach.
Thomason-Redus, of Grosse Pointe Park, comes to the DSO from The Sphinx Organization, where he served as director of corporate partnerships, responsible for regional, national and international corporate partnerships. Other management and artistic credentials include professorships at Wayne State University, the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, and the University of Evansville, Executive & Program Assistant for Early Music Now, and flute positions with the Central City Opera, Evansville Philharmonic, and the Hot Springs Music Festival.
The community catalyst is the DSO’s chief community engagement officer. In this role, Thomason-Redus will develop, administer, and fundraise for engagement initiatives and performance opportunities intended to fullfil the DSO’s mission to be a community-supporting orchestra. He’ll direct the operational aspects of the William Davidson Neighborhood Residency Initiative — offsite performances including the neighborhood subscription concerts, free community concerts, chamber music series, in-school performances, new music performances, educational partnerships, and other DSO products performed outside of the Max M. Fisher Music Center.
He holds music degrees from Rice University in Texas and the University of Redlands in California and did additional studies at the University of Michigan and the Mozarteum Akademie in Salzburg, Austria.
