Approaching this subject from a variety of perspectives each day, the programming encompasses classical, chamber and jazz music as well as drama, spoken word, film, lectures and visual art and takes place in various venues throughout the facility.

Hosted by Festival Artistic Director Peter Oundjian and CBC radio personality Tom Allen, the repertoire includes music by Beethoven, Stravinsky, Philip Glass, John Adams, Messaien, Holst, Frederic Rzewski, Steve Reich, Mozart, John Cage, Tod Machover, Alfred Schnittke and others. Tickets are on sale now, including All-Festival passes with exclusive benefits for as little as $100.

"8 Days in June presents music in a socially, politically and environmentally relevant world context," says Oundjian. "We are in a time of great change as a result of new technological, scientific and medical discoveries. We will explore how music and the arts chronicle and interpret change and experiment with what changes takes place within us as we listen to music."

Festival host Tom Allen adds: "The Power of Change is the power to adapt, to survive, to grow, to thrive and to create."

DAY ONE (Friday, June 13) - "Spiritual Progression"

Titled "Spiritual Progression," DAY ONE of the festival launches on Friday, June 13 with music that represents change taking place within the internal landscape of the human psyche. Conducted by Oundjian, the DSO will perform Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's Symphony No. 41, "Jupiter," a cornerstone of the symphonic canon. Written at a low point in Mozart's life, the piece musically depicts the composer's own emotional transformation, while conveying similar aspirations for that of all mankind. The second work, Gustav Holst's The Planets, takes listeners on a philosophical journey through human ideas and emotions with allusions to astrology and Greek and Roman mythology. Both works were revolutionary for their novel use of form and narrative, helping set the stage for the next evolution of classical music. As festival host, Tom Allen will speak to audiences from the stage during performances, as well as lead a Festival Preview discussion beginning at 7:30 p.m. in Orchestra Hall. The 8:30 p.m. concert is followed with a party in the Atrium Lobby and Festival Lounge with music and dancing.

Additionally, as festival collaborators this year, the ensemble New Music Detroit will give an 8 Days performance at 10:30 p.m. at the Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit (MOCAD) located at 4454 Woodward Avenue, just up the street from Orchestra Hall. The program will feature music by John Zorn, Marc Mellits and other contemporary composers. Festival ticket holders can attend this concert free with a ticket stub. MOCAD-only concert tickets are available at the door (price tbd).

DAY TWO (Sunday, June 15) - "The Changing Earth"

"The Changing Earth" is the subject of DAY TWO of the festival on Sunday, June 15. This family-oriented day begins with a partnership with the Detroit Zoological Society to present "Metamorphosis," a curatorial talk about the ecological world's "Year of the Frog" at 2:30 p.m. in The Music Box. Rebecca Johnson, Associate Curator of Amphibians, will discuss the profound changes that enable a single animal to go from eating algae in a pond to eating ants on land. Audiences will have the opportunity to observe adult bullfrogs and tadpoles, captured and released the day of the presentation from Zoo wetlands. Following the lecture, Detroit's Mosaic Youth Theatre will perform "All Amphibians All the Time," a 20-minute musical theater piece about these transformational creatures.

At 4 p.m. in Orchestra Hall, the DSO will be led by conductor Carolyn Kuan in a multimedia presentation called "LIFE: A Journey through Time" showcasing work by celebrated nature photographer Frans Lanting with a musical score by American composer Philip Glass. A lyrical interpretation of life on Earth from its earliest beginnings to its present bio-diversity, this orchestral presentation was developed by the Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music in Santa Cruz, led by musical director and conductor Marin Alsop. Considered one of the most influential composers of the late-20th century, Glass' score includes seven movements entitled "Elements," "Beginnings," "Out of the Sea," "On Land," "Into the Air," "Out of the Dark" and "Planet of Life."

Photographer-in-Residence for National Geographic, Lanting's influential work appears in books, magazines and exhibitions around the world. For more than two decades he has documented wildlife and our relationship with nature in environments from the Amazon to Antarctica. He portrays wild creatures as ambassadors for the preservation of complete ecosystems, and his many publications have increased worldwide awareness of endangered ecological treasures in far corners of the earth. His riveting images collected over a period of years will be displayed on three giant screens above the orchestra. The concert experience is a meditative reflection on the spirituality of nature and can also be viewed as a cautionary tale about threatened ecosystems.

DAY THREE (Monday, June 16) - "The Technical Mind"

On festival DAY THREE titled "The Technical Mind" on Monday, June 16, a chamber music performance and other activities will explore how technology has impacted and influenced 20th century music. A concert in The Music Box at 8 p.m., conceived jointly by Tod Machover, Professor of Music at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Media Lab, and Festival Host Tom Allen, will feature a selection of contemporary and electronic-inspired music. An influential composer, Machover's work synthesizes acoustic and electronic sounds, symphony orchestras and interactive computers, operatic arias and rock songs. His music has been performed and commissioned by some of the world's most important performers and ensembles including the Kronos Quartet and guitarist Pat Metheny. The Machover pieces on the program include "Flora" (1989), for pre-recorded soprano (Karol Bennett) and computer-generated sounds; "Another Life" (2006) for nine instruments and computer electronics; and Jeux Deux (2005) for hyperpiano, orchestra and interactive graphics. This work features piano soloist Michael Chertock and Machover's computer composing software Hyperscore, which responds to and interacts with the human pianist's musical ideas. Additionally, several new works created using Hyperscore will receive their premiere. These will be "composed" earlier in the week; with Machover teaching Hyperscore to a group of local student participants (interested parties can email info@detroitsymphony.com). Also on the evening's chamber program is a piece by expatriate American experimentalist composer Conlon Nancarrow written for player piano.

A demonstration of Hyperscore will take place in The Music Box prior to the concert, and the computer terminals in the atrium lobby will allow the public to try out this new technology.

DAY FOUR (Tuesday, June 17) - "Patterns and Structure"

DAY FOUR, Tuesday, June 17, will present a musical experience based on "Patterns and Structure" through a set of composers associated with the Minimalist movement: Steve Reich, John Adams and Frederic Rzewski. A chamber performance in The Music Box at 8 p.m. will feature members of the DSO and New Music Detroit.

"Patterns and Structure" will investigate how simple repetitive actions over time can become complex structures and systems. The program opens with Reich's piece Different Trains which won a Grammy Award in 1989 for Best Contemporary Classical Composition. The work is a three-movement piece for string quartet and tape inspired by the composer's childhood memories of riding trains across the U.S. to visit his divorced parents juxtaposed against interviews conducted by the composer with Holocaust survivors about their experiences on the infamous concentration camp trains during WWII. The piece uses recorded speech as a melody source and incorporates train sirens and paradiddle (four-note) rhythms.

Adams' Shaker Loops is a four-part piece for solo strings: three violins, one viola, two cellos and one bass. Each instrument is assigned a "loop" of melodic material that, when heard together, results in constantly shifting play. The piece conveys a sense of dramatic change within a relatively short amount of time, both building tension and releasing brilliant energy.

In the early 1960s, American composer Frederic Rzewski ( pronounced Shefsky) began experimenting with live electronic music as a collective, collaborative process relying heavily on improvisation. His work Les Moutons de Panurge (The Sheep of Panurge) calls for "any number of musicians playing melody instruments plus any number of non-musicians playing anything." The single page of sheet music which specifies repeats instructs the musicians to "always play loud, never stop or falter, stay together as long as you can but, if you get lost, stay lost. Do not try to find your way back into the fold. Continue to follow the rules strictly." For non-musicians, the guidelines are to "make sound, any sound, preferable very loud," and if possible, they are provided with percussive or other instruments. The title of the piece, the "Sheep of Panurge," is drawn from a French fable and implies a person who blindly follows the lead of another.

The musicians will mingle with the audience in the Festival Lounge following the performance.

DAY FIVE (Wednesday, June 18) - "Being and Becoming"

Peter Oundjian and the DSO return on DAY FIVE of the festival, Wednesday, June 18, for "Being and Becoming," a program about transcendent love and transformational spirituality. The program includes Sergei Rachmaninoff's Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini with pianist Stewart Goodyear and Oliver Messiaen's Turangalila Symphony in Orchestra Hall at 8 p.m. Although diametrically different, the two pieces on the program both use musical imagery to explore ideas about love, death and the human experience. Both feature complex variations and themes, providing a musical example of change-in-progress.

Composed in 1934, Rachmaninoff's Rhapsody consists of 24 variations on the twenty-fourth and last of Niccolò Paganini's Caprices for solo violin. Its romantic theme echoes in many movies, and the piece itself famously quotes Dies Irae, the medieval mass for the dead. Making his festival debut is 26-year old Canadian pianist Stewart Goodyear. Messaien, who premiered Turangalila Symphony in 1949, derived the title from the two Sanskrit words turanga and lîla which roughly translate into English as "love song and hymn of joy, time, movement, rhythm, life and death." His work is about the union of two lovers experiencing transformation on a cosmic scale. Its eclectic mix of influences embraces Wagnerian themes, the Javanese gamelan, Hindu rhythms, Impressionist harmonies, jazzy Gershwin-like elements and even birdsong. One of the work's distinctive features is the use of the Ondes-Martenot, an electronic instrument providing unique glissando effects performed by Frenchman Jean Laurendeau. Stewart Goodyear will also appear on the second half of the concert playing the piano part.

A pre-concert event at 7 p.m. (location, TBD) will provide a demonstration of the Ondes-Martenot, the first successful electronic instrument invented in 1923, a precursor to the Theramin. This instrument is commonly found in Messaien works and Laurendeau, one of the world's leading proponents of it, leads the discussion (he can also be seen performing the instrument in youtube.com). -- www.detroitsymphony.com