The Cleveland Orchestra

The Cleveland Orchestra, which was founded in 1918 by local citizens, has been conducted by Franz Welser-Möst since 2002. It makes its home in Severance Hall, which opened in 1931. The first music director was the Ukrainian-American conductor Nikolai Sokoloff, who stood at the helm for fifteen years; he was followed by Artur Rodzinski (1933-43)­ and Erich Leinsdorf (1943-46). The tenure of George Szell, who introduced the annual summer season at the Blossom Music Center near Akron, Ohio, lasted almost a quarter of a century, until 1970. Following Szell’s death, Lorin Maazel (1972-82) and Christoph von Dohnányi (1984-2002) took over the leadership. Under Franz Welser-Möst, the Cleveland Orchestra has expanded its scope to include residencies that take it to the Miami Performing Arts Center for four weeks every winter and on a regular basis to the Musikverein in Vienna, New York’s Carnegie Hall, and Lincoln Center, as well as Lucerne Festival. The program also frequently encompasses opera performances, such as Janáček’s Jenůfa in 2025. Welser-Möst will open the new season with Tchaikovsky’s Pathétique; in November, he will present all of Beethoven’s piano con­certos with Igor Levit. The orchestra’s education initiatives play an important role and include such offerings for young people as the Under 18s Free program and the Center for Future Audiences. The Cleveland Orchestra’s performances are made accessible to a global community of classical music fans through television and radio broadcasts, CDs, and streaming. Since 2020, the orchestra has also been releasing its recordings on its own label.

Lucerne Festival (IMF) debut on 28 August 1967 in a program of works by Berlioz, Mozart, and Sibelius under George Szell.

For further information on this ensemble, visit their homepage at www.clevelandorchestra.com.

July 2024