August 17, 2024
TCHAIKOVSKY’S FIFTH SYMPHONY
Art that inspires
TCHAIKOVSKY’S FIFTH
SYMPHONY
Saturday, August 17, 2024, at 7 PM
The Cleveland Orchestra
Franz Welser-Möst, conductor
ALLISON LOGGINS-HULL Can You See? 10 minutes (b. 1982)
ROBERT SCHUMANN Piano Concerto 30 minutes (1810–1856) in A minor, Op. 54
I. Allegro affettuoso
II. Intermezzo: Andantino grazioso —
III. Allegro vivace
Víkingur Ólafsson, piano
INTERMISSION
20 minutes
PYOTR ILYICH TCHAIKOVSKY Symphony No. 5 50 minutes (1840–1893) in E minor, Op. 64
I. Andante — Allegro
II. Andante cantabile
III. Valse: Allegro moderato
IV. Finale: Andante maestoso — Allegro vivace
Total approximate running time: 1 hour 50 minutes
Víkingur Ólafsson’s performance is generously sponsored by Marguerite and James Rigby.
This evening’s performance is dedicated to Dr. Robert Brown and Mrs. Janet Gans Brown, and Jon A. and Virginia M. Lindseth, PhD.
This evening’s performance is dedicated in memory of Mr. David A. Ruckman in recognition of his love and support for Blossom Music Center and The Cleveland Orchestra.
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INTRODUCTION
IT IS STRANGELY APT that the most famously quirksome of the great musical Romantics, Robert Schumann, exerted a powerful yet often underappreciated influence upon many of the composers who succeeded him.
To be sure, a style as individual as his was unlikely to inspire a unified school of composition — and it is revealing that the music of Johannes Brahms, a composer generally regarded as his principal acolyte, does not bear an overly strong resemblance to his. For this evening’s concert led by Music Director
Franz Welser-Möst , Schumann is paired with a still more distant-seeming admirer: Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky.
Both Schumann’s Piano Concerto — performed tonight by Víkingur Ólafsson
— and Tchaikovsky’s Fifth Symphony discredit long-persisting criticisms of their respective composers’ talents. For years, Schumann and Tchaikovsky were sometimes regarded by critics as having failed to meet the challenge posed by the greatest symphonists — Ludwig van Beethoven in particular — who had achieved musical coherence with specific compositional strategies. But performers and audiences have always sensed the power of these composers’ unorthodox treatment of symphonic forms, ensuring that their works retained status as repertory pieces over any and all critical objections.
Opening this concert is a recent work by flutist and composer Allison
Loggins-Hull. Can You See? takes the well-known melody from The Star-Spangled Banner and deconstructs it, expanding, blurring, and reimagining the anthem into a hauntingly poignant reflection on our nation’s evolving idea of patriotism and what it means to be the “land of the free and the home of the brave” in the 21st century. Originally composed for chamber ensemble in 2021, Loggins-Hull arranged the work for full orchestra in 2022 as part of her three-season tenure as The Cleveland Orchestra’s 11th Daniel R. Lewis Composer Fellow.
Can You See? — alongside the other works on this program — will be presented as part of the Orchestra’s upcoming tour to Europe, which includes performances in Berlin, Helsinki, Lucerne, Ansfelden, Bratislava, and Vienna.
— Dane–Michael Harrison
Dane–Michael Harrison is a research fellow in the Archives of The Cleveland Orchestra for the 2023–24 season. He is a PhD candidate in historical musicology at Case Western Reserve University.
Can You See?
by Allison Loggins-Hull
BORN: November 27, 1982, in Chicago
COMPOSED: 2021, chamber ensemble; 2022, arranged for symphony orchestra (commissioned by The Cleveland Orchestra)
WORLD PREMIERE: May 4, 2023, with Music Director Franz Welser-Möst conducting The Cleveland Orchestra
ORCHESTRATION: 2 flutes (2nd doubling piccolo and alto flute), piccolo, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 2 horns, 2 trumpets, trombone, percussion (crotales, glockenspiel, tenor drum, snare drum, bass drum, clap stack cymbals, tom-toms), and strings
DURATION: about 10 minutes
WELL-ESTABLISHED AS A FLUTIST AND COMPOSER, Allison Loggins-Hull is entering the final year of her three-season tenure as The Cleveland Orchestra’s 11th Daniel R. Lewis Composer Fellow, a role that has previously included composers such as Bernd Richard Deutsch, Susan Botti, Matthias Pintscher, and Marc-André Dalbavie.
Loggins-Hull has performed throughout the country with ensembles including the International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE), Bang on a Can All-Stars, and Imani Winds. She worked with Grammy-winning pop star Lizzo and was co-principal flute for Disney’s remake of The Lion King. Loggins-Hull’s music has been performed by such ensembles as the Los Angeles Philharmonic, San Francisco Symphony, yMusic, Third Coast Percussion, and many others. In 2007 in Brooklyn, she formed the duo Flutronix with fellow flutist/composer Nathalie Joachim, with whom she began rethinking the parameters of “classical” music performance and style.
Loggins-Hull’s orchestral work Can You See? is an expansion in both scope and instrumentation of a 2021 piece written for members of the New Jersey Symphony, co-commissioned by the Newark Museum of Art and originally suggested by the composer’s friend Daniel Bernard Roumain, who is Resident Artistic Catalyst with the Symphony. The original Can You See? was scored for flute, horn, two violins, viola, cello, bass, and percussion. The new version for full orchestra — in addition to adding a full string section — includes fleshed-out woodwind and brass sections as well; it’s also a few minutes longer than the original’s five. Taking its title from the problematic words of The Star-Spangled Banner, Loggins-Hull’s Can You See? is one of a set of critiques on the idea of patriotism, along with the piccolo-and-electronics piece Say Can You and the solo-flute work Homeland.
The close reading of the anthem’s musical content in Can You See? leads, in the listener’s mind, almost seamlessly to a recollection of the song’s lyrics, first sketched by Francis Scott Key after witnessing the British bombing of Baltimore’s Fort McHenry on September 14, 1814, during the War of 1812. Key’s insistent refrain of the “land of the free and the home of the brave” in each of the poem’s four verses (three of them now quite obscure) was undermined by the victorious nation’s continued economic reliance on slavery. The anthem was given an anti-slavery verse in 1861 by the Bostonbased poet and educator Oliver Wendell Holmes, one of several amendments that didn’t stick but add layers of history to the song. It wasn’t until 1931 that a bill passed by Congress and signed by President Herbert Hoover established the song as the United States National Anthem.
Loggins-Hull’s Can You See? fragments and transforms the melodic figures of The Star-Spangled Banner as though placing them under a magnifying glass. These snippets of the tune, already stretched and reshaped, are embedded in a sustained, hazy, but evolving orchestral texture penetrated by active and aggressive percussion episodes. The “environmental” texture of strings in Can You See? includes unstable timbres produced by playing ponticello (bowing near the instrument’s bridge), suggesting electronic distortion. This timbre, one familiar to the composer through her broad experience with electronics, hints at a distant kinship with another critique of The Star-Spangled Banner — that of the thoughtfully virtuosic master guitarist Jimi Hendrix.
In this expanded orchestral version of Can You See?, Loggins-Hull creates another electronics analogy, using the orchestra as a kind of digital delay, or echo, allowing the anthem’s melodic ideas to ripple outward through transformations of time and color. The enriched experience of the piece somehow parallels the layers of history and meaning, dark and light, positive and negative, that The Star-Spangled Banner has absorbed and continues to accrue in its role as a powerful symbol of our evolving nation.
— Robert Kirzinger
Composer and writer Robert Kirzinger is the Boston Symphony Orchestra’s director of program publications. He has written program essays for organizations and ensembles throughout the US and Europe and for recordings ranging from J.S. Bach to Kati Agócs.
Photo: Rafael Rios
ALLISON LOGGINS-HULL
COMPOSER’S NOTE
Can You See? was originally a small chamber-ensemble piece commissioned by the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra. For that commission, the ask was to create an arrangement of The Star-Spangled Banner with a mournful or somber approach that honors lives lost, while also pointing to what the role and responsibility of the living is. For this larger iteration, arranged for full symphony orchestra, the material is given a curious, yet hopeful treatment. Voices from the original version are orchestrated to achieve a designed delay effect, creating a dreamy soundscape while posing questions relating to the meaning of The Star-Spangled Banner and the complicated history of the United States. Melodic material from The Star-Spangled Banner is used throughout the work, often stretched out and surrounded by tension and revolving colors. The strings create a soundworld that is cloudy, uncertain, and bleary, questioning if the core meaning of the anthem is in focus. Rhythmic elements evoke a forwardmoving motion, while textures and harmonic language nod to the scope and diversity of American music and people.
— Allison Loggins-Hull
Continue your journey with Allison Loggins-Hull and The Cleveland Orchestra on adella.live with a digital production featuring Can You See? and an interview with the composer.
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Piano Concerto in A minor, Op. 54
by Robert Schumann
BORN: June 8, 1810, in Zwickau, Saxony
DIED: July 29, 1856, in Bonn
COMPOSED: 1839–45
WORLD PREMIERE: December 4, 1845, in Dresden, with Clara Schumann as soloist and conducted by Ferdinand Hiller
CLEVELAND ORCHESTRA PREMIERE: January 22, 1920, led by Music Director Nikolai Sokoloff and featuring soloist Mischa Levitzki
ORCHESTRATION: 2 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 2 horns, 2 trumpets, timpani, and strings, plus solo piano
DURATION: about 30 minutes
ROBERT SCHUMANN HAD LITTLE PATIENCE for the hordes of virtuoso pianists who showed off their brilliant fingerwork and dazzled audiences all over Europe on the new-fangled instruments that were much bigger and brighter than anything Mozart had known. Even Beethoven sensed the potential of the new upper octaves, which could be heard (though not by himself, of course) at the back of large halls and could compete on equal terms with the modern orchestra. Schumann’s early piano music felt the lure of this brilliant style, but he soon championed the cause of expression and feeling in the face of virtuosity and brilliance.
Responding to a particular concerto that offended him in 1839, Schumann wrote: “We must await the genius who will show us in a new and brilliant way how orchestra and piano may be combined, and how the soloist, dominant at the keyboard, may unfold the wealth of his instrument and his art while the orchestra, no longer a mere spectator, may interweave its manifold facets into the scene.”
Schumann’s gift for prophecy, so accurate when proclaiming the genius of the young Chopin and the young Brahms, was this time pointing with equal accuracy to himself. In 1839, he had in fact begun to sketch a piece for piano and orchestra for his beloved Clara , and it was finished in 1841 under the title Fantasie. There was no opportunity to perform it, however, and three publishers declined to print it. Four years later, he added an Andantino section linking to a Rondo, to make a three-movement concerto. And in this form, premiered by Clara in Dresden in December 1845, it was successful everywhere — and came to be one of the best-loved Romantic piano concertos.
The first movement betrays the character of a fantasie in many ways, since the main theme, heard first in the winds with the piano’s immediate response, reappears in many guises. It serves as the second subject in the major key, now on the clarinet over the piano’s rippling accompaniment, and also as an interruption before the development, when the theme is passed back-andforth between the clarinet and the piano in a marvelously languorous mood. Finally, after the cadenza, it appears in a brisk closing coda.
As a model of how soloist and orchestra may be combined, the middlemovement Intermezzo splits its theme between these forces, which continue the conversation until it is time for a new theme. This is presented by the cellos with elegant interjections from the soloist. At the end, as the movement fades to nothing, oboes and clarinets bring back the first movement’s main theme in a hesitant manner, recalling the equivalent moment in Beethoven’s “Emperor” Concerto (No. 5), before, without a break, the finale bursts in with new energy.
The last movement’s theme is a thinly disguised version of the concerto’s opening theme, and the soloist is soon engaged in traversing the keyboard with a stream of notes that comes close to the domain of virtuosity. But the melodic sweep is always present, and a contrasting theme exploits a different kind of skill, the control of rhythmic dislocation. Schumann’s passion for the teasing effects of cross-rhythms puts both soloist and orchestra on their mettle, but they emerge from it with a new rush of energy that drives them together to the close.
— Hugh Macdonald
Hugh Macdonald is Avis H. Blewett Professor Emeritus of Music at Washington University in St. Louis. He has written books on Beethoven, Berlioz, Bizet, and Scriabin, as well as Music in 1853: The Biography of a Year.
ROBERT SCHUMANN
Image: Josef Kriehuber, circa 1839
Symphony No. 5 in E minor, Op. 64
by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
BORN: May 7, 1840, near Votkinsk, Russia
DIED: November 6, 1893, St. Petersburg
COMPOSED: 1888
WORLD PREMIERE: November 17, 1888, in St. Petersburg, with the composer conducting
CLEVELAND ORCHESTRA PREMIERE: October 23, 1919, led by Music Director
Nikolai Sokoloff
ORCHESTRATION: 3 flutes (3rd doubling piccolo), 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 4 horns, 2 trumpets, 3 trombones, tuba, timpani, and strings
DURATION: about 50 minutes
AT THE AGE OF 48, despite his growing international fame, Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky was constantly plagued by self-doubt. Early in 1888, he went on a three-month European tour, conducting his own works with some of the world’s finest orchestras. He was feted in Leipzig, Paris, London, and Prague, and made the acquaintance of Dvořák, Grieg, and Mahler.
Tchaikovsky’s private life, however, was not free from turmoil. His sister Alexandra and his niece Vera were both seriously ill, and one of his closest friends, Nikolai Kondratyev, had recently died. It must have been hard to escape the thought that life was a constant struggle against Fate, which appears as a hostile force attempting to thwart all human endeavors.
After his return from abroad, Tchaikovsky decided to write a new symphony, his first in 10 years. Characteristically, the first sketches of the new work, made on April 15, 1888, include a verbal program portraying an individual’s reactions in the face of immutable destiny, involving stages of resignation, challenge, and triumph: Introduction. Complete resignation before Fate, or, which is the same, before the inscrutable predestination of Providence. Allegro. (1) Murmurs of doubt, complaints, reproaches against XXX. (2) Shall I throw myself in the embraces of faith??? A wonderful program, if only it can be carried out.
Tchaikovsky never made this program public, however, and in one of his letters even went out of his way to stress that the symphony had no program. Clearly, the program was an intensely personal matter to him, in part because he was reluctant
to openly acknowledge his homosexuality, which seemed to him one of the hardest manifestations of the Fate he was grappling with. Many people believe that the unnamed, mysterious “XXX” in the sketch stands for homosexuality. In his diaries, Tchaikovsky often referred to his homosexuality as “Z” or “That.”
What, if anything, are we to make of all this? Should we listen to Tchaikovsky’s Fifth as a program symphony about Fate and Destiny? How concerned should we be about thoughts the composer never wanted to divulge, especially those regarding his sexual orientation?
It seems clear that the “program” Tchaikovsky sketched had a deep influence on his thinking during the time he was writing the Fifth Symphony — without it, the symphony would not be what it is. Perhaps most particularly, the opening theme — the “Fate theme” — would probably not return so ominously in all four movements.
At the same time, the “program” is insufficient to explain the finished work, in part because the “meaning” of other themes throughout the symphony is unclear. Moreover, Tchaikovsky had already written a “Fate” symphony — the Fourth — for which a more detailed program survives. And the similarities of the two programs do little to explain the great differences between the two works. (The program of the Fourth is also problematic, for no sooner had Tchaikovsky written it down in a letter to his patroness than he declared it to be hopelessly “confused and incomplete.”)
As for the question of Tchaikovsky’s feelings and desires, while we shouldn’t be too preoccupied with a composer’s most private thoughts, we probably can’t ignore them completely either — especially because there is ample evidence to suggest that Tchaikovsky was both unable and unwilling to separate his extramusical preoccupations from his composing.
The four movements of Tchaikovsky’s Fifth Symphony are linked by a common theme, often played by the brass instruments and apparently symbolizing the threatening power of Fate. English musicologist Gerald Abraham noted that this theme was taken almost literally from an aria in Mikhail Glinka’s opera A Life for the Tsar, in which it was sung to the words “Ne svodi na gore” (Do not turn to sorrow).
The Fate theme is first heard in the Andante introduction of the first movement, soon to be followed by a more lyrical, lilting idea as we move into the faster Allegro tempo. Even with the change of melody, the accompaniment of the Fate motif remains present as a stern reminder. The entire first movement swings back and forth between lyrical and dramatic moments. We would expect it to end with a final climax. Instead, the volume gradually decreases to a whisper, and the mysterious last measures are scored for the lowest-pitched instruments in the orchestra — bassoons, cellos, basses, and timpani.
The second movement is lyrical and dreamlike, suggesting a brief respite from the struggle. The first horn plays a beautiful singing melody, eventually joined by the full orchestra. A second idea, in a slightly faster tempo, is introduced by the clarinet. Soon, however, an intense crescendo begins, culminating in a fortissimo entrance of the Fate theme. The movement’s opening theme returns, again interrupted by Fate; only after this second dramatic outburst does the music finally find its long-desired rest.
The third movement is a graceful waltz, with a slightly more agitated middle section. Again we expect a respite from the Fate theme and the emotional drama it represents. Yet before the movement is over, there is a short reminder, subdued yet impossible to ignore, in the clarinets and bassoons.
In the fourth-movement Finale, Tchaikovsky seems to have taken the bull by the horns. The Fate theme dominates the entire movement, despite the presence of several contrasting themes. At the end of a grandiose development section, the music comes to a halt. At some performances over the years, audience members have mistakenly thought that the symphony was over at this point and started applauding. The final resolution, however, is yet to come, in the form of a majestic reappearance of the Fate theme and a short Presto section in which all “doubts, complaints, and reproaches” are cast aside. Against all odds — or is it simply humanity’s optimistic desires? — the symphony receives the triumphant ending we’ve all been listening for.
— Peter Laki
Peter Laki is a musicologist and frequent lecturer on classical music. He is a visiting associate professor of music at Bard College.
FRANZ WELSER-MÖST
Music Director | Kelvin Smith Family Chair
Franz Welser-Möst is among today’s most distinguished conductors. The 2024–25 season marks his 23rd year as Music Director of The Cleveland Orchestra. With the future of their acclaimed partnership extended to 2027, he will be the longest-serving musical leader in the ensemble’s history. The New York Times has declared Cleveland under Welser-Möst’s direction to be “America’s most brilliant orchestra,” praising its virtuosity, elegance of sound, variety of color, and chamber-like musical cohesion.
With Welser-Möst, The Cleveland Orchestra has been celebrated for its inventive programming, ongoing support of new music, and innovative work in presenting operas. To date, the Orchestra and Welser-Möst have been showcased around the world in 20 international tours together. In the 2023–24 season, Welser-Möst was a featured Perspectives Artist at Carnegie Hall, where he led The Cleveland Orchestra and the Vienna Philharmonic as part of the series Fall of the Weimar Republic: Dancing on the Precipice.
In addition to his commitment to Cleveland, Welser-Möst enjoys a particularly close and productive relationship with the Vienna Philharmonic as a guest conductor. He has conducted its celebrated New Year’s Concert three times, and regularly leads the orchestra at home in Vienna, as well as on tours.
Welser-Möst is also a regular guest at the Salzburg Festival where he has led a series of acclaimed opera productions, including Rusalka, Der Rosenkavalier, Fidelio, Die Liebe der Danae, Reimann’s opera Lear, and Richard Strauss’s Salome. In 2020, he conducted Strauss’s Elektra on the 100th anniversary of its premiere. He has since returned to Salzburg to conduct additional performances of Elektra in 2021 and Puccini ’s Il trittico in 2022.
Welser-Möst is the recipient of a number of major honors and awards, including The Cleveland Orchestra’s Distinguished Service Award, two Cleveland Arts Prize citations, the Kilenyi Medal of the Bruckner Society of America, as well as the Kennedy Center Gold Medal in the Arts. He is also an Honorary Member of the Vienna Philharmonic and the Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde in Vienna, and a winner of the Vienna Philharmonic’s “Ring of Honor”.
Photo: Sebastian Fröhlich
VÍKINGUR ÓLAFSSON
piano
Icelandic pianist Víkingur Ólafsson has made a profound impact with his remarkable combination of highest-level musicianship and visionary programs. His recordings for Deutsche Grammophon — Philip Glass Piano Works (2017), Johann Sebastian Bach (2018), Debussy – Rameau (2020), Mozart & Contemporaries (2021), and From Afar (2022)
— captured the public and critical imagination and have been streamed over 600 million times.
In October 2023, Ólafsson released his anticipated new album on Deutsche Grammophon of J.S. Bach ’s Goldberg Variations. Ólafsson dedicated his entire 2023–24 season to a Goldberg Variations world tour, performing the work across six continents throughout the year. He brought Bach’s masterpiece to major concert halls, including London’s Southbank Centre, New York’s Carnegie Hall, Wiener Konzerthaus, Philharmonie de Paris, Tokyo’s Suntory Hall, Harpa Concert Hall, Walt Disney Concert Hall, Sala São Paulo, Shanghai Symphony Hall, Tonhalle Zürich, Philharmonie Berlin, Mupa Budapest, KKL Luzern, and Alte Oper Frankfurt, to name a few.
Now one of the most sought-after artists of today, Ólafsson’s multiple awards include Opus Klassik Instrumentalist of the Year (2023), Opus Klassik Solo Recording Instrumental (twice), CoScan’s International Nordic Person of the Year (2023), the Rolf Schock Prize for Music (2022), Gramophone’s Artist of the Year (2019), and Album of the Year at the BBC Music Magazine Awards (2019).
A captivating communicator both on and off stage, Ólafsson’s significant talent extends to broadcast, having presented several of his own series for television and radio. He was artist in residence for three months on BBC Radio 4’s flagship arts program, Front Row, broadcasting live during lockdown from an empty Harpa Concert Hall in Reykjavík and reaching millions of listeners around the world.
Join Franz Welser-Möst, Víkingur Ólafsson, and The Cleveland Orchestra on our digital home adella.live to relive the Icelandic pianist’s acclaimed debut at Severance in Ravel’s Piano Concerto in G.
Photo: Markus Jans
Welser-Möst, recorded live at Severance Music Center.
BRUCKNER
Symphony No. 4
PROKOFIEV
Symphony No. 6
BARTÓK
String Quartet No. 3
Suite from The Miraculous Mandarin
TCHAIKOVSKY
Symphony No. 4
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THE CLEVELAND ORCHESTRA
Franz Welser-Möst Music Director
KELVIN SMITH FAMILY CHAIR
FIRST VIOLINS
Liyuan Xie
FIRST ASSOCIATE CONCERTMASTER
Virginia M. Lindseth, PhD, Chair
Jung-Min Amy Lee
ASSOCIATE CONCERTMASTER
Gretchen D. and Ward Smith Chair
Stephen Tavani ASSISTANT CONCERTMASTER
Dr. Ronald H. Krasney Chair
Wei-Fang Gu
Drs. Paul M. and Renate H. Duchesneau Chair
Kim Gomez
Elizabeth and Leslie Kondorossy Chair
Chul-In Park
Harriet T. and David L. Simon Chair
Miho Hashizume
Theodore Rautenberg Chair
Jeanne Preucil Rose
Larry J.B. and Barbara S. Robinson Chair
Alicia Koelz
Oswald and Phyllis Lerner Gilroy Chair
Yu Yuan
Patty and John Collinson Chair
Isabel Trautwein
Trevor and Jennie Jones Chair
Katherine Bormann
Analisé Denise Kukelhan
Gladys B. Goetz Chair
Zhan Shu
Youngji Kim
Genevieve Smelser
SECOND VIOLINS
Stephen Rose*
Alfred M. and Clara T. Rankin Chair
Jason Yu2
James and Donna Reid Chair
Eli Matthews 1
Patricia M. Kozerefski and Richard J. Bogomolny Chair
Sonja Braaten Molloy
Carolyn Gadiel Warner
Elayna Duitman
Ioana Missits
Jeffrey Zehngut
Sae Shiragami
Kathleen Collins
Beth Woodside
Emma Shook
Dr. Jeanette Grasselli Brown and Dr. Glenn R. Brown Chair
Yun-Ting Lee
Jiah Chung Chapdelaine
VIOLAS
Wesley Collins*
Chaillé H. and Richard B. Tullis Chair
Stanley Konopka 2
Mark Jackobs
Jean Wall Bennett Chair
Lisa Boyko
Richard and Nancy Sneed Chair
Richard Waugh
Lembi Veskimets
The Morgan Sisters Chair
Eliesha Nelson
Anthony and Diane Wynshaw-Boris Chair
Joanna Patterson Zakany
William Bender
Thomas Lauria and Christopher Lauria Chair
Gareth Zehngut
CELLOS
Mark Kosower*
Louis D. Beaumont Chair
Richard Weiss 1
The GAR Foundation Chair
Charles Bernard2
Helen Weil Ross Chair
Bryan Dumm
Muriel and Noah Butkin Chair
Tanya Ell
Thomas J. and Judith Fay Gruber Chair
Ralph Curry
Brian Thornton
William P. Blair III Chair
David Alan Harrell
Martha Baldwin
Dane Johansen
Paul Kushious
BASSES
Maximilian Dimoff*
Clarence T. Reinberger Chair
Derek Zadinsky2
Charles Paul1
Mary E. and F. Joseph Callahan Chair
Mark Atherton
Thomas Sperl
Henry Peyrebrune
Charles Barr Memorial Chair
Charles Carleton
Scott Dixon
HARP
Trina Struble*
Alice Chalifoux Chair
FLUTES
Joshua Smith*
Elizabeth M. and William C. Treuhaft Chair
Saeran St. Christopher
Jessica Sindell2
Austin B. and Ellen W. Chinn Chair
Mary Kay Fink
PICCOLO
Mary Kay Fink
Anne M. and M. Roger Clapp Chair
OBOES
Frank Rosenwein*
Edith S. Taplin Chair
Corbin Stair
Sharon and Yoash Wiener Chair
Jeffrey Rathbun 2
Everett D. and Eugenia S. McCurdy Chair
Robert Walters
ENGLISH HORN
Robert Walters
Samuel C. and Bernette K. Jaffe Chair
CLARINETS
Afendi Yusuf*
Robert Marcellus Chair
Robert Woolfrey
Victoire G. and Alfred M. Rankin, Jr. Chair
Daniel McKelway2
Robert R. and Vilma L. Kohn Chair
Amy Zoloto
E-FLAT CLARINET
Daniel McKelway
Stanley L. and Eloise M. Morgan Chair
BASS CLARINET
Amy Zoloto
Myrna and James Spira Chair
BASSOONS
John Clouser*
Louise Harkness Ingalls Chair
Gareth Thomas
Jonathan Sherwin
CONTRABASSOON
Jonathan Sherwin
HORNS
Nathaniel Silberschlag*
George Szell Memorial Chair
Michael Mayhew§
Knight Foundation Chair
Jesse McCormick
Robert B. Benyo Chair
Hans Clebsch
Richard King
Meghan Guegold Hege
TRUMPETS
Michael Sachs*
Robert and Eunice Podis Weiskopf Chair
Jack Sutte
Lyle Steelman 2
James P. and Dolores D. Storer Chair
Michael Miller
CORNETS
Michael Sachs*
Mary Elizabeth and G. Robert Klein Chair
Michael Miller
TROMBONES
Brian Wendel*
Gilbert W. and Louise I. Humphrey Chair
Richard Stout
Alexander and Marianna C. McAfee Chair
Shachar Israel2
BASS TROMBONE
Luke Sieve
EUPHONIUM & BASS TRUMPET
Richard Stout
TUBA
Yasuhito Sugiyama*
Nathalie C. Spence and Nathalie S. Boswell Chair
TIMPANI vacant
PERCUSSION
Marc Damoulakis*
Margaret Allen Ireland Chair
Thomas Sherwood
Tanner Tanyeri
KEYBOARD INSTRUMENTS
Carolyn Gadiel Warner
Marjory and Marc L. Swartzbaugh Chair
LIBRARIANS
Michael Ferraguto
Joe and Marlene Toot Chair
Donald Miller
Gabrielle Petek
ENDOWED CHAIRS CURRENTLY UNOCCUPIED
Elizabeth Ring and William Gwinn Mather Chair
Blossom-Lee Chair
Clara G. and George P. Bickford Chair
Sandra L. Haslinger Chair
Paul and Lucille Jones Chair
Charles M. and Janet G. Kimball Chair
Sunshine Chair
Otto G. and Corinne T. Voss Chair
Mr. and Mrs. Richard K. Smucker Chair
Rudolf Serkin Chair
CONDUCTORS
Christoph von Dohnányi MUSIC DIRECTOR LAUREATE
Daniel Reith
ASSOCIATE CONDUCTOR
Sidney and Doris Dworkin Chair
Lisa Wong
DIRECTOR OF CHORUSES
Frances P. and Chester C. Bolton Chair
* Principal
§ Associate Principal
1 First Assistant Principal
2 Assistant Principal
This roster lists full-time members of The Cleveland Orchestra. The number and seating of musicians onstage varies depending on the piece being performed. Seating within the string sections rotates on a periodic basis.
YOUR VISIT
LATE SEATING
Guests with Pavilion seats who arrive after the start of the concert may be asked to wait outside the Pavilion until the first convenient pause in the music, after which our ushers will help you to your seats.
LAWN SEATING
Guests on the Lawn may bring their own chairs, but guests with high-backed chairs that obstruct others’ views may be asked to relocate to the rear of the Lawn. Rental chairs are available for a fee of $10 per evening. Tents, flags, balloons, or other structures that might obstruct views or present a hazard are prohibited. Open flames are also prohibited.
PHOTOGRAPHY, VIDEOGRAPHY & RECORDING
Audio recording, photography, and videography are prohibited during performances at Blossom. Photographs and videos can only be taken when the performance is not in progress. As a courtesy to others, please silence all electronic devices prior to the start of the concert.
SMOKING
All Blossom Music Festival events are presented in a smoke-free environment. Smoking or
vaping are not allowed anywhere on the grounds or in buildings once you have entered through the ticket gates. A smoking area is available outside the gates in a designated area of Parking Lot A.
WEATHER INFORMATION
In the event of severe weather, a coordinated campus-wide alert will be issued. Guests and staff will be directed to safety by our staff and loudspeaker system. Visit clevelandorchestra. com or text BLOSSOM to 844-955-4377 for weather updates and more information.
FREE TRAM & ADA VAN SERVICE
Free tram service between the parking lots and Smith Plaza and the Pavilion is available on a continuous basis before and after each concert. The ADA Van Service can pick up at the Main Gate with service to the Tram Circle.
QUESTIONS?
The Blossom Friends of The Cleveland Orchestra host two Information Centers — one located outside the Main Gate across from the Lawn Ticket Booth and the other inside the Main Gate on Smith Plaza.
Scan the QR code below to read about the Orchestra’s history, meet our musicians and music director, and discover upcoming performances at Severance Music Center and Blossom.
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The Cleveland Orchestra is grateful to these organizations for their ongoing generous support of The Cleveland Orchestra: National Endowment for the Arts, the State of Ohio and Ohio Arts Council, and to the residents of Cuyahoga County through Cuyahoga Arts and Culture.
© 2024 The Cleveland Orchestra and the Musical Arts Association
Program books for Cleveland Orchestra concerts are produced by The Cleveland Orchestra and are distributed free to attending audience members.
EDITORIAL
Kevin McBrien, Publications Manager
The Cleveland Orchestra kmcbrien@clevelandorchestra.com
DESIGN
Judy Barabas, Red Swing Creative
ADVERTISING
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