s r e m m o m s s u o S re Bl o f e B by Aman da Ange l
Cleveland Orchestra trustee Dudley S. Blossom Sr. returned early from his vacation in Wyoming, so that he could attend the ensemble’s final summer concert at Gordon Park. It was the first season that the Orchestra programmed a series of “Open Air Concerts” in partnership with the City of Cleveland. Performances were held on both the east side in Gordon Park and on the west side in Edgewater Park.
IN J U LY 1927,
In the decades before opening Blossom Music Center in 1968, The Cleveland Orchestra provided a live summertime soundtrack for generations across Northeast Ohio — performing concerts in parks, on piers, in auditoriums, and even baseball stadiums.
“That crowd, that throng of people, sitting all over the benches, all over the place, on automobiles, in automobiles, anywhere they could to hear the music!” Blossom later recalled. “Those summer concerts, it seemed to me, meant more to the appreciation of the Orchestra in this town and more for the love of the Orchestra throughout the community than anything that has happened.” Little did Blossom realize that those al fresco performances would set in motion plans for a summer festival that would bear his family name forty years later. In the intervening decades, The Cleveland Orchestra provided countless summertime memories for the city and its neighboring communities — in parks, on piers, at auditoriums, and even in baseball stadiums. The summer concerts in 1927 were not only embraced by music lovers in Northeast Ohio, they were equally popular among the Orchestra’s musicians, who did not yet have year-round contracts and received extra income for performances held outside of the regular season. Following up on the initial success, the Orchestra continued its partnership with the City in 1928, presenting thirty-one “Cleveland Civic Summer Concerts” — including seven Nationality Nights to celebrate the diverse ethnic communities and neighborhoods. The financial burdens surrounding the construction of Severance Hall, which opened in February 1931, Summer 1927: Handbill for Edgewater Park concerts. Summer 1932: Audiences for a summertime Promenade Concert at Severance Hall are called to come inside with a fanfare from three trumpet players on the balcony above the front entrance.
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