A Temple to Music

CLEVELAND’S CONCERT HALL A TEMPLE TO MUSIC

HAILED AMONG THE WORLD’S most beautiful and best-sounding concert halls, Severance Hall has been home to The Cleveland Orchestra since the building’s opening on February 5, 1931. After the first concert, a Cleveland newspaper editorial stated: “We believe that Mr. Severance intended to build a temple to music, and not a temple to wealth; and we believe it is his intention that all music lovers should be welcome there.” John Long Severance, president of the Orchestra’s governing board (1921-1936), donated most of the funds for this magnificent structure. His wife, Elisabeth, died unexpectedly a short time after the new hall was announced, and Severance poured additional money and resources toward its completion as a personal memorial to her.

When selecting a site for the new hall, the Orchestra chose a location in the heart of Cleveland’s “University Circle” area, an idyllic setting on the city’s east side that serves as home to an unrivaled concentration of major cultural, educational, and medical institutions — including the Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland Institute of Music, and what is today Case Western Reserve University. Designed by the Cleveland firm Walker & Weeks, Severance Hall’s elegant Georgian exterior was constructed to harmonize with the classical architecture of other prominent buildings in the University Circle area. The interior of the building reflects a combination of design styles, including Art Deco, Egyptian Revival, Classicism, and Modernism.

From the day it opened, Severance Hall helped to shape The Cleveland Orchestra into the ensemble it has become — enabling the Orchestra to rehearse and perform in a single acoustic environment. The landmark building was one of the most modern, upto-date concert facilities in America when it opened in 1931 as The Cleveland Orchestra’s permanent home. Among the first concert halls designed and built with radio broadcasting capability, it helped carry the name of Cleveland across the country and into Canada through weekly and special broadcasts.

Three generations later, a program for a largescale restoration, renovation, and expansion of Severance Hall was undertaken in the late 1990s. Plans called for adding new space to the building while carefully preserving the historical integrity of the original Walker & Weeks design and restoring faded finishes to their original luster. Severance Hall reopened on January 8, 2000, as a long-beloved concert hall returned to the service of its world-class resident orchestra. The New York Times said that the renovated concert hall “sounds as seductive as it looks.” And The Cincinnati Enquirer commented that “Severance Hall is now the most visually stunning setting for an orchestra this side of Vienna’s Musikverein. Even better, its pristine acoustics . . . have been preserved and even enhanced.”