Franz Welser-Möst opens his 25th and final season as Music Director of The Cleveland Orchestra with two 20th-century masterpieces. South African soprano Golda Schultz lends her radiant voice to Richard Strauss’s staggeringly beautiful Four Last Songs, written in the sunset of the composer’s life. Complementing this, Shostakovich’s Eighth Symphony moves from despair to resilience with the composer’s characteristic mix of biting wit and veiled criticism. 

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Strauss & Shostakovich

Severance Music Center

Brahms wrote his Second Symphony while vacationing on the idyllic shores of Austria’s Lake Wörth, echoed in the work’s pastoral charm and cheerful temperament. Music Director Franz Welser-Möst pairs this orchestral staple with Liszt’s symphonic ode to Orpheus, the mythic musician, and Martinů’s nostalgic Second Symphony, which was commissioned by Czech Clevelanders and premiered by The Cleveland Orchestra in 1943. 

Brahms’s Second Symphony

As the Founding Fathers launched the Revolutionary War in 1776, they also dispatched their most charming and skilled diplomat, Ben Franklin, on an assignment in Paris to secure crucial French military aid for the American Revolution. As one of the most colorful geniuses in American history, the 70-year-old Franklin knew that the way to win the hearts and loyalty of the French was to immerse himself in their cultural life. He undertook his assignment with gusto, attending concerts, ballroom dances, and opera performances, and meeting the great French writer, Voltaire. Apollo’s Fire evokes his musical adventures in this festive program of orchestral works that were performed in Paris during his 9-year stay, including Mozart’s “Paris” Symphony and highlights from a Rameau opera.

BEN FRANKLIN in Paris

First United Methodist Church Of Akron

St. Raphael Catholic Church, Bay Village

Cleveland Institute of Music

The “Father of the Symphony” meets the composer who ushered the form into the 20th century. Haydn’s Symphony No. 80 is a refined gem of the Classical era that helped set the stage for the symphonic innovations to come. Guest conductor Peter Popelka then leads Mahler’s Fifth Symphony, a world-embracing work showcasing funeral marches, horn calls, and sublime love songs before a no-holds-barred finale.

Mahler’s Fifth Symphony

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Legendary Trinidadian soprano Jeanine De Bique has taken Europe by storm in recent years. In this stunning new program designed by Jeannette Sorrell, De Bique joins the AF orchestra to explore the historical connections between Europe and the Caribbean colonies in the 18th century. Across the waters, tales of love, despair, and resilience emerge from the palaces of Europe and the plantations of the Caribbean. The virtuoso music of Handel, Purcell, Rameau and Vivaldi meets the soulful voices of Caribbean poets in this celebration of our shared humanity.

Catch this program before it heads out on an international tour to Carnegie Hall, London, Paris, Brussels, Lisbon, and more…!

ECHOES Across the Atlantic with Jeanine De Bique, soprano

Cleveland Museum of Art

Baroque specialist Jane Glover returns to Cleveland for a regal program framed by rousing suites from Handel’s Water Music and Music for the Royal Fireworks. The pyrotechnics begin with Britten’s shimmering song cycle Les Illuminations, featuring soprano Julia Bullock in her TCO debut. Stacy Garrop’s Spectacle of Light completes the program with a contemporary take on the 1749 celebration for which Handel wrote his own “fireworks music.”

Royal Illuminations

Who is the hero of Richard Strauss’s Ein Heldenleben — a historical figure, a mythic legend, or the composer himself? Though most agree that the work is a self-portrait of Strauss, this swashbuckling tone poem is nonetheless a feast for the ears, filled with bravado and derring-do. Guest conductor Santtu-Matias Rouvali couples this orchestral workout with Billy Childs’s Diaspora, a vibrant saxophone concerto written for the wildly talented Steven Banks. 

Rouvali Conducts Strauss

Join us as The Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra launches its landmark 40th performing season with an exciting evening of symphonic music, marking the beginning of a year-long celebration.

This concert is made possible through the generous support of our COYO donors, whose commitment helps inspire and shape the next generation of musicians.

COYO Plays Tchaikovsky

Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake contains some of the most recognizable and enchanting music in the classical canon. Guest conductor Elim Chan complements a suite from this beloved ballet with Gubaidulina’s charming Fairytale Poem, which follows a piece of classroom chalk that dreams of drawing castles, gardens, and oceans. Soloist Veronika Eberle rounds out this fairytale evening with Bruch’s romantic and fiery First Violin Concerto.

Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake

Cleveland favorite Augustin Hadelich returns to Severance for Bartók’s Second Violin Concerto, a daring work that brims with lively folk rhythms and colors. Conductor Alan Gilbert programs this alongside a recent work by New York–based composer Dalit Warshaw and Debussy’s Images, a sparkling triptych of symphonic poems inspired by country dances and the mysterious allure of Spain. 

Hadelich Plays Bartók

On period instruments, Apollo’s Fire and Jeannette Sorrell take Handel’s masterpiece back to its roots as a dramatic and uplifting entertainment. The soloists become “visionary storytellers” in this acclaimed interpretation. You can also catch Jeannette and the singers performing Messiah with the New York Philharmonic in between the Cleveland performances.

Handel’s MESSIAH

St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, Akron

Federated Church

Trinity Cathedral, Cleveland

First Baptist Church of Shaker Heights

Richard Strauss is a composer near and dear to the hearts of The Cleveland Orchestra and Franz Welser-Möst, both internationally acclaimed interpreters of his music. In this all-Strauss program, two ravishing orchestral selections from the composer’s late opera Daphne are juxtaposed with Metamorphosen, a meditative ode to the devastation of World War II. The evening concludes with Symphonia domestica, an autobiographical tone poem that takes listeners on a rollicking journey through the Strauss family home.

Welser-Möst Conducts Strauss

“The ultimate essence of the symphony is Life,” Tchaikovsky wrote of his Sixth Symphony. Full of sweeping melodies, passionate outbursts, and emotional extremes, his “Pathétique” Symphony remains one of the most resounding final symphonic statements in the repertoire. Conductor Kazuki Yamada leads this poignant work along with Tchaikovsky’s iconic First Piano Concerto, featuring the poise and power of pianist Beatrice Rana. 

All Tchaikovsky

By turns lyrical and fiendishly virtuosic, Barber’s Violin Concerto is an American classic and the ideal vehicle for award-winning violinist Paul Huang, who takes on the solo role. Bookending this, conductor Fabio Luisi leads an evocative work by Danish composer Bent Sørensen and Carl Nielsen’s irrepressible Fourth Symphony, featuring a thrilling finale that pits two sets of timpani against one another in a dramatic battle.

Huang Plays Barber

Powerhouse pianist Seong-Jin Cho returns to tackle the musical hurdles of Chopin’s First Piano Concerto, written when the composer was only 20 years old. Conductor Santtu-Matias Rouvali pairs this with Shostakovich’s final symphony, a powerful yet enigmatic work that contains nostalgic references to a dizzying variety of music — including the composer’s own — and concludes with a sense of peaceful resignation. 

Cho Plays Chopin

Memorable melodies and inventive variations abound in this program of 20th-century showpieces. In his TCO debut, Alexandre Kantorow brings his electrifying pianism to Rachmaninoff’s Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini, which transforms a famous violin caprice into a stunning tour de force. Framing the program are two orchestral favorites: Britten’s dazzling tour of the orchestra and Elgar’s Enigma Variations, a personal and reflective tribute to the composer’s dearest friends.

Rachmaninoff’s Rhapsody

The talents of superstar pianist Yunchan Lim are put on full display in Liszt’s Second Piano Concerto, which veers between jaw-dropping virtuosity and heart-on-sleeve tenderness. Composer-conductor Esa-Pekka Salonen also presents a work of his own, a nebulous tone poem inspired by the Greek goddess of the night, before leading excerpts from Berlioz’s Shakespeare-inspired symphonic tragedy, Roméo et Juliette. 

Lim Plays Liszt

Composer-conductor John Adams leads a riveting program anchored by two American rarities: Roy Harris’s dynamic Third Symphony and Copland’s deliciously jazzy Piano Concerto, spotlighting the musical wizardry of Conrad Tao. Rounding out the program is Adams’s kaleidoscopic ode to the composer and critic Nicholas Slominsky and a delightful suite of tunes from Weill’s satirical The Threepenny Opera. 

Adams & Tao

Mahler confronted life’s fragility in his towering Ninth Symphony, combining fleeting pleasures with fraught anguish. From the stirring opening movement to the achingly tender finale, Music Director Franz Welser-Möst gives voice to Mahler’s poignant farewell to the beauties and woes of the world. 

Mahler’s Ninth

Join us as we conclude our 40th performing season with a celebratory concert, marking the joyful finale of a year honoring four decades of youth orchestral music‑making.

The program will also include a concerto performed by the winner of the COYO Concerto Competition.

This concert is made possible through the generous support of our COYO donors, whose commitment helps inspire and shape the next generation of musicians.

Orchestral events in Cleveland, OH

Strauss & Shostakovich

The Cleveland Orchestra

Brahms’s Second Symphony

The Cleveland Orchestra

BEN FRANKLIN in Paris

Apollo's Fire

Mahler’s Fifth Symphony

The Cleveland Orchestra

The Artelize Podcast Pres...

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The Artelize Podcast: 'Am...

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The Artelize Podcast and ...

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The Artelize Podcast - A ...

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ECHOES Across the Atlanti...

Apollo's Fire

Royal Illuminations

The Cleveland Orchestra

Rouvali Conducts Strauss

The Cleveland Orchestra

COYO Plays Tchaikovsky

The Cleveland Orchestra

Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake

The Cleveland Orchestra

Hadelich Plays Bartók

The Cleveland Orchestra

Handel’s MESSIAH

Apollo's Fire

Welser-Möst Conducts Stra...

The Cleveland Orchestra

All Tchaikovsky

The Cleveland Orchestra

Huang Plays Barber

The Cleveland Orchestra

Cho Plays Chopin

The Cleveland Orchestra

Rachmaninoff’s Rhapsody

The Cleveland Orchestra

Lim Plays Liszt

The Cleveland Orchestra

Adams & Tao

The Cleveland Orchestra

Mahler’s Ninth

The Cleveland Orchestra

COYO Plays Pines of Rome

The Cleveland Orchestra