Blossom Music Festival 2026 August 1 Concert

SCHUMANN’S SECOND SYMPHONY

Augus t 1, 2026

SCHUMANN’S SECOND SYMPHONY

Saturday, August 1, 2026, at 7 PM

The Cleveland Orchestra Kazuki Yamada , conductor

TŌRU TAKEMITSU Dreamtime 15 minutes (1930 –1996)

IGOR Symphony of Psalms 20 minutes

STR AVINSK Y I. Psalm 38 (1882–197 1)

ROBERT

II. Psalm 39

III. Psalm 150 Blossom Festival Chorus

Symphony No. 2 in C major, 40 minutes SCHUMANN Op. 61 (1810 –1856) I Sostenuto assai Allegro ma non troppo

II. Scherzo: Allegro vivace

III Adagio espressivo

IV. Allegro molto vivace

Total approximate running time: 1 hour 35 minutes

Tonight’ s concer t is sponsored by Acme Fresh Markets.

Tonight’ s per formance is dedicated to Amy & Stephen Hof fman and Bill & Jennifer Clawson in recognition of their generous suppor t of music.

INTRODUCTION

In many ways, Robert Schumann represents the prototypical “Romantic artist versus the world” mentality that so captured the 19th-century imagination. He was a deep thinker and emotional personality who was firmly dedicated to his art while battling forces that threatened to silence his creative voice.

This conflict often took the form of persistent mental health challenges. Throughout his life, Schumann suffered from crippling depressive episodes, headaches, and hallucinations. One particularly stifling bout of illness occurred in 1845, as he was composing his Second Symphony. As such, the work presents an audible “darkness to light” narrative, opening with a mostly tender first movement followed by a devilish scherzo. Clouds again gather in the melancholic third movement before the work ends with a radiant celebration, perhaps a musical representation of the composer’s gratitude upon his return to health.

The other two works on tonight’s concert also dabble in shades of light and dark. The Book of Psalms contains some of the most expressive writings in the Abrahamic tradition, ranging from full-throated songs of praise to garment-tearing laments. With their original sung melodies lost to time, the intensely emotional qualities of the Psalms have inspired composers for centuries, including Igor Stravinsky. In his Symphony of Psalms, Stravinsky uses dark orchestral and vocal colors to paint a subdued, meditative landscape, which makes the moments when the sun does break through — as in the third movement’s boisterous dance — all the more striking.

The program opens with an evocative work by Tōru Takemitsu. Titled Dreamtime, the music inhabits an ephemeral landscape — melodies and harmonies flicker into focus before drifting back into a hazy in-between world. By the end, the barrier between dreams and reality, sound and silence, seems almost non-existent as the music slowly melts into the quiet sounds of the night.

— Kevin McBrien

Kevin

McBrien

is The Cleveland Orchestra’s Editorial & Publications Manager.

Dreamtime by Tōru Takemitsu

B O R N : Oc tober 8, 1930, in Tok yo

D I E D : Febr uar y 20, 1996, in Tok yo

 COMPOSED: 1981

 WORLD PREMIERE: June 27, 1982, with Hiroyuki Iwaki conducting the Sapporo Symphony Orchestra

 This concer t marks the f irst Cleveland Orchestra per formance of Takemit su’s Dreamtime.

 ORCHESTR ATION: 3 flutes (2nd doubling piccolo, 3rd doubling piccolo and alto flute), 3 oboes (3rd doubling English horn), 3 clarinets (3rd doubling ba ss clarinet), 2 ba ssoons, contraba ssoon, 4 horns, 3 trumpets, 3 trombones, tuba , percussion (cymbals, gongs, glockenspiel, marimba , tam-tams, tubular bells, vibraphone), 2 harps, celesta , and strings

 DUR ATION: about 15 minutes

IN THE OF TE N WE STE RN - C E NTRIC WORLD of cla ssical music, Tōru Takemit su achieved an ext raordinar y amount of success out side of his nat ive Japan. W hile some of his contemporaries graced internat ional concer t stages (including Akira Ifukube and Ya sushi Akutagawa), most people today a ssociate Japanese cla ssical music with either Takemit su ’ s works or the f ilm scores of Joe Hisaishi.

Takemit su ’ s 1981 orchest ral work Dreamtime commissioned by the Nederlands Da ns T heat er cont inue d a four- de ca de t rend of combining my r ia d inf luence s . He f requently took philosophica l and musica l cues f rom sources nat ive to Japan and impor ted f rom the Wes t , including t radit iona l musics like ga ga ku, bunra ku, and noh, a nd the work s of composer s like J . S . Ba c h, Debus s y, Me s sia en, a nd Ca ge.

A writer and teacher a s well a s a composer, Takemit su also inf used his personal philosophy into his compositions. His beliefs, which similarly combined inf luences from the Ea st and West , valorized sound objec t s a s they are, rather than a s they f it into a whole. He made no dist inc t ion bet ween “ high ” and “ low” ar t and saw his ar t a s ext rac ted f rom a “ st ream of sound,” where the piece exist s cont inuously in the aether, f rom which he merely ext rac t s a f ragment . As Takemit su described, “My music is composed a s if f ragment s were thrown together unst r uc t ured, a s in dreams You go to a far place and suddenly f ind yourself back home without hav ing not iced the ret urn. ”

While Takemitsu had been preoccupied with modernist and avant-garde techniques in the 1960s and early ’70s, a marked change happened in 197 7 His orchest ral work

A Flock Descends into the Pentagonal Garden f rom that year began a t rend in Takemit su ’ s works t owa rds a Ne oroma nt ic concept ion of t ona lit y that had been lost in his earlier works. He described this shif t in 1982: “It wa s [my] intent ion to create a series of works, which like their subjec t , pa ss through various metamorphoses, culminat ing in a sea of tonalit y. ” As such, many works f rom the late-70s on feat ure water a s a recurring mot ive, with evocat ive t itles like Toward the Sea (1981) and Rain Tree (1980) and a programmat ic thread of ten literalized through tones. For example, throughout these works, Takemit su uses the musical cr y ptogram “S –E–A” a s a melodic f ragment . (“Es” is E f lat in German, and thus the mot ive is the notes E f lat–E–A and it s t ransposit ions.)

Beyond the “ sea of tonalit y ” and Takemitsu’s “ Waterscape” pieces, he also developed a pre occupat ion w ith drea ms a nd numb er s , lea ding t o a c ycle of pie ce s w ith “Drea m ” in their t itle in the 1980 s . In his philosophy, drea ms a re undef ine d a nd ephemeral, and numbers are the antagonist ic and conscious desire for form and st r uct ure. His “Dream and Number ” pieces capt ure the f luidit y of dreams into sound and color : “ T hrough the absolute simplicit y of numbers I want to clar if y the complex it ies of the dream.”

Takemit su ’ s Dreamtime builds upon this series of musical and philosophical concept s that he wa s grappling with at the t ime. Musical dev ices f rom his Waterscape and Dream and Number pieces namely the S –E–A mot ive and the not ion of the sea of tonalit y are both present Listen as the piece opens sof tly in pianissimo, of fers clusters of sound, f loat s upon waves of undulat ing dy namics, and ult imately fades away on a pentatonic collec t ion of st ring tones.

One final inf luence on the piece is the notion of “Dreamtime” or “The Dreaming,” which de scr ib e s the cult ura l b eliefs a nd my tholog ie s of the Aus t ra lia n abor ig ina l people. While “Dreamtime” is a rich and intricate series of symbols and practices, this term generally describes an ancestral period when the aboriginal people believe the la nd wa s inhabit e d by sup er nat ura l f ig ure s . Ta kemit su t a ke s this not ion a nd combine s it w ith his broa der fa scinat ion w ith drea ming, summa r izing the work a s follows: “Jus t a s a dream, for it s v iv idness of detail, point s to an unant icipated, unreal

whole, so in this work shor t episodes hang suspended in seeming incoherency to form a musical whole.”

Dreamtime thus functions as a rich access point to Takemitsu’s broad range of philosophies, musical st yles, and influences. Just as his “stream of sound” extracts musical segments from an implied whole, Dreamtime offers just a sliver that reveals much about Takemitsu as an ar tist, thinker, and human.

Tanner Cassidy is director of ar tistic operations and communit y engagement at Tuesday Musical Association. He holds a PhD in music theor y from the Universit y of California, Santa Barbara, and has writ ten program notes for Music Academy of the West and the Four Seasons Chamber Music Festival.

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Symphony of Psalms

by Igor Stravinsk y

B O R N : June 17, 1882, in Oranienbaum (now Lomonosov), Russia

D I E D : April 6, 197 1, in New York Cit y

 COMPOSED: 1930; revised 1948

 WORLD PREMIERE: December 13, 1930, with Ernest Ansermet conducting the Brussels Philharmonic Societ y

 CLEVELAND ORCHESTR A PREMIERE: March 18, 1954, led by Music Director George Szell

 ORCHESTR ATION: 5 flutes (5th doubling piccolo), 4 oboes, English horn, 3 bassoons, contrabassoon, 4 horns, 4 trumpets, piccolo trumpet , 3 trombones, tuba , timpani, bass drum, 2 pianos, harp, and lower strings (cellos and basses), plus mixed chorus

 DUR ATION: about 20 minutes

See page 13 for the sung text s.

I G O R S T R AV I N S K Y B E C A M E

PR AC T I C I N

C H R I S T I A N in the mid-1920s. His spir it ua l t ransfor mat ion culminated in 1926, when he for ma lly rejoined the Russian Or thodox Church, in which he had grown up.

Some musicologists have of fered some probable links bet ween Stravinsk y ’ s revived religiousness and his evolving musical st yle. An immediate and obvious connection is the appearance of religious subjects in his music. In 1926, he set The Lord ’ s Prayer in Old Church Slavonic (Otche nash) for a cappella chorus; he would later adapt it to the Latin translation (Pater noster) in 1949. In the 1930s, he wrote t wo more liturgical pieces to Old Church Slavonic texts: the Simbol ’ v yeri (Credo) and the Bogoroditse d ’ vo (Ave Maria).

During the same years, St rav insk y composed the Symphony of Psalms, the f irst of many large-scale composit ions on sacred text s. He had received a commission for a sy mphony f rom Serge Koussevitzk y and the Boston Sy mphony Orchest ra , but at that point had lit tle interest in sy mphonies in the t radit ional form. In his autobiography, he recalled the successive steps in which his thought s took shape:

My idea wa s that my sy mphony should be a work w ith g reat cont r apunt a l development , and for that it wa s necessar y to increa se the media at my disposal I f inally decided on a choral and instrumental ensemble in which the t wo elements should be on an equal footing, neither of them out weighing the other. ... I sought for my words ... among those which had been w rit ten for singing. And quite naturally my f irst idea wa s to have recourse to the Psalms .

T he ver se s chosen by St rav insk y represent some of the principal t ypes of psa lms . T he thre e movement s of the s y mphony playe d w ithout pause s are in t ur n a prayer, a song of sa lvat ion, and a song of praise, taken from the 38th, the 39 th, a nd the 150 th Psa lms . (T he se numbers are f rom those of the Vulgate, the L at in t ra nslat ion St rav insk y use d.)

In the Symphony of Psalms, emotional int ensit y is achieve d w ithout a t race of sentimentalit y. Stravinsk y used simple means like modified triads, single inter vals, and elementar y rhy thmic pat terns. (His orchest ra is also built on darker inst r umental colors, omit t ing clarinet s f rom the woodwind sec t ion and v iolins and v iola s from the string section.) The entire first movement is based on a striking E-minor chord, and a simple melody consisting solely of t wo notes: E and its upper neighbor, F. Musically speak ing, the movement could be described as a progression from this yearning musical world toward the luminous G-major chord at the end, which is underscored by a continuous crescendo in the orchestra.

The second movement is a double f ugue bet ween the orchest ra and chor us. In St ravinsk y ’ s words:

The “ Waiting for the Lord ” Psalm makes the most over t use of musical symbolism in any of my music before The Flood [1962]. An upside-down py ramid of f ugues , it begins with a purely instrumental f ugue of limited compa ss and employs only solo instruments. ... The next and higher stage of the upside-down pyramid is the human fugue, which ... also represents a higher level in the architectural symbolism by the fact that it expands into the bass register The third stage, the upside-down foundation, unites the t wo f ugues .

The la st movement ha s alternat ing slow and fa st tempos. The word “A lleluia” is sung to harmonies that , like the E-minor chord in the f irst movement , consist of t radit iona l pat ter ns modif ied ever so slightly to sound completely new. T he fa s t tempo is ba sed on t ypical Stravinskian ostinatos. Of this, the composer wrote: “The allegro in the 150 th Psalm wa s inspired by a v ision of Elijah ’ s chariot climbing the heavens; I do

not think I had ever w r it ten any thing so litera l a s the t r iplet s for hor ns and piano to sug ge s t the hor se s a nd cha r iot . ”

T he end of the movement re t ur ns t o a slow t empo, a nd the op ening “A lleluia” theme is expanded into a serene hymn which is unexpec tedly def lec ted into a new key. The la st sonorit y is an other worldly C major that again ha s something unusual about it: the C is sounded in si x dif ferent oc taves, with it s f if th, the G, v ibrat ing along a s a nat ural over tone. The E , however, the pitch that makes the chord complete, hovers in the uppermost register, played ethereally by f lutes, oboes, harp, and piano.

Peter Lak i is a musicologist and f requent lecturer on cla ssical music He is a visiting a ssociate professor of music, emeritus , at Bard College and wa s The Cleveland Orchestra ’ s program annotator f rom 1990 to 2007.

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Symphony of Psalms

by Igor Stravinsky

Texts from the Book of Psalms

I. Psalm 38

Exaudi orationem meam, Domine, et deprecationem meam: auribus percipe lacrymas meas.

Ne sileas, quoniam advena ego apud te, et peregrinus, sicut omnes patres mei.

Remitte mihi, ut refrigerer priusque abeam, et amplius non ero.

II. Psalm 39

Exspectans expectavi Dominum et intendit mihi.

Et exaudivit preces meas; et eduxit me de lacu miseriae, et de luto faecis.

Et statuis supra petram pedes meos; et direxit gressus meos.

Et immisit in os meum canticum novum, carmen Deo nostro.

Videbunt multi et timebunt, et sperabunt in Domino.

III. Psalm 150

Alleluia.

Laudate Dominum in sanctis ejus; laudate eum in firmamento virtutis ejus.

Laudate eum in virtutibus ejus; laudate eum secundum multitudinem magnitudinis ejus.

Laudate eum in sono tubae … Laudate eum in tympano et choro; laudate eum in chordis et organo.

Laudate eum in cymbalis bene sonantibus; laudate eum in cymbalis jubilationis.

Omnis spiritus laudet Dominum! Alleluia.

Hear my prayer, O Lord, and my supplication: give ear to my tears.

Be not silent: for I am a stranger with You, and a sojourner, as all my fathers were.

O spare me, that I may be refreshed before I go forth, and be no more.

Patiently I have waited for the Lord and He was attentive to me.

And He heard my prayers; and brought me out of the pit of misery, and the mire of dregs.

And he set my feet upon a rock; and directed my steps.

And he put a new canticle into my mouth, a song to our God.

Many shall see, and shall fear, and they shall hope in the Lord.

Alleluia.

Praise the Lord in His holy places; praise Him in the firmament of His power.

Praise Him for His mighty acts; praise Him according to the multitude of His greatness.

Praise Him with the sound of the trumpet … Praise Him with timbrel and dance; praise Him with strings and organs.

Praise Him on high-sounding cymbals; praise Him on cymbals of joy.

Let everything that has breath praise the Lord! Alleluia.

Symphony No. 2 in C major, Op. 61

by Rober t Schumann

B O R N : June 8, 1810, in Zwickau, Sa xony

D I E D : July 29, 1856, in Bonn

 COMPOSED: 1845 – 46

 WORLD PREMIERE: November 5, 1846, with Felix Mendelssohn conducting the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra

 CLEVELAND ORCHESTR A PREMIERE: October 20, 1932, led by Music Director Nikolai Sokoloff

 ORCHESTR ATION: 2 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 2 horns, 2 trumpets, 3 trombones, timpani, and strings

 DUR ATION: about 40 minutes

ROBERT SCHUMANN COMPOSED HIS SECOND SYMPHONY a s he wa s re cover ing f rom a ser ious ner vous brea kdow n, the re sult of a long 18 4 4 concer t t our t o Rus sia w ith his w ife, the g reat pia nis t a nd composer Clara Schumann. T he t our wa s a t r iumph for Cla ra , but Rob er t ’ s “ ner vous fever ” wa s debilit at ing for a good pa r t of the Rus sia n jour ney His a ilment s including diz zine s s , a n x ie t y, a nd ha llucinat ions cont inue d throug h much of 18 4 5 a nd ’4 6 .

T he hea lth cr isis wa s pos sibly linke d t o over whelming a r t is t ic cha llenge s in

Schumann’s career The composer, who had spent his early years writ ing exclusively for solo pia no, wa s s t r iv ing t o e s t ablish himself in la r ge -sca le s y mphonic for ms , but ha d ye t t o write a work to match the grandeur of Schuber t’ s “Great ” C-ma jor Sy mphony. (Schuma nn ha d discovered the manuscript of that sy mphony in Vienna and had boundless admirat ion for it .) In an ef for t to concent rate on composit ion, Schumann relinquished the editorship of the music journal Neue Zeitschrif t f ür Musik, of which he ha d a lso b e en the chief music

crit ic. At f irst , however, this only gave him a sense of loss that wa s f ur thered by his relocat ion f rom Leipzig to Dresden in fall 18 4 4.

ROBERT SCHUMANN

Schumann enjoyed a respite from his ailments in December 1845. It was during this period of Aufschwung (“upswing,” to borrow the title of a famous youthful piano piece) that he began the Second Symphony, though the orchestration and the revision of the score took up the better part of 1846, amidst more ups and downs. Schumann himself felt that the difficulties he experienced before and during composition had an impact on the work. He wrote to D.G. Otten, the music director in Hamburg, in 1849:

I wrote my symphony in December 1845, and I sometimes fear my semi-invalid state can be divined from the music. I began to feel more myself when I wrote the last movement, and was certainly much better when I finished the whole work. All the same it reminds me of dark days.

The work has a rather curious reception history. The first reviews after the premiere were enthusiastic. Both Brahms and Tchaikovsky considered the symphony the high point of Schumann’s output, and musicologist Philipp Spitta , writing in 1883, saw Schumann’s Second as closest to Beethoven in “its bold decisiveness of form and overpowering wealth of expression.” Later, however, critics started finding fault with the symphony for what they perceived as formal incoherence, and the work was relatively neglected for decades. Only in the relatively recent past has the music world fully “rehabilitated” this forgotten symphony.

One way of understanding this symphony would be to view it as a struggle between the forces of light and darkness. The two opposing forces are present from the symphony’s opening measures, where a fanfare motive in the brass is set against mysterious chromatic figures in the strings. Transformations of both motives dominate the entire first movement. Though the “light” fanfares seem to have the last word at the end of the first movement, they will briefly reappear in the second and third movements.

The “dark” chromaticism returns at the beginning of the second-movement Scherzo which, for all its briskness and dynamism, has been aptly described by British author Brian Schlotel as “pervaded by a mood of restlessness and uncertainty.” The Scherzo has two trios; the first moves in a light-footed triplet motion led by the woodwinds, the second is a chorale for strings, in which one may recognize the first germs of the last movement’s final melody, the ultimate goal of the symphony’s progress.

The Adagio espressivo is one of Schumann’s most profound slow movements. In it, echoes of J.S. Bach are combined with some personal touches, including an unusually subtle orchestration. Schumann wrote in his letter to Otten: “That my melancholy bassoon in the Adagio, written into that place with special affection, did not escape you gave me the greatest pleasure.” First intoned by the strings, the main theme is soon

taken over by the “melancholy ba ssoon ” and an equally melancholy oboe. Af ter a shor t f ugal interlude, the main melody ret urns. A lthough the tempo is slow to begin with, there is a fur ther ritardando (slowing down) near the end, and the final chords are marked “molto Adagio.”

Musicologist Anthony Newcomb ha s writ ten of the f inale: “[It] star t s a s one thing and becomes another, and this formal transformation is par t of its meaning.” The opening sug gest s a cheer f ul movement with a spirited melody that ret urns af ter an episode of equally bright charac ter. Then, about half way through the movement , we reach three solemn C-minor chords followed by general rest s. Schumann quick ly int roduces a new theme, one that will gradually evolve into a quote f rom Beethoven’s song cycle To the Distant Beloved, which he had already used prominently in his Fantasy in C ma jor (Op. 17 ) f rom 1836 . T his t ime, the melody b e come s the t r iumpha nt conclusion of the symphony; the ending is made even more grandiose by the spectacular t impani solo in the la st mea sures.

Peter Lak i

AUG 8

THE VOICES THAT CHANGED MUSIC

Lucas Waldin, conductor

Capathia Jenkins, vocals | Ryan Shaw, vocals

AUG 15

PROKOFIEV’S ROMEO & JULIET

Tabita Berglund, conductor

Simone Lamsma, violin

AUG 20

JON BATISTE WITH THE CLEVELAND ORCHESTR A

MOVIE NIGHT PRESENTER PRESENTED BY SEASON PARTNER

FAMILY ENGAGEMENT PARTNER

Sarah Hicks, conductor 2026

Jonathan Taylor Rush, conductor

Jon Batiste, vocals and piano

AUG 22

R AVEL’S PIANO CONCERTO IN G

Antonello Manacorda, conductor

Nelson Goerner, piano | The Cleveland Orchestra Youth Chorus

AUG 23

COLE PORTER: LET’S MISBEHAVE

Steven Reineke, conductor

Tony DeSare, vocals and piano | Aubrey Logan, trombone and vocals

AUG 29

John Manzari, tap dancer and vocals

SUMMER IN VIENNA

Franz Welser-Möst, conductor

SEP 4 – 6

THE MUSIC OF JOHN WILLIAMS

K A ZUKI YAMADA

conduc tor

Ka zuki Yama da is music dire c t or of the Cit y of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra (CBSO). Alongside his commit ment s in Birmingham, he is also ar t ist ic and music direc tor of the Orchest re Philharmonique de Monte-Carlo (OPMC) and will become chief conductor and ar tistic director of the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin star ting in the 2026–27 season.

Yamada commands a busy schedule of orchest ral, opera , and choral conduc t ing. Recent highlight s include an appearance at the BBC Proms and a European tour with the CBSO, a ret urn to Tanglewood with the Boston Sy mphony Orchest ra , and debut appearances with the Bamberger Sy mphoniker, NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchester, Rot terdam Philharmonic Orchest ra , and Wiener Sy mphoniker. Yamada also conduc ted the Monte Carlo Opera in a produc t ion of Debussy’ s Pelléa s et Mélisande.

In addition, Yamada appears regularly with The Cleveland Orchestra, Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra, Oslo Philharmonic, Orchestra dell ’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia , Orchest re Nat ional du Capitole de Toulouse, and Swedish Radio Sy mphony Orche s t ra . He a lso re t ur ns t o Japa n ever y sea son t o work w ith orche s t ra s such a s the NHK Sy mphony Orchest ra and Yomiuri Nippon Sy mphony Orchest ra , among others.

Yamada of ten performs with distinguished soloists such as Emanuel A x, Seong-Jin Cho, Isabelle Faust, Alexandre Kantorow, Yunchan Lim, Julian Prégardien, Baiba Skride, Fazıl Say, and Jean-Yves Thibaude t.

Strongly commit ted to his role as an educator, Yamada appears annually as a guest ar tist at the Seiji Ozawa International Academy Switzerland and is strongly commit ted to the CBSO’s outreach program. The impact of the pandemic on international concer t halls reaf f irmed his belief that in his words “The audience is always involved in mak ing the music. As a conduc tor, I need an audience there a s much a s the musicians.”

Yamada st udied music at Tok yo Universit y of the A r t s, where he discovered a love for both Mozar t a nd the Rus sia n Roma nt ic rep er t or y. He achieve d int er nat iona l at tent ion upon receiv ing First Prize in the 51st Internat ional Besançon Compet it ion for Young C onduc t or s in 20 09. Hav ing live d in Japa n for mos t of his life, Ya ma da now resides in Berlin.

THE CLE VEL AND ORCHE STR A

Fra nz Wel s er - Mös t Music Dir e c tor

K E LV I N S M I T H FA M I LY C H A I R

FIRST VIOLIN S

Joel Link

CONCERTMASTER

Blossom-Lee Chair

Elizabe th Faye t te

FIRST ASSOCIATE

CONCERTMASTER

Virginia M Lindseth, PhD, Chair

Zhan Shu

ASSISTANT CONCERTMASTER

Clara G and George P Bickford 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 Ha shizume

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 Traut wein

Trevor and Jennie Jones Chair

Katherine Bormann

Paul and Lucille Jones Chair

Analise Handke

Gladys B Goetz Chair

Genevieve Smelser

SECOND VIOLIN S

Stephen Rose*

Alfred M and Clara T Rankin Chair

Eli Mat thews1

Patricia M Kozerefski and Richard J Bogomolny Chair

Ja son Yu2

James and Donna Reid Chair

Sonja Bra aten Molloy

Carolyn Gadiel Warner

Elayna Duitman

Ioana Missit s

Jef frey Zehngut^

Kathleen Collins

Be th Woodside

Emma Shook

Dr Jeanette Grasselli Brown and

Dr Glenn R Brown Chair

Yun -Ting Lee

Deborah L Neale Chair

Jiah Chung Chapdelaine

Liyuan Xie

Gawon Kim

Dus tin Wilkes- Kim

VIOL AS

Wesley Collins*

Chaillé H and Richard B Tullis Chair

Gare th Zehngut 1^

Charles M and Janet G Kimball Chair

Stanley Konopka 2

Mark Ja ckobs

Jean Wall Bennett Chair

Lisa Boyko

Richard and Nancy Sneed Chair

Richard Waugh

Lembi Veskime t s

The Morgan Sisters Chair

Eliesha Nelson^

Anthony and Diane Wynshaw-Boris Chair

William Bender

Thomas Lauria and Christopher Lauria Chair

CELLOS

Mark Kosower*

Louis D Beaumont Chair

Richard Weiss 1

The GAR Foundation Chair

Charles Bernard2

Helen Weil Ross Chair

Br yan Dumm

Muriel and Noah Butkin Chair

Tanya Ell

Thomas J and

Judith Fay Gruber Chair

Ralph Curr y

Brian Thornton

William P Blair III Chair

David Alan Harrell

Mar tha Baldwin

Dane Johansen

Marguerite and James Rigby Chair

Paul Kushious

BAS SES

Ma ximilian Dimof f *

Clarence T Reinberger Chair

Charles Paul1

Mary E and F Joseph Callahan Chair

Derek Zadinsk y 2

Mark Ather ton

Thoma s Sperl

Henr y Peyrebrune

Charles Barr Memorial Chair

Charles Carle ton

Sco t t Dixon

Brandon Ma son

HARP

Trina Struble*

Alice Chalifoux Chair

FLUTES

Joshua Smith*

Elizabeth M and

William C Treuhaft Chair

Saeran St . Chris topher

Jessica Sindell2^

Austin B and Ellen W Chinn Chair

Mar y Kay Fink

PICCOLO

Mar y Kay Fink

Anne M and M Roger Clapp Chair

OBOES

Frank Rosenwein*

Edith S Taplin Chair

Corbin Stair

Sharon and Yoash Wiener Chair

Jef frey Rathbun 2

Everett D and Eugenia S McCurdy Chair

Rober t Walters

ENGLISH HORN

Rober t Walters

Samuel C and Bernette K Jaffe Chair

CL ARINETS

Afendi Yusuf *

Rober t Marcellus Chair

Rober t Woolfrey

Victoire G and Alfred M Rankin Jr Chair

Daniel McKelway2

Rober t R and Vilma L Kohn Chair

Amy Zolo to

E- FL AT CL ARINET

Daniel McKelway

Stanley L and Eloise M Morgan Chair

BAS S CL ARINET

Amy Zolo to Myrna and James Spira Chair

BAS SOON S

John Clouser*

Louise Harkness Ingalls Chair

Gare th Thoma s

Catherine Van Handel2

Sandra L Haslinger Chair

Jonathan Sher win

CONTR ABAS SOON

Jonathan Sher win

HORN S

Nathaniel Silberschlag*

George Szell Memorial Chair

Michael Mayhew§

Knight Foundation Chair

Jesse Mc Cormick- Stepp

Rober t B Benyo Chair

Hans Clebsch

Richard King

Meghan Guegold Hege^

Gay Cull Addicott and Robert R Cull Chair

TRUMPETS

Michael Sa chs*

Rober t and Eunice Podis Weiskopf Chair

Ja ck Sut te

Lyle Steelman 2^

James P and Dolores D Storer Chair

Michael Miller

CORNETS

Michael Sa chs*

Mary Elizabeth and G Rober t Klein Chair

Michael Miller

With sincere gratitude to the musicians of The Cleveland Orchestra for their in-kind contributions suppor ting communit y programs and securing funding oppor tunities.

TROMBONES

Brian Wendel*

Gilber t W and Louise I Humphrey Chair

Richard Stout

Alexander and Marianna C McAfee Chair

Sha char Israel2

BAS S TROMBONE

Luke Sieve

EUPHONIUM & BAS S TRUMPET

Richard Stout

TUBA

Ya suhito Sugiyama*

Nathalie C Spence and Nathalie S Boswell Chair

TIMPANI

Pe ter Nichols2

Mr and Mrs Richard K Smucker Chair

PERCUS SION

Marc Damoulakis*

Margaret Allen Ireland Chair

Thoma s Sher wood

Tanner Tanyeri

Pe ter Nichols

KE YBOARD IN STRUMENTS

Carolyn Gadiel Warner

Marjory and Marc L Swar tzbaugh Chair

LIBR ARIAN

Michael Ferraguto*

Joe and Marlene Toot Chair

ENDOWED CHAIRS CURRENTLY UNOCCUPIED

Gretchen D and Ward Smith Chair

Sunshine Chair

Otto G and Corinne T Voss Chair

Rudolf Serkin Chair

CONDUCTORS

Chris toph von Dohnányi †

MUSIC DIREC TOR L AURE ATE

Taichi Fukumura

ASSISTANT CONDUC TOR

Elizabeth Ring and William Gwinn Mather Chair

James Feddeck

PRINCIPAL CONDUC TOR & MUSICAL ADVISOR OF THE CLE VEL AND ORCHESTR A YOUTH ORCHESTR A

Sidney and Doris Dworkin Chair

Lisa Wong

DIREC TOR OF CHORUSES

Frances P and Chester C Bolton Chair

* Principal

§ Associate Principal

1 First Assistant Principal

2 Assistant Principal Alum of The Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra

† In Memoriam

This roster lists full-time members of The Cleveland Orchestra The number and seating of musicians on stage varies depending on the piece being performed

Seating within the string sections rotates on a periodic basis

BLOS SOM FE STIVAL CHORUS

Lis a Wong Dir e c tor of Choruse s

SOPR ANOS

Jesse Bobbit t

Carolyn Brunelle

Signe Carlson

Ruby Chen

Natasha Dudick

Lisa Fedorovich

Sarah Gaither

Jennifer Gilles

Julia Halamek

Rebecca S. Hall

Casey Hasen

Audrey Hudak

Katie Kitchen

Heidi Lang

Kate Macy

Sophia Marshall

Samantha Miller

Julie Myers-Pruchenski

Rachel O’Connell

Victoria Peacock

Stephanie Popik

Kaitlin Privara

Mandi Rice

Nicole Rounick

Ellie Kleber Smith

Morgan Smock

Sophia Young

Kathr yn Zorman

ALTOS

Cam Armstrong

Roma Bandza

Kimberly E . Barrios

Debbie Bates

Ellen Beleiu

Kristina Bodnar

Katherine Brown

Carla Cashman

Amber Dimof f

Brooke Emmel

Hope Ezell

Grace Farrell

Rachel Favet ta

Karen S Hunt

Sarah Hutchins

Victoria Karpuszka

Diane Landoll

Emily Longenecker

Victoria Marquard-Schultz

Audra Naille

Pegg y A . Norman

Kathleen Pacyna

Sarah Rozmar ynow ycz

Stephanie Summers

Michelle Wagner-Skinner

Haley Wheeler

Leah Wilson

Jennifer R . Woda

Keri Wood

Debra Yasinow

Lynne Leutenberg Yulish

TENORS

Samuel Arnold

Daniel DiFilippo

Clay Hof fner

Adam Kilo

Mat thew Rizer

Ted Rodenborn

Lee Scantlebur y

Andrew Stamp

William Venable

BAS SES

Simon Beck

Mat thew Brit ton

Eric Cof felt

Ben Cutarelli

Ronnie Dailey

Christopher Dewald

Alexander Flood

Thomas Flowers

Jef frey D. Gershman

Mat thew Héber t

Samuel Olumba-Nedum Ifeacho

Kevin Kutz

Tyler Mason

Brandon Randall

Rober t Seaman

Daniel J. Singer

Alexander Truver

Bob Winters

Ryan Yonek

Daniel J Singer

Assistant Director

Daniel Overly

Collaborative Pianist

Jill Harbaugh

Director of Choral Operations

Victoria Peacock

Chorus Coordinator

The Cleveland Orche s tra op ene d Blos som Music C ent er in 19 6 8 t o ser ve a s the Orchestra’s summer home. A large new volunteer chorus was assembled for the inaugural concer t and included many members of The Cleveland Orchestra Chorus and members of other Nor thea s t Ohio choral groups . The Blos som Fe s tival Chorus ha s sinc e established it self a s a permanent and beloved annual par t of the Blossom Festival and ha s sung well over 100 concer t s since it s 1968 debut .

The Blossom Festival Chorus joins The Cleveland Orchestra Chorus at Severance ever y December for Holiday C oncer t s with The Cleveland Orche s tra . They have also per formed at Chautauqua and on Cleveland’s Public Square for the annual Four th of July concer t s .

V isit cochorus .com for more information on the Chorus and auditions .

YOUR VISIT

L ATE SEATING

Gues t s w ith Pav ilion seat s who arrive af ter the s t ar t of the concer t may be a sked to wait out side the Pav ilion unt il the f irs t convenient pause in the music, af ter which our ushers w ill help you to your seat s

L AWN SEATING

Gues t s on the L aw n may br ing their ow n chairs, but g ues t s w ith high-backed chairs that obs t r uc t others’ v iews may be a sked to relocate to the rear of the L aw n. Rent al chairs are available for a fee of $10 per evening. Tent s, f lags, balloons, or other s t r uc t ures that might obs t r uc t v iews or present a ha zard are not allowed. Open f lames are also prohibited.

PHOTOGR APHY, VIDEOGR APHY & RECORDING

Audio recording, photography, and videography a re not a llowe d dur ing p er for ma nce s at Blossom. Photographs and videos can only be taken when the per formance is not in progress. As a cour tesy to others, plea se silence all elec t ronic dev ices prior to the s t ar t of the concer t .

SMOKING

All Blossom Music Festival events are presented in a smoke-free environment Smoking or vaping are not allowed any where 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 Park ing Lot A

WEATHER INFORMATION

In the event of severe weather, a coordinated campus-w ide aler t w ill be issued. Gues t s and s t af f w ill be direc ted to safet y by venue staf f and the public address system. Download T he Clevela nd Orche s t ra a pp or v isi t clevelandorches tra .com/weather for weather updates and more informat ion.

FREE TR AM & ADA VAN SERVICE

Free tram ser vice bet ween the parking lots and Smith Pla za and the Pav ilion is available on a cont inuous ba sis b efore a nd af t er ea ch concer t . The ADA Van Ser v ice can pick up at the Main Gate w ith ser v ice to the Tram Circle.

QUESTION S?

Visit our Informat ion Center, hos ted by the Blossom Friends of The Cleveland Orches t ra , inside the Main Gate on Smith Pla za

WANT TO LEARN MORE ABOUT THE CLE VEL AND ORCHESTR A?

Sc an the QR code below t o explore the Orche s tra’s his t or y, me e t the musicians , and discover upcoming per formanc e s at S everanc e Music C ent er and Blos som .

Follow us on social me dia at :

@ClevelandOrchestra

© 2026 The Cleveland Orchestra and the Musical A r ts Association Program books for Cleveland Orches tra concer t s are produced by The Cleveland Orches tra and are dis tributed free to at tending audience members

EDITORIAL

Kevin McBrien, Editorial & Publications Manager, The Cleveland Orches tra k mcbrien@clevelandorchestra .com

Ellen Sauer Tanyeri, Archives & Editorial Assistant, The Cleveland Orches tra

DESIGN

Judy Baraba s, Red Swing Creative

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