2026
SALUTE TO AMERICA JULY 4, 2026
SALUTE TO AMERICA Saturday, July 4, 2026, at 8 PM Blossom Festival Band Michelle Rakers, conductor 2026
JOHN STAFFORD SMITH The Star-Spangled Banner
PRESENTED BY
(1750–1836)
arr. Loras John Schissel
JOHN WILLIAMS
Liberty Fanfare
(b. 1932)
arr. Jay Bocook
ANTONÍN DVOŘÁK
Carnival Overture, Op. 92
(1841–1904)
arr. Herbert L. Clarke
LEROY ANDERSON
Clarinet Candy
(1908–1975)
SEASON PARTNER
MOVIE NIGHT PRESENTER
LEROY ANDERSON
The Typewriter
JOHN WILLIAMS
Main Theme from JFK arr. Paul Lavender
LEONARD BERNSTEIN (1918–1990)
Symphonic Dances from West Side Story arr. Paul Lavender
I N T E R M I S S I O N | 20 minutes — continued on page 4
COVER PHOTO BY ROGER MASTROIANNI
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WILLIAM STEFFE
Battle Hymn of the Republic
(c. 1830–c. 1890)
arr. Luigi Zaninelli
JOHN WILLIAMS
Harry’s Wondrous World from Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone arr. Paul Lavender
JULIE GIROUX
One Life Beautiful
(b. 1961)
VARIOUS
Salute to the Armed Forces arr. Jari Villanueva
RANDOL ALAN BASS (b. 1953)
A New Birth of Freedom Brian Keith Johnson, narrator
SAMUEL A. WARD
America the Beautiful
(1848–1903)
arr. Carmen Dragon
Total approximate running time: 1 hour 40 minutes
A fireworks display will immediately follow the performance, weather permitting. Tonight’s concert is sponsored by The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company. PLEASE RECYCLE
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THE S P O K E N TE X T
A New Birth of Freedom by Randol Alan Bass Text from the Gettysburg Address by Abraham Lincoln Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battlefield of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this. But, in a larger sense we cannot dedicate, we cannot consecrate, we cannot hallow this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember, what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us, that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion, that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain, that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom, and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.
Of the five known manuscript copies of the Gettysburg Address, the Library of Congress has two. President Lincoln gave one of these to each of his two private secretaries. This is the first page of the copy given to his secretary John Nicolay. Abraham Lincoln Papers at the Library of Congress (c. 1863)
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BLOSSOM MUSIC FESTIVAL 2026
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THE A RTI S T S
MICHELLE RAKERS conductor
American-born conductor Michelle Rakers was the senior assistant director for “The President’s Own” United States Marine Band and Marine Chamber Orchestra from 2004–18. In that capacity, she led the band and orchestra in countless high-profile programs at the White PHOTO COURTESY OF MICHELLE RAKERS
House, in Washington, DC, and across the country. Her career with the Marine Band began in 1998 after she won a national audition for a trumpet position. She then auditioned and was appointed to the assistant director’s position, becoming the first female conductor and first female commissioned officer in the history of “The President’s Own.” Throughout her tenure, Rakers was an ardent supporter of educational outreach, which included the creation of the national concerto competition for high school musicians. Rakers is in high demand as a conductor and clinician across the world. She has regularly conducted the Slesvigske Musikkorps in Denmark since 2014, and has conducted other groups such as the Odense Symfoniorkester, Maryland Symphony Orchestra, St. Louis Symphony Brass, Prinsens Musikkorps, and the National Youth Brass Band of Great Britain, among others. She was a resident at Helsinki’s Sibelius Academy in 2015 and 2016 and has guest conducted at many universities across the United States. Rakers earned her Doctor of Musical Arts degree in conducting from the Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University, her Master of Music degree in trumpet performance from Northwestern University, and her Bachelor of Science degree in music management from the University of Evansville. Additionally, Rakers received an Emmy Award for her part in producing the program United States Marine Band: New England Spirit. She also received the Distinguished Alumni Award from the University of Evansville and is an honorary inductee into Tau Beta Sigma, receiving their Outstanding Service to Music Award in 2010.
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THE A RTI S T S
BRIAN KEITH JOHNSON narrator
Brian Keith Johnson has appeared in operas and musical theater productions across the United States, with organizations such as The Cleveland Orchestra, Apollo’s Fire, Akron Symphony Orchestra, Canton Symphony Orchestra, Opera Theatre of Pittsburgh, Opera Western Reserve, PHOTO COURTESY OF BRIAN KEITH JOHNSON
Carolina Master Chorale, Charlotte Symphony Orchestra, and Porthouse Theatre. His operatic roles include Figaro in The Barber of Seville, Ford in Falstaff, the White Rabbit in Will Todd’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, and Bob in William Grant Still’s Highway 1, USA. He has also performed a variety of musical theater roles ranging from Jim in Big River and Coalhouse Walker, Jr. in Ragtime to Father in Children of Eden and the title role in Sweeney Todd. His concert repertoire includes most of the major solos for baritone, including Handel’s Messiah, Verdi’s Requiem, Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, Brahms’s Ein deutsches Requiem, Dvořák’s Te Deum, and Mozart’s Mass in C minor, among others. Johnson received his bachelor’s degree in music from The University of Akron. He also studied abroad at the New Opera Academy of Rome and the American Institute of Musical Studies in Graz, Austria. Johnson and his wife, Susan, retired this year from Akron Public Schools with a combined 68 years of teaching between them. In his spare time, he is an avid motorcyclist.
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BLOSSOM MUSIC FESTIVAL 2026
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BLOSSOM FESTIVAL BAND
C
onsidered one of the finest ensembles of its kind in the nation, the Blossom Festival Band performs each summer in Northeast Ohio, continuing a long and well-loved tradition of outdoor band concerts in the United States. The ensemble
has its roots in historic American band music and some of its legendary leaders. Band music has been a part of each summer’s musical offerings at Blossom since 1969.
That year, Fourth of July band concerts were presented as part of the second annual Blossom Music Festival. From 1969 to 1973, these band concerts were conducted by Meredith Willson (composer of Broadway’s The Music Man), who at age 17 had toured with the Sousa Band as a flutist. Based on the success of these concerts, a genuine symphonic band and concert program was organized under the direction of Leonard B. Smith, another of this country’s most respected band directors (he was music director of the nationally known Detroit Concert Band for many years and a widely acclaimed cornet soloist). Smith made his Blossom debut conducting “The Golden Symphonic Band of Blossom Music Center” in “A Salute to Labor Day” on September 4, 1972. The success of that concert provided the impetus to schedule a series of concerts during the 1973 summer season, with a newly selected band of 65 instrumentalists from the Cleveland area. David Zauder (1928–2013), a former student of Smith and longtime member of The Cleveland Orchestra’s trumpet and cornet section, served as a guiding spirit for the Band and regularly performed as a soloist with the ensemble. Smith served as director from 1972 until his retirement in 1997. The Blossom Festival Band was then conducted by Loras John Schissel, founding music director of the Virginia Grand Military Band and senior musicologist at the Library of Congress. Schissel led the ensemble for 25 years, from 1998 until 2023. In 2004, the Blossom Festival Band recorded its first album, under the direction of Schissel. It was released as a CD by the Musical Arts Association (parent organization of The Cleveland Orchestra and the Blossom Music Festival). 16
BLOSSOM MUSIC FESTIVAL 2026
FLUTES
BASS CLARINET
TRUMPETS
HARP
George Pope* Kyra Kester Kimberly Zaleski Sally Sherwin
Lisa Antoniou
Mark Maliniak* Heather Zweifel
Jody Guinn*
TROMBONES
Henry Peyrebrune*
OBOES/ENGLISH HORN
Thomas Friedle* Gretchen Myers B-FLAT CLARINETS
Georg Klaas* Thomas Reed Alix Reinhardt Joseph Minocchi Katie Smith Denise Soulsby David Chang Meghan Colbert Natalie VanCuren Patrick Hickey E-FLAT CLARINET
Justin Wisner E-FLAT ALTO CLARINET
Elizabeth Carney
BASSOONS
Mark DeMio* Todd Jelen SAXOPHONES
Howie Smith* Todd Gaffke Kent Engelhardt George Shernit HORNS
John Sebastian Vera* Christopher Graham Whitney Clair Evan Clifton
KEYBOARD
Jacob Bernhardt* LIBRARIAN
EUPHONIUMS
Elizabeth Carney*
Gail Robertson* Rebecca Ciabattari
* Principal
TUBAS
Hans Clebsch* David Byrd-Marrow Thomas Park Ethan Hahn Lisa Fink
Kenneth Heinlein* William Ciabattari John Caughman
CORNETS
Dylan Moffitt*
Gil Hoffer* Sarah Viens Michael Miller Christopher Petrella Kevin Natoli Jack Brndiar
BASS
TIMPANI
PERCUSSION
Bruce Golden* Julie Angelis-Boehler Glenn Paulson Matthew Larson Thomas Morris
Sunday, July 26
Blossom Music Center An evening to benefit The Cleveland Orchestra’s summer home. TWO festive summer parties & a concert with Idina Menzel.
Blossom Summer Soirée A dinner party complete with seasonal summer cocktails, parking & Pavilion tickets.
A cocktail party with hors d’oeuvres, unlimited spritzes, parking & Lawn tickets.
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Proud presenting sponsor of the Blossom Summer Soirée:
Presented in collaboration with:
Mr. Richard K. Smucker
Young Professionals of TCO
2026 JUL 9 AN EVENING WITH ITZHAK PERLMAN
JUL 18 BRAHMS & SHOSTAKOVICH
AUG 1 SCHUMANN’S SECOND SYMPHONY
Itzhak Perlman, violin and conductor
Semyon Bychkov, conductor Karen Gomyo, violin
Kazuki Yamada, conductor Blossom Festival Chorus
BEETHOVEN Romances Nos. 1 and 2 BEETHOVEN Overture to Egmont
SHOSTAKOVICH Violin Concerto No. 1
TAKEMITSU Dreamtime STRAVINSKY Symphony of Psalms R. SCHUMANN Symphony No. 2
BEETHOVEN Symphony No. 7
JUL 25 RACHMANINOFF’S SYMPHONIC DANCES
BRAHMS Symphony No. 4
Kevin John Edusei, conductor Mark Kosower, cello with the Kent Blossom Chamber Orchestra KODÁLY Dances of Galánta MARTINŮ Cello Concerto No. 1 RACHMANINOFF Symphonic Dances
JUL 11 & 12 HARRY POTTER AND THE CHAMBER OF SECRETS IN CONCERT
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 SIBELIUS Finlandia SIBELIUS Violin Concerto PROKOFIEV Suite No. 2 from Romeo and Juliet
Brett Mitchell, conductor
AUG 20 JON BATISTE WITH THE CLEVELAND ORCHESTRA JUL 26 AN EVENING WITH IDINA MENZEL Andy Einhorn, conductor Idina Menzel, vocals
Jonathan Taylor Rush, conductor Jon Batiste, vocals and piano
AUG 22 RAVEL’S PIANO CONCERTO IN G Antonello Manacorda, conductor Nelson Goerner, piano The Cleveland Orchestra Youth Chorus DEBUSSY Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun RAVEL Piano Concerto in G DEBUSSY Nocturnes RAVEL Suite from Mother Goose
AUG 29 SUMMER IN VIENNA Franz Welser-Möst, conductor R. STRAUSS Introduction and Finale to Daphne MOZART Symphony No. 34 J. STRAUSS, JR. Overture and Ballet Music from The Carnival in Rome J. STRAUSS, JR. Entr’acte from A Night in Venice J. STRAUSS, JR. Bauern-Polka JOS. STRAUSS Friedenspalmen Walzer J. STRAUSS, JR. Quadrille from The Gypsy Baron
SEP 4–6 THE MUSIC OF JOHN WILLIAMS Sarah Hicks, conductor
AUG 23 COLE PORTER: LET’S MISBEHAVE Steven Reineke, conductor Tony DeSare, vocals and piano Aubrey Logan, trombone and vocals John Manzari, tap dancer and vocals
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SUMMER 2026
KENT BLOSSOM
Music Festival
PRESENTED BY THE KULAS FOUNDATION A Partnership between Kent State University and The Cleveland Orchestra
JUNE 21 — JULY 26 Celebrating its 58th season, the Kent Blossom Music Festival is an advanced institute for professional music training operated by Kent State University in cooperation with The Cleveland Orchestra presenting public performances by distinguished artist faculty and exceptional young musicians.
Concert & Ticket Information: WWW.KENT.EDU/BLOSSOM
YOUR VISIT LATE SEATING
SMOKING
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.
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.
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 not allowed. Open flames are also prohibited.
PHOTOGRAPHY, VIDEOGRAPHY & RECORDING Audio recording, photography, and videography are not allowed 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.
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 venue staff and the public address system. Download The Cleveland Orchestra app or visit clevelandorchestra.com/weather 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? Visit our Information Center, hosted by the Blossom Friends of The Cleveland Orchestra, inside the Main Gate on Smith Plaza.
THE CLEVELAND ORCHESTRA APP
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.
Official Mobile App of TCO Explore upcoming concerts, purchase and access your tickets, receive performance updates, and more. For more information and direct links to download, visit
clevelandorchestra.com/visit/ tco-app or scan the QR code with your smartphone camera. Available for iOS and Android on Google Play and at the Apple App Store.
© 2026 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, Editorial & Publications Manager, The Cleveland Orchestra kmcbrien@clevelandorchestra.com Ellen Sauer Tanyeri, Archives & Editorial Assistant, The Cleveland Orchestra DESIGN Judy Barabas, Red Swing Creative ADVERTISING Live Publishing Company, 216-721-1800 PLEASE RECYCLE
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BLOSSOM MUSIC FESTIVAL 2026
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