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s’s Don Juan
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T H I S W E E K ’ S P R O G R A M
Strauss’s Don Juan Alain Altinoglu, conductor
P R O G R A M N O T E S : Cello Concerto by Unsuk Chin • PA G E 1 0 Till Eulenspiegel’s Merry Pranks, Op. 28 by Richard Strauss • PA G E 1 4 Don Juan, Op. 20 by Richard Strauss • PA
Conductor & Artist Biographies •
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A RT F O R M S , but it occupies an especially fundamental role in music composition. It is one of the tradition’s great strengths: since specific verbal or pictorial signifiers aren’t in the mix, the listener’s imagination is compelled to collaborate as an equal partner with the composer, musicians, and conductor.
The two tone poems by Richard Strauss (above) performed tonight Till Eulenspiegel’s Merry Pranks and D on Juan are just about the closest that orchestral music comes to descending from pure abstraction into something more tangible. If you close your eyes and listen to these hyper-detailed musical materials, you might internalize the words of German philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer: “Music is by no means like the other arts, namely a copy of the ideas, but a copy of the will itself. … For this reason the effect of music is so very much more powerful and penetrating than is that of the other arts, for these others speak only of the shadow, but music of the essence.”
Preceding these two works, the program opens with a contemporary, landmark cello concerto by Unsuk Chin, a living Korean composer working roughly a century after Strauss. On paper, her biography and decidedly thornier musical style may seem a far cry from the height of 19th-century Viennese opulence, but there is a direct throughline here. Chin inherited the Austro-Hungarian compositional mantle as the most prominent student of György Ligeti, her Hungarian teacher.
Ligeti belonged to a cohort of mid-20th-century postmodernists who stripped away the bloat and excess of high Romanticism while retaining that era’s prioritization of craftsmanship While his student’s soundworld could’ve only been conjured by someone living in the aftermath of the advent of abstract expressionism, Chin’s use of the entire orchestra is just as precise, luminous, and vivid as that of the great masters who preceded her. Ian Mercer
Ian Mercer is The Cleveland Orchestra’s Production Manager
Thank you for silencing your electronic devices.
Straus s’s Don Juan
Thursday, February 26, 2026, at 7:30 PM
Friday, February 27, 2026, at 7:30 PM
Saturday, February 28, 2026, at 7:30 PM
Alain
Altinoglu, conductor
Unsuk Chin (b. 1961)
Concert Preview with Francesca Brittan Reinberger Chamber Hall one hour prior to performance
Richard Strauss (1864–1949)
Richard Strauss
Cello Concerto 30 minutes I. Aniri
II. = c80
III. = c50
IV. = c144 Alisa Weilerstein, cello
I N T E R M I S S I O N
minutes
Till Eulenspiegel’s Merry Pranks, 15 minutes Op. 28
D on Juan, Op. 20 20 minutes
This program will last approximately 1 hour 25 minutes
On February 27, immediately following the performance, join us in the Bogomolny-Kozerefski Grand Foyer for an opportunity to meet members of the Orchestra’s viola and cello sections.
This concert is sponsored by Buyers Products.
Cello Concerto
by Unsuk Chin
B O R N : July 14, 1961 , in Seoul, South Korea
▶ C O M P O S E D : 2006 – 08; revised 2013
▶ W O R L D P R E M I E R E : August 13, 2009, with Alban Gerhardt as soloist and Ilan Volkov conducting the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra
▶ These concerts mark the first Cleveland Orchestra performances of Unsuk Chin’s Cello Concerto.
▶ O R C H E S T R AT I O N : 3 flutes (2nd doubling piccolo and alto flute, 3rd doubling piccolo), 3 oboes (3rd doubling English horn), 3 clarinets , 3 bassoons (3rd doubling contrabassoon), 4 horns , 4 trumpets , 4 trombones , tuba , timpani, percussion (bass drum , bongo, chocalho, claves , crotales , cymbals , glass wind chimes , glockenspiel, güiros , maracas , marimba , metal blocks , pitched gongs , pop bottles , sandbox , sandpaper, snare drums , tambourines , tam-tams , temple bell, temple blocks , tenor drum , thunder sheet , tom-toms , triangles , tubular bells , vibraphone, whip , wood blocks , xylophone), 2 harps , piano, celesta , and strings
▶ D U R AT I O N : about 30 minutes
“M Y M U S I C I S A R E F L E C T I O N of my dreams,” Unsuk Chin has stated “I try to render into music the visions of immense light and of an incredible magnificence of colors that I see in all my dreams a play of light and colors floating through the room and at the same time forming a fluid sound sculpture.” For Chin, these dream images are not narrative in nature but perceptual: abstract, remote, and continuously shifting. Yet it is precisely through this abstraction, she suggests, that music can communicate emotion “joy and warmth” without relying on literal storytelling
That dream logic permeates her Cello Concerto, a work that unfolds not as a linear argument but as an immersive soundworld in which time stretches and contracts, identities blur, and familiar musical roles are continually destabilized. This sensitivity to perception and instability is central to Chin’s musical outlook more broadly.
Born in Seoul in 1961 and based in Berlin since the late 1980s, Chin has built a career that bridges rigorous modernist
Unsuk Chin has received international acclaim for her compositions , which revel in sparkling, modernist soundscapes
craft with an unusually vivid sonic imagination. After early studies in South Korea, she spent three formative years in Hamburg as a student of György Ligeti, one of the towering and most original figures of late-20th-century music. Like Ligeti, Chin has never aligned herself with any single school or aesthetic, instead embracing what she has called a deliberately “bewildering” openness That lineage surfaces in the Cello Concerto as a subtle homage to virtuosity pushed to its limits, fully absorbed into Chin’s own musical voice
super-instrument.” The Cello Concerto, by contrast, is “antithetical” to that approach. Here, she says, “it’s all about the competitive tension between the soloist and the orchestra.”
It’s all about the competitive tension between the soloist and the orchestra .
Chin describes the “aura of the cello” as the initial nucleus of the work a presence that “carries” the entire structure from within. Yet the orchestra does not simply absorb or support that aura. Instead, it responds “in an antagonistic way,” creating a level of confrontation that Chin considers more extreme than in traditional ClassicalRomantic concertos “One could even speak of ‘psychological warfare’ between soloist and orchestra,” she observes. Rather than a stable hierarchy, the concerto sets in motion a constantly shifting field of forces, in which the cello must continually renegotiate its identity.
Throughout her career, Chin has returned to the concerto as a psychological and theatrical space not merely a vehicle for virtuosity, but a forum in which musical identities are placed under pressure. Against this backdrop, the Cello Concerto occupies a distinctive place within her output Composed between 2006 and 2008 for the cellist Alban Gerhardt and revised in 2013, the work diverges sharply from her previous concertos
As Chin explained in an interview with David Allenby, in those earlier concertos she sought to “merge the solo instrument and the orchestra into a single virtuoso
Cast in four movements, the concerto unfolds as a continuous dramatic arc rather than a sequence of self-contained panels. Only the opening movement the longest carries a title: Aniri. Chin explains that the term belongs to the traditional Korean genre known as pansori, an epic form of stylized musical storytelling typically performed by a single singer, and refers to the spoken narrative passages that frame and propel those performances.
Softly plucked, bardic harps dwell on a single pitch and conjure the scene, while the cello assumes an incantatory role, drawing us into this dreamworld through exploratory gestures that seem to search for orientation. The effect
is not narrative in any literal sense, but atmospheric an invocation rather than a story.
The music gathers momentum as it moves into a sharply contrasting second movement, driven by relentlessly motoric energy and a scherzo-like character. Here, virtuosity becomes a source of pressure rather than release, with the cello pushed into extremes of register and articulation, its lyric impulse repeatedly fragmented. The third movement withdraws into a markedly different space built around a hauntingly thinned-out chorale-like idea. It unfolds with a sense of suspended time, the soloist drifting upward into fragile, exposed registers.
The final movement brings the confrontation into the open, with the
orchestra attacking in aggressive gestures. Despite the violence that threatens to dominate, the solo cello gradually draws the music toward a clearing of fragile lyricism that recalls the dreamlike, epic impulse from which the concerto first emerged. Chin draws the solo line ever higher in the closing minutes, the cello ascending against dark orchestral rumblings below until it comes to rest at the extreme high end of the instrument’s register.
Thomas May
Thomas May is a writer, critic , educator, and translator
A regular contributor to The New York Times, The Seattle Times, Gramophone, and Strings magazine , he is the English-language editor for the Lucerne Festival.
Continue your journey with Unsuk Chin on Adella .live, the digital home of The Cleveland Orchestra , with Alan Gilbert’s Colorful Soundscape, a production featuring Chin’s orchestral work Rocaná Try it free by visiting adella .live and using the promo code ADELLA30 at checkout
The first movement of Chin’s Cello Concerto is inspired by pansori, a theatrical form of Korean storytelling that features a single singer and a drummer.
Till Eulenspiegel’s Merry Pranks, Op . 28
by Richard Strauss
B O R N : June 11 , 1864, in Munich
D I E D : September 8, 1949, in Garmisch-Partenkirchen , Bavaria
▶ C O M P O S E D : 1894 – 95
▶ W O R L D P R E M I E R E : November 5, 1895, with Franz Wüllner conducting the Gürzenich Orchestra Cologne
▶ C L E V E L A N D O R C H E S T R A P R E M I E R E : December 13, 1923, led by Music Director Nikolai Sokoloff
▶ O R C H E S T R AT I O N : 3 flutes , piccolo, 3 oboes , English horn , 3 clarinets , bass clarinet , 3 bassoons , contrabassoon , 4 horns , 3 trumpets , 3 trombones , tuba , timpani, percussion (bass drum , cymbals , ratchet , snare drum , triangle), and strings
▶ D U R AT I O N : about 15 minutes
I N T H E S E R I E S of symphonic tone poems that followed Richard Strauss’s “conversion” to the path laid out by Liszt, Till Eulenspiegel’s Merry Pranks is the fourth, following Macbeth, D on Juan, and D eath and Transfiguration. Each one was, in general, longer, larger, and more complex than the previous one. The last of the series, An Alpine Symphony, finished in 1915, is nearly an hour long and requires massive forces, including an army of offstage horns.
Till Eulenspiegel was composed in 1895, when Strauss was assistant conductor at the Bavarian State Opera, having already established a reputation as one of Germany’s leading conductors and
composers. He was busy and productive in both roles, and the energy that propelled him is clearly evident in this work. Strauss once boasted he could portray almost anything in music, and the symphonic poems’ subjects range from the contemplation of death to the humorous episodes of Till Eulenspiegel (translated as Till “Owl-glass”)
Till is a character of German folklore who gets away with a series of hijinks until the law finally catches up with him, allegedly based on a real person who lived in the mid-14th century. Strauss
Till Eulenspiegel upends the marketplace in this humorous lithograph, created in 1920 by the Austrian artist Oskar Laske
picked a few episodes from the many recorded in ancient accounts and presented them in “Rondeauform,” which contributes a joke of Strauss’s own the piece is not by any means in traditional rondo form, even though it has a series of non-recurring episodes.
As the piece opens, we learn that Till is an endearing character from the sweet phrase delicately presented by the violins. But the solo horn’s tricky rhythms tell us that he’s also a slippery individual as he sets off to have some fun The real Till is soon revealed by a squeaky clarinet, landing on a teasing chord for oboes. The endearing smile we heard at the beginning was only a mask.
For a while, Till saunters along, looking for a way to amuse himself (the orchestra enjoys playing “ball,” passing his theme back and forth and around the stage). Eventually, he strides into the marketplace and, with a heavy cymbal crash and noisy rattle, he overturns the tradesmen’s stalls and runs off, leaving havoc behind.
Cautiously peeping out from his hiding place, Till decides to dress up as a priest. The music is solemn (rather than holy), and a series of slithering brass chords represent his fear of the punishments meted out to those who mock religion. And so, with a solo violin glissando from the top of its range, Till escapes and prepares himself for his next adventure.
This time, Till plays a cavalier, ready to woo any pretty woman who passes Charming phrases pass from his lips, and he falls genuinely in love with one girl, who rejects him after seeing through the imposture. For a short while, he fumes and then forgets the whole episode by joining a group of argumentative professors (played by the bassoons). The discussion gets more intense, with Till’s teasing contributions causing them to turn on him in fury. A demonic trill on the oboe chord captures his predicament, from which he escapes with the jauntiest little tune
At this point, Strauss recounts no more particular adventures, but instead brings the music to a recapitulation, in which all the themes are heard again in increasingly dense combinations. Till is finding himself in increasingly hot water, and it seems the law is catching up with him. When the solemn preacher’s melody is heard again in the brass, the game is up. A snare drum supports the solemn deliberations of his judges.
The slithering brass chords tell us that punishment is due, and two brutal notes in the trombones, horns, and bassoons represent Till’s fate on the gallows. But as the final moments suggest, his spirit is not dead, and Till Eulenspiegel wins a new smile, even a guffaw, as his memory lives on.
Hugh Macdonald
Hugh Macdonald is Avis H Blewett Professor Emeritus of Music at Washington University in St . Louis . He has written books on Beethoven, Berlioz , Bizet , and Scriabin, as well as Music in 1853: The Biography of a Year
Don Juan, Op . 20
by Richard Strauss
▶ C O M P O S E D : 1888 – 89
▶ W O R L D P R E M I E R E : November 11, 1889, with the composer conducting the orchestra of the Weimar Opera
▶ C L E V E L A N D O R C H E S T R A P R E M I E R E : April 20, 1922 , led by Music Director Nikolai Sokoloff
▶ O R C H E S T R AT I O N : 3 flutes (3rd doubling piccolo), 2 oboes , English horn , 2 clarinets , 2 bassoons , contrabassoon , 4 horns , 3 trumpets , 3 trombones , tuba , timpani, percussion (cymbals , glockenspiel, triangle), harp , and strings
▶ D U R AT I O N : about 15 minutes
W H O E X A C T LY is Richard Strauss’s tone poem D on Juan about? The mesmerizing, hyper-masculine seducer projected from tale and legend? Or perhaps … Strauss himself ?
Much has been speculated about the autobiographical nature of Strauss’s D on Juan. For starters, the composer’s youthful affair with Dora Wihan
Richard’s less-than-discreet liaisons with several young women in the towns he visited as a guest conductor. And, perhaps most poetic of all, Strauss first met his future wife, Pauline de Ahna, just as he was beginning work on D on Juan.
All of this, of course, provides rich material for biographers, but the truth is neither so neatly certain nor
Much has been speculated about the autobiographical nature of Strauss’s Don Juan. s h Strauss’s
the wife of the Munich Court Orchestra’s principal cellist burned brightly enough for a considerable time to be in constant danger of discovery. Add to this his parents’ ongoing worries, expressed openly in letters to their son, about
so picturesque. No one really knows when Strauss conceived the idea of a tone poem about Don Juan or when he began writing it. (Some sources suggest 1887, while others claim 1888.) More problematically, despite many
open references in various letters, it is almost impossible, more than a century later, to judge just how far any of Strauss’s youthful romances may have gone, in the words of Strauss biographer Norman Del Mar, “beyond the point considered respectable by the society of those days.” All in all, though the 24-year-old Strauss clearly leapt to full artistic maturity with D on Juan much as Don Juan the character leaps fully to life in the opening phrase of the tone poem the “autobiographical” nature of this work (unlike that of several of the composer’s later tone poems) is largely the wishful thinking of over-romantic writers
Strauss left no “programmatic” explanation for D on Juan beyond 32 lines from an unfinished lyric poem by Nikolaus Lenau. Lenau was a 19thcentury Austrian poet who, in the early 1830s, visited the United States and lived briefly in Ohio while trying to capture a sense of the “frontier freedom” that this country symbolized in Romantic European circles Disillusioned by the gritty reality of frontier life, he returned to Europe and tried to depict in his writing the kind of full-bodied poetic life he had been unable to experience
Don Juan woos the young Constance in this detail from a 1710 painting by Dutch artist Hendrick Carré.
Lenau’s lines about Don Juan echo a disillusionment with life’s realities not unlike the poet’s own experiences. This is not the indiscriminate seducer of popular legend; this is a man much more aware of the pain he causes and the emptiness he feels. This helps clarify
This is not the indiscriminate seducer of popular legend; this is a man much more aware of the pain he causes and the emptiness he feels . the work’s
Strauss’s intention: not to tell the outer story of Don Juan leaping from bed to bed, but rather to portray the story’s inner drama the exhilaration and ultimate disillusionment in one man’s search for love.
The premiere of D on Juan in November 1889 catapulted the composer into the musical headlines and, in the words of Del Mar, established “Strauss once and for all as the most important composer to have emerged in Germany
since Wagner. ” The verdict was warranted: D on Juan stands as one of Strauss’s most perfect creations in the tone poem genre. Not one note is wasted, not one phrase is overwrought. The formal structure of the music is beautifully assembled without intruding on the work’s seemingly improvisational nature. Contrasting sections meld seamlessly together, and the whole piece ends well before any musical ideas might grow tiresome. Perfection of this sort comes all too rarely for composers and performers alike.
adapted from a note by Eric Sellen
Sellen is The Cleveland Orchestra’s Editor Emeritus He previously was Program Book Editor for 28 seasons
Continue your journey with Richard Strauss on Adella .live, the digital home of The Cleveland Orchestra , with several productions featuring the composer’s works , including Ein Heldenleben and Metamorphosen. Try it free by visiting adella .live and using the promo code ADELLA30 at checkout .
Eager for more? The Orchestra’s 2022 audio recording of three Strauss tone poems Macbeth, Don Juan, and Till Eulenspiegel’s Merry Pranks, conducted by Franz Welser-Möst is available to stream on all major platforms and purchase at the Welcome Center in Lerner Lobby.
Eric
Alain Altinoglu
A L A I N A LT I N O G L U I S M U S I C D I R E C T O R
of Brussel’s Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie, chief conductor of the hr-Sinfonieorchester Frankfurt, and artistic director of the Festival International de Colmar. At both La Monnaie and Frankfurt, he has earned widespread acclaim for his visionary leadership, compelling performances, and innovative programming. In 2025, Altinoglu was named Conductor of the Year at the International Opera Awards
Highlights of the 2025–26 season include a return to the Wiener Staatsoper for Debussy’s Pelléas et Mélisande and appearances with the hr-Sinfonieorchester Frankfurt at several European festivals including the Prague International Music Festival and SchleswigHolstein Music Festival alongside a tour of Spain. At La Monnaie, he leads Verdi’s Falstaff and Berlioz’s Benvenuto Cellini. Altinoglu also guest conducts the Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks, Münchner Philharmoniker, Oslo Philharmonic, Orchestre de Paris, and The Cleveland Orchestra.
Altinoglu regularly conducts such distinguished orchestras as the Berliner Philharmoniker, Wiener Philharmoniker, Czech Philharmonic, London Symphony Orchestra, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Boston Symphony Orchestra, The Philadelphia Orchestra, Philharmonia Orchestra, and Concertgebouworkest, as well as all the major Parisian orchestras.
A regular guest at the world’s leading
opera houses, Altinoglu appears at The Metropolitan Opera, Royal Opera House, Teatro alla Scala, Opernhaus Zürich, Teatro Colón, Deutsche Oper Berlin, and all three opera houses in Paris. He has also appeared at festivals in Bayreuth, Salzburg, Orange, and Aix-en-Provence.
Alongside his conducting, Altinoglu maintains a strong affinity with the lied repertoire and regularly performs with mezzo-soprano Nora Gubisch. Altinoglu has released audio recordings for the Deutsche Grammophon, Naïve, Pentatone, and Cascavelle labels. DVD productions of Honegger’s Jeanne d’Arc au bûcher (Accord), Wagner’s The Flying D utchman (Deutsche Grammophon), and The Golden Cockerel, Iolanta, The Nutcracker, and Pelléas et Mélisande (BelAirClassiques) have also been released to critical acclaim
Born in Paris, Altinoglu studied at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique de Paris, where he now teaches conducting
Alisa Weilerstein cello
A L I S A W E I L E R S T E I N I S O N E of the foremost cellists of our time. Known for her consummate artistry, emotional investment, and rare interpretive depth, she was recognized with a MacArthur “genius grant” in 2011.
While maintaining a deep engagement with the repertoire’s standards, Weilerstein is also dedicated to expanding the cello literature Her multi-season project, FRAGMENTS, comprises six programs that weave together J.S. Bach’s cello suites with 27 newly commissioned works In 2025–26, she continues the series in New York City and San Diego, and also presents its European, Czech, German, and UK premieres the latter at London’s Southbank Centre, where she undertakes a fall and winter artistic residency.
Weilerstein has also premiered important new concertos written for her by leading contemporary composers, including Matthias Pintscher, Joan Tower, and Gabriela Ortiz. In the 2025–26 season, she plays the UK premiere of Ortiz’s Dzonot with Marin Alsop and the Philharmonia Orchestra, before reprising the same work with the San Diego Symphony. Other highlights include performances with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra, and Staatskapelle Berlin, among others.
Weilerstein’s bestselling Pentatone recording of Bach’s cello suites was nominated for a 2021 Gramophone Award, while her insights into his G-major Prelude from the First Suite, as captured in Vox’s YouTube series, have been viewed more than 2.3 million times. As featured in a Gramophone cover story, in 2022, she released Beethoven’s complete cello sonatas with frequent collaborator Inon Barnatan. Her celebrated discography also includes recordings of Dvořák’s Cello Concerto with the Czech Philharmonic, which topped the US classical chart, and the Elgar and Carter cello concertos with Daniel Barenboim and the Staatskapelle Berlin, named “Recording of the Year” in 2013 by BBC Music Magazine. Born in 1982, Weilerstein discovered her love for the cello at age 2-and-a-half and made her professional concert debut at 13 with The Cleveland Orchestra. She is married to conductor Rafael Payare, with whom she has two young children
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The Cleveland Orchestra rehearses under the baton of guest conductor Bernard Labadie
N O W F I R M LY I N I T S S E C O N D C E N T U RY , The Cleveland Orchestra, under the leadership of Franz Welser-Möst since 2002, is one of the most sought-after performing ensembles in the world. Year after year, the ensemble exemplifies extraordinary artistic excellence, creative programming, and community engagement. In recent years, The Ne w York Times has called Cleveland “the best in America” for its virtuosity, elegance of sound, variety of color, and chamber-like musical cohesion.
Founded by Adella Prentiss Hughes, the Orchestra performed its inaugural concert in December 1918. By the middle of the century, decades of growth and @ClevelandOrchestra
sustained support had turned the ensemble into one of the most admired around the world.
The past decade has seen an increasing number of young people attending concerts, bringing fresh attention to The Cleveland Orchestra’s legendary sound and committed programming. More recently, the Orchestra launched several bold digital projects, including the streaming platform Adella.live and its own recording label. Together, they have captured the Orchestra’s unique artistry and the musical achievements of the Welser-Möst and Cleveland Orchestra partnership.
The 2025 – 26 season marks Franz Welser-Möst’s 24th year as Music Director, a period in which The Cleveland Orchestra has earned unprecedented acclaim around the world, including a series of residencies at the Musikverein in Vienna, the first of its kind by an American orchestra, and a number of celebrated opera presentations.
Since 1918, seven music directors
Nikolai Sokoloff, Artur Rodziński, Erich Leinsdorf, George Szell, Lorin Maazel, Christoph von Dohnányi, and Franz Welser-Möst have guided and shaped the ensemble’s growth and sound. Through concerts at home and on tour, broadcasts, and a catalog of acclaimed recordings, The Cleveland Orchestra is heard today by a growing group of fans around the world.
Franz Welser -Möst, Music Director
K E LV I N S M I T H FA M I LY C H A I R
F I R S T V I O L I N S
Joel Link
C O N C E RT M A S T E R
Blossom-Lee Chair
Jung-Min Amy Lee
A S S O C I AT E
C O N C E RT M A S T E R
Gretchen D. and Ward Smith Chair
Zhan Shu
A S S I S TA N T
C O N C E RT M A S T E R
Clara G. and George P. Bickford Chair
Stephen Tavani
A S S I S TA N T
C O N C E RT M A S T E R
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 Hashizume
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 Trautwein
Trevor and Jennie Jones Chair
Katherine Bormann
Analise Handke
Gladys B Goetz Chair
Youngji Kim
Paul and Lucille Jones Chair
Genevieve Smelser
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
S E C O N D V I O L I N S
Stephen Rose*
Alfred M and Clara T Rankin Chair
Eli Matthews1
Patricia M. Kozerefski and Richard J Bogomolny Chair
Jason Yu2
James and Donna Reid Chair
Sonja Braaten Molloy
Carolyn Gadiel Warner
Elayna Duitman
Ioana Missits
Jeffrey Zehngut^
Kathleen Collins
Beth 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
V I O L A S
Wesley Collins*
Chaillé H and Richard B Tullis Chair
Gareth Zehngut1^
Charles M. and Janet G.
Kimball Chair
Stanley Konopka2
Mark Jackobs
Jean Wall Bennett Chair
Lisa Boyko
Richard and Nancy
Sneed Chair
Richard Waugh
Lembi Veskimets
The Morgan Sisters Chair
Eliesha Nelson^
Anthony and Diane
Wynshaw-Boris Chair
Joanna Patterson Zakany
William Bender
Thomas Lauria and
Christopher Lauria Chair
C E L L O S
Mark Kosower*
Louis D Beaumont Chair
Richard Weiss1
The GAR Foundation Chair
Charles Bernard2
Helen Weil Ross Chair
Bryan Dumm
Muriel and Noah Butkin Chair
Tanya Ell
Thomas J and Judith Fay
Gruber Chair
Ralph Curry
Brian Thornton
William P. Blair III Chair
David Alan Harrell
Martha Baldwin
Dane Johansen
Marguerite and James Rigby Chair
Paul Kushious
B A S S E S
Maximilian Dimoff*
Clarence T. Reinberger Chair
Charles Paul1
Mary E . and F. Joseph
Callahan Chair
Derek Zadinsky2
Mark Atherton
Thomas Sperl
Henry Peyrebrune
Charles Barr Memorial Chair
Charles Carleton
Scott Dixon
Brandon Mason
H A R P
Trina Struble*
Alice Chalifoux Chair
F LU T E S
Joshua Smith*
Elizabeth M. and William C.
Treuhaft Chair
Saeran St. Christopher
Jessica Sindell2^
Austin B and Ellen W Chinn Chair
Mary Kay Fink
P I C C O L O
Mary Kay Fink
Anne M and M Roger Clapp Chair
O B O E S
Frank Rosenwein*
Edith S Taplin Chair
Corbin Stair
Sharon and Yoash Wiener Chair
Jeffrey Rathbun2
Everett D. and Eugenia S . McCurdy Chair
Robert Walters
E N G L I S H H O R N
Robert Walters
Samuel C and Bernette K
Jaffe Chair
C L A R I N E T S
Afendi Yusuf*
Robert Marcellus Chair
Robert Woolfrey
Victoire G and Alfred M
Rankin, Jr Chair
Daniel McKelway2
Robert R and Vilma L Kohn
Chair
Amy Zoloto
E-F L AT C L A R I N E T
Daniel McKelway
Stanley L and Eloise M
Morgan Chair
B A S S C L A R I N E T
Amy Zoloto
Myrna and James Spira Chair
B A S S O O N S
John Clouser*
Louise Harkness Ingalls Chair
Gareth Thomas
Catherine Van Handel2
Sandra L Haslinger Chair
Jonathan Sherwin
C O N T R A B A S S O O N
Jonathan Sherwin
H O R N S
Nathaniel Silberschlag*
George Szell Memorial Chair
Michael Mayhew§
Knight Foundation Chair
Jesse McCormick
Robert B Benyo Chair
Hans Clebsch
Richard King
Meghan Guegold Hege^
T RU M P E T S
Michael Sachs*
Robert and Eunice Podis
Weiskopf Chair
Jack Sutte
Lyle Steelman2^
James P. and Dolores D.
Storer Chair
Michael Miller
C O R N E T S
Michael Sachs*
Mary Elizabeth and G Robert Klein Chair
T RO M B O N E S
Brian Wendel*
Gilbert W and Louise I
Humphrey Chair
Richard Stout
Alexander and Marianna C McAfee Chair
Shachar Israel2
B A S S T RO M B O N E
Luke Sieve
E U P H O N I U M &
B A S S T RU M P E T
Richard Stout
T U B A
Yasuhito Sugiyama*
Nathalie C Spence and Nathalie S Boswell Chair
T I M PA N I
Zubin Hathi*
Otto G. and Corinne T. Voss Chair
Peter Nichols2
P E RC U S S I O N
Marc Damoulakis*
Margaret Allen Ireland Chair
Thomas Sherwood
Tanner Tanyeri
Peter Nichols
K E Y B OA R D I N S T RU M E N T S
Carolyn Gadiel Warner
Marjory and Marc L Swartzbaugh Chair
L I B R A R I A N
Michael Ferraguto*
Joe and Marlene Toot Chair
E N D O W E D C H A I R S
C U R R E N T LY
U N O C C U P I E D
Virginia M. Lindseth, PhD, Chair
Sunshine Chair
Rudolf Serkin Chair
Michael Miller C
Mr and Mrs Richard K
Smucker Chair
Christoph von Dohnányi †
Taichi Fukumura
Elizabeth Ring and William Gwinn Mather Chair
James Feddeck
Sidney and Doris Dworkin Chair
Lisa Wong
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
With sincere gratitude to the musicians of The Cleveland Orchestra for their in-kind contributions supporting community programs and securing funding opportunities
A Conversation with Michael Sachs
Principal Trumpet | Principal Cornet
with The Cleveland Orchestra , Principal Trumpet Michael Sachs has stepped into the spotlight on several occasions to premiere new works for trumpet and orchestra by leading contemporary composers such as Wynton Marsalis, Matthias Pintscher, Michael Hersh, and John Williams. For the Orchestra’s March concerts with Elim Chan, Sachs instead revisits an old favorite — Haydn’s Trumpet Concerto, arguably the most famous concerto in the instrument’s repertoire . We caught up with Sachs to learn more about this piece and his relationship with it .
T C O : What’s the history of Haydn’s Trumpet Concerto?
M I C H A E L S A C H S : This piece was a genesis moment for the modern trumpet. Haydn wrote the work in 1796 for Anton Weidinger. Not only was Weidinger a virtuoso trumpeter, but he was the inventor of the keyed trumpet, which, for the first time, allowed the instrument to play a chromatic scale, much like a piano. Before, the trumpet could only produce a select few notes in the harmonic series. But with Weidinger’s keyed trumpet, Haydn now had the ability to write things for the
instrument that were not possible up to that moment.
Take the opening of the solo part, for instance. The first three notes would have been the first time that anybody would have heard the trumpet play those notes in that sequence! Besides the historical significance of this piece, it’s also one of the first major concertos that most trumpet students learn.
Was that the case for you?
I started learning the second movement when I was about 14. Then, during my senior year of high school, I performed the first movement with my school wind ensemble, which was my first real foray into the piece.
Michael Sachs (right) and Wynton Marsalis share a bow after the world premiere of Marsalis’s Concerto for Trumpet and Orchestra in April 2023
Will this be your first time playing this concerto with The Cleveland Orchestra?
It’ll actually be my third time I first performed it at Severance in 1993, which marked my concerto debut with the Orchestra on a subscription concert. I then played it again at Severance in 2006. That performance was particularly special because it was the first time my daughter, then 3 years old, heard me play with the Orchestra.
To prepare her for the concert, I played parts of the concerto so she would know what to recognize, and my wife gave her an overview of how to behave in the concert hall. The funny thing is that on the night of the performance, she was sitting on my wife’s lap and started looking really puzzled
Having a piece that I performed just a few years into being with the Orchestra , a second time in the middle, and now again closer to the end of my career it’s become a signpost for me . lap puzzled p rf d j e y ars in o bei c o e e
after the piece began. She turned to my wife and said, “What’s daddy doing?!” because I wasn’t playing during the orchestral introduction; I was just standing there. Then, once I finally started playing, she went, “Ooohhh,” and was dead silent the rest of the way, totally mesmerized.
This is my first time playing the concerto with the Orchestra since that performance, and it’s very special to me that my daughter can come back and hear it again 20 years later. Having a piece that I performed just a few years into being with the Orchestra, a second time in the middle, and now again closer to the end of my career it’s become a signpost for me.
What is your preparation process like, especially for a piece you know so well?
Even though I’ve been living with this piece for basically 50 years, there are always new things to discover. Any time I dust off a piece, I take it down to the studs and rebuild it from scratch, just to make sure that I’m not going on automatic pilot
First, I have my general conditioning, which is a healthy dose of daily fundamentals on the B-flat trumpet. I play E-flat trumpet in this concerto, so I start introducing the E-flat trumpet into some of that fundamental work until it starts feeling as natural as my primary instrument Then, as I begin a deep dive into the piece, I’m either reinforcing what I’ve done in past performances or evolving it into something even better. Over time, you learn more and find deeper meanings
Several years ago, I actually got to see Haydn’s original manuscript in Vienna, thanks to Otto Biba, who was then the archive director at the Musikverein. It was fascinating to see the adjustments
Haydn made based on Weidinger’s performance and input, and to copy those things into my own music.
I’ve also practiced a bit on a keyed trumpet (above) to get a sense of how Weidinger would have originally performed the piece. I’m using that sonic presence to inform what I do stylistically on the modern instrument.
How might audiences hear these historical considerations in your performance?
In Haydn’s time, composers often left an open space for the soloist to create their own cadenza. It is that one moment when the musician’s personal voice joins the composer’s stylistic framework. I wrote this particular cadenza in 1987, which reflects something that I would be able
A replica of a keyed trumpet (left) sits alongside modern E-flat (middle) and B-flat (right) trumpets. Sachs will play the E-flat trumpet in his performances.
to play on a keyed trumpet, instead of something that I would only be able to do on a modern instrument.
I’ve since tweaked my cadenza a bit, but the bones of it came from cobbling together things from my favorite recordings with a few of my own ideas. And that’s something very akin to what performers would have done in Haydn’s day.
You’ve played a lot of concertos with the Orchestra over the years. What does it mean to you to get to perform like this with your colleagues?
Whenever I stand in front of this orchestra, I feel enormously grateful and inspired, because I’m usually in the back of the ensemble with everyone in front of me. It’s like the feeling a professional surfer would get riding some giant wave, feeling this energy coming from the group and the incredible artistry happening around me. It’s just magnificent incredibly inspiring and humbling.
2026 Mandel Opera & Humanities Festival: Courage
T H E F O U RT H A N N UA L Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel Opera & Humanities Festival kicks off in May with a bold lineup of music, visual and spoken art, and conversations. Held at Severance Music Center and partner locations from May 15 to 24, this year’s festival explores the theme of Courage and is anchored by three performances of Beethoven’s only opera, Fidelio, led by Music Director Franz Welser-Möst (May 16, 21 & 24).
For the first time, the festival welcomes a guest curator trumpeter and composer Terence Blanchard, who is acclaimed for bridging classical music, jazz, and film Audiences can experience his genre-bending artistry firsthand at The World(s) of Terence Blanchard on May 15, a two-part evening that features music from his celebrated opera Fire Shut Up in My Bones, as well as a suite from his score for Spike Lee’s Malcolm X, with projections by Andrew F. Scott.
On May 18, renowned lawyer, advocate, and founder of the Equal Justice
Initiative Bryan Stevenson delivers the festival’s opening keynote address, reflecting on the meaning of courage in the pursuit of justice and his life’s work serving incarcerated individuals. The evening prior, May 17, Grammywinning spoken-word artist Tank Ball presents an intimate and uplifting evening of poetry and storytelling.
Throughout the festival, visitors to Severance can experience a special exhibition featuring an original series of works by visual artist Halim Flowers inspired by the festival’s theme. Imprisoned for a crime he didn’t commit, Flowers’s advocacy and artwork embody courage in the face of injustice.
Returning festival-favorite events include United in Song! on May 16, bringing together voices from across the Greater Cleveland area, and The Moth Mainstage (May 19), featuring unforgettable true stories told live from Mandel Concert Hall.
Additional festival events will be announced in March. See page 41 or visit clevelandorchestra .com/ festival for details and ticketing information
Tank Ball brings her inspiring poetry and captivating stage presence to Severance on May 17
TCO Audio Producer Elaine Martone Wins Seventh Grammy
O N F E B R UA RY 1 , The Cleveland Orchestra’s audio producer, Elaine Martone, won the Grammy Award for Producer of the Year, Classical. This marks her fourth victory in the category and third in a row and her seventh Grammy overall.
This latest Grammy win acknowledges Martone’s work on three recent recording projects by The Cleveland Orchestra
and Music Director Franz Welser-Möst Berlioz: Symphonie fantastique, Eastman & Tchaikovsky, and Mozart: Piano Concerto No. 27 and Symphony No. 20.
“With Franz and the Orchestra, I feel like I get to be another contributor, if not musician, in that great group,” Martone reflected in a recent interview with Cle veland Magazine. “I feel incredibly lucky that I get to do that.”
Join the TCO Summer Choral Institute
F RO M J U N E 2 2 T O 2 6 , The Cleveland Orchestra Chorus will host a week-long Summer Choral Institute, providing aspiring conductors, singers, and collaborative pianists the opportunity to work with director Lisa Wong, pianist Daniel Overly, Grammy-winning baritone Dashon Burton, and members of The Cleveland Orchestra and The Cleveland Orchestra Chorus.
The week includes masterclasses, coaching sessions, roundtable discussions, and more in a supportive and enriching
environment. The experience culminates in a vocal recital in Reinberger Chamber Hall and a performance of Craig Hella Johnson’s oratorio, Considering Matthe w Shepard, in Mandel Concert Hall.
Applications are now open until May 29 or until full. Visit clevelandorchestra .com or scan the QR code below for more information.
Tyler Taylor to Work with COYO Musicians
T H I S S P R I N G , Tyler Taylor and The Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra (COYO) are teaming up for a special collaboration. As The Cleveland Orchestra’s Daniel R Lewis Composer Fellow, Taylor has chosen to dedicate a portion of his fellowship to working with a group of COYO musicians in a series of intensive composition workshops.
These sessions will cover not only the tools of composition but also help the students identify their personal style, allowing them to refine their new works alongside a professional composer and project their own creative voices.
The students’ works will be heard in a performance before COYO’s spring concert on May 10
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I N T E R
M A R 5 , 7 & 8
B R A H M S ’ S T H I R D
S Y M P H O N Y
Jakub Hrůša, conductor
B R A H M S Symphony No. 3
M A RT I N Ů Symphony No. 3
K A P R Á L O VÁ Military Sinfonietta
M A R 1 2 – 1 5
B E E T H OV E N ’ S
FAT E F U L F I F T H
Elim Chan, conductor
Michael Sachs, trumpet
S T R AV I N S K Y Suite from Pulcinella
H AY D N Trumpet Concerto
B E E T H O V E N Symphony No. 5
R E C I TA L
M A R 1 7
T H E K A N N E H - M A S O N S
I N R E C I TA L
Sheku Kanneh-Mason, cello
Isata Kanneh-Mason, piano
Works by Mendelssohn, N. Boulanger, R. Schumann, and Clarke
M A R 1 9 – 2 1
C H A N C O N D U C T S
B A RTÓ K
Elim Chan, conductor
Patricia Kopatchinskaja, violin
D A N I E L K I D A N E Sun Poem*
B A RT Ó K Violin Concerto No. 1
B A RT Ó K Dance Suite*
S C R I A B I N The Poem of Ecstasy
* Not performed on the Friday matinee concert
Generous support for the 2025 – 26 Recital Series provided by the Art of Beauty Company, Inc.
S P R I N G
A P R 2 – 4
D E B U S S Y ’ S L A M E R
Daniele Rustioni, conductor
Paul Jacobs, organ
FA U R É Suite from Pelléas et Mélisande
P O U L E N C Concerto for Organ, Strings , and Timpani
C A S E L L A Italia
D E B U S S Y La mer
A P R 9 – 1 1
S C H U B E RT & S H O S TA KOV I C H
Santtu-Matias Rouvali, conductor
Sol Gabetta, cello
S H O S TA KO V I C H Cello Concerto No. 2
S C H U B E RT Symphony No. 9, “ The Great”
R E C I TA L
A P R 1 6
A LE X A N D R E
K A N TO RO W I N R E C I TA L
Alexandre Kantorow, piano
Works by J.S. Bach, Medtner, Chopin, Scriabin, and Beethoven
A P R 2 3 , 2 5 & 2 6
B R I T T E N ’ S WA R R E Q U I E M
Daniel Harding, conductor
Tamara Wilson, soprano
Andrew Staples, tenor
Ludwig Mittelhammer, baritone
The Cleveland Orchestra Chorus
The Cleveland Orchestra Children’s Chorus
B R I T T E N War Requiem
A P R 3 0 & M AY 2
M E N D E L S S O H N ’ S R E F O R M AT I O N
S Y M P H O N Y
Jörg Widmann, conductor
J Ö R G W I D M A N N Fanfare for Ten Brass Instruments
J Ö R G W I D M A N N Con brio
J Ö R G W I D M A N N Danse macabre
M E N D E L S S O H N Symphony No 5, “Reformation”
R E C I TA L
M AY 5
M A RC - A N D R É H A M E LI N
I N R E C I TA L
Marc-André Hamelin, piano
Works by Haydn, Beethoven, Weinberg, and Rachmaninoff
M AY 7 – 9
WAG N E R ’ S
G ÖT T E R DÄ M M E RU N G
Franz Welser-Möst, conductor
Jörg Widmann, clarinet
P RO KO F I E V Symphony No 1, “Classical”
O L G A N E U W I RT H Zones of Blue*
WA G N E R Excerpts from Götterdämmerung
M AY 1 6 , 2 1 & 24
B E E T H OV E N ’ S F I D E LI O
Franz Welser-Möst, conductor
Malin Byström, soprano (Leonore)
David Butt Philip, tenor (Florestan)
Tomasz Konieczny, bass-baritone (Don Pizarro)
Martin Summer, bass (Rocco)
Dashon Burton, bass-baritone (Don Fernando)
Ashley Emerson, soprano (Marzelline)
Owen McCausland, tenor (Jaquino)
The Cleveland Orchestra Chorus
B E E T H O V E N Fidelio
Opera presentation sung in German with projected supertitles
M AY 2 2
H E RO ’ S S O N G
Franz Welser-Möst, conductor
Leila Josefowicz, violin
Trina Struble, harp
A D O L P H U S H A I L S T O R K
Epitaph for a Man Who Dreamed
B A C E W I C Z Symphony No. 4
J Ü R I R E I N V E R E Concerto for Violin, Harp, and Orchestra
D V O Ř Á K Hero’s Song
M AY 1 5 – 2 4
Join us for the fourth annual Jack , Joseph and Morton Mandel Opera & Humanities Festival, which delves into the many facets of Courage and how it shapes our hopes , our fears , and our actions .
A P R I L 9 – M AY 24
Halim Flowers: It Takes Courage to Love All Unconditionally
In this special exhibit at Severance Music Center, celebrated artist Halim Flowers unveils a new body of work created in Cleveland expressly for the Mandel Opera & Humanities Festival, drawing its energy and vision from the festival’s central theme of Courage
F R I D AY, M AY 1 5
The World(s) of Terence Blanchard
This genre-bending opening night of the festival features selections from Terence Blanchard’ s groundbreaking opera Fire Shut Up in My Bones and a suite from his score for Spike Lee’ s Malcolm X, paired with immersive projections
S AT U R D AY, M AY 1 6
United in Song! A Community Choral Celebration
An afternoon of joyous vocal performances representing the rich diversity of the Greater Cleveland choral community
S AT U R D AY, M AY 1 6
T H U R S D AY, M AY 2 1
S U N D AY, M AY 24
Beethoven’s Fidelio Franz Welser-Möst lifts The Cleveland Orchestra and an all-star cast of soloists to the life-affirming heights of Beethoven’ s only opera , a testament to courage and human resilience .
S U N D AY, M AY 1 7
Courage and Poetry: An Af ternoon with Tank Ball
Grammy-winning artist Tarriona “ Tank” Ball shares her spellbinding blend of spoken word and poetry in a performance that digs deep into the meaning of courage, featuring music by Terence Blanchard.
M O N D AY, M AY 1 8
Bryan Stevenson on Courage
In this keynote address , acclaimed civil rights leader, bestselling author, and founder of the Equal Justice Initiative Bryan Stevenson reflects on the meaning of courage: how we confront injustice, stay proximate to suffering, and choose to hope in the face of overwhelming odds
T U E S D AY, M AY 1 9
The Moth Mainstage: Live from Severance
Five extraordinary storytellers share true stories inspired by the festival theme of Courage tales of risk and resilience, of stepping into the unknown, and of finding courage amid fear
F R I D AY, M AY 2 2
Hero’s Song
Franz Welser-Möst leads The Cleveland Orchestra in a wideranging program inspired by the festival theme, featuring works by Adolphus Hailstork, Bacewicz, Jüri Reinvere, and Dvořák
Heritage Society
The Heritage Society recognizes dedicated supporters who have entrusted their legacy with The Cleveland Orchestra by including the Orchestra in their estate plans . Thank you to these individuals for their generous support .
To learn more about the Heritage Society, contact Legacy Giving at legacy@clevelandorchestra .com
Leonard Abrams*
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Norman* & Marjorie Allison
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Fran & Jules Belkin
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Howard R & Barbara Kaye Besser
Dr & Mrs Murray M Bett*
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Trust Fund
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Henry & Mary* Doll
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Renate H. Duchesneau*
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C Gordon & Kathleen A Ewers*
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Arthur* & Deanna Friedman
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Ms . Dawn M. Full*
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Mr. & Mrs . Steven B. Garfunkel
Donald* & Lois Gaynor
Albert I * & Norma C Geller
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S. Bradley Gillaugh*
Mr.* & Mrs . Robert M. Ginn
Fred & Holly Glock
Ronald & Carol Godes*
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Mr.* & Mrs . Henry J. Goodman
John & Ann Gosky
In Memory of Margaret Goss
Mr. Michael Gotwald
Harry & Joyce Graham
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Tom* & Gretchen Green
Anna Zak Greenfield*
Richard & Ann Gridley
Nancy Hancock Griffith
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Megan Hall & James Janning
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Norman C * & Donna L Harbert
Nancy Hausmann
Barbara L . Hawley &
David S. Goodman
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Ms . M. Diane Henry
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Fred Heupler, M.D.
Mr & Mrs Daniel R High*
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Bruce F Hodgson
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Amy & Stephen Hoffman
David & Nancy Hooker
Thomas H. and Virginia J. Horner Fund*
Patience Cameron Hoskins
Elizabeth Hosmer
Dr. Christine A . Hudak , Mr. Marc F. Cymes
Dr. Randal N. Huff
Mrs . Marguerite B. Humphrey*
Ann E Humphreys & Jayne E Sisson
David & Dianne Hunt
Karen S Hunt
Mr & Mrs G Richard Hunter
Gerri Hura
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Pamela & Scott Isquick
Mr. & Mrs . Donald M. Jack , Jr.*
Carol S. Jacobs
Pamela Jacobson
Milton* & Jodith Janes
Mr. Gary & Dr. Maita Jarkewicz
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Nancy Kurfess Johnson, M.D.
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David* & Gloria Kahan
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Ms . Beverly Kaveney
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Bruce* & Eleanor Kendrick
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Mr. & Mrs . Douglas A . Kern
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Mr Clarence E Klaus , Jr *
Fred* & Judith Klotzman
Paul & Cynthia Klug
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Mr. & Mrs . Robert Koch*
Mr. Clayton Koppes
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Mr. James Krohngold*
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Kenneth M. Lapine & Rose E . Mills
Lee & Susan Larson
Charles K László & Maureen
O’Neill-László
Anthony T * & Patricia Lauria
Jordan R & Jane G Lefko
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Mr. & Mrs . Roger J. Lerch
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Dr. & Mrs . Howard Levine
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Mr. & Mrs . * Thomas A . Liederbach
Ms . Cathy Lincoln
Rollin* & Leda Linderman
Virginia M. & Jon A . Lindseth
Dr.* & Mrs . William K . Littman
Ms . Mary Beth Loud*
Dr Jack & Mrs Jeannine Love
Jeff & Maggie Love
Dr Alan & Mrs Min Cha Lubin
Linda* & Saul Ludwig
Patricia MacDonald
Alex & Carol Machaskee
Mrs . H. Stephen Madsen
Mr. & Mrs . Donald Malpass , Jr.
Clement P. Marion
Dr.* & Mrs . Sanford E . Marovitz
Mr. & Mrs . Anthony M. Martincic
Kathryn A . Mates
Dr. Lee Maxwell &
Michael M. Prunty
Nancy W. McCann
Nancy B McCormack
Mr William C McCoy*
Dorothy R McLean
James & Virginia Meil
Ms . Linda Meixner
Brenda Clark Mikota
Christine Gitlin Miles*
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Chuck & Chris Miller
Edith & Ted Miller*
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Beryl & Irv Moore
Ann Jones Morgan
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Mr & Mrs Thomas W Morris
Ken & Sharon Mountcastle
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Anne & Chris Myers
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Dr. & Mrs . Clyde L . Nash, Jr
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Mrs . Ruth Neides*
Jay & Joyce Nesbit
David & Judith Newell*
Steve Norris & Emily Gonzales
Bernadette Norwood*
William R . & Sylvia O’Connell*
Paul & Connie Omelsky
Katherine T. O’Neill
The Honorable John Doyle Ong
David A Osage & Claudia Woods
Henry Ott-Hansen
Mr J William & Dr Suzanne* Palmer
R Neil Fisher & Ronald J Parks
Nancy* & W. Stuver Parry
Dr.* & Mrs . Donald Pensiero
Mr. & Mrs . Peter Pfouts*
Drs . Roland Philip & Linda Sandhaus
Elisabeth C. Plax*
Florence KZ Pollack
Julia & Larry Pollock
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Ms . Rosella Puskas*
Leonard* & Heddy Rabe
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James* & Donna Reid
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Dwight W. Robinson
Margaret B. Robinson
Janice & Roger Robinson
Amy & Ken Rogat
Carol Rolf & Steven Adler
Margaret B Babyak & Phillip J Roscoe*
Audra & George Rose*
Robert* & Margo Roth
Howard & Laurel Rowen
Professor Alan Miles Ruben & Judge Betty Willis Ruben*
Marc Ruckel
Michael J. & Roberta W. Rusek
Dr. Joseph V. Ryckman
Marjorie Bell Sachs*
Dr. Vernon E . Sackman & Ms . Marguerite Patton*
Mr. & Mrs . * James A . Saks
John A Salkowski
Larry J Santon*
Stanford* & Jean B Sarlson
Dorian Sarris & Scott Inglis
James Dalton Saunders
Patricia J. Sawvel
Ray & Kit Sawyer
In Memory of Hyman and Becky Schandler
Sandra J. Schlub
Ms . Marian Schluembach
Robert & Betty Schmiermund
Richard B & Cheryl A Schmitz
Mr * & Mrs Richard M Schneider
Jeanette L Schroeder*
Frank Schultz
Carol & Albert Schupp*
Raymond B. Scragg
Lawrence M. Sears & Sally Z . Sears
Roslyn S. & Ralph M. Seed
Nancy F. Seeley
Meredith M. Seikel
Reverend Sandra Selby
Eric Sellen
Holly Selvaggi
Thomas & Ann Sepúlveda
The Seven Five Fund
B Kathleen Shamp*
Jill Semko Shane
David Shank
Helen & Fred D. Shapiro*
Dr. & Mrs . William C. Sheldon
John F. Shelley &
Patricia Ann Burgess*
Frank* & Mary Ann Sheranko
Kim Sherwin*
Reverend* & Mrs . Malcolm K . Shields
Robyn Shifrin
Mr. & Mrs . David L . Simon*
Dr.* & Mrs . John A . Sims
H Scott Sippel & Clark T Kurtz
Ellen J Skinner
Ralph* & Phyllis Skufca
Janet Hickok Slade
Bartholomew Slak
Drs . Charles Kent Smith &
Patricia Moore Smith
Ms . Mary C. Smith
Sandra & Richey* Smith
Roy Smith
Mr.* & Mrs . Ward Smith
Drs Pat & Jess Spiess
Myrna* & James Spira
Barbara J Stanford & Vincent T Lombardo
George R . & Mary B.* Stark
Sue Starrett & Jerry Smith
Lois & Tom Stauffer*
Elliott K . Stava and Susan L . Kozak Fund
Saundra K . Stemen
Dr. Myron Bud & Helene* Stern
Mr. & Mrs . John M. Stickney
Dr. & Mrs . William H. Stigelman, Jr.
Arthur J. & Nancy L . Stokes
Mr.* & Mrs . James P. Storer
The Strawbridge Family Foundation/Holly Strawbridge
In Memory of Marjory Swartzbaugh
Dr Elizabeth Swenson
Lorraine S. Szabo
Nancy & Lee Tenenbaum
Mr. Joseph F. Tetlak*
Carol Tevis
Dr. & Mrs . Friedrich Thiel
Christina & Thomas Thoburn
Gary & Beryl Tishkoff
Mr. & Mrs . William M. Toneff
Joe & Marlene Toot
Alleyne C. Toppin
Janice & Leonard Tower
Dr & Mrs James E Triner
Mrs Ellen Tschappat*
William & Judith Ann Tucholsky
Mr. Jack G. Ulman
Robert & Marti* Vagi
Robert A . Valente
Nicholas J. Velloney*
Steven Vivarronda
Hon. & Mrs . William F.B. Vodrey
Roy C. Waas*
Pat & Walt* Wahlen
Mrs . Clare R . Walker*
John & Deborah Warner
Mr & Mrs Russell Warren
Joseph F & Dorothy L * Wasserbauer
Richard & Barbara Watkins*
Reverend Thomas L . Weber
Lucile Weingartner
Max W. Wendel
William Wendling* & Lynne Woodman
Robert C. Weppler
Paul & Suzanne Westlake
Marilyn J. White
Yoash & Sharon* Wiener
Linda R . Wilcox
Helen Sue & Meredith Williams*
Dr Paul R & Catherine Williams
Carter & Genevieve* Wilmot
Paul F & Barbara Wingenfeld
Nancy L Wolpe
Mrs . Alfred C. Woodcock*
Katie & Donald Woodcock
Dr.* & Mrs . Henry F. Woodruff
Nancy R . Wurzel
Michael & Diane Wyatt
Tony & Diane Wynshaw-Boris
Mary Yee
Carol Yellig
Libby M. Yunger
William Zempolich & Beth Meany
Anonymous (52)
Whatever greatness The Cleveland Orchestra has achieved is because of all the people here in this community, who believe in what the power of music can do.
Franz Welser-Möst , TCO Music Director
The Cleveland Orchestra Endowment
For over a century, The Cleveland Orchestra has sought to inspire and unite people through the extraordinary power of music . The Cleveland Orchestra’s Endowment provides vital funds each season and is a long-term investment in the institution’s future .
We share our deepest gratitude to the following supporters who have established and contributed to a named fund in the Cleveland Orchestra Endowment . Their leadership support creates a legacy of music that will be shared for generations .
General Operating endowed funds provide foundational support for The Cleveland Orchestra’s programs , from artistic initiatives to education and community programs , and beyond
Gay Cull Addicott & Robert R . Cull Art of Beauty Company, Inc.
Randall & Virginia Barbato
John P. Bergren & Sarah S. Evans
William P. Blair III
Cynthia R . Boardman & Jane R Horvitz
Clarence E Klaus
Elizabeth Ring Mather & William Gwinn Mather
Margaret Fulton-Mueller
Amy & Stephen Hoffman
Virginia M. & Jon A . Lindseth
The Jack , Joseph and Morton
Mandel Foundation
Nancy McCann
MJH Foundation
Harlan & Elizabeth Peterjohn
Barbara Robinson
Leighton A . Rosenthal Family
Naomi G. & Edwin Z . Singer
Artistic endowed funds support a variety of programmatic initiatives ranging from guest artists and radio broadcasts to the all-volunteer Cleveland Orchestra Chorus and the commissioning of new works
Artistic Excellence
George Gund III
Artistic Collaboration
Dr Feite F Hofman
Joseph P & Nancy F Keithley
Artistic Initiatives
Barbara Robinson
Young Composers
Daniel R Lewis
Friday Morning Concerts
Mary E . and F. Joseph Callahan Foundation
Radio Broadcasts
Robert & Jean Conrad
Dr. Frederick S. & Priscilla Cross
The Cleveland Orchestra Chorus
Jerome & Shirley Grover
Meacham Hitchcock & Family
American Conductors Fund
Douglas Peace Handyside
Holsey Gates Handyside
Severance Guest Conductors
Roger & Anne Clapp
James & Donna Reid
Concert Previews
Dorothy Humel Hovorka
Guest Artists
Kulas Foundation
The Payne Fund
Julia & Larry Pollock Family
James S. Reid Jr.
Timothy J. & Jennifer C. Smucker
International Touring
Frances Elizabeth Wilkinson
Mandel Opera & Humanities Festival
The Jack , Joseph and Morton
Mandel Foundation
Center for Future Audiences
supports programs to develop new generations of audiences for The Cleveland Orchestra .
Center for Future Audiences
Marguerite B. Humphrey
Maltz Family Foundation
Saul & Linda Ludwig
Student Audiences
Alexander & Sarah Cutler
Severance Music Center endowed funds support maintenance of keyboard instruments and the facilities of the Orchestra’s concert home in Cleveland.
Keyboard Maintenance
Mary Freer Cannon
William R . Dew
The Frederick W. and Janet P. Dorn Foundation
Mr & Mrs Richard A Manuel
Vincent K & Edith H Smith
Memorial Trust
Organ
D. Robert & Kathleen L . Barber
Arlene & Arthur Holden
Kulas Foundation
Descendants of D.Z . Norton
Oglebay Norton Foundation
Severance Music Center
Preservation
Severance family and friends
Blossom Music Center and Blossom Festival endowed funds support the Orchestra’s summer performances and maintenance of Blossom Music Center.
Blossom Festival Guest Artists
Dr. & Mrs . Murray M. Bett
The Hershey Foundation
The Payne Fund
Mr & Mrs William C Zekan
Blossom Festival Family Concerts
David E . & Jane J. Griffiths
Landscaping and Maintenance
The William Bingham Foundation
Emily Blossom family members and friends
The GAR Foundation
John S. and James L . Knight Foundation
Education and Community endowed funds support programs that deepen connections to symphonic music at every age and stage of life, including music instruction, performances , and classroom resources for thousands of students and adults each year.
Education Programs
Hope & Stanley I Adelstein
Kathleen L Barber
Isabelle & Ronald Brown
Dr. Jeanette Grasselli Brown & Dr. Glenn R . Brown
The Brown and Kunze Foundation
Joan Y. Horvitz
Frank & Margaret Hyncik
Junior Committee of The Cleveland Orchestra
Mr. & Mrs . David T. Morgenthaler
John & Sally Morley
Jane B. Nord & the Eric and Jane Nord Family Fund
The William N Skirball Endowment
Family Concerts
Stanley & Barbara Meisel and the Meisel and Pesses Foundation
In-School Performances
Alfred M Lerner
Make Music a Part of Your Legacy
Classroom Resources
Charles & Marguerite C Galanie
Education Concerts
Courtney & Marguerite Rankin
Burton
Malcolm E . Kenney
Jane B. Nord & the Eric and Jane Nord Family Fund
The Max Ratner Education Fund, given by the Ratner, Miller, and Shafran families and by Forest City Enterprises , Inc
The Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra
William E . Dean Jr. & Gloria P. Dean
Geoffrey & Sarah Gund
The George Gund Foundation
Christine Gitlin Miles , in honor of Jahja Ling
Jules & Ruth Vinney
Music Explorers
Pysht Fund
Community Programming
Alex & Carol Machaskee
Your support for the Endowment creates a long-lasting connection to The Cleveland Orchestra . Whether you endow a chair or establish an endowed fund, your generosity is a powerful investment in classical music that will endure for years to come .
To learn more about ways to support The Cleveland Orchestra’s Endowment , contact : Marta Kelleher, Esq., Senior Major Gift and Planned Giving Officer
216 - 456 -8400 | legacy@clevelandorchestra .com
The Cleveland Orchestra Board of Trustees
O F F I C E R S
Richard J. Kramer
Chair
André Gremillet
President & CEO,
Richard K . Smucker Chair
Richard K Smucker
Immediate Past Chair
Richard J. Bogomolny Chair Emeritus
Dennis W. LaBarre Chair Emeritus
Norma Lerner
Honorary Chair
David J. Hooker
Secretary
Victor Alexander
Treasurer
Victor Alexander
Robin Dunn Blossom
Yuval Brisker
Helen Rankin Butler
Nancy Slocum Callahan
Irad Carmi
Bill Clawson
Matthew V Crawford
Lisa Fedorovich
Michael Frank , MD JD
Hiroyuki Fujita
Robert Glick
Arthur C. Hall III
Iris Harvie
Dee Haslam
Stephen H. Hoffman
David J. Hooker
Michelle Shan Jeschelnig
Sarah Liotta Johnston
Elizabeth B. Juliano
Nancy F Keithley
Douglas A Kern
John D Koch
Richard J Kramer
Dennis W. LaBarre
Heather Lennox
Cathy Lincoln
Robert W. Malone
Ben Mathews
Nancy W. McCann
Stephen McHale
Scott C. Mueller
Christine Myeroff
Katherine T. O’Neill
Hyun Park
Alfred M Rankin, Jr
Charles A Ratner
Zoya Reyzis
Richard K . Smucker
James C. Spira
R . Thomas Stanton
Richard Stovsky
Russell A . Trusso
Daniel P. Walsh
Thomas A . Waltermire
Jes Warren
Jeffery J. Weaver
Anya Weaving
Meredith Smith Weil
Paul E Westlake Jr
David A Wolfort
Anthony Wynshaw-Boris
Virginia Nord Barbato (NY)
Mary Jo Eaton (FL)
Michael J. Horvitz (FL)
Thomas E Lauria (FL)
Loretta Mester (PA)
Benjamin N Pyne (NY)
Geraldine B Warner (OH)
Tony White (OH)
Wolfgang C. Berndt (Austria)
Herbert Kloiber (Germany)
André Gremillet
Todd Diacon
Sarah Hutchins
Eric Kaler
Judith E . Matsko
Beverly J Schneider
Thomas F McKee
Richard J. Bogomolny
Charles P. Bolton
Robert D Conrad
Alexander M Cutler
Richard C Gridley
Norma Lerner
Virginia Lindseth
Alex Machaskee
Robert P. Madison
Milton S. Maltz
Beth E . Mooney
John D. Ong
Audrey Gilbert Ratner
Hewitt B. Shaw
Luci Schey Spring
L AT E S E AT I N G
As a courtesy to audience members and musicians , late-arriving patrons are asked to wait quietly until the first convenient break in the program. These seating breaks are at the discretion of the House Manager in consultation with the performing artists .
C E L L P H O N E S , WAT C H E S &
O T H E R D E V I C E S
To ensure a quiet and respectful listening environment , please silence all electronic devices .
P H O T O G R A P H Y, V I D E O G R A P H Y & R E C O R D I N G
Audio recording, photography, and videography are not allowed during performances at Severance Photographs can only be taken when the performance is not in progress .
In consideration of others , please reduce the volume on hearing aids and other health-assistive devices that may produce noise. For Infrared Assistive-Listening Devices , please see an usher. To request one in advance, email info@cleveland orchestra .com.
I N T H E E V E N T
O F A N E M E RG E N C Y
Contact an usher or a member of house staff if you require medical assistance. Emergency exits are clearly marked throughout the building Ushers and house staff will provide instructions in the event of an emergency A G E G U I D E L I N E S
Regardless of age, each person must have a ticket and be able to sit quietly in a seat throughout the
T H E C L E V E L A N D O R C H E S T R A A P P
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
performance. Classical Season subscription concerts are not recommended for children under 8. However, there are several ageappropriate series designed specifically for children and youth, including Music Explorers (for 3 to 6 years old) and Family Concerts (for ages 7 and older) F O O D & M E RC H A N D I S E
Beverages and snacks are available at bars throughout the building and in the Lounge at Severance Only bottled water is permitted in the hall. For Cleveland Orchestra apparel, recordings , and gift items , visit the Welcome Center.
T E L L U S A B O U T YO U R
E X P E R I E N C E
We are so glad you joined us! Want to share about your time at Severance? Send your feedback to cx@clevelandorchestra .com. Hearing directly from you will help us create the best experience possible.
The Cleveland Orchestra is grateful to the following organizations for their ongoing generous support of The Cleveland Orchestra: the State of Ohio and Ohio Arts Council and to the residents of Cuyahoga County through Cuyahoga Arts and Culture
Cleveland Orchestra performances are broadcast as part of regular programming on ideastream/WCLV Classical 90.3 FM, Saturdays at 8 PM and Sundays at 4 PM.
The Cleveland Orchestra is proud of its long-term partnership with Kent State University, made possible in part through generous funding from the State of Ohio
The Cleveland Orchestra is proud to have its home, Severance Music Center, located on the campus of Case Western Reserve University, with whom it has a long history of collaboration and partnership.
©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
E D I T O R I A L
Kevin McBrien, Editorial & Publications Manager, The Cleveland Orchestra kmcbrien@clevelandorchestra .com
Ellen Sauer Tanyeri, Archives & Editorial Assistant, The Cleveland Orchestra
D E S I G N
Elizabeth Eddins, Eddinsdesign eddinsdesign@gmail com
A D V E R T I S I N G Live Publishing Company, 216-721-1800
