In this cozy winter program, eight Apollo’s Fire musicians set sparks flying in virtuoso works of J.S. Bach, Telemann, Vivaldi, and more. Debra Nagy takes the spotlight in a lively Vivaldi oboe concerto, while Kathie Stewart and Alan Choo lead a fiery chamber performance of Bach’s Orchestral Suite no. 2. Viola da gambist HyunKun Cho steals the thunder in Marais’ famous Sonnerie de Sainte Geneviève, an imaginative showpiece evoking the sounds of church bells in Paris.

Winter Sparks from Bach & Vivaldi

Rocky River Presbyterian Church

St. Paul's Episcopal Church Cleveland Heights

Federated Church

First United Methodist Church, Cuyahoga Falls

“I think I have found there the beginning of my ‘Scottish’ Symphony,” Mendelssohn wrote in 1829 after visiting the ruins of Edinburgh’s Holyrood Chapel. At once dramatic and lighthearted, the resulting symphony is a vibrant musical postcard of Mendelssohn’s travels. Conductor Stephanie Childress returns to lead this work alongside Saint-Säens’s melodious First Cello Concerto — featuring superstar cellist Sheku Kanneh-Mason — and Britten’s Simple Symphony, a delightful piece the composer based on tunes he had written as a child.

EPSG:4326

Mendelssohn's Scottish Symphony

Blossom Music Center

Nature and humanity meet in this imaginative program capped by Elgar’s Enigma Variations, an intimate musical portrait of the composer’s closest friends. Associate Conductor Daniel Reith leads this beloved work alongside Bruch’s impassioned and rarely performed Second Violin Concerto, played by Assistant Concertmaster Stephen Tavani. The program opens with a brand-new work by Gabriella Smith, which pays tribute to the 50th anniversary of Cuyahoga Valley National Park.

Elgar's Enigma Variations

Mahler famously wrote, “A symphony should be like the world, it should embrace everything.” His First Symphony, often nicknamed “Titan,” does just that, evoking bird calls, folk dances, and a macabre funeral march on its way to an exhilarating finale. Conductor Elim Chan pairs Mahler’s symphony with Ravel’s scintillating song cycle Shéhérazade, featuring German soprano Christiane Karg in her Cleveland Orchestra debut.

Mahler's Titan

Podcast link: https://youtu.be/4hagYvrYbuM

The Artelize Podcast and Kasper Holten - Pedefining Opera for the modern world

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The Artelize Podcast - A legacy of innovation in Opera: Celebrating Marc A. Scorca

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The Artelize Podcast and Adolfo Corrado: Mediterranean flavors, opera and social media

Brahms took over 20 years to complete his First Symphony, a monumental statement that opens with swirling storm clouds and ends with a jubilant hymn of gratitude. Conductor Daniele Rustioni brings his expertise as an operatic conductor to this program that also highlights Wagner’s Tannhäuser Overture and Liszt’s fiendishly difficult First Piano Concerto, performed by the remarkable Alessio Bax in his Cleveland Orchestra debut.

Brahms & Liszt

A babbling brook, a country dance, a musical rainstorm ... Nothing says summer like hearing Beethoven’s “Pastoral” Symphony in the outdoor beauty of Blossom Music Center. Conductor Jonathon Heyward leads this symphonic favorite in the annual side-by-side concert with the Kent Blossom Chamber Orchestra. Also on the program is Anna Clyne’s mystical Glasslands — featuring the outstanding saxophonist Jess Gillam — and Dvořák’s Carnival Overture, which opens the evening with a burst of symphonic energy.

Beethoven's Pastoral

Beethoven’s Violin Concerto is the crown jewel of the violin repertoire, balancing seriousness and levity within a vast symphonic structure. Veronika Eberle makes her Cleveland Orchestra debut in this beloved showpiece before conductor Petr Popelka leads Robert Schumann’s “Spring” Symphony, a work written in the dead of winter that joyfully anticipates the renewal of the season to come.

Beethoven's Violin Concerto

Variously bombastic, playful, and heart-wrenching, Carmina Burana is a sonic tour-de-force based on a collection of medieval poems about love, life, and nature. Osmo Vänksä leads The Cleveland Orchestra in this colossal work alongside the Blossom Festival Chorus, The Cleveland Orchestra Children’s Chorus, and a roster of internationally celebrated soloists. The evening opens with a smaller, though no less epic, work — Sibelius’s En Saga, which evokes ancient folklore.

Carmina Burana

Franz Welser-Möst returns to Blossom with Tchaikovsky’s Fifth Symphony, which journeys from dark inner turmoil to an unwavering celebration of life. The “breathtakingly brilliant pianist” Víkingur Ólafsson (Gramophone) also joins the Orchestra for Robert Schumann’s Piano Concerto, a marvelous showcase for soloist and orchestra that the composer once referred to as “a compromise between a symphony, a concerto, and a huge sonata.”

Tchaikovsky's Fifth Symphony

This special performance will feature songs and stories with 12-time Grammy winner John Legend. Experience intimate reimaginings of his greatest hits (“All of Me,” “Ordinary People,” “Tonight”), unexpected stories from Legend’s life and career, and selections from his most recent release, LEGEND (“Nervous,” “Wonder Woman”) at Blossom this summer.

An Evening with John Legend

An apology or an act of defiance? Shostakovich composed his Fifth Symphony in 1937 after receiving an official reprimand from the Soviet Union, responding with one of the most powerful — and enigmatic — symphonies in the orchestral repertoire. Conductor Hannu Lintu pairs this with a sweeping tone poem by Sibelius and Walton’s virtuosic Cello Concerto, performed by Principal Cello Mark Kosower.

Shostakovich's Fifth Symphony 2024

An evening of classics under the stars. Celebrated violinist Christian Tetzlaff brings to life Mozart’s Fifth Violin Concerto, which bubbles with the composer’s quintessential craft and charm. Antonello Manacorda complements this favorite with Mendelssohn’s breezy Midsummer Night’s Dream Overture and Beethoven's indomitable Seventh Symphony.

Tetzlaff Plays Mozart

Rachmaninoff’s Third Symphony baffled listeners at its 1936 premiere, but the composer predicted it would one day “be rediscovered ... and become a sensational success.” Hear why this electrifying work is now considered one of the composer’s finest creations. Arutunian’s Trumpet Concerto — featuring Principal Trumpet Michael Sachs — and Borodin’s Polovtsian Dances complete this sparkling program led by Domingo Hindoyan.

Rachmaninoff's Third Symphony

Experience a fresh take on an American classic. Béla Fleck, “arguably the greatest living banjo player in the world” (NPR), marks the centennial of Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue with a dazzling new banjo transcription of this beloved showpiece. Conductor Brett Mitchell rounds out this all-American evening with orchestral gems by Leonard Bernstein, Samuel Barber, and William Grant Still.

Rhapsody in Blue

The Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra and the Toronto Symphony Youth Orchestra are coming together for a unique exchange experience. Please join us in welcoming the Toronto Symphony Youth Orchestra to Blossom Music Center for a performance that will include a side-by-side orchestra of nearly 200 young musicians performing Tchaikovsky's Symphony No. 4.

The Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra and the Toronto Symphony Youth Orchestra

Pack a picnic, bring a blanket, and relax under the stars to the sounds of atmospheric music from the French Impressionistic period, with spicy Spanish flare. Vivid, colorful works by Ravel bookend a program filled with dance steps and evocative melodies.

Impressions of France and Spain

A rising star performs a beloved concerto. Mao Fujita’s meteoric rise is fascinating and extraordinary — he burst on the international scene when he won the Silver Medal at the 2019 International Tchaikovsky Competition as an unknown 20-year-old.  He makes his not-to-be-missed Cleveland debut performing Tchaikovsky’s powerful, iconic piano concerto.

Fujita Plays Tchaikovsky

Mozart is at the heart of this program filled with humor and whimsey. Conducted by audience favorite Nicholas McGegan, the program opens with Mozart’s ever-popular Marriage of Figaro, which is paired with Langer’s sardonic response. The concert concludes with a work influenced by Mozart, Mendelssohn’s sprightly “Italian” Symphony.  

Mozart in the Meadows

Sibelius’s First Symphony opens with mystery — the breathy sound of a single clarinet gradually joined by the distant rumbling of timpani — giving way to gorgeous, romantic, searching melodies. Century Rolls, commissioned and recorded by The Cleveland Orchestra, was inspired by the old piano roll music of the 1920’s: “The concerto takes a kind of polymorphous-perverse pleasure in the whole past century of piano music, both popular and classical.”

Sibelius's First Symphony

Take a sonic trip to the ocean. Debussy developed his love of the sea during childhood visits to the Mediterranean, and this imaginative, impressionistic sketch captures all the moods of the sea, from tranquil to ominous and stormy, dazzling and full of elemental force. 

Orchestral events in Cuyahoga Falls, OH

Winter Sparks from Bach &...

Apollo's Fire

Mendelssohn's Scottish Sy...

The Cleveland Orchestra

Elgar's Enigma Variations...

The Cleveland Orchestra

Mahler's Titan

The Cleveland Orchestra

The Artelize Podcast and ...

Artelize

The Artelize Podcast - A ...

Artelize

The Artelize Podcast: A l...

Artelize

The Artelize Podcast and ...

Artelize

Brahms & Liszt

The Cleveland Orchestra

Beethoven's Pastoral

The Cleveland Orchestra

Beethoven's Violin Concer...

The Cleveland Orchestra

Carmina Burana

The Cleveland Orchestra

Tchaikovsky's Fifth Symph...

The Cleveland Orchestra

An Evening with John Lege...

The Cleveland Orchestra

Shostakovich's Fifth Symp...

The Cleveland Orchestra

Tetzlaff Plays Mozart

The Cleveland Orchestra

Rachmaninoff's Third Symp...

The Cleveland Orchestra

Rhapsody in Blue

The Cleveland Orchestra

The Cleveland Orchestra Y...

The Cleveland Orchestra

Impressions of France and...

The Cleveland Orchestra

Fujita Plays Tchaikovsky

The Cleveland Orchestra

Mozart in the Meadows

The Cleveland Orchestra

Sibelius's First Symphony...

The Cleveland Orchestra

Debussy’s La Mer

The Cleveland Orchestra