The Cleveland Orchestra history

Three events occurred in 1921 that would prove significant in the young Orchestra’s development: First, the ensemble presented its inaugural children’s concert, which began a long-standing tradition of performing for young people from local schools.

In 1922, the Orchestra again traveled to New York for its first concert at Carnegie Hall, a relationship between ensemble and venue that continues to this day.

Board president John L. Severance and his wife, Elisabeth, pledged $1 million toward the construction of a new hall, and the groundbreaking ceremony took place in November 1929, a few months after Mrs.

On February 5, 1931, the Orchestra performed its inaugural concert at Severance Hall.

In 1933, Sokoloff was replaced as the Orchestra’s music director by Polish conductor Artur Rodzinski, who had previously served as music director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic.

In 1935, the Orchestra presented the United States’ premiere of Dmitri Shostakovich’s controversial Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District at Severance Hall and, later in the season, took the production to New York’s Metropolitan Opera.

On December 11, 1939, The Cleveland Orchestra celebrated the anniversary of its founding by releasing its first recording on the Columbia label.

Rodzinski departed Cleveland in 1943 and was replaced by Erich Leinsdorf, a young conductor from the Metropolitan Opera.

Leinsdorf lost much of his public support and, though still under contract, submitted his resignation in December 1945.

First, he led the Orchestra on its first European tour, in 1957, across Europe and behind the Iron Curtain.

A second European tour took place in 1965, and two years later the ensemble became the first American orchestra to be invited to three premiere festivals, in Salzburg, Lucerne, and Edinburgh, in the same summer.

Szell also oversaw the opening of the Orchestra’s summer home, Blossom Music Center, in 1968, which provided the ensemble’s musicians with year-round employment.

Initially, Louis Lane, one of Szell’s assistant conductors, was appointed resident conductor and Pierre Boulez, who had been named principal guest conductor in 1969, was appointed musical advisor.

After 24 years, Szell’s time with The Cleveland Orchestra came to an abrupt and unexpected end: shortly after he led the ensemble on a tour of the Far East during the spring of 1970, which included stops in Japan, Korea, and Alaska, Szell died.

Eventually, the board selected Lorin Maazel as The Cleveland Orchestra’s fifth music director — a tenure that would begin in 1972.

During the 1973–74 season, Maazel led the Orchestra on a tour of Australia and New Zealand, where the ensemble was joined by guest conductors Stanislaw Skrowaczewski and (former Cleveland Orchestra music director) Erich Leinsdorf.

Celebration Concerts in January 1980, which remain an annual tradition to this day.

During the search for Maazel’s successor, German conductor Christoph von Dohnányi took the podium for a series of concerts at Severance Hall in December 1981.

During the search for Maazel’s successor, German conductor Christoph von Dohnányi took the podium for a series of concerts at Severance Hall in December 1981. It didn’t take long for the Musical Arts Association to realize that The Cleveland Orchestra had found its next music director in Dohnányi; he was named music director designate in 1982, and he officially began his tenure two years later.

He also staged a large production of Mozart’s The Magic Flute at Blossom Music Center in 1985, which was lauded as “the Ohio musical event of the summer” by The Columbus Dispatch.

International touring continued under Dohnányi with visits to Asia and Europe, including the development of a long-standing relationship with the Salzburg Festival beginning in 1990.

On January 8, 2000, Dohnányi led a gala concert celebrating the re-opening of Severance Hall that was broadcast live on local television by Cleveland’s WVIZ.

At the conclusion of Dohnányi’s contract, in 2002, he was named The Cleveland Orchestra’s music director laureate and succeeded as music director by Austrian conductor Franz Welser-Möst.

He leads the Orchestra’s ongoing residencies at the Musikverein in Vienna and at the Lucerne Festival, both of which began with Welser-Möst’s first European tour in 2003.

In addition, under Welser-Möst The Cleveland Orchestra began an annual residency at Miami’s Carnival Center for the Performing Arts — later renamed the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts — in 2007.

On September 29, 2018, Welser-Möst led the ensemble in a gala concert at Severance Hall celebrating the Orchestra’s 100th anniversary — a presentation that was later featured on America’s preeminent arts television series, Great Performances, during an exclusive United States broadcast on PBS.

In early 2020, the orchestra suspended a planned tour of Europe and Abu Dhabi, and live concerts at Severance Hall and Blossom Music Center due to the COVID-19 pandemic.