The Cleveland Orchestra

More than a hundred years after its founding, the Cleveland Orchestra remains one of the world's leading orchestras. The New York Times praised the Cleveland Orchestra as "practically perfect" and "one of the best in the country (if not the world)" for its instrumental virtuosity, elegance and colourfulness, and perfect interplay. The Cleveland Orchestra was founded by Adella Prentiss Hughes and gave its first concert in December 1918. Since then, with Nikolay Sokolow, Artur Rodziński, Erich Leinsdorf, George Szell, Lorin Maazel, Christoph von Dohnányi and Franz Welser-Möst, seven different music directors have been at the helm of the orchestra and have shaped its virtuosity and sound. Thanks to concerts at home, tours abroad, radio recordings and a catalogue of acclaimed recordings, the Cleveland Orchestra today attracts an ever-growing number of listeners around the world. Over the past decade, audiences have also been significantly rejuvenated through innovative programming, allowing the Orchestra to showcase its qualities to new audiences. Recently, the orchestra has successfully launched several digital projects, including online broadcasts of the In Focus concert series and the podcast On a Personal Note. The orchestra distributes its recordings through its own label. The 2022/23 season is Franz Welser-Möst's twenty-first year as music director. During his tenure, the ensemble has received special recognition. The Cleveland Orchestra was the first American orchestra to host a concert series at the Vienna Musikverein as Orchestra-in-Residence. The Cleveland Orchestra has also received positive reviews for several opera productions, including Verdi's Otello (2022), Strauss' Ariadne auf Naxos (2019), Debussy's Pelléas et Mélisande (2017), Bartók's The Miraculous Mandarin and Duke Bluebeard's Castle (2016), and Janáček's The Cunning Little Vixen (2014/17).

As of August 2022