Auroraadvocate.com - Opera, ballet to become part of orchestra season

The Cleveland Orchestra announced recently the extension of Franz Welser-Möst's contract as Music Director at least through the 2017-18 season. With this extension, Welser-Möst will lead the Orchestra into its centennial year, which will be celebrated in 2018.

Welser-Möst's long-term commitment to Cleveland was announced by chairman of the board of trustees Richard J. Bogomolny and executive director Gary Hanson in a meeting of the board of trustees, with orchestra musicians, staff, volunteers, and Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson in attendance. At the meeting, Welser-Möst and Hanson also announced a broad range of future artistic and institutional plans including expanded education programs, the return of ballet to Blossom Music Center after an absence of 25 years, a Centennial Commissions project, and the return of staged opera to Severance Hall.

Since becoming music director, Welser-Möst has launched biennial residencies at Vienna's Musikverein in 2003; regular residencies with the Lucerne Festival, including the Roche commissioning project beginning in 2004; and annual residencies in Miami beginning in 2007. In the summer of 2008, Welser-Möst will lead The Cleveland Orchestra in an extended residency at the Salzburg Festival performing a new production of Dvorak's Rusalka and a number of orchestral programs.

"Cleveland is my symphonic home and I look forward to at least another decade of working with this wonderful orchestra and serving this extraordinary community," said Welser-Möst. "It is with heartfelt gratitude that I thank the trustees and supporters of this institution for your commitment to excellence and devotion to the art of orchestral music."

Expansion
of education programs

With the announcement of his contract extension, Welser-Möst also announced expansion of the Orchestra's education programs beginning in the fall of 2009. Most significantly, Welser-Möst will take The Cleveland Orchestra back into the public schools with performances on both the east and west sides of Cleveland in collaboration with Cleveland Metropolitan School District.

Hanson announced that the orchestra's overall education programs would be supported by a new gift of $5 million to the orchestra's endowment from longtime orchestra supporters who wish to remain anonymous. The gift will also support the recently renewed commitment of the school district and the orchestra to bring every fifth-grader to Severance Hall.

Also in 2009, The Cleveland Orchestra will launch a Music Mentors program with the District's Cleveland School of the Arts in which Cleveland Orchestra musicians will develop closer ties with student musicians. Through coaching, rehearsal attendance and mentoring this program is designed to increase the number of classically trained musicians originating out of the CMSD system.

Centennial commissions

Welser-Möst announced he will commission five new long-form works leading up to the 100th season of The Cleveland Orchestra in 2017-18.

For these commissions, he has invited the participation of pre-eminent composers Marc-André Dalbavie, Osvaldo Golijov, HK Gruber, Matthias Pintscher, and Kaija Saariaho. The major works will include a concerto for orchestra, a sacred work, a song cycle, a concerto for soloist and orchestra, and a work for children. "I want to celebrate the 100th season of the Orchestra by focusing on major 'long-form' works," said Welser-Möst. "I have chosen great composers who are also great collaborators. I want to give them time to create works that will draw on the unique strengths of The Cleveland Orchestra."

Additional upcoming world premieres include, George Benjamin's Work for Piano and Orchestra, a Roche Commission in 2008; and Oliver Knussen's long awaited Cleveland Pictures in 2009. In coming seasons, the Orchestra will also perform new works by Daniel R. Lewis Young Composer Fellows Julian Anderson, Jörg Widmann, and Johannes Maria Staud.

Staged opera at Severance Hall

Welser-Möst announced the return of fully-staged opera to Severance Hall beginning with Mozart's "The Marriage of Figaro" in March 2009. "The Marriage of Figaro" will be fully-staged utilizing Severance Hall's orchestra pit together with stage sets and costumes from Welser-Möst's recent production at the Zurich Opera.

The return of staged opera at Severance Hall will be followed in 2010 and 2011 with the Zurich Opera productions of "Così fan tutte" and "Don Giovanni," completing the trilogy of Mozart operas with librettos by Lorenzo da Ponte. During the cycle, Welser-Möst invited Rodney Bolt, author of The Librettist of Venice, published in 2006, to lead a series of symposia on the work of da Ponte.

Staged opera in Severance Hall was a regular part of The Cleveland Orchestra season beginning in the 1930s under the direction of Music Director Artur Rodzinski.

Ballet returns to Blossom

Beginning in 2009, The Cleveland Orchestra will begin a multi-year artistic collaboration with the Miami City Ballet under the direction of Franz Welser-Möst and Miami City Ballet Artistic Director Edward Villella.

The collaboration will be launched in January 2009 when the Orchestra will perform with the ballet in a benefit event in the Ziff Opera House of Miami's Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts.

Welser-Möst has invited the Miami City Ballet to perform with the Orchestra at its summer home, Blossom Music Center, restoring a long-standing tradition of ballet programming at Blossom. From Blossom's opening in 1968 through 1984, major American ballet companies were invited to perform in an annual ballet week accompanied by The Cleveland Orchestra. In 1971, the Vienna State Opera Ballet performed at Blossom on its first-ever American tour.

Expanded partnerships

Cleveland Museum of Art and MOCA, Museum of Contemporary Art Cleveland, will host performances by musicians of The Cleveland Orchestra in conjunction with a Cleveland Orchestra world premiere and in pairings with specific exhibitions.

In May 2009, Oliver Knussen will conduct the premiere of his own Cleveland Pictures, a commission of the Cleveland Orchestra. Cleveland Pictures is inspired by works in the permanent collection of the Cleveland Museum of Art. Musicians of The Cleveland Orchestra will also perform contemporary chamber music at the Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Orchestra began this style of presentation with MOCA Miami in February with an exhibition of the work of artist Jorge Pardo.