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The Cleveland Orchestra and ideastream partner with Great Performances on new national co-production

Published June 20, 2018 at 4:24 PM EDT

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

The Cleveland Orchestra and ideastream partner with Great Performances on new national co-production
100^th Anniversary Gala Concert Slated to Premiere in 2019 on PBS

CLEVELAND, Ohio (June 20, 2018) — On Saturday, September 29, 2018 at Severance Hall, America’s preeminent performing arts television series Great Performances in association with ideastream will record The Cleveland Orchestra’s 100 ^th Anniversary Gala Concert for an exclusive U.S. television broadcast on PBS slated for 2019. The broadcast is a co-production of The Cleveland Orchestra, ideastream and THIRTEEN Productions LLC for WNET.

For the Anniversary Gala, Cleveland Orchestra Music Director Franz Welser-Möst leads a program featuring pianist Lang Lang as soloist. The program offers works touching on more than a century of Viennese musical traditions with Lang Lang performing Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 24. Lang Lang made his Cleveland Orchestra debut in 2000 at Blossom Music Center and most recently performed with the Orchestra in 2014 at Severance Hall. The remainder of the concert features works by Richard and Johann Strauss, and concludes with Ravel’s viscerally cataclysmic La Valse ( The Waltz), which dramatically evokes the changing artistic worlds between the 19th and 20th centuries.

The annual Gala Evening provides essential funding for The Cleveland Orchestra’s engaging education and community programs, which share the value and joy of music with people throughout Northeast Ohio. The event, which in addition to the concert, features a gala dinner, is chaired by four prominent members of the Orchestra’s board of trustees: Norma Lerner (gala chair), Nancy McCann (co-chair), Beth Mooney (corporate co-chair) and Richard K. Smucker (corporate co-chair). For details of the Gala Concert and evening, including information about tickets, please see the following link: https://www.clevelandorchestra.com/news100gala.

This concert marks the fourth time that The Cleveland Orchestra has been featured on the Great Performances series, most recently in 2006 when Franz Welser-Möst led the Orchestra in a Carnegie Hall Opening Night Concert. Additional appearances on the long-running series include a concert from the 1975 –76 season with Lorin Maazel and a performance from 2000 conducted by Christoph von Dohnányi.

“ideastream has a long and storied history of partnering with The Cleveland Orchestra to share the outstanding work of Cleveland’s musical ambassadors through television, radio and digital platforms,” said Kevin Martin, President and CEO of ideastream. “We are grateful to the donors of the ideastream Campaign for Community. Their investments make possible this new collaboration with Great Performances, which will give local, national and international audiences a chance to hear ‘The Cleveland Sound’ as The Cleveland Orchestra celebrates its 100 ^th birthday.”

“As The Cleveland Orchestra is about to celebrate its 100 ^th birthday in December 2018, this special television broadcast of our Anniversary Gala concert represents a great opportunity to showcase the Orchestra and its unique partnership with Music Director Franz Welser-Möst,” said Cleveland Orchestra Executive Director, André Gremillet. “We are delighted to share with the world some of the superb musical experiences we are so proud to offer our Cleveland audience every week in our beautiful Severance Hall.”

“We are thrilled to bring viewers this milestone concert and continue our relationship with The Cleveland Orchestra and ideastream. Here’s to another 100 years,” said David Horn, Executive Producer of Great Performances.

The Cleveland Orchestra acknowledges the support from Clasart Classic (Germany), the Orchestra’s Global Media Sponsor and co-producer of this Great Performances episode. The Orchestra also thanks NHK Broadcasting (Japan), Bayerischer Rundfunk / 3sat (German and Austria) and YLE (Finnish Broadcasting Company) for their participation.

Major funding for the Great Performances series is provided by The Joseph and Robert Cornell Memorial Foundation, the Anna-Maria and Stephen Kellen Arts Fund, the Irene Diamond Fund, Rosalind P. Walter, the LuEsther T. Mertz Charitable Trust, The Agnes Varis Trust, The Starr Foundation, the Kate W. Cassidy Foundation, Ellen and James S. Marcus, The Philip and Janice Levin Foundation, The Abra Prentice Foundation, Jody and John Arnhold, public television viewers and PBS.

Longterm Partnership: The Cleveland Orchestra and ideastream
The Cleveland Orchestra and ideastream enjoy a long and growing partnership, dedicated to collaborating on projects that can transform lives through the power of music. Cleveland classical radio station WCLV 104.9 has worked for more than half a century in producing and recording the Orchestra’s weekly radio broadcasts, while more recent projects have included the involvement of ideastream in recording production for the Orchestra’s video recordings of Bruckner and Brahms symphonies (available on DVD through Clasart), online video and audiostreaming of live community concerts and a new initiative at the Orchestra’s summer home, Blossom Music Center, to offer live video of performers on-screen at select classical concerts in 2018.

The Cleveland Orchestra and ideastream are committed to expanding and extending their collaborative partnership to reach new audiences through affordable and accessible avenues. Collaborative projects will be chosen to enhance musical performances and learning experiences through engaging storytelling, quality education programs and state-of-the-art technology.

About The Cleveland Orchestra
Founded by Adella Prentiss Hughes, The Cleveland Orchestra’s inaugural concert took place on December 11, 1918. Under the leadership of Music Director Franz Welser-Möst, The Cleveland Orchestra has become one of the most sought-after performing ensembles in the world, setting standards of extraordinary artistic excellence, creative programming and community engagement. The New York Times has declared it “... the best in America” for its virtuosity, elegance of sound, variety of color and chamber-like musical cohesion. The 2017-18 season marked the Orchestra’s 100 ^th year of concerts, and the beginning of a Second Century of extraordinary music making, dedicated service to its hometown and worldwide acclaim.

Strong community support from across the ensemble’s home region is driving the Orchestra forward with renewed energy and focus, increasing the number of young people attending concerts, and bringing fresh attention to the Orchestra’s legendary sound and committed programming — including annual opera presentations in innovative stagings and pairings. Recent acclaimed productions have included Debussy’s Pelléas and Mélisande (May 2017), a doublebill of Bartók’s Miraculous Mandarin and Bluebeard’s Castle (April 2016) presented in collaboration with Chicago’s Joffrey Ballet and an innovative presentation of Janáček’s The Cunning Little Vixen (May 2014, with encore performances in Cleveland and Europe during the autumn of 2017). The 2017-18 season also featured in-concert performances of Wagner’s Tristan and Isolde (April 2018).

The partnership with Franz Welser-Möst, begun in 2002 and entering its 17th year with the 2018-19 season, has earned The Cleveland Orchestra unprecedented residencies in the U.S. and around the world, including one at the Musikverein in Vienna, the first of its kind by an American orchestra. It also performs regularly at the Salzburg and Lucerne Festivals. The Orchestra’s 100 ^th season in 2017-18 featured two international tours, concluding with the presentation on three continents of Welser-Möst’s Prometheus Project featuring Beethoven Symphonies and overtures; these Beethoven concerts were presented in May and June 2018, at home in Cleveland, in Vienna’s Musikverein and in Tokyo’s Suntory Hall.

The Cleveland Orchestra has a long and distinguished recording and broadcast history. A series of DVD and CD recordings under the direction of Mr. Welser-Möst continues to add to an extensive and widely praised catalog of audio recordings made during the tenures of the ensemble’s earlier music directors. In addition, Cleveland Orchestra concerts are heard in syndication each season on radio stations throughout North America and Europe.

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 since its founding in 1918. Through concerts at home and on tour, via radio broadcasts and a catalog of acclaimed recordings, The Cleveland Orchestra is heard today by a broad and growing group of fans around the world. For more information, visit clevelandorchestra.com.

About ideastream
The mission of ideastream is to strengthen our communities. ideastream pursues this mission as a multiple media public service organization by providing distinctive, thought-provoking programs and services that enlighten, inspire, educate and entertain.

About WNET
WNET is America’s flagship PBS station and parent company of THIRTEEN and WLIW21 . WNET also operates NJTV, the statewide public media network in New Jersey. Through its broadcast channels, three cable services (THIRTEEN PBSKids, Create and World) and online streaming sites, WNET brings quality arts, education and public affairs programming to more than five million viewers each week. WNET produces and presents such acclaimed PBS series as Nature, Great Performances, American Masters, PBS NewsHour Weekend and a range of documentaries, children’s programs, and local news and cultural offerings. WNET’s groundbreaking series for children and young adults include Get the Math, Oh Noah! and Cyberchase as well as Mission US, the award-winning interactive history experience. WNET highlights the tri-state’s unique culture and diverse communities through NYC-ARTS, Theater Close-Up, NJTV News with Mary Alice Williams and MetroFocus, the daily multi-platform news magazine focusing on the New York region. In addition, WNET produces online-only programming including the award-winning series about gender identity, First Person. Through multi-platform initiatives Chasing the Dream: Poverty and Opportunity in America and Peril and Promise: The Challenge of Climate Change, WNET showcases the human stories around these issues and promising solutions. In 2015, THIRTEEN launched Passport, an online streaming service which allows members to see new and archival THIRTEEN and PBS programming anytime, anywhere: www.thirteen.org/passport.