The Musical Arts Association

Programs: Severance hall and northeast ohiothe 2016-17 season was franz welser-most's fifteenth year as music director. Highlights of his concerts during the season included yefim bronfman as soloist in a piano concerto by jorg widmann, performances of bach's saint john passion, and a challenging all-stravinsky program that featured voices from seraphic fire in threni. Later in the season there was a new work by anthony chueng and mendelssohn's music from shakespeare's a midsummer night's dream with narration from the play by israeli actor itay tiran. Early may featured a new production of debussy's pelleas and melisande directed by yuval sharon. The staging's mixture of technology and stagecraft to illuminate the opera's enigmatic story drew strongly positive reviews, as did the musical performance under franz's baton. From september 2016 through august 2017, the orchestra performed 103 concerts at severance hall. These performances included 70 regular subscription concerts, plus the annual holiday festival in december, three at the movies presentations, the summers@severance and family concert series, plus weekday education concerts. One special highlight of the year was a unique gathering at severance hall on march 17 to announce details of the orchestra's centennial season in 2017-18. Three musicians spoke passionately from the stage, and franz welser-most talked at length about the value of music and the arts - and his vision for the orchestra's second century. Altogether, the cleveland orchestra's severance hall concerts during the year drew in just over 160,000 total admissions. An additional 16,500 enjoyed the orchestra's presentation of george balanchine's the nutcracker in december in partnership with pennsylvania ballet.

blossom 2017the orchestra's 2017 blossom music festival featured 21 concerts across ten weekends in july, august, and september, including 19 by the cleveland orchestra. The festival also featured two concerts by the blossom festival band. The season resulted in solid attendance against a summer of mixed weather and with revenue coming in under goal. With more festival concerts than the previous year, average attendance came down to just over 5,650 admissions, against total admissions for the season of 118,750. The summer's numbers were driven by strong sales of lawn ticket books and continuing family attendance spearheaded through the orchestra's under 18s free subsidized ticketing program. The summer also featured 27 non-festival concert performances and two other events hosted by live nation, which operates blossom music center for the musical arts association. Attendance totaled 398,000, with an average of 14,700 per concert.

touring and residencieseach year, the orchestra apportions several weeks of its performance schedule to residencies and touring activities beyond northeast ohio. These are designed to enhance both the artistic and financial strength of the organization overall, and extend and enhance the orchestra's worldwide reputation. In january 2017, the orchestra visited the heartland of america with a four-concert tour, performing in indiana, iowa, and illinois, reminding audiences and critics in those cities of the high level of cleveland's playing and the unrivaled partnership that franz and the orchestra have created. The cleveland orchestra's annual residency in miami, florida, featured four weekends of concerts, presented in partnership with miami's adrienne arsht center for the performing arts of miami-dade county. These public concerts drew just over 13,500 in admissions, in addition to free education concerts for miami-dade county public schools and a side-by-side concert with coral reef high school students.

community and educationthe cleveland orchestra continued engaging with more people across northeast ohio throughout 2016-17, building on an expansive variety of education and community programs and presentations - including the ongoing series of family concerts and musical rainbows. In march, the orchestra's education concerts for students encored presentations of violins of hope, presented at case western reserve university's maltz performing arts center. Two in-school performances also were featured, one to inaugurate the new auditorium at beachwood high school and the other at east professional center in hough. Overall, nearly 16,000 students experienced the season's school concerts. Throughout the spring of 2017, in preparation for the cleveland orchestra's centennial season presentation of the prometheus project, orchestra musicians and staff worked with students at the cleveland school of the arts to prepare a unique multi-media concert on the theme of beethoven, prometheus, and heroes. The resulting concert for high school students opened the 2017-18 season under franz welser-most's direction, tying together regular season programming and education offerings to amplify learning opportunities and connections between the arts and everyday life. Altogether, the orchestra's core education programs once again served tens of thousands, including hundreds of presentations linking music and learning in local partner schools. The season's free community concerts included the orchestra's 37th martin luther king jr. Celebration concert in january. The planned-for 28th annual star-spangled spectacular in downtown cleveland was cancelled due to severe thunderstorms throughout the afternoon and evening on june 30.