by Daniel Hathaway
When the gates open for this summer’s Blossom Music Festival on June 29, patrons will enjoy some new guest amenities.
A new bar space, The Tasting Room, will make its debut near the Lot A entrance and will be open before and after each performance. Post- concert dessert service will offer guests an opportunity to linger and avoid the rush to the parking lots.
Remember the Image Magnification technology that projected onstage activity onto huge LED screens in the Pavilion last summer? That was a test run for this summer’s IMAG feed that will enhance all performances, many produced in partnership with ideastream, the public service organization that operates WVIZ/PBS, WCPN 90.3, and WCLV 104.9.
Gourmet picnic packages can be pre-ordered and picked up in the Special Events Center for all events and save concertgoers the trouble of self-catering. Speaking of edibles, subscribers and donors will have access to special refreshments and light bites in Kulas Plaza before certain concerts.
And Blossom is going green. Live Nation, which administers the Center, has established a sustainability program. All food and drink containers distributed inside the Blossom grounds will be recyclable or compostable, and food waste will be composted as fertilizer for Blossom’s gardens.
If you play with Legos, or admire those who do, you can drop by the Eels Gallery during any event to view the 7,500 bricks that were assembled to create a model of Blossom Music Center for its 50th anniversary last summer.
Continuing a popular program, two under-18s will be admitted free to the Blossom Lawn with each adult ticket holder.
Once again, the Orchestra will hold down two fronts — at the Blossom Music Center and at Severance Hall. The Blossom season, which begins on June 29 and ends on September 1, will be bookended by screenings of hit movies with live performances of John Williams film scores. Blossom begins with Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone and ends two months later with Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back.
Artists making their debuts with the Orchestra or at Blossom include conductor Roderick Cox (Bernstein, Tchaikovsky, and Gershwin on July 5 and 6), pianist Conrad Tao (Prokofiev’s Third Concerto on July 13), and Finnish conductor Klaus Mäkelä with Swedish violinist Daniel Lozakovich (Bruch’s First Concerto on July 20).
On the popular side, audiences can take trips down Memory Lane with two-thirds of Peter, Paul and Mary (Peter Yarrow and Noel “Paul” Stookey, July 7), hear Brian Wilson and fellow Beach Boys Al Jardine and Blondie Chaplin with the Blossom Festival Orchestra in the entirety of Pet Sounds and other hits (August 11), and enjoy Capathia Jenkins channeling Aretha Franklin with the help of Ryan Shaw and the Blossom Festival Chorus (July 28).
Broadway will enter the mix with a concert performance of Rodgers & Hammerstein’s South Pacific with singers from the Baldwin Wallace University Music Theatre program (August 24).
In between its 20 al fresco concerts in Cuyahoga Falls, The Cleveland Orchestra will put its Severance Hall air conditioning to good use in four “Summers at Severance” events. Baritone Ludwig Mittelhammer will join music director Franz Welser-Möst for Mahler’s Songs of a Wayfarer on July 12, and guitarist Pepe Romero will be featured in Rorigo’s Concierto de Aranjuez on July 19 (Pablo Heras-Casado, conducting). On August 2, Matthew Halls will conduct Mozart’s Great C-minor Mass with soprano Joélle Harvey, mezzo-soprano Krisztina Szabo, tenor Paul Appleby, bass-baritone Michael Sumuel, and the Blossom Festival Chorus. And Osmo Vänskä will guest conduct symphonies by Barber and Mendelssohn on August 16.The Severance Hall concerts will also feature two screenings of the 1989 Batman film with a live performance of Danny Elfman’s score led by Ludwig Wicki on August 23 and 25. There’s an outdoor component to the in-town concerts as well: the Severance audiences can spill out onto the front patios for food and drink before and after the performances.
The complete summer schedule follows.
BLOSSOM: Saturday, June 29, 2019, at 7:30 p.m.
Sunday, June 30, 2019, at 7:30 p.m.
The Cleveland Orchestra & Blossom Festival Chorus
Justin Freer, conductor
WILLIAMS – Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone (film with live orchestral score)
BLOSSOM: Wednesday, July 3, 2019, at 8:00 p.m.*
Thursday, July 4, 2019, at 8:00 p.m.*
Blossom Festival Band
Loras John Schissel, conductor
Salute to America. Program includes Sousa marches, Broadway favorites, an Armed Forces Salute, and more — concluding with fireworks!
* Fireworks following the concert, weather permitting.
BLOSSOM: Friday, July 5, 2019 at 8:00 p.m.*
Saturday, July 6, 2019, at 8:00 p.m.*
The Cleveland Orchestra
Roderick Cox, conductor, Aaron Diehl, piano
BERNSTEIN – Symphonic Suite from On the Waterfront
GERSHWIN – Rhapsody in Blue
STRAVINSKY – Suite from The Firebird
TCHAIKOVSKY – 1812 Overture
* Fireworks following the concert, weather permitting.
BLOSSOM: Sunday, July 7, 2019, at 7:00 p.m.
The Cleveland Orchestra
Lucas Richman, conductor, Noel “Paul” Stookey & Peter Yarrow, vocalists
Peter and Paul remember their enduring anthems of social change including If I Had a Hammer and Puff the Magic Dragon, the historic impact they had upon the world of civil liberties, and the woman who completed their triforce of positivity, Mary Travers.
SEVERANCE: Friday, July 12, 2019, at 7:00 p.m.
The Cleveland Orchestra
Franz Welser-Möst, conductor, Ludwig Mittelhammer, baritone
MAHLER – Songs of a Wayfarer
BEETHOVEN – String Quartet No. 15
BLOSSOM: Saturday, July 13, 2019, at 8:00 p.m.
The Cleveland Orchestra
Jahja Ling, conductor, Conrad Tao, piano
MUSSORGSKY – “Dawn on the Moskva River” from Khovanshchina
PROKOFIEV – Piano Concerto No. 3
TCHAIKOVSKY – Symphony No. 4
SEVERANCE: Friday, July 19, 2019, at 7:00 p.m.
The Cleveland Orchestra
Pablo Heras-Casado, conductor, Pepe Romero, guitar
RODRIGO – Concierto de Aranjuez
DEBUSSY – “Ibéria” from Images
BLOSSOM: Saturday, July 20, 2019, at 8:00 p.m.
The Cleveland Orchestra
Klaus Mäkelä, conductor, Daniel Lozakovich, violin
KODÁLY – Dances of Galánta
BRUCH – Violin Concerto No. 1
SIBELIUS – Symphony No. 5
BLOSSOM: Sunday, July 21, 2019, at 7:00 p.m.
The Cleveland Orchestra
Pablo Heras-Casado, conductor, Pepe Romero, guitar
RIMSKY-KORSAKOV – Capriccio espagnol
RODRIGO – Concierto de Aranjuez
DEBUSSY – Images
BLOSSOM: Saturday, July 27, 2019, at 8:00 p.m.
The Cleveland Orchestra
Bramwell Tovey, conductor, Gautier Capuçon, cello
Kent Blossom Chamber Orchestra*
BRITTEN – Four Sea Interludes from Peter Grimes
SAINT-SAËNS – Cello Concerto No. 1
ELGAR – Enigma Variations*
Kent Blossom Festival participants will perform side-by-side with The Cleveland Orchestra and also present a pre-concert program of music beginning at 7:00 p.m.
BLOSSOM: Sunday, July 28, 2019, at 7:00 p.m.
The Cleveland Orchestra & Blossom Festival Chorus
Lucas Waldin, conductor, Capathia Jenkins & Ryan Shaw, vocalists
Aretha Franklin: Queen of Soul
SEVERANCE: Friday, August 2, 2019, at 7:00 p.m.
The Cleveland Orchestra & Blossom Festival Chorus
Matthew Halls, conductor, Joélle Harvey, soprano
Krisztina Szabo, mezzo-soprano, Paul Appleby, tenor
Michael Sumuel, bass-baritone
MOZART – Mass in C minor
BLOSSOM: Saturday, August 3, 2019, at 8:00 p.m.
The Cleveland Orchestra
Andrey Boreyko, conductor, Francesco Piemontesi, piano
BEETHOVEN – Piano Concerto No. 5 (“Emperor”)
ZEMLINSKY – The Mermaid [Die Seejungfrau]
BLOSSOM: Saturday, August 10, 2019, at 8:00 p.m.
The Cleveland Orchestra
Asher Fisch, conductor, Jung-Min Amy Lee, violin
LISZT – Mazeppa, Symphonic Poem No. 6
BARBER – Violin Concerto
BRAHMS – Symphony No. 1
BLOSSOM: Sunday, August 11, 2019, at 7:00 p.m.
Blossom Festival Orchestra
Lucas Richman, conductor, Brian Wilson, Al Jardine & Blondie Chaplin, vocalists
BRIAN WILSON – Pet Sounds (music from the Beach Boys’ 1966 album)
SEVERANCE: Friday, August 16, 2019, at 7:00 p.m.
The Cleveland Orchestra
Osmo Vänskä, conductor
BARBER – Symphony No. 1 in One Movement
MENDELSSOHN – Symphony No. 4 (“Italian”)
BLOSSOM: Saturday, August 17, 2019, at 8:00 p.m.
Vinay Parameswaran, conductor, Jennifer Johnson Cano, mezzo-soprano\
IVES – “Decoration Day” from A Holidays Symphony
BERNSTEIN – Jeremiah: Symphony No. 1
RACHMANINOFF Symphonic Dances
SEVERANCE: Friday, August 23, 2019, at 8:00 p.m.
Sunday, August 25, 2019, at 3:00 p.m.
The Cleveland Orchestra & Blossom Festival Chorus
Ludwig Wicki, conductor
ELFMAN – Batman (1989 film with live orchestral score)
BLOSSOM: Saturday, August 24, 2019, at 8:00 p.m.
The Cleveland Orchestra
Andy Einhorn, conductor, Victoria Bussert, director
RODGERS & HAMMERSTEIN – South Pacific (full musical in collaboration with Baldwin Wallace University)
BLOSSOM: Friday, August 30, 2019, at 7:30 p.m.*
Saturday, August 31, 2019, at 7:30 p.m.*
Sunday, September 1, 2019, at 7:30 p.m.*
The Cleveland Orchestra
Sarah Hicks, conductor
WILLIAMS – Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back (film with live orchestral score)
*Fireworks following the concert, weather permitting.
Photos by Roger Mastroianni
Published on ClevelandClassical.com June 24, 2019.
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