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The Cleveland Orchestra Returns to Blossom Music Center

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by Mike Telin

After a year’s absence, The Cleveland Orchestra will return to the stage of Blossom Music on Saturday, July 3 and Sunday, July 4 at 8:00 pm. Under the direction of Brett Mitchell, the concerts will also mark the first time the full orchestra has performed in front of an in-person audience since March of 2020.

“The program is titled ‘An American Celebration,’ and while I’m certain there have been countless Fourth of July concerts over the decades with the same name, for me, this program feels truly American,”Mitchell said during a telephone conversation. “We’re certainly not going to ignore the holiday, so there will be the pieces that are associated with it — the 1812 Overture and Stars and Stripes Forever — but there was a desire to have the program be reflective of times that we are living in and that we have lived through since the Orchestra and audiences were last together.”

The playlist will also include Leonard Bernstein’s “Overture” to Candide, Mary D. Watkins’ Soul of Remembrance, Florence Price’s Concerto in One Movement with pianist Michelle Cann, Adolphus Hailstork’s An American Fanfare, and Aaron Copland’s “Suite” from Appalachian Spring. Tickets are available online. [Read more…]

The Cleveland Orchestra returns
to Blossom Music Center

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by Mike Telin

While many of us understood the seriousness of COVID-19 back in March of 2020, it did take time to grasp the extent to which the pandemic would alter our lives. “We cancelled the later part of the Severance season, but it wasn’t until we cancelled Blossom that I thought to myself, ‘this is very serious,’ Ross Binnie, the Orchestra’s Chief Brand Officer recalled during a recent conversation. “It was a huge signal and a huge blow.”

After a year’s hiatus, the sounds of The Cleveland Orchestra will once again fill the grounds of Blossom Music Center and no one could be more excited than Binnie. “I was down there to do a television spot, and looking out on the lawn, the space is so beautiful. To be honest, it was very emotional, thinking that a small bit of people’s lives every summer is on its way back. And the more interviews I do the more excited I become.”

The season kicks off on Saturday, July 3 and Sunday, July 4 at 8:00 pm with An American Celebration. Brett Mitchell, will lead performances of Leonard Bernstein’s “Overture” to Candide, Mary D. Watkins’ Soul of Remembrance, Florence Price’s Concerto in One Movement, with Michelle Cann as soloist, Adolphus Hailstork’s An American Fanfare, Aaron Copland’s “Suite” from Appalachian Spring, Tchaikovsky’s 1812 Overture, and Sousa’s Stars and Stripes Forever. A full season list is below. [Read more…]

Aretha Franklin: Queen of Soul —
a conversation with vocalist
Capathia Jenkins

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by Mike Telin

With the passing of Aretha Franklin on August 16, 2018, the world lost a musical treasure. One that day, Jon Pareles, chief popular music critic at The New York Times wrote in an obituary: “Aretha Franklin, universally acclaimed as the ‘Queen of Soul’ and one of America’s greatest singers in any style, died on Thursday at her home in Detroit. She was 76.” Pareles also noted that “in a musical career of more than five decades, Aretha Franklin had more than 100 singles on the Billboard charts. But more important, she freed other singers to let their voices fly.”

“That moniker — Queen of Soul — she was literally a Queen,” vocalist Capathia Jenkins said during a telephone interview. “Anyone who has been singing and living on the planet for any length of time has drawn from and perhaps tried to emulate her. She was such an influence on so many.”

Franklin’s musical legacy will be celebrated on Sunday, July 28 at 7:00 pm at Blossom Music Center, when Jenkins and vocalist Ryan Shaw join The Cleveland Orchestra and the Blossom Festival Chorus, under the direction of Lucas Waldin to present Aretha Franklin: Queen of Soul. Tickets are available online. [Read more…]

Cleveland Orchestra at Blossom with Yarrow and Stookey (July 7)

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by David Kulma

The folk group Peter, Paul and Mary first came to Blossom Music Center in the summer of 1969 near the peak of their fame  – Leaving on a Jet Plane reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100 later that year. Now 50 years later, the return of the group’s living members on Sunday, July 7 made for a sweet, nostalgia-filled evening as they performed with The Cleveland Orchestra, conducted by Lucas Richman. Playing some of the trio’s most well-loved songs, Peter Yarrow and Noel Paul Stookey maintained the group’s longtime progressive political edge. [Read more…]

Cleveland Orchestra summer season launches on June 29

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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. [Read more…]

The Cleveland Orchestra
announces summer plans

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by Daniel Hathaway

As The Cleveland Orchestra prepares to launch its seven-city Asia Tour from March 28 through April 13, and now that the days are beginning to grow longer and brighter, it’s time to have a look at the Orchestra’s concerts for the summer, single tickets for which go on sale on April 1.

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 big 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.

In between its 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 — plus two screenings of the 1989 Batman film with a live performance of Danny Elfman’s score. 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. [Read more…]

Cleveland Orchestra plays Star Wars at Blossom (Aug. 31)

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by David Kulma

On Friday, August 31 with a jam-packed lawn and many toy lightsabers, The Cleveland Orchestra’s final Blossom Music Center program with assistant conductor Vinay Parameswaran was a certifiable hit. This first of three screenings of George Lucas’s original Star Wars film with live orchestra showed off the many virtues of both John Williams’s iconic score and the Orchestra’s luxurious playing, most notably the power and grandeur of the brass. [Read more…]

Cleveland Orchestra in Copland and Orff (Aug. 25)

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by David Kulma

The American political landscape has broadened over the past few years to include socialist and fascist ideas previously unthinkable in the public sphere. Programming works from the 1930s, another time of torrent, The Cleveland Orchestra and guest conductor Adrien Perruchon gave their August 25 concert at Blossom Music Center an unusual political saliency. The performance of Orff’s Carmina Burana occurred fifty years to the date when it was performed during Blossom’s inaugural season (photo above).

[Read more…]

Cleveland Orchestra tribute to Fitzgerald & Sinatra at Blossom (Aug. 19)

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by Robert Rollin

On Sunday evening, August 19 at Blossom, Randall Craig Fleischer led The Cleveland Orchestra in “Frank & Ella: The Music of Ella Fitzgerald and Frank Sinatra,” featuring soprano Capathia Jenkins and singer/pianist Tony DeSare in songs that Ella and Frank made famous. Jenkins has a gorgeous, well-controlled voice. DeSare’s talented rhythm section supported his wonderful piano playing. [Read more…]

Thoughts on Star Wars as TCO closes its Blossom season

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by Jarrett Hoffman

Before the action figures, t-shirts, and lunch boxes — before even a single sequel was on anyone’s mind — 20th Century Fox’s 1977 Star Wars was a movie that came in over budget, with low expectations. The studio moved up the release date so it wouldn’t have to compete with that summer’s Smokey and the Bandit. In terms of merchandise, toy company Kenner Products was caught so flat-footed by the success of Star Wars that Christmas shoppers had to settle for a box with a voucher: mail it in to get your toys next year, kids.

Those essentially empty boxes now go for $13K on eBay. A more wallet-friendly option for your Star Wars fix: $26 tickets to see the original film at Blossom this weekend, with John Williams’ score played live by The Cleveland Orchestra under the direction of assistant conductor Vinay Parameswaran. Screenings of the film, now known as Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope, will take place from Friday through Sunday, August 31 to September 2, the festival’s closing night, all at 8:30 pm. After the red and green blaster rays, stay for more fireworks, weather permitting.

[Read more…]

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