Institution

The Cleveland Orchestra

The Cleveland Orchestra inspires and enriches lives by creating extraordinary musical experiences at the highest level of artistic excellence.

The Cleveland Orchestra is today hailed as one of the very best orchestras on the planet, noted for its musical excellence and for its devotion and service to the community it calls home.

The 2020-21 season marks the ensemble’s nineteenth year under the direction of Franz Welser-Möst, one of today’s most acclaimed musical leaders. Working together, the Orchestra and its board of trustees, staff, and volunteers have affirmed a set of community-inspired goals for the 21st century — to continue the Orchestra’s legendary command of musical excellence while focusing new efforts and resources toward fully serving its hometown community throughout Northeast Ohio. The promise of continuing extraordinary concert experiences, engaging music education programs, and innovative technologies offers future generations dynamic access to the best symphonic entertainment possible anywhere.

The Cleveland Orchestra divides its time across concert seasons at home — in Cleveland at Severance and each summer at Blossom Music Center. Additional portions of the year are devoted to touring and intensive performance residencies. These include recurring residencies at Vienna’s Musikverein, and regular appearances at across Europe, in New York, at Indiana University, and in Miami, Florida.

Speaker

André Gremillet, President & Chief Executive Officer

André Gremillet began his tenure in January 2016 as the ninth Executive Director of The Cleveland Orchestra and was appointed its first President & CEO in 2018.

Under his leadership, The Cleveland Orchestra celebrated its 2018 Centennial with critically acclaimed performances under Music Director Franz Welser-Möst in Cleveland, New York, Tokyo, and Vienna, where they presented the first staged opera performances in the history of the Musikverein with Janáček’s The Cunning Little Vixen. In 2019, The Cleveland Orchestra returned to China after an absence of over two decades for a highly successful tour, including two live-streamed performances from Beijing’s National Centre for the Performing Arts that reached an audience of 2.3 million.

Since Gremillet began his tenure, The Cleveland Orchestra and Music Director Franz Welser-Möst have seen their successful partnership and artistic accomplishments gain even wider recognition. Gremillet has also overseen a significant expansion of the Orchestra’s education programs as well as the creation of The Cleveland Orchestra’s own record label. In the fall of 2020, the Orchestra launched its new streaming platform, Adella, featuring, among other content, the In Focus digital concert series and On a Personal Note podcast.

Franz Welser-Möst, Conductor

Franz Welser-Möst is among today’s most distinguished conductors. The 2021-22 season marks his twentieth year as music director of The Cleveland Orchestra, with the future of their acclaimed partnership extended to 2027, making him the longest-serving musical leader in the ensemble’s history. The New York Times has declared Cleveland under Mr. Welser-Möst’s direction to be “America’s most brilliant orchestra,” praising its virtuosity, elegance of sound, variety of color, and chamber-like musical cohesion.
With Mr. Welser-Möst, The Cleveland Orchestra has been praised for its inventive programming, its ongoing support for new musical works, and for its innovative work in presenting semi-staged and staged operas. The Orchestra has also been hugely successful in building up a new and, notably, a young audience. To date, the Orchestra and Mr. Welser-Möst have been showcased around the world in nineteen international tours together.
As a guest conductor, Mr. Welser-Möst enjoys a close and productive relationship with the Vienna Philharmonic. He has twice led its celebrated New Year’s Concert, and regularly conducts the orchestra in Vienna, as well as on tour.