Pianist Lang Lang to Perform at Cleveland Orchestra's Gala Concert at Severance Hall, 10/11

The Cleveland Orchestra announces details about its annual Gala Concert taking place on Saturday, October 11, at 7 p.m. Pianist Lang Lang joins music director Franz Welser-Möst and The Cleveland Orchestra in the concert which features works by Tchaikovsky. The 2014 Gala is spearheaded by community philanthropist Norma Lerner as Gala Chair and KeyBank Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Beth Mooney as Gala Corporate Chair. Concert-only tickets are available through the Orchestra's Ticket Office at 216-231-1111, and tickets for the Gala benefit evening are available at gala@clevelandorchestra.com or 216-231-7524. The Gala evening includes a special post-concert dinner in Severance Hall created by Fire Food and Drink and Executive Chef Douglas Katz.

This year's event benefits the Orchestra's ongoing education and community initiatives for Northeast Ohio. The Cleveland Orchestra serves more than 65,000 people of all ages each year with a comprehensive array of education concerts, workshops, and instructional resources, working in partnership with hundreds of local schools, colleges and universities, libraries, and other cultural and community-based organizations. Since 1918, the Orchestra has introduced more than four million Cleveland-area school children to symphonic music. The Orchestra's all-volunteer Cleveland Orchestra Chorus, the Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra, Youth Chorus, and Children's Chorus, and neighborhood Music Study Groups offer extraordinary life-long learning opportunities for participants from across Northeast Ohio.

The Cleveland Orchestra 2014 Gala Concert is conducted by Music Director Franz Welser-Möst and features pianist Lang Lang performing Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto No. 1. The program also includes Tchaikovsky's The Nutcracker, Act II. (Pianist Lang Lang also performs with The Cleveland Orchestra on October 9, 10, and 12, playing works by Chopin and Strauss. Only for the Gala is he playing Tchaikovsky's immensely popular First Piano Concerto.)

Gala tickets are $1,500, $1,000, and $500, and include valet parking, cocktails, premium concert tickets, and dinner seating. For information, please call 216-231-7524 or email gala@clevelandorchestra.com.

Concert-only tickets are available at clevelandorchestra.com or 216-231-1111.

This year, in addition to a formal plated dinner taking place throughout the hall, The Cleveland Orchestra 2014 Gala includes a unique mix-and-mingle culinary experience for the Orchestra's young professionals group, The Circle. A Young Professionals ticket includes valet parking, cocktails, concert seating, and dinner in Smith Lobby. Ticket prices for Circle members are $125 for a single ticket and $175 for two tickets; for non-Circle members the prices are $150 for a single ticket and $250 for two. If you are interested in attending the Young Professionals event, please call 216-231-7524.

Lang Lang has inspired millions with open-hearted, emotive playing, whether it be in intimate recitals or on the grandest of stages -such as the 2014 World Cup concert in Rio, with Placido Domingo, to celebrate the final game; the 56th GRAMMY Award, where he played with Metallica; the Opening Ceremony of the 2008 Beijing Olympics, where more than four billion people around the world viewed his performance, the Last Night of the Proms at London's Royal Albert Hall, or the Liszt 200th birthday concert broadcast live to more than 500 cinemas around the US and Europe.

Time Magazine named Lang Lang in the "Time 100", citing him as a symbol of the youth of China, and its future. Lang Lang is cultural ambassador for Shenzhen and Shenyang. And if the Chinese passion for piano isn't solely due to him, he has played no small part as a role model - a phenomenon coined by The Today Show as "the Lang Lang effect." Steinway Pianos for the first time named a model after a single artist when they introduced "The Lang Lang Piano" to China, specially designed for education.

Lang Lang's honors include being added as one of the World Economic Forum's 250 Young Global Leaders, Honorary Doctorates from the Royal College of Music and Manhattan School of Music, the highest prize awarded by China's Ministry of Culture, Germany's Order of Merit and France's Medal of the Order of Arts and Letters.