Music Director Franz Welser-Most to Lead Cleveland Orchestra in Fall Gala Concert

The Cleveland Orchestra announces additional details of its annual Gala Evening at Severance Hall on Saturday, October 7, 2017 at 7:00 p.m., with Music Director Franz Welser-Möst and The Cleveland Orchestra.

This year, the Gala Evening, a benefit event comprising a concert and dinner, is chaired by Norma Lerner; co-chair Nancy W. McCann; corporate co-chair, Keybank Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Beth Mooney; and corporate co-chair, Cleveland Orchestra Board President Richard K. Smucker.

As the Orchestra begins its 100th season and enters its Second Century, the Gala Evening provides essential funding for The Cleveland Orchestra's engaging education and community programs serving Northeast Ohio. The complete evening benefit experience includes pre-performance cocktails in Smith Lobby at 6:00 p.m. and the concert at 7:00 p.m., followed by an elegant dinner in the Bogomolny-Kozerefski Grand Foyer, Hood Meyerson Box Promenade, Founders Gallery, Smith Lobby, and Severance Restaurant catered by Executive Chef Douglas Katz of Fire Food and Drink.

The theme of this year's concert program is A Musical Journey through Italy. Franz Welser-Möst and The Cleveland Orchestra's one-night-only program will include Verdi's Ballet Music from Don Carlo, Respighi's The Birds, Johann Strauss's The Carnival of Venice, and Tchaikovsky's Capriccio Italien.

Initial support for the Gala Evening to date includes the following lead sponsors: The Lerner Foundation, KeyBank, Richard and Emily Smucker, and Audrey and Albert Ratner. To join this visionary group of philanthropic leaders as a Gala Evening sponsor, call 216-231-7535 or email gala@clevelandorchestra.com.

Gala Evening Packages and Individual Concert Tickets
Gala Evening packages are $1,500, $1,000, and $500, and include valet parking, cocktails, and premium concert and dinner seating. Individual concert-only tickets will be available to the general public in August and start at $25.

Young Professionals Tickets
The Cleveland Orchestra Gala includes an exclusive event for young professionals. Members of The Circle, the young professionals of The Cleveland Orchestra, will have a pre-sale opportunity to purchase tickets before they are open to the public. A Young Professionals Gala ticket includes valet parking, pre-concert reception, concert seating, and post-concert dinner in Severance Restaurant, catered by Fire. Tickets start at $100/single and $150/couple for Circle members, or $150/single and $250/couple for non-Circle members. If you are interested in attending the Young Professionals event, please call 216-231-7558 or email ypgala@clevelandorchestra.com.

The Cleveland Orchestra serves more than 70,000 people of all ages each year with a comprehensive array of educational 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. For more information, visit www.clevelandorchestra.com/education-and-community/overview.

The Cleveland Orchestra's 100th Season and Second Century

Proceeds from The Cleveland Orchestra's 2017 Gala Evening will help support key education and community initiatives as part of the Orchestra's 100th season and Second Century Celebration, such as the Around the Region Celebration. On September 22, 2017, the "Beethoven & Prometheus" Education Concert, led by Franz Welser-Möst, will kick off the Around the Region initiative for the 2017-18 season. Around the Region concerts will be presented throughout 2017 and 2018 as a thank-you to the community and will feature all of the organization's ensembles -The Cleveland Orchestra, Cleveland Orchestra Chorus, Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra, and Cleveland Orchestra Youth and Children's Choruses.

About Franz Welser-Möst:

The Cleveland Orchestra's 100th season in 2017-18 marks the 16th year of the Orchestra's acclaimed partnership with Music Director Franz Welser-Möst, with this partnership's future now extending into the next decade. Under his direction, the Orchestra is hailed for its continuing artistic excellence, is broadening and enhancing its community programming at home in Northeast Ohio, is presented in a series of ongoing residencies in the United States and Europe, and has re-established itself as an important operatic ensemble.

With a commitment to music education and the Northeast Ohio community, Franz Welser-Möst has taken The Cleveland Orchestra back into public schools with performances in collaboration with the Cleveland Metropolitan School District. He leads the Orchestra into its second century with a renewed commitment to music education and community engagement, based on his belief that every child should be touched by music, that the arts are critical to a well-rounded education, and that learning never ends (lifelong learning).

Under Mr. Welser-Möst's leadership, The Cleveland Orchestra has established a recurring biennial residency in Vienna at the famed Musikverein concert hall and appears regularly at Switzerland's Lucerne Festival. Together, they have also appeared in residence at Suntory Hall in Tokyo, Japan, and at the Salzburg Festival, where a 2008 residency included five sold-out performances of a staged production of Dvo?ák's opera Rusalka. During the 2017-18 season, The Cleveland Orchestra will embark on two international tours, which will be the ensemble's seventeenth and eighteenth international tours with Franz Welser-Möst.

IF YOU GO:

Cleveland Orchestra Gala Concert and Dinner

A Musical Journey through Italy

Saturday, October 7, 2017, at 7:00 p.m.

The Cleveland Orchestra

Franz Welser-Most, conductor

VERDI - Ballet Music from Don Carlo
RESPIGHI - The Birds
J. STRAUSS JR. - Rosen aus dem Süden [Roses from the South]
J. STRAUSS - Der Karnival von Venedig [The Carnival of Venice], Fantasy, Opus 126
TCHAIKOVSKY - Capriccio Italien

Gala packages: $1,500, $1,000, and $500. Please call 216-231-7535.

Individual concert tickets will be available to the general public in August 2017.