The Cleveland Orchestra Launches Weekly Podcast

The Cleveland Orchestra is expanding how it engages and connects with music lovers throughout Cleveland, Northeast Ohio, and beyond, with a new weekly podcast series available Thursday, April 16.

Designed to extend The Cleveland Orchestra belief in the power of music to take listeners on an emotional journey, On a Personal Note will offer uniquely personal perspectives and illuminating views from inside classical music, speaking directly about Cleveland Orchestra concert recordings. The first season of On a Personal Note will feature ten episodes, with the first available now across all major podcast platforms.

On a Personal Note's first season spans ten episodes. The premiere, titled The Sound of Crisis, focuses on the extraordinary and moving circumstances of The Cleveland Orchestra's last performance together as the coronavirus pandemic was closing down the world. On the morning of Friday, March 13, the Orchestra gathered onstage at Severance Hall for a final time before Severance Hall was closed to the public. Music Director Franz Welser-Möst led a performance of Schubert's "Great" Symphony in C major (D.944) to a nearly empty concert hall. Only a few staff members witnessed what was originally scheduled as a public concert. In the podcast, Welser-Möst recalls his conflicting emotions conducting The Cleveland Orchestra under such unusual circumstances - and without knowing when the musicians might make music together again. This performance was recorded under the first phase of restrictions put in place by the Governor of Ohio limiting a total of no more than 100 people being together in an enclosed space. Additional restrictions were implemented in subsequent weeks, making the March 13 performances the last time The Cleveland Orchestra has been able to play together for the time being.

"Every story has a soundtrack, and every soundtrack has a story," says André Gremillet, Cleveland Orchestra President & CEO. "In this new series, Cleveland Orchestra Music Director Franz Welser-Möst and individual musicians in the Orchestra share personally meaningful stories about moments when music has shaped their lives - providing listeners with behind-the-scenes insight and a chance to turn their focus away from daily challenges.

"In development across the past year, On a Personal Note podcasts are designed to showcase incredibly personal and, at times, raw stories about the impact of music, pairing artist interviews with selections from the Orchestra's best concert recordings.

"This new series is just one of several new initiatives we've introduced to connect our audiences and musicians during the coronavirus COVID-19 crisis. These initiatives consist, among others, of expanded radio broadcasts in partnership with ideastream WCLV as well as free content on our social media channels including daily Mindful Music Moments with excerpts of Cleveland Orchestra recordings, and videos from Cleveland Orchestra musicians providing education resources and performances from their homes."

"That Friday morning was a very surreal experience for us - for the musicians of The Cleveland Orchestra and me - to work together, knowing it was a farewell of sorts. We played in that moment, very aware of the music's meaning and with the beginning of our understanding about what was happening around us," said Franz Welser-Möst, Music Director of The Cleveland Orchestra. The ability to share this story in with the On a Personal Note podcast is moving opportunity, and a rare time to verbalize the emotions we feel as artists every time we perform. The musicians of the Orchestra and I believe very strongly in the power of music to take listeners on an emotional journey, in the concert hall, at home, or wherever you may experience it. In this series, we are trying to highlight the way that music changes moment to moment, from something ecstatic now to melancholy and sadness in the very next measure, and perhaps back again to joy and hope for the future. We perform and exist as a group onstage, but it is in sharing our music with others that the real magic happens. Here, in these podcasts, we will find that there are many powerful individual stories about connecting to and experiencing music, whether you are a musician or in the audience."

To access the inaugural Cleveland Orchestra podcast now, visit clevelandorchestra.com/podcast as well anywhere you get podcasts, including Apple and Google Podcasts, Spotify, and Stitcher and coming soon to Radio.com, Breaker, Deezer, iHeartRadio, Overcast, Pandora, Pocket Casts, RadioPublic, TuneIn, etc.). For a direct link to the premiere episode, visit https://onapersonalnote.simplecast.com/episodes/s1-b1-the-sound-of-crisis.

The On a Personal Note podcast is part of @Home with The Cleveland Orchestra, a series of online offerings providing new or expanded ways for people to connect with The Cleveland Orchestra and each other through musical experiences that bring music and the Orchestra to you, no matter where you are, including special Learning@Home resources for families. These offerings include radio and online broadcasts of Cleveland Orchestra concerts seven days a week in collaboration with WCLV ideastream, Mindful Music Moments mediations with Cleveland Orchestra recordings, performance and education videos by Cleveland Orchestra musicians from their homes, and Learning@Home with The Cleveland Orchestra - a series of education resources for children, educators, parents and families offering a variety of ways to introduce others to music. On a Personal Note is created in partnership with Digital River Media. For more information visit, https://www.clevelandorchestra.com/Education-and-Community/athome-with-the-cleveland-orchestra/

On a Personal Note Season One, Current Episode Summary
Information on the first four episodes of On a Personal Note is listed below with details of the remaining six in Season One to be released in the coming weeks. After the premiere episode, The Sound of Crisis, the release order of additional episodes is being determined, please check with the media contacts listed below for details. Additional episodes include cellist Martha Baldwin, principal trumpet Michael Sachs, assistant principal flute Jessica Sindell, principal flute Joshua Smith, and principal clarinet Afendi Yusuf.

Music Director Franz Welser-Möst recalls his conflicting emotions conducting The Cleveland Orchestra one last time before the Coronavirus pandemic silenced Severance Hall. https://onapersonalnote.simplecast.com/episodes/s1-b1-the-sound-of-crisis.

French Horn Player Rich King shares his earliest memories of hearing Beethoven's Heroic Third Symphony on the family phonograph and how the disc ended up shaping his destiny. https://onapersonalnote.simplecast.com/episodes/s1-e1-the-lasting-luster-of-vinyl

Violinist Katherine Bormann contemplates whether you can be in a long-term relationship with a composition and talks about why she'll stick with Strauss's Rosenkavalier Suite until the end.

At age 21, in his second week with The Cleveland Orchestra, Principal Horn Nathaniel Silberschlag played Mahler's 5th for a packed house-and defied expectations. Even his own.

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