The Cleveland Orchestra and Music Director Franz Welser-Möst Put a Spotlight on Music Education

The Cleveland Orchestra announces a special week of activities highlighting the importance of music education, young musicians, and the wide range of Cleveland Orchestra educational programs available to the community. The week, March 4-10, 2013, will feature hundreds of young musicians from 40 communities across Ohio in performance, and includes a special Showcase Concert and Middle School Education Concert conducted by Music Director Franz Welser-Möst, Elementary School Education Concerts, a Family Concert, 23 programs presented by Cleveland Orchestra musicians in schools in greater Cleveland, and more.

The Cleveland Orchestra encourages people of all ages to participate in making, and learning about, music, through a new initiative, Make Music! The effort will include opportunities for community participation in playing and performing music at Severance Hall, Public Square, Blossom Music Center, and in other locations where the Orchestra performs. Make Music! will also support music in local schools and increase collaboration with educational and community partners.

The inaugural event of Make Music! is a Showcase Concert on Thursday, March 7, at 7:00 p.m., under the direction of Franz Welser-Möst, combining The Cleveland Orchestra with all of the Orchestra's youth ensembles - the Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra (COYO), the Cleveland Orchestra Youth Chorus, and the Cleveland Orchestra Children's Chorus - in concert at Severance Hall for the first time in the Orchestra's history. Three-hundred students will perform on stage with Cleveland Orchestra musicians. Young musicians from El Sistema@Rainey, an intensive after-school music program for young string musicians, will begin the program, led by their founder, Isabel Trautwein, a violinist in The Cleveland Orchestra. The concert is free and open to the public - tickets are available at clevelandorchestra.com. .

Cleveland Orchestra Executive Director Gary Hanson said, "We are launching Make Music!, because everyone in our community can enjoy, and as research has proven, benefit from, making music. We know a child's education is not complete unless it includes the arts, and music making is an especially important part of a complete music education. The Orchestra will be the catalyst to help Northeast Ohio become known worldwide for its high-quality music education and community participation in music."

On Wednesday, March 6 at 10:00 a.m., Franz Welser-Möst leads a Cleveland Orchestra Middle School Education Concert for 6-8th grade students about Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, and the music the play influenced by Tchaikovsky, Prokofiev, and Bernstein. In collaboration with Great Lakes Theater, actors and will portray selections from the drama in conjunction with the music.

The special week of activities also includes two Education Concerts for 1st through 3rd grade students and a Family Concert, "Symphony Under the Sea", with the Singing Angels of Cleveland on Friday, March 8, at 7:00 p.m, conducted by Robert Franz. The Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra (COYO) and Youth Chorus will perform together on Sunday, March 10, at 7:00 p.m. in a program led by James Feddeck, music director of COYO. Throughout the week, 20 Cleveland Orchestra musicians will present programs in schools that are part of the Orchestra's PNC Grow Up Great, Learning Through Music, and Music Mentor series, and Cleveland Orchestra Music Study Groups will take place in local libraries.

Franz Welser-Möst will speak about the importance of music education at the City Club Forum on Friday, March 8, at 12:00 p.m. at the City Club in downtown Cleveland, joined by Cleveland Orchestra violinist and El Sistema@Rainey founder Isabel Trautwein. The program is aired locally on WCPN/90.3 and WCLV/104.9 radio, and broadcast nationally in 40 states, from Maine to Alaska.

The upcoming week focusing on music education highlights the broad array of Cleveland Orchestra educational programs designed to foster a love of music and a lifetime of participation in the musical arts. For more information, call The Cleveland Orchestra' Department of Education and Community Programs at 216-231-7355.

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