Summers@Severance

The Cleveland Orchestra announced details of its popular Summers@Severance series, bringing orchestral music to University Circle during the summertime. These concert experiences boast the best that The Cleveland Orchestra and Severance Hall has to offer, inside and out. Guests enjoy an incredible evening of classical music from “America’s most understatedly amazing orchestra” (The New York Times) in one of the world’s most beautiful concert halls, “the shimmering Severance Hall,” (The Los Angeles Times).

Before and after each concert, Severance Hall’s Front Terrace will be open with beverage and food service in an atmosphere where guests can relax under the summer sky. In addition, special “happy hour” drink prices will be offered in the hour prior to each concert. Guests are encouraged to arrive early and enjoy the outdoors.

This summer series of concerts will take place July 10, July 31, and August 14, featuring exciting symphonic works from Saint-Saëns, Shostakovich and Dvořák, treasured favorites by Mendelssohn and Grieg, and rarely-heard gems from Glazunov and Durufé. The series also features some of the world’s most acclaimed conductors.

July 10: Conductor Thierry Fischer leads an all-French program. The Cleveland Orchestra’s principal keyboard, Joela Jones, performs as soloist on the Norton Memorial Organ in Saint-Saëns’s magnificent and uplifting Symphony No. 3 (“Organ Symphony”). The evening also includes the Orchestra’s first-ever performance of Duruflé’s Trois Dances.

July 31: Russian conductor Michail Jurowski is back by popular demand, following his American debut here in 2019. Noted as a leading interpreter of Shostakovich’s music — the composer was a close family friend — Jurowski will lead the Orchestra in Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 5. The Orchestra will also perform two entr’actes from the ballet Raymonda by Alexander Glazunov, a teacher and mentor to a young Shostakovich.

August 14: audience-favorite Herbert Blomstedt returns to Cleveland to lead the Orchestra in an evening of music steeped in themes from nature, including Dvořák’s cheerful Symphony No. 8. Also featured is Suite No. 1 from Grieg’s Peer Gynt — including the iconic “In the Hall of the Mountain King” and “Morning Mood — and Mendelssohn’s well-loved Hebrides Overture.