On a Personal Note: Recent Episodes
The Cleveland Orchestra
Every story has a soundtrack. Cleveland Orchestra Musicians and Music Director Franz Welser-Möst share stories about the music that has shaped their lives.
Rock and drum icon Stewart Copeland talks early influences and recent compositions — including Police Deranged, an orchestral survey of Copeland’s career and his many years with The Police.
Upcoming Performance (September 11 at Blossom Music Center):
Join Stewart Copeland and The Cleveland Orchestra for the finale to this summer's Blossom Music Festival, Stewart Copeland’s Police Deranged For Orchestra, a high-energy orchestral celebration of The Police’s biggest hits, including ‘Roxanne’, ‘Don’t Stand So Close To Me’ and ‘Message in a Bottle’. With Copeland on drums, three singers, guitarist and the full symphony orchestra, these unique compositions give new life to classic songs and select hits from the career of one of the generation’s greatest and most influential artists.
- Tickets available here
- Stream Stewart Copeland's new Spotify Playlist, "For Cleveland"
Revered pianist Mitsuko Uchida reminisces with fondness on the familial nature of her decades-long relationship with The Cleveland Orchestra.
Featured Music:
MOZART – Piano Concerto No. 24 (K. 491)
- The Cleveland Orchestra
- Mitsuko Uchida, conductor and piano
- Recorded live at Severance Hall in November 2005
The connection we share through music is more important than ever — and so is your support. To support The Cleveland Orchestra, please visit clevelandorchestra.com/donate.
After several artist cancellations irrevocably altered plans to perform Haydn’s The Seasons, soprano Golda Schultz was the last soloist standing. Not only did the show go on, it became a defining moment.
Featured Music:
HAYDN – The Seasons
- The Cleveland Orchestra
- Franz Welser-Möst, conductor
- Golda Schultz, soprano
- Recorded live at Severance Hall on Jan. 18, 2018
The connection we share through music is more important than ever — and so is your support. To support The Cleveland Orchestra, please visit clevelandorchestra.com/donate.
In January 2018, The Cleveland Orchestra planned to perform Haydn’s choral masterpiece The Seasons. One soloist fell ill. Then another. What resulted is one of the most unusual and memorable performances in Cleveland Orchestra history.
Featured Music:
HAYDN – The Seasons
- The Cleveland Orchestra
- Franz Welser-Möst, conductor
- Golda Schultz, soprano
- Recorded live at Severance Hall on Jan. 18, 2018
The connection we share through music is more important than ever — and so is your support. To support The Cleveland Orchestra, please visit clevelandorchestra.com/donate.
Cellist Paul Kushious reflects on the works of Richard Strauss as he traces the composer’s path on an unforgettable and perfectly planned trip from Austria to Switzerland.
Featured Music:
STRAUSS – Death and Transfiguration, Op. 24
- The Cleveland Orchestra
- Franz Welser-Möst, conductor
- Recorded live at Severance Hall in 2016
The connection we share through music is more important than ever — and so is your support. To support The Cleveland Orchestra, please visit clevelandorchestra.com/donate.
Bassoonist Jonathan Sherwin discusses the existential meaning behind Gustav Mahler's Second Symphony - Resurrection; “Why am I here, what am I doing, and what gives my life meaning…”
Featured Music:
MAHLER – Symphony no. 2 (Resurrection)
5. Im Tempo des Scherzos (In the tempo of the scherzo)
- The Cleveland Orchestra
- Franz Welser-Möst, conductor
- Joélle Harvey, soprano
- Sasha Cooke, mezzo-soprano
- Cleveland Orchestra Chorus
- Recorded live at the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts on January 26, 2019
The connection we share through music is more important than ever — and so is your support. To support The Cleveland Orchestra, please visit clevelandorchestra.com/donate.
From music conductors to visiting artists to her own family ties, board member Clara Rankin thinks back on the people and performances that define The Cleveland Orchestra.
Interview conducted by André Gremillet, President & CEO of The Cleveland Orchestra.
Featured Music
MOZART – Symphony no. 41
1. Allegro vivace
- The Cleveland Orchestra
- Recorded live at Severance Hall in 1966
The connection we share through music is more important than ever — and so is your support. To support The Cleveland Orchestra, please visit clevelandorchestra.com/donate.
Pianist and Violinist Carolyn Gadiel Warner reflects on falling in love—with her husband of 40 years, Bruckner symphonies and her profession.
Featured Music
BRUCKNER – Symphony No. 8
4. Finale
- The Cleveland Orchestra
- Franz Welser-Möst, conductor
- Recorded live at Severance Hall on May 29, 2010
The connection we share through music is more important than ever — and so is your support. To support The Cleveland Orchestra, please visit clevelandorchestra.com/donate.
Principal Percussionist Marc Damoulakis talks about feeling the rhythm from an early age and what it means to keep time for The Cleveland Orchestra.
Featured Music
RIMSKY-KORSAKOV – Scheherazade
4. Festival at Baghdad; the Sea; the Ship Goes to Pieces on a Rock Surmounted by a Bronze Warrior
- The Cleveland Orchestra
- Gustavo Gimeno, conductor
- Recorded live at Severance Hall on October 19, 2018
The connection we share through music is more important than ever — and so is your support. To support The Cleveland Orchestra, please visit clevelandorchestra.com/donate.
Director of Choruses Lisa Wong reflects on the healing power of John Adams’s On the Transmigration of Souls after 9/11 and the human voice as medicine for the soul.
Featured Music
ADAMS – On the Transmigration of Souls
- The Cleveland Orchestra
- Jakub Hrůša, conductor
- Cleveland Orchestra Chorus
- Recorded live at Severance Hall on November 17, 2019
The connection we share through music is more important than ever — and so is your support. To support The Cleveland Orchestra, please visit clevelandorchestra.com/donate.
Music Director Franz Welser-Möst recalls the automobile accident that would forever change his course, sparking a lifelong affinity for Franz Schubert in the process.
Featured Music
SCHUBERT – Mass No. 6 in E-flat major
2. Gloria
- The Cleveland Orchestra
- Franz Welser-Möst, conductor
- Recorded live at Severance Hall on May 18, 2019
The connection we share through music is more important than ever — and so is your support. To support The Cleveland Orchestra, please visit clevelandorchestra.com/donate.
Principal Trumpet Michael Sachs reflects on his relationship with one of the most influential figures in modern classical music—and the lasting legacy of Boulez in Cleveland.
Featured Music
STRAVINSKY – The Rite of Spring
PART II: The Sacrifice
- The Cleveland Orchestra
- Pierre Boulez, conductor
- Recorded in Severance Hall in 1991
Clarinetist Robert Woolfrey talks about finding peace in Brahms’s German Requiem and its power to connect the past with the present.
Featured Music
Brahms - German Requiem
2. For all flesh is as grass
- The Cleveland Orchestra
- Franz Welser-Möst, conductor
- Recorded live in Severance Hall on October of 2009
The connection we share through music is more important than ever — and so is your support. To support The Cleveland Orchestra, please visit clevelandorchestra.com/donate.
Flutist and hometown girl Jessica Sindell reflects on her time with the Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra, landing her dream job and the relentless pursuit of imperfection.
Features Music:
RACHMANINOFF - Piano Concerto 3
1. Allegro ma non tanto
- The Cleveland Orchestra
- Matthias Pintscher, conductor
- Kirill Gerstein, piano
- Recorded in Severance Hall in 2018.
The connection we share through music is more important than ever — and so is your support. To support The Cleveland Orchestra, please visit clevelandorchestra.com/donate.
Long-tenured violinist Emilio Llinás reflects on his journey from Cuba to Cleveland and shares a perspective shaped by his 52 seasons.
Featured Music:
BEETHOVEN – Symphony No. 9
1. Allegro ma non troppo, un poco maestoso
- The Cleveland Orchestra
- Franz Welser-Möst, conductor
- Recorded in Severance Hall in May of 2018, as the finale to the Prometheus Project.
The connection we share through music is more important than ever — and so is your support. To support The Cleveland Orchestra, please visit clevelandorchestra.com/donate.
Viola Player Eliesha Nelson finds strength in Anton Bruckner’s strongly-held belief that good conquers all—at a time when uncertainty troubles many.
Featured Music:
BRUCKNER – Symphony No. 5
- The Cleveland Orchestra
- Herbert Blomstedt, conductor
- Recorded live from Severance Hall in February of 2020
The connection we share through music is more important than ever — and so is your support. To support The Cleveland Orchestra, please visit clevelandorchestra.com/donate.
Principal Flute Joshua Smith explains how performing Janáček’s The Cunning Little Vixen left a lasting mark and why the dragonfly just may be his favorite insect.
Featured Music:
JANÁČEK – The Cunning Little Vixen
(sung in Czech)
- The Cleveland Orchestra
- Franz Welser-Möst, conductor
- Martina Janková, soprano (Vixen)
- Jennifer Johnson Cano, soprano (Fox)
- Samantha Gossard, soprano (Owl)
- Marian Vogel, soprano (Blue Jay)
- Sandra Ross, soprano (Woodpecker)
- Recorded live from Severance Hall in May of 2014
The connection we share through music is more important than ever — and so is your support. To support The Cleveland Orchestra, please visit clevelandorchestra.com/donate.
Cellist Martha Baldwin talks about the restorative power of Beethoven’s Second Piano Concerto after a difficult diagnosis.
Featured Music:
BEETHOVEN – Piano Concerto No. 2
- The Cleveland Orchestra
- Franz Welser-Möst, conductor
- Emanuel Ax, piano
- Recorded live from Severance Hall in 2017
The connection we share through music is more important than ever — and so is your support. To support The Cleveland Orchestra, please visit clevelandorchestra.com/donate.
At age 21, in his second week with The Cleveland Orchestra, Principal Horn Nathaniel Silberschlag played Mahler’s 5th for a packed house, exceeding expectations. Even his own.
Featured Music:
MAHLER - Symphony No. 5
3. Scherzo
- The Cleveland Orchestra
- Franz Welser-Möst, conductor
- Recorded live at the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts of Miami-Dade County in 2020
The connection we share through music is more important than ever — and so is your support. To support The Cleveland Orchestra, please visit clevelandorchestra.com/donate.
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.
Featured Music:
R. STRAUSS - Concert Suite: Der Rosenkavalier
- The Cleveland Orchestra
- Franz Welser-Möst, conductor
The connection we share through music is more important than ever — and so is your support. To support The Cleveland Orchestra, please visit clevelandorchestra.com/donate.
French Horn Player Richard King shares his earliest memories of hearing Beethoven’s "Eroica" on the family phonograph and how the disc ended up shaping his destiny.
Featured Music:
BEETHOVEN - Symphony No. 3 (“Eroica”)
- The Cleveland Orchestra
The connection we share through music is more important than ever — and so is your support. To support The Cleveland Orchestra, please visit clevelandorchestra.com/donate.
Music Director Franz Welser-Möst recalls his conflicting emotions conducting The Cleveland Orchestra one last time before the Coronavirus pandemic silenced Severance Hall.
Featured Music:
SCHUBERT - Symphony in C major (“The Great”)
2. Andante con moto
- The Cleveland Orchestra
- Franz Welser-Möst, conductor
- Recorded live at Severance Hall on March 13, 2020
The connection we share through music is more important than ever — and so is your support. To support The Cleveland Orchestra, please visit clevelandorchestra.com/donate.
Every story has a soundtrack. Cleveland Orchestra Musicians and Music Director Franz Welser-Möst share stories about the music that has shaped their lives.