News Release

The Cleveland Orchestra announces details
of 2012 West Coast tour performances with
Music Director Franz Welser-Möst

The Orchestra returns to San Francisco as part of celebrations of San Francisco Symphony’s 100th anniversary

Tour includes six concerts, in San Francisco, Costa Mesa, Palm Desert, San Diego, and Las Vegas

Release date: March 28, 2011

CLEVELAND – Music Director Franz Welser-Möst and The Cleveland Orchestra will make their 20th tour together when they tour to California and Nevada in April 2012. This will be their second tour of the West Coast. They previously toured to the West Coast in May and June 2005. From April 15 through 21, 2012, the Orchestra will perform a total of six concerts, in San Francisco, Costa Mesa, Palm Desert, San Diego, and Las Vegas. Nikolaj Znaider will appear with the Orchestra as soloist in the Beethoven Violin Concerto in San Francisco, Palm Desert, San Diego, and Las Vegas.

The tour will begin with two concerts in San Francisco that are part of celebrations of the San Francisco Symphony’s 100th season. The Cleveland Orchestra is one of six major American orchestras that the San Francisco Symphony has invited to perform at Davies Symphony Hall during the season.

Tour Facts and History

The Orchestra has previously performed in San Francisco a total of nine times, beginning with a concert in May 1960, and most recently in three concerts in June 2005, under the direction of Franz Welser-Möst. The six most recent of the performances have been at Davies Symphony Hall, the home of the San Francisco Symphony.
The Orchestra has appeared in a total of four concerts in Costa Mesa, in October 1986, October 1991 (two concerts), and June 2005. The most recent concert was conducted by Franz Welser-Möst.
The Orchestra has previously performed in Palm Desert on one occasion, in October 1991.
The Orchestra has performed in San Diego on four previous occasions, in May 1960, May 1966, September 1976, and October 1991. This will be their first performance in Copley Symphony Hall.
The Orchestra has previously performed in Las Vegas on one occasion, in March 1984. This will be the Orchestra’s first performance at the new Smith Center for the Performing Arts, which opens in 2012.

(A detailed tour schedule, brief Orchestra history, and biography of Franz Welser-Möst follow.)

THE CLEVELAND ORCHESTRA WEST COAST TOUR: APRIL 15-21, 2012

San Francisco, California

Sunday, April 15, 2012 at 7:00 p.m.

Davies Symphony Hall

Franz Welser-Möst, conductor

MENDELSSOHN Symphony No. 3 (“Scottish”)
SAARIAHO Orion
SHOSTAKOVICH Symphony No. 6

San Francisco, California

Monday, April 16, 2012 at 8:00 p.m.

Davies Symphony Hall

Franz Welser-Möst, conductor
Nikolaj Znaider, violin

BEETHOVEN Violin Concerto
ADÈS Overture, Waltz, and Finale from Powder Her Face
SMETANA Three Movements from Má Vlast (“My Country”)

Costa Mesa, California

Tuesday, April 17, 2012 at 8:00 p.m.

Segerstrom Center for the Arts

Franz Welser-Möst, conductor

MENDELSSOHN Symphony No. 3 (“Scottish”)
SAARIAHO Orion
SHOSTAKOVICH Symphony No. 6

Palm Desert, California

Thursday, April 19, 2012 at 8:00 p.m.

McCallum Theater

San Diego, California

Friday, April 20, 2012 at 8:00 p.m.

Copley Symphony Hall

Las Vegas, Nevada

Saturday, April 21, 2012 at 8:00 p.m.

Smith Center for the Performing Arts

A Brief History of The Cleveland Orchestra

Under the leadership of Music Director Franz Welser-Möst, The Cleveland Orchestra has become one of the most sought-after performing ensembles in the world. In concerts at its winter home at Severance Hall and at each summer’s Blossom Festival, in residencies from Miami to Vienna, and on tour around the world, The Cleveland Orchestra sets standards of artistic excellence, creative programming, and community engagement.

The partnership with Franz Welser-Möst, begun in 2002, has earned The Cleveland Orchestra unprecedented residencies in the United States and around the world, including one at the Musikverein in Vienna, the first of its kind by an American orchestra. In autumn 2010, the Orchestra toured to Asia and performed a residency at Tokyo’s famed Suntory Hall. The Orchestra regularly appears at European festivals, including an ongoing series of biennial residencies at the Lucerne Festival (featuring Roche Commissions, a project involving the Orchestra, the Festival, and Carnegie Hall). In the United States, Mr. Welser-Möst and the Orchestra have toured from coast to coast, including regular appearances at Carnegie Hall, and in January 2007 began an unprecedented long-term residency project in Miami, Florida, where they perform annually at the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts of Miami-Dade County and provide a wide array of community and educational activities. In early 2011, they inaugurated a new residency with Indiana University’s Jacobs School of Music, and July 2011 marks the first of a series of biennial residencies with New York’s Lincoln Center Festival.

The Cleveland Orchestra has a long and distinguished recording and broadcast history. A series of DVD and CD recordings under the direction of Franz Welser-Möst has recently been added to an extensive and widely praised catalog of audio recordings made during the tenures of the ensemble’s former music directors. In addition, Cleveland Orchestra concerts are heard in syndication each season on radio stations throughout North America and Europe.

The Cleveland Orchestra was founded in 1918 by a group of local citizens intent on creating an ensemble worthy of joining America’s top rank of symphony orchestras. Over the next decades, the Orchestra grew from a fine regional organization to being one of the most admired symphonic ensembles in the world. Seven music directors (Nikolai Sokoloff 1918-33, Artur Rodzinski 1933-43, Erich Leinsdorf 1943-46, George Szell 1946-70, Lorin Maazel 1972-82, Christoph von Dohnányi 1984-2002, and Franz Welser-Möst from 2002) have guided and shaped the ensemble’s growth and sound. Touring performances throughout the United States and, beginning in 1957, to Europe and across the globe have confirmed Cleveland’s place among the world’s top orchestras. Year-round performances became a reality with the first Blossom Festival in 1968, presented at an award-winning, purpose-built outdoor facility located just south of the Cleveland metropolitan area near Akron, Ohio. Today, touring, residencies, radio broadcasts, and recordings available by internet download and on DVD and CD provide access to the Orchestra’s music-making to a broad and loyal constituency around the world.

Franz Welser-Möst

Music Director
Kelvin Smith Family Endowed Chair
The Cleveland Orchestra

Franz Welser-Möst’s tenure as Music Director of The Cleveland Orchestra began in 2002. He holds the Kelvin Smith Family Endowed Chair as Music Director. Mr. Welser-Möst’s long-term commitment extends to the Orchestra’s centennial in 2018.

Under Mr. Welser-Möst’s leadership, The Cleveland Orchestra holds an annual Miami Residency that includes three weeks of subscription concerts and more than a dozen partnerships with Miami-Dade organizations and educational institutions. In addition, the Orchestra has ongoing residencies at Vienna’s famed Musikverein hall and Switzerland’s Lucerne Festival. The Orchestra has also added residencies at Indiana University, in Japan, and in 2011 launches a biennial residency at New York’s Lincoln Center Festival featuring The Cleveland Orchestra in concert and, in future years, in Vienna State Opera productions.

In his first nine seasons, Franz Welser-Möst has led The Cleveland Orchestra in twelve world and fifteen United States premieres. Across three seasons beginning in 2009, they have presented fully staged Zurich Opera productions of Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro, Così fan tutte, and Don Giovanni.

Mr. Welser-Möst became General Music Director of the Vienna State Opera in September 2010, serving concurrently with his Cleveland post. At the start of 2011, he conducted the Vienna Philharmonic’s celebrated New Year’s Concert, the most widely watched classical music event on television. And in June 2010, he directed Vienna’s internationally televised Sommernachtskonzert at Schönbrunn Palace. Both of these Viennese performances are now available on DVD and CD.

Franz Welser-Möst first appeared at the Salzburg Festival in 1985, made his American debut in 1989, and served as music director of the London Philharmonic (1990-96). Across a decade-long tenure with the Zurich Opera, culminating in three seasons as General Music Director (2005-08), he the company in more than 40 new productions and numerous revivals.
Mr. Welser-Möst’s recordings and videos have won international awards and two Grammy nominations. Mr. Welser-Möst has led The Cleveland Orchestra in video recordings of live performances of Bruckner Symphonies Nos. 5, 7, 8, and 9. Together they have released a recording of Wagner’s Wesendonck Songs with soprano Measha Brueggergosman in 2010 and Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony in 2007, both on Deutsche Grammophon.

Franz Welser-Möst has been recognized by the Western Law Center for Disability Rights and is an honorary member of the Vienna Singverein. Musical America named him the 2003 Conductor of the Year. He is the co-author of Cadences: Observations and Conversations, published in a German edition in 2007.

Press Contacts
Jennifer Schlosser, 216-231-7518; Email: jschlosser@clevelandorchestra.com
Ana Papakhian, Office: 216-231-7476; Cell phone: 216-370-2595; Email: anap@clevelandorchestra.com