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Carnegie Hall - Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis

Name: Carnegie Hall - Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis
Start: 2027-01-20T01:00:00.000Z
End: 2027-01-20T03:00:00.000Z

Carnegie Hall

Tue 8:00 PM

Jan 19

Details

Repertoire & Performing Artists

Missa solemnis

Julian Prégardien
Anthony Schneider

The Cleveland Orchestra

The Cleveland Orchestra, under the leadership of Franz Welser-Möst since 2002, is one of the most sought-after performing ensembles in the world. Year after year, the ensemble exemplifies extraordinary artistic excellence, creative programming, and community engagement. In recent years, The New York Times has called Cleveland “the best in America” for its virtuosity, elegance of sound, variety of color, and chamber-like musical cohesion.

Founded by Adella Prentiss Hughes, the Orchestra performed its inaugural concert in December 1918. By the middle of the century, decades of growth and sustained support had turned the ensemble into one of the most admired around the world.

The past decade has seen an increasing number of young people attending concerts, bringing fresh attention to The Cleveland Orchestra’s legendary sound and committed programming. More recently, the Orchestra launched several bold digital projects, including the streaming platform Adella.live and its own recording label. Together, they have captured the Orchestra’s unique artistry and the musical achievements of the Welser-Möst and Cleveland Orchestra partnership.

The 2025–26 season marks Franz Welser-Möst’s 24th year as Music Director, a period in which The Cleveland Orchestra has earned unprecedented acclaim around the world, including a series of residencies at the Musikverein in Vienna, the first of its kind by an American orchestra, and a number of celebrated opera presentations.

Since 1918, seven music directors — Nikolai Sokoloff, Artur Rodziński, Erich Leinsdorf, George Szell, Lorin Maazel, Christoph von Dohnányi, and Franz Welser-Möst — have guided and shaped the ensemble’s growth and sound. Through concerts at home and on tour, broadcasts, and a catalog of acclaimed recordings, The Cleveland Orchestra is heard today by a growing group of fans around the world.

Franz Welser-Möst

Music Director

Franz Welser-Möst has forged one of the most transformative artistic legacies in the history of The Cleveland Orchestra, as its seventh and longest-serving Music Director. Now in his 25th and final season, he has shaped its sound with extraordinary care and imagination, cultivating greater warmth and flexibility, while preserving precision and transparency. Since beginning his tenure in 2002–03, his leadership has characterized a quarter century of artistic excellence, community outreach, and global prominence.

Welser-Möst first appeared with The Cleveland Orchestra as a guest conductor in February 1993 and has returned every season beginning in 1995. By the end of the 2026–27 season, he will have led the Orchestra in more than 1,200 performances in 93 cities spanning 15 US states and 26 countries, including 701 concerts at Severance Music Center. He has appointed 56 of the Orchestra’s 100 current musicians, profoundly shaping its sound for a new generation. Welser-Möst’s tenure ushered in major milestones, from innovative opera stagings to the launch of its streaming platform, Adella.live, and its recording label.

Widely admired for his interpretations of Central European and Russian repertoire, Welser-Möst has also championed living composers, specifically through the Orchestra’s Daniel R. Lewis Composer Fellowship. His artistic partnerships have resulted in dozens of commissions and co-commissions, and at the close of the 2026–27 season, he will have led The Cleveland Orchestra in 27 world premieres and 21 US premieres.

Welser-Möst has made opera an annual tradition at Severance Music Center, culminating in the creation of the Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel Opera & Humanities Festival in 2023. Acclaimed productions of Dvořák’s Rusalka, Richard Strauss’s Ariadne auf Naxos, Janáček’s The Cunning Little Vixen, Puccini’s La fanciulla del West, and Mozart’s The Magic Flute demonstrated his commitment to large-scale storytelling. In May 2027, Welser-Möst leads a fully staged production of Richard Strauss’s Die Frau ohne Schatten, a fitting capstone to his enduring artistic vision and remarkable legacy with The Cleveland Orchestra.

A defining aspect of Welser-Möst’s Cleveland career has been his work with The Cleveland Orchestra Chorus. He has consistently advocated for the all-volunteer ensemble as an essential artistic partner in performances ranging from symphonic masterworks to staged opera productions. In 2010, Welser-Möst appointed Lisa Wong to work with the Chorus and, in 2018, he named her Director of Choruses. Together, they have elevated the Chorus with performances at home and on the road.

Beyond Cleveland, Welser-Möst maintains a distinguished international career, marked by a longstanding artistic partnership with the Vienna Philharmonic. He regularly leads the ensemble at the Musikverein and on major international tours, and has already conducted the celebrated annual New Year’s concert three times. In 2024, he was named an Honorary Member of the Vienna Philharmonic, one of its highest honors. He is also celebrated for his interpretations of opera, conducting productions which have been widely acclaimed at the Salzburg Festival and the Vienna State Opera.

Golda Schultz

soprano

Golda Schultz is recognized as one of today’s most talented and versatile sopranos, celebrated in equal measure for her vivid and intelligent portrayals of the leading ladies of the operatic canon, as a featured soloist with the world’s foremost orchestras, and as a captivating solo recitalist.

Schultz’s 2026–27 season brings three significant role debuts: the title character in Ariadne auf Naxos at the Wiener Staatsoper, Antonia in The Tales of Hoffmann at Staatsoper Unter den Linden, and Elettra in Idomeneo at Glyndebourne. On the concert stage is a European tour of Richard Strauss’s Four Last Songs with The Cleveland Orchestra and Franz Welser-Möst, Mahler’s Second Symphony with the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, and performances of Beethoven’s Missa solemnis in Cleveland, New York, Berlin, and Vienna.

Unanimously praised for her “warmth of tone and sensitivity of phrasing,” South African–born Schultz trained at The Juilliard School and Bayerische Staatsoper’s Opernstudio. She found early success on both sides of the Atlantic through appearances as Sophie (Der Rosenkavalier) at the Salzburger Festspiele, Contessa Almaviva (The Marriage of Figaro) at Glyndebourne, and Pamina (The Magic Flute) at the Metropolitan Opera and Wiener Staatsoper.

A popular guest with the world’s leading orchestras, Schultz’s recent concert highlights include Mahler’s Eighth Symphony with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony with the Gewandhausorchester, and the Last Night of the Proms with Dalia Stasevska and the BBC Symphony Orchestra.

Schultz has released two solo albums on the Alpha Classics label: This Be Her Verse, a collection of works by female composers from the Romantic era to the present day, and Mozart, You Drive Me Crazy!, which received the coveted 2025 Opus Klassik Award for Solo Vocal Recording of the Year. Other recordings include Mendelssohn’s Elijah with the Gewandhausorchester on Deutsche Grammophon and the Grammy Award–winning Porgy and Bess from the Metropolitan Opera.

In an acclaimed recital partnership, Schultz and pianist Jonathan Ware have performed together at the Pierre Boulez Saal, Wigmore Hall, and Concertgebouw, as well as at the Edinburgh, Aix-en-Provence, and Lucerne festivals. In the current season, they appear together at the Musikverein and Beethoven-Haus Bonn.

Taylor Raven

mezzo-soprano

Taylor Raven is a “vocal sensation” (Washington Classical Review) and is quickly establishing herself in opera, concert, and recital.

In the 2025–26 season, Raven makes her house debut with the English National Opera in Così fan tutte and returns to the Los Angeles Philharmonic for a staged production of Die Walküre. Highlights on the concert stage include Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony with The Cleveland Orchestra, Mozart’s Requiem with the New Jersey Symphony, and her debut with the North Carolina Symphony for Handel’s Messiah.

In recent seasons, Raven debuted with the Metropolitan Opera in John Adams’s Antony and Cleopatra and performed Julia Perry’s Stabat Mater with the Duisburger Philharmoniker. Other recent engagements include performances with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, San Francisco Opera, and Houston Grand Opera.

Raven is a graduate of the Young Artist Program at Los Angeles Opera and holds degrees from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and the University of Colorado Boulder.

The Cleveland Orchestra Chorus

Now in its 74th season, The Cleveland Orchestra Chorus is celebrated for its versatility and refined musicianship, appearing regularly with The Cleveland Orchestra at Severance and Blossom Music Center. As one of the few all-volunteer, professionally trained choruses affiliated with a major American orchestra, it received the 2019–20 Distinguished Service Award, recognizing extraordinary service to the Orchestra.

Visit cochorus.com for more information on the Chorus and auditions.

Beethoven

Composer

Ludwig van Beethoven (1770–1827) was a German composer and pianist whose works revolutionised classical music, bridging the Classical and Romantic eras. His compositions include nine symphonies, numerous concertos, and chamber music that remain cornerstones of Western classical music.

Beethoven’s Missa solemnis is rivaled only by his Ninth Symphony in power and scope. Through virtuosic solos and contemplative choruses, Beethoven imbues the ancient text with humanist theology and seamlessly integrates Gregorian chant, Baroque quotations, and his forward-looking late style, creating a journey that transcends creeds and generations. Music Director Franz Welser-Möst leads The Cleveland Orchestra, The Cleveland Orchestra Chorus, and a starry roster of soloists in this timeless musical meditation.

Golda Schultz's performance is generously sponsored by Astri Seidenfeld.

Beethoven's Missa Solemnis is generously sponsored by Michael Hudson in memory of Susan Benningfield Hudson, a former vocal coach and accompanist for the COC under the direction of Robert Page.

Carnegie Hall

881 7th Ave, New York, New York, 10019

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