Beethoven’s Fidelio

Now in his 24th season, Franz Welser-Möst continues to shape an unmistakable sound culture as Music Director of The Cleveland Orchestra. Under his leadership, the Orchestra has earned repeated international acclaim for its musical excellence, reaffirmed its strong commitment to new music, and brought annual opera productions back to the stage of Severance Music Center. In recent years, the Orchestra also launched its own streaming platform, Adella.live, and a recording label. Today, it boasts one of the youngest audiences in the United States.

In addition to residencies in the US and Europe, Welser-Möst and the Orchestra perform regularly at the world’s leading international festivals. Welser-Möst will remain Music Director until 2027, making him the longest-serving music director of The Cleveland Orchestra.

Welser-Möst enjoys a particularly close and productive artistic partnership with the Vienna Philharmonic. He regularly conducts the orchestra in subscription concerts at the Vienna Musikverein, at the Salzburg Festival, and on tour in Europe, Japan, China, and the US, and has appeared three times on the podium for their celebrated New Year’s Concert (2011, 2013, and 2023). At the Salzburg Festival, Welser- Möst has set new standards in interpretation as an opera conductor, with a special focus on the operas of Richard Strauss.

Among Welser-Möst’s many honors and awards, he was named an Honorary Member of the Vienna Philharmonic in 2024, one of the orchestra’s highest distinctions.

Sara Jakubiak is renowned for her ability to bring complex characters to life, blending musical understanding with dramatic instincts. Her 2025–26 season is a season of firsts. She makes her La Scala debut in the opening-night production of Shostakovich’s Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk, sings her first Isolde with the London Symphony Orchestra, and opens the Norwegian National Opera season with her role debut as Rusalka.

Recent orchestral highlights include Janáček’s Glagolitic Mass with the London Philharmonic Orchestra, Britten’s War Requiem with the Dresden Philharmoniker, and Schoenberg’s Erwartung with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra.

Jakubiak also has a significant discography, including the 2020 Opus Klassik Award–winning production of Korngold’s Das Wunder der Heliane with Deutsche Oper Berlin.

Jakubiak hails from Bay City, Michigan and received her university training at Yale and the Cleveland Institute of Music

David Butt Philip is one of Britain’s most exciting tenors and quickly becoming a firm favorite on major international stages. A graduate of the Jette Parker Young Artist Program at the Royal Opera House, he has earned major critical and public acclaim at the Wiener Staatsoper, Edinburgh International Festival, Bayerische Staatsoper, and Deutsche Oper Berlin, among others.

Highlights of the 2025–26 season include his company and role debut as Siegmund in Die Walküre at Teatro alla Scala, a return to the Wiener Staatsoper as Florestan in Fidelio, Apollo in Daphne with Seattle Opera, The Flying Dutchman and Guerrelieder at the Tokyo Spring Festival, and Bacchus in Ariadne auf Naxos with the Glyndebourne Festival.

Polish bass-baritone Tomasz Konieczny regularly appears at the world’s most important opera houses including the Metropolitan Opera, La Scala, Teatro Real Madrid, and at the Bayreuth and Salzburg festivals.

Highlights of his 2025–26 season include Arabella and Tristan und Isolde at the Metropolitan, Salome at the Vienna State Opera, and Fidelio at the Bavarian State Opera and with The Cleveland Orchestra.

Konieczny is also a successful concert performer, with a repertoire ranging from J.S. Bach to Penderecki. His discography includes recordings of the Ring cycle and Schubert’s Winterreise, alongside his recent lied CD, From Secession to Distortion.

Konieczny was named Austrian Kammersänger in 2019 and was awarded the Gold Medal for Cultural Merit “Gloria Artis” in 2022.

Bass-baritone Dashon Burton’s 2025–26 season highlights include Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony and Fidelio with The Cleveland Orchestra. He also sings Mahler’s Songs of a Wayfarer and Mozart’s Requiem with the New Jersey Symphony, appears with the Bach Choir of Bethlehem, and presents a recital at The Phillips Collection.

Burton received the Grammy Award for Best Classical Solo Vocal Album in 2021 for Ethyl Smyth’s The Prison with The Experiential Orchestra and has twice won with the vocal ensemble Roomful of Teeth, of which he is a founding member. His discography also includes Paul Moravec’s Sanctuary Road and Caroline Shaw’s The Listeners.

Burton holds degrees from Oberlin College and Conservatory and Yale University. He is assistant professor of voice at Vanderbilt University.

Soprano Ashley Emerson is sought after for her effervescent singing and storytelling in repertoire ranging from Vivaldi to Thomas Adès. In the 2025–26 season, Emerson returns to The Cleveland Orchestra for Beethoven’s Fidelio and makes her debut with Anchorage Opera in The Medium and Gianni Schicchi.

Emerson is a veteran of the Metropolitan Opera, where she holds over 220 performance credits. She has also appeared in major roles with Boston Lyric Opera, Los Angeles Opera, Seattle Opera, and Opera National de Bordeaux. In concert, Emerson has appeared with the Tanglewood Festival Orchestra, Brooklyn Art Song Society, Bangor Symphony Orchestra, and ChoralArt of Maine, among others.

Emerson received training at the University of Southern Maine, the Metropolitan Opera’s Lindemann Young Artist Development Program, and the Opera Theatre of St. Louis’s Gerdine Young Artist Program.

Canadian tenor Owen McCausland is increasingly in demand for both operatic and symphonic engagements worldwide.

Recent highlights include Berg’s Wozzeckwith the Canadian Opera Company, Mozart’s Requiem with the Choir of King’s College, Cambridge, and Così fan tutte and The Magic Flute with Vancouver Opera. He returns to The Cleveland Orchestra after appearances in Verdi’s Otello and Puccini’s The Girl of the Golden West.

Additional prior engagements include Haydn’s The Creation with the Victoria Symphony, Weill’s The Seven Deadly Sins with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, and the world premiere of Matthew Ricketts’s opera Chaakapesh: The Trickster’s Quest with the Orchestre symphonique de Montréal under the baton of Kent Nagano.

American bass Raymond Aceto has established a commanding presence among the world’s leading opera companies and symphony orchestras, earning both critical and popular acclaim. Highlights of his 2025–26 season include Dead Man Walking at San Francisco Opera and Dialogues of the Carmelites at The Dallas Opera. Other recent appearances include roles at the Metropolitan Opera, Lyric Opera of Chicago, Santa Fe Opera, and Opéra de Montréal.

A graduate of the Metropolitan Opera’s Young Artist Development Program, the Ohio-born bass has appeared frequently with the company since his debut during the 1992–93 season. Among his awards are Richard Tucker Foundation Career Grants and a Sullivan Foundation Award.

Ronnie Dailey is currently in his fourth season with The Cleveland Orchestra Chorus. He has performed as a soloist in Vaughn Williams’s Dona nobis pacem with the Lorain County Community College Civic Chorale, a soloist in Mozart’s Requiem and Regina coeli, and is a frequent soloist and cantor at Trinity Cathedral in Cleveland and Westminster Presbyterian Church in Akron. In addition, Dailey has served as both vocalist and composer for local ensembles, most recently composing for Singers Company. Dailey studied music education at The University of Akron.  

Francisco Prado is in his ninth season with The Cleveland Orchestra Chorus. Previous roles with the Chorus include Peter in J.S. Bach’s St. John Passion, the Steersman in Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde, and the wigmaker in Richard Strauss’s Ariadne auf Naxos. He is also a member of Apollo’s Singers, the chorus for Cleveland’s Grammy Award–winning period-instrument orchestra, Apollo’s Fire. Prado is a graduate of The Cleveland Institute of Music and currently serves as the director of music at St. Rocco Catholic Church.

Tony F. Sias is the president & CEO of Karamu House, America’s oldest Black producing theater. Under Sias, since 2015, Karamu raised over $14 million for restoration and increased attendance. As a creative, Sias has produced, directed, and performed in over 150 productions. His work has been highlighted nationally in The New York Times, American Theatre Magazine, on NBC’s Today Show with Al Roker, and more.

Sias’s numerous recognitions include the Cleveland Arts Prize (Barbara S. Robinson Prize), Cleveland Magazine’s Community Leader Award, and the Community Leadership Award from the NAACP’s Cleveland Branch. In addition, he serves on the boards of Assembly for the Arts, Cleveland School of the Arts, and the Lake View Cemetery Association.

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.