Severance Music Center 2023-24 Severance Season

Trifonov
Plays Brahms

Sep 28 & Oct 1

“Without question the most astounding pianist of our age.” — The Times. 

Tchaikovsky’s Second Symphony

Oct 5-7

Tchaikovsky considered Ukraine a second home and refuge and he began work on this symphony that creatively incorporates Ukrainian folk songs.

Mahler's Song of the Night

Oct 12 & 13

“Armed with his dark, handsome baritone he unveiled multiple layers of meaning in every song, every stanza and occasionally, in a single line”— The Financial Times.

Renée Fleming and Friends

Oct 15

The Cleveland Orchestra presents soprano Renée Fleming, the Emerson String Quartet, pianist Simone Dinnerstein, and special guest actress Merle Dandridge in one-night only performance of music from Beethoven to Previn.

Eric Whitacre Conducts The Cleveland Orchestra Chorus

Oct 20

Whitacre leads The Cleveland Orchestra Chorus in a deeply profound and moving choral work that grapples with love, loss, and its ensuing grief.

Hannigan Conducts Strauss

Nov 9-11

Embodying music with an unparalleled dramatic sensibility, soprano and conductor Barbara Hannigan is an artist at the forefront of creation. Barbara Hannigan’s performance is generously sponsored by Tony and Diane Wynshaw-Boris.

Tchaikovsky's Violin Concerto

Nov 24-26

Tchaikovsky’s lushly romantic violin concerto is filled with soaring melodies and gypsy rhythms and showcases the composer’s lyric genius. 

Mahler’s Fourth Symphony

Nov 30 - Dec 2

Mahler’s Fourth Symphony paints an uplifting picture of earthly afterlife, a child’s vison of heaven as a place filled with earthly delights and tuneful melodies.

Tchaikovsky's Romeo & Juliet

Dec 7 & 9

Always a favorite of Cleveland audiences, the Labèques return to perform the Martinů’s tour de force concerto for two pianos.

CYRUS CHESTNUT & FRIENDS: A CHARLIE BROWN CHRISTMAS

Dec 8

Acclaimed jazz pianist Cyrus Chestnut performs the Peanuts’ holiday favorites like “Linus and Lucy,” “Christmas Time is Here,” and “O Tannebaum” from Vince Guaraldi’s classic score.

Holiday Concerts

Dec 13-23

*These concerts are not included in subscription packages for the 2023-24 Classical Season at Severance.

Elf in Concert

Dec 19-20

This holiday season, relive this heartwarming holiday classic on a giant screen as every note of John Debney’s wonderful score is played live to picture in: Elf in Concert!

The Miraculous Mandarin

Jan 11-13

The Miraculous Mandarin is a sumptuous, erotic ballet telling a fantastical tale of a girl forced to act as a decoy by thugs, luring a wealthy mandarin to his tragic fate.

Prokofiev 2 & 5

Jan 17 & 18

“[The Fifth Symphony is] the greatest musical event in many, many years. The greatest since Brahms and Tchaikovsky! It is magnificent! It is yesterday, it is today, it is tomorrow.” — Time

Beethoven’s Fateful Fifth

Feb 9-11

“Fate knocking at the door.” Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony opens with perhaps the four most famous notes in all of music. Revolutionary in its time, it is now perhaps the best-known piece of music in history. 

Ravel’s Mother Goose

Feb 15 & 17

Themes of nostalgia, childhood, and the passage of time abound in this whimsical concert, which concludes with Ravel’s enchanting ballet score.

The Princess Bride

Feb 16, 2024

Fencing, fighting, torture, revenge, giants, monsters, chases, escapes, true love, miracles.

Beethoven’s Pastoral

Feb 22-25

Inspired by the countryside, in Beethoven’s “Pastoral,” his most programmatic symphony, you can hear the rolling of thunder, a joyous country dance, and the calling of a shepherd’s pipes.

Kanneh-Mason Plays Schumann

Feb 29 - Mar 2

Isata Kanneh-Mason drew popular and critical acclaim when her debut album “Romance – the Piano Music of Clara Schumann” rocketed to No. 1 on the UK classical charts.

Brahms’s Fourth Symphony

Mar 7-9

The piccolo takes an unusual solo turn when the Orchestra’s principal piccolo, Mary Kay Fink, performs a work commissioned for her from Zehavi.

Mozart & Bruckner

Mar 14, 16 & 17

Igor Levit, called “one of the essential artists of our time” (The New York Times) returns to Cleveland after his astounding debut.

Sibelius’s Second Symphony

Mar 21-23

With its rich, sweeping melodies and powerful brass chorales, the Second Symphony has become one of Sibelius’s most famous works.

City Noir

Apr 4 & 6

Inspired by the peculiar ambience and mood of Los Angeles ‘noir’ films, Adams' City Noir contrasts with the more pastorale mood of this concert’s opening works.

Elgar’s Cello Concerto

Apr 11-13

Called “the fast rising star of conducting” Klaus Mäkelä returns to conduct a program highlighting the works of British conductors.

The Rite of Spring

Apr 18-20

Stravinsky’s ballet The Rite of Spring scandalized listeners at its premiere in 1913, but the work has since stood the test of time as one of the composer’s finest creations and one of the greatest orchestral works of the 20th century.

Rachmaninoff’s Second Piano Concerto

Apr 26-28

Rachmaninoff wrote of his Second Piano Concerto, “What I try to do when writing down my music is to make it say simply and directly what is in my heart.”

Lang Lang Plays Saint-Saëns

May 2 & 4

“The hottest artist on the classical music planet” (The New York Times), superstar Lang Lang plays sold-out concerts in all continents of the globe; he returns to Cleveland to perform Saint-Saëns most popular concerto.

Berlioz’s Symphonie Fantastique

May 3 matinee

The Cleveland Orchestra's Music Director, Franz Welser-Möst, conducts Symphonie fantastique.

Mozart’s Gran Partita

May 23 & 25

Known to contemporary audiences through the movie Amadeus, Mozart’s Serenade for winds was taken from obscurity to immortality as Salieri is transfixed by his introduction to the composer’s music.

Mozart’s The Magic Flute

May 16 - 26

One of the greatest operas ever written, Mozart’s timeless classic is about the search for truth and reason, love and enlightenment, the human and the supernatural.

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Marc-André Hamelin in RecitalSchumann & Ravel

Nov 19

Marc-André Hamelin is recognized the world over for his unrivaled blend of consummate musicianship and brilliant technique.

Ax, Kavakos, Ma Trio in Recital Beethoven for Three

Feb 1

Legendary artists Emanuel Ax, Leonidas Kavakos, and Yo-Yo Ma unite to perform an evening of Beethoven.

Beethoven for Three is generously sponsored by Jenny and Tim Smucker and an Anonymous donor through the Guest Artists Circle.

Yefim Bronfman in RecitalChopin & Schubert

Mar 10

Yefim Bronfman makes a rare recital appearance performing masterpieces by Schubert, Schumann, and Chopin.

Kissin & Goerne in RecitalSchumann & Brahms

Apr 14

Two great artists unite for what promises to be a dazzling, unforgettable evening of music.