Introducing The Severances
John L. Severance, President of the Musical Arts Association from 1921 to 1936, and his wife Elisabeth DeWitt Severance, outside their home in Cleveland Heights in 1925. The Severances were longtime supporters of the Orchestra, including paying the first-season salary of Nikolai Sokoloff, first music director of the Orchestra, and in 1928, giving a $1 million gift to the Musical Arts Association as seed money for the creation of a fund to build a permanent home for The Cleveland Orchestra.