P H OTO BY M I C H A E L P O E H N
Franz Welser-Möst Music Director Kelvin Smith Family Endowed Chair The Cleveland Orchestra
Franz Welser-Möst is among today’s most distinguished conductors. The 2017-18 season marks his sixteenth year as music director of The Cleveland Orchestra, with the future of this acclaimed partnership extending into the next decade. The New York Times has declared Cleveland under Welser-Möst’s direction to be the “best American orchestra“ for its virtuosity, elegance of sound, variety of color, and chamber-like musical cohesion. The Cleveland Orchestra has been repeatedly praised for its innovative programming, support for new musical works, and for its renewed success in semi-staged and staged opera productions. Franz Welser-Möst and The Cleveland Orchestra are frequent guests at many prestigious concert halls and festivals around the world, including regular appearances in Vienna, New York, and Miami, and at the festivals of Salzburg and Lucerne. In the past decade, The Cleveland Orchestra has been hugely successSeverance Hall 2017-18
Music Director
ful in building up a new and, notably, younger audience through groundbreaking programs involving families, students, and universities. As a guest conductor, Mr. WelserMöst enjoys a close and productive relationship with the Vienna Philharmonic. His recent performances with the Philharmonic have included critically-acclaimed opera productions at the Salzburg Festival (Strauss’s Der Rosenkavalier in 2014, Beethoven’s Fidelio in 2015, Strauss’s Die Liebe der Danae in 2016, and Reimann’s Lear in 2017), as well as appearances at New York’s Carnegie Hall, at the Lucerne Festival, and in concert at La Scala Milan. He has conducted the Philharmonic’s celebrated annual New Year’s Day concert twice, viewed by millions worldwide. Last season, he led the Vienna Philharmonic in performances in Vienna and America, featuring three concerts at Carnegie Hall. He returns to the Salzburg Festival in 2018 for a new production of Strauss’s Salome. Mr. Welser-Möst also maintains relationships with a number of other European orchestras and opera companies. His 2017-18 schedule includes concerts with the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic, Zurich’s Tonhalle Orchestra, Orchestre de Paris, Leipzig Gewandhaus, Amsterdam’s Royal Concertgebouw, and Milan’s Filarmonica della Scala, as well as leading a gala with the Shanghai Grand Opera. From 2010 to 2014, Franz WelserMöst served as general music director of the Vienna State Opera. His partnership with the company included an acclaimed new production of Wagner’s Ring cycle and a series of critically-praised new pro-
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