CIM Orchestra and The Cleveland Orchestra unveil unique partnership with expanded season at Severance Music Center

Today, the only thing standing between the Cleveland Institute of Music and The Cleveland Orchestra is a short stretch of East Blvd.  

More than mere neighbors, CIM and The Cleveland Orchestra are now partners. Through a unique arrangement announced Thursday, the two pillars of music in Cleveland will collaborate and share resources as never before. CIM’s relationship with The Cleveland Orchestra now goes further and deeper than any other partnership in America between a school of music and a major orchestra.    

“We’re entering a new era with our friends at The Cleveland Orchestra,” said Paul Hogle, CIM’s president & CEO. “The time has come for our two storied institutions, which already have so much in common, to work together more closely. We could not be more excited about the impact this will have.”  

The primary thrust of the partnership is generating more opportunities for CIM students to perform at Severance Music Center, one of the finest concert venues in the world.  Most years in the past, the CIM Orchestra gave two or three concerts at Severance. This year, under the new partnership, it will give seven, more than doubling an experience CIM regards as vital to a world-class musical education. 

That’s not all. Through the partnership, CIM also gains access to the audio and video equipment and staff The Cleveland Orchestra uses to record and broadcast concerts, and certain guest artists appearing with The Cleveland Orchestra will work with CIM students. Two who visited CIM recently were conductor Michael Tilson Thomas and composer Joan Tower.  

The Cleveland Orchestra also has generously enabled CIM to expand its free ticket program to include preparatory and Joint Music Program students, and to help promote concerts by the CIM Orchestra. In return, CIM will give The Cleveland Orchestra and Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra rehearsal, performance and classroom space throughout the year as needed. 

The new partnership between CIM and The Cleveland Orchestra strengthens a long-standing connection between the two groups. Thirty-five members of the orchestra currently serve on CIM’s faculty, and 31 members are alumni. CIM is proud to claim more alumni as members of The Cleveland Orchestra than any other US conservatory. The two organizations also share board members, donors and audience members.  

“The Cleveland Orchestra has been committed to education in this community since its beginnings in 1918 and throughout the course of our 105-year history,” said André Gremillet, the orchestra’s president and CEO. “That dedication continues with today’s announcement of an extended partnership with our University Circle neighbor: the Cleveland Institute of Music.  

“With several Cleveland Orchestra musicians already among the faculty at the Cleveland Institute of Music, many of whom are also CIM alumni, this collaboration provides their students the increased opportunity to also rehearse and perform at Mandel Concert Hall in historic Severance Music Center. We’re excited to help cultivate a more enriching educational experience for the next generation of musicians.”  

The new partnership kicks off Saturday, September 24 at Severance Music Center. On that day, after comments by Hogle and Gremillet, the CIM Orchestra will present the first concert of its 2022-23 Severance season, details of which are outlined below.  

This concert also serves as the launch of the CIM Orchestra’s first full season under principal conductor and director of orchestral studies Carlos Kalmar, appointed in 2021, and a belated public celebration of CIM’s centennial, which quietly passed in fall 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Over the course of his Severance season, Kalmar will present an exciting mix of core repertoire including symphonies by Bruckner, Stravinsky and Brahms, and new music, notably The Eleventh Hour by CIM alumnus Julián Fueyo (BM ’20, Fitch). Later this season, on April 12, the CIM Orchestra will welcome JoAnn Falletta, the Grammy Award-winning music director of the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra and CIM artistic advisor and visiting faculty in orchestral studies.  

“I have put together programs that are beneficial to our students and intriguing to our listeners in Cleveland,” Kalmar said. “As our relationship with each other and our audience at Severance Music Center deepens over time, I look forward to challenging our musicians and listeners in refreshing new ways. I personally want to thank The Cleveland Orchestra for providing us this remarkable opportunity.”  

The second CIM Orchestra concert of the season follows on Wednesday, October 5, also at Severance. Like all performances on the CIM Orchestra’s season, both concerts are free with tickets required, and tickets to both are available now through The Severance Music Center box office at clevelandorchestra.com and 216.231.1111.  

 

CIM Orchestra’s 2022-23 Severance Music Center Season 

All programs are conducted by Carlos Kalmar, unless otherwise noted. All programs begin at 7:30pm at Severance Music Center, 11001 Euclid Ave., Cleveland. All concerts are free, but tickets are required. The orchestra’s complete schedule for 2022-23 will be available at cim.edu/events.  

September 24 

HAYDN Symphony No. 92 in G Major, Hob. I:92, “Oxford” 
FUEYO The Eleventh Heaven (2018) 
MONTGOMERY Records from a Vanishing City (2016) 
RAVEL Daphnis et Chloé Suite No. 2 

October 5 

LIGETI Atmosphères (1961) 
GINASTERA Variaciones Concertantes, Op. 23 
BRAHMS Symphony No. 4 in E minor, Op. 98 

November 22 

MESSIAEN L’Ascension (1932) 
BRUCKNER Symphony No. 4 in E-flat Major 

February 1, 2023 

SCHUBERT Rosamunde Overture 
KORNGOLD Violin Concerto in D Major, Op. 35 
Minchae Kim, violin, student artist 
BEETHOVEN Symphony No. 8 in F Major, Op. 93 
ROSSINI William Tell Overture 

February 8, 2023 

PRANGCHAROEN Phenomenon (2004) 
LISZT Totentanz 
Soo Ji Lee, piano, student artist 
TCHAIKOVSKY Orchestral Suite No. 3 in G Major, Op. 55 

April 4, 2023  

PÄRT Fratres (1983/1991) 
STRAVINSKY Jeu de Cartes 
BRAHMS Symphony No. 4 in E minor, Op. 98 

April 12, 2023 

TOWER Tambor (1998) 
ROUSSEL Bacchus et Ariane Suite No. 2  
RIMSKY-KORSAKOV Scheherazade, Op. 35 
JoAnn Falletta, conductor