“Nowhere is the Cleveland Orchestra’s audience growing faster than at Blossom Music Center. And yet the group still sees room for improvement,” writes Zachary Lewis in Sunday’s (1/25) Plain Dealer (Cleveland). “As evidenced by its just-announced 2015 Blossom Music Festival season, the orchestra is still very much engaged in the business of attracting new listeners…. A 2015 season [will target] multiple tastes and demographic groups, often in the same weekend…. The orchestra will present a Baroque night as well as substantial works” by Bartók, Sibelius, Dvorák, Elgar, and Mahler. “For the season opener, music director Franz Welser-Möst will conduct both Messiaen’s ‘L’Ascension’ meditations and Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9.” Chief Marketing Officer Ross Binnie “said the orchestra this summer invested more heavily than usual in acts from the rock, jazz and Broadway spheres. Scattered evenly throughout the season are vocalist Michael Feinstein, conductors Jack Everly and Richard Kaufman, and the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis…. The festival will continue to include two other tried-and-true offerings: ‘Under 18s Free’ … and a Blossom policy allowing lawn ticket holders to occupy certain sections of the pavilion. Both have proved surefire hits when it comes to creating new fans.”
Posted January 28, 2015
