The Cleveland Orchestra onstage at Severance Hall.
In Thursday’s (2/22) Cleveland Plain Dealer, Paris Wolfe writes, “Cleveland’s Jim and Myrna Spira have donated $4.6 million to the Cleveland Orchestra. Their gift, announced Thursday, will support artistic programming and the orchestra’s pension fund and annual fund. The gift also endows the Myrna and Jim Spira Bass Clarinet Chair, currently occupied by Amy Zoloto. A long-time supporter of the orchestra, Jim Spira joined its board of trustees in 2014. He is a longtime Cleveland businessman who developed a series of successful consulting companies…. A native of Cleveland, Jim Spira’s interest in music started young…. He shared his love for music with his son. Spira and his wife, Myrna, settled in Cleveland after he earned his MBA from The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania graduate school. They soon became active supporters of The Cleveland Orchestra. That relationship has grown over the years. ‘I just grew up feeling that music is a very important part of human life,’ Spira said. ‘Music frees you from a confined space and allows your heart and soul to move freely. It touches your heart in a unique way.’ ”
