Cleveland Repertory Orchestra

08/31/2026

𝗦𝗽𝗼𝘁𝗹𝗶𝗴𝗵𝘁: 𝗝𝗼𝗮𝗻 𝗧𝗼𝘄𝗲𝗿 — 𝘔𝘢𝘥𝘦 𝘪𝘯 𝘈𝘮𝘦𝘳𝘪𝘤𝘢

Joan Tower wrote Made in America after spending nine years of her childhood in Bolivia. When she returned to the United States as a teenager, she came back with a specific appreciation for what this country offered.

When she sat down to write this piece, the melody that kept surfacing was "America the Beautiful," which became the main theme. But it never stays intact - it is interrupted, challenged, pulled apart, and put back together throughout the piece. She described it as a musical struggle: the question of how we keep America beautiful.

For our September 12 program, this piece represents something specific: the moment later in the evening of September 11 when members of Congress gathered on the steps of the Capitol and sang "God Bless America." An unscripted, imperfect, very human moment of collective rallying.

Reserve your seat for September 12: https://www.zeffy.com/en-US/ticketing/25-years-after-september--11

08/27/2026

I made a short video about the September 12 concert — why I chose these four pieces, and what I hope the evening feels like. Worth a few minutes of your time.

Reserve your seat: https://www.zeffy.com/en-US/ticketing/25-years-after-september--11

08/26/2026

Our September 12 concert is free to attend — and if you'd like to support it, Musical Chair sponsorships are a great way to support the orchestra.

A chair sponsorship lets you dedicate a seat in the hall to someone meaningful to you. For a concert built around September 11 and its aftermath, that is a meaningful way to contribute.

To learn more about or musical chair sponsorships: https://clevelandrepertoryorchestra.org/musical-chair-sponsorships/

To reserve your seats for our September 12 concert: https://www.zeffy.com/en-US/ticketing/25-years-after-september--11

08/24/2026

𝗦𝗽𝗼𝘁𝗹𝗶𝗴𝗵𝘁: 𝗛𝗼𝘄𝗮𝗿𝗱 𝗛𝗮𝗻𝘀𝗼𝗻 — 𝘌𝘭𝘦𝘨𝘺 𝘪𝘯 𝘔𝘦𝘮𝘰𝘳𝘺 𝘰𝘧 𝘚𝘦𝘳𝘨𝘦 𝘒𝘰𝘶𝘴𝘴𝘦𝘷𝘪𝘵𝘻𝘬𝘺

The second piece on our September 12 program is Howard Hanson's Elegy in Memory of Serge Koussevitzky, written in 1956 for the 75th anniversary of the Boston Symphony Orchestra.

Koussevitzky had led the BSO for twenty-five years and was one of the great champions of American music. Hanson, whose own symphonies had premiered in Boston under Koussevitzky's baton, wrote this piece after his friend's death in 1951.

The Elegy opens with a slow, atmospheric string melody that gradually builds. It's deeply-felt music written by someone who had great affection for his departed friend.

In the arc of our September 12 program, this is the piece of grief. After the disorientation of Ives' Unanswered Question, Hanson forces us to grieve loss.

Reserve your seat: https://www.zeffy.com/en-US/ticketing/25-years-after-september--11

08/20/2026

𝗦𝗽𝗼𝘁𝗹𝗶𝗴𝗵𝘁: 𝗖𝗵𝗮𝗿𝗹𝗲𝘀 𝗜𝘃𝗲𝘀 — 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘜𝘯𝘢𝘯𝘴𝘸𝘦𝘳𝘦𝘥 𝘘𝘶𝘦𝘴𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯

Our September 12 concert opens with one of the most quietly unsettling pieces in the American orchestral canon.

Charles Ives wrote The Unanswered Question in 1908. A solo trumpet repeats the same phrase seven times — what Ives called "the Perennial Question of Existence" — while a woodwind quartet tries, and ultimately fails, to answer it. The strings play underneath it all, slow and largely unchanging, representing what Ives described as "the Silence of the Druids." The three groups play in independent tempos and are placed separately onstage.

We open with this piece for a reason: in the immediate aftermath of September 11, many of us were left with exactly what this piece represents, a question with no answer.

Reserve your seat: https://www.zeffy.com/en-US/ticketing/25-years-after-september--11

08/17/2026

Tickets are now available for our September 12 concert — New Morning: Twenty-Five Years After September 11.

The program features Charles Ives' The Unanswered Question, Howard Hanson's Elegy in Memory of Serge Koussevitzky, Joan Tower's Made in America, and Joseph Schwantner's New Morning for the World, with words by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. narrated by Dr. Todd Kitchen, President of Tri-C Eastern Campus and U.S. Army veteran.

Saturday, September 12 at 7:00 PM. Mandel Humanities Center at Cuyahoga Community College Eastern Campus, 4250 Richmond Rd., Highland Hills. Free admission, pay-what-you-will.

Reserve your seat: https://www.zeffy.com/en-US/ticketing/25-years-after-september--11

Experience live orchestral music in Cleveland. Discover upcoming concerts, guest artists, and accessible performances with the Cleveland Repertory Orchestra.

07/23/2026

Cleveland musicians! We have vacancies in violin, harp, and bassoon this season. Musicians receive a small honorarium per concert cycle.

If you or someone you know might be interested, please consider auditioning. And spread the word!

https://www.clevelandrepertoryorchestra.org/auditions

07/22/2026

Remember! Our November concert is being broadcast tonight on WCLV's Ovations program at 8 PM!
Tune into 90.3 FM or listen online at www.ideastream.org

07/20/2026

WCLV will be broadcasting our concert from November 8 as part of their Ovations series this Wednesday, July 22 at 8 PM. The music featured will be Adolphus Hailstork’s Fanfare on Amazing Grace, Florence Price’s Andante moderato, The “Montgomery Variations” by Margaret Bonds, and Antonín Dvořák’s American Suite.

You can listen by tuning into 90.3 FM or online at www.ideastream.org.

07/16/2026

🌟 Be a part of something special! By sponsoring a musician in the Cleveland Repertory Orchestra, your contribution helps sustain the CRO while giving you a personal connection to your favorite musicians and access to exclusive benefits. Learn how you can make an impact today!

Find out more:
https://clevelandrepertoryorchestra.org/musical-chair-sponsorships/