The Cleveland Orchestra has announced a fifth year of Summers@Severance concerts on Friday nights at Severance Hall. The summer series offers a unique, enjoyable atmosphere to hear the Orchestra and socialize with friends or family in the open-air beauty of University Circle. The series of orchestra concerts will take place July 27, August 10, and August 24, 2018, featuring a range of music from Brahms to Bartók to Mozart. Series tickets (all three concerts as a package) for the Summers@Severance series are now on sale through the Severance Hall Ticket Office or online at clevelandorchestra.com. Individual concert tickets go on sale beginning Tuesday, May 1, 2018.

The Summers@Severance series was created to showcase The Cleveland Orchestra’s summertime offerings as an integral part of its home neighborhood all year round. The series presents concerts of well-known classical works, with an early start time surrounded by convenient pre- and post-concert opportunities to socialize. The Front Terrace of Severance Hall will be open before and after each concert, with beverage/food service and seating areas. Special “happy hour” drink prices will be offered in the hour prior to each concert, with guests encouraged to arrive early and enjoy the outdoors.

This year’s Summers@Severance series opens July 27 when famed conductor Herbert Blomstedt returns to lead the Orchestra in Brahms’s Symphony No. 4. Blomstedt, a frequent Cleveland Orchestra collaborator who last led the Orchestra in 2016, will celebrate his 91st birthday on July 11 — “…there is still something astonishing about the pace being kept by the Swedish maestro...” wrote The New York Times.

On August 10, Vasily Petrenko will conduct a program featuring Elgar’s tone poem “In the South” and the Concerto for Orchestra by Bartók. Last summer, Petrenko led the Orchestra at Blossom Music Center. The young Russian conductor is currently chief conductor of The Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra and of the Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra.

Summers@Severance concludes on August 24 with conductor Jonathan Cohen leading the Orchestra in a performance of Haydn’s Piano Concerto No. 11 in D Major, featuring South-African born pianist Kristian Bezuidenhout, and Mozart’s Symphony No. 25, featured prominently in the film Amadeus. Cohen and Bezuidenhout will both be making their Cleveland Orchestra debut.

Series tickets (all three concerts as a package) for the Summers@Severance series start at $60 and are now on sale through the Severance Hall Ticket Office or online at clevelandorchestra.com. Individual tickets go on sale beginning May 1, 2018 and start at $25. 

For more information about purchasing tickets, call Cleveland Orchestra Ticket Services at 216-231-1111 or 800-686-1141, or visit clevelandorchestra.com.  Severance Hall Second Century Fund: a $2.00 charge on individual tickets will support the conservation and enhancement of Severance Hall.