CityMusic Cleveland’s 21st season of breaking the twin barriers of cost and location with free concerts in Cleveland neighborhoods! Orchestra highlights include 5 guest soloists, 3 works by living American women, and the return of conductors Lorenzo Lopez, Annunziata Tomaro and Stefan Willich. Eliesha Nelson, Sibbi Bernhardsson, and Roman Rabinovich make their CityMusic solo debuts and Chabrelle Williams returns. All concerts remain free to all!

CLEVELAND — CityMusic Cleveland presents its 2024–25 season featuring 16 performances by CityMusic’s acclaimed chamber orchestra in venues around Cleveland and 5 chamber music concerts.

The orchestra season runs October 2024 through May 2025 and includes Margaret Brouwer’s Concerto for Viola and Chamber Orchestra, Caroline Shaw’s Entr’acte, and Gabriela Lena Frank’s Leyendas: An Andean Walk-Around. Concerts also include Bach’s Brandenburg Concerto No. 6, the Serenade No. 2 in A-major of Johannes Brahms, an all-Beethoven and Mozart program featuring Beethoven’s Seventh Symphony and Mozart’s Violin Concerto No. 3, a program of Mendelssohn’s Piano Concerto No. 1, Schubert’s “Unfinished” Symphony and the return of the CityMusic Community Chorus to join in four performances of Gabriel Fauré’s beloved Requiem.

Rising young conductor Lorenzo Lopez, recent winner of the Respighi Prize at New York’s Carnegie Hall, will conduct two programs to open and close the season. Another rising star, Annunziata Tomaro, and veteran founder of the World Doctors Orchestra Stefan Willich will conduct the remaining programs.

CityMusic’s mission is to break down the twin barriers of cost and location by performing free concerts in familiar neighborhood venues. The 2024-2025 season will be presented at St. Stanislaus Church in Slavic Village, Fairmount Presbyterian Church in Cleveland Heights, East Mount Zion Baptist Church in the Fairfax neighborhood, Our Lady of Angels Church in West Park and St. Noel’s Church in Willoughby Hills.

CityMusic’s chamber music series showcases its musicians in small ensembles in the Praxis Fiber Arts Workshop in the North Collinwood/Waterloo Arts District. The 2024-2025 season will include five programs. Performances of quintets by Ney Vasconcelos and Robert Schumann will open the season on September 29, 2024. Other programs include the music of Wolf, Webern and Mendelssohn on January 18, 2025, a Black. History Month celebration concert with works of George Walker, John Coltrane and Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, a commemoration of Holocaust Remembrance Day with works by Gideon Klein and Pavel Haas, and chamber music with clarinet by Valerie Coleman, Mahler and Mozart featuring CityMusic clarinetist Dan Gilbert and pianist Donna Lee.

Double Congratulations to Dr. Ronald and Eugenia Strauss

CityMusic Cleveland congratulates co-founders Ron and Eugenia Strauss for their recent award of the Cleveland Arts Prize, honoring their lifetime of achievement in the arts in Northeast Ohio – and their retirement from CityMusic in June 2024. We thank them for their incredible work founding and sustaining CityMusic for twenty years – making it an indispensable part of Cleveland life, and we wish them well in their next phase of life.

Leadership Transition

Following Eugenia Strauss’s retirement, veteran musician and arts administrator Henry Peyrebrune joined CityMusic as Interim Managing Director. Em Laudeman Ezell was appointed Development Director.

Henry Peyrebrune joins CityMusic Cleveland in June 2024 as Interim Managing Director. His experience includes many years as a bassist in The Cleveland Orchestra, where he also spent eight years as a major gifts officer. He has served as Executive Director of Credo Chamber Music in 2017-2018 and has led the board of NoteWorthy Federal Credit Union since 2010. He also serves on the board of the League of American Orchestras.

A graduate of New England Conservatory, he has served as Principal Bass of the National Arts Centre Orchestra (Canada) and the Portland Symphony Orchestra. He has taught at Baldwin-Wallace Conservatory, the Longy School of Music and the University of Southern Maine.

Based in Cleveland Heights, Em Laudeman Ezell is delighted to be part of the team at CityMusic! Em received her BFA in music theatre from Elon University and her MPA in nonprofit management from Indiana University. As a performer, Em worked professionally in theatre for 15 years where she performed in 27 different musicals across the United States. Since 2013, she's worked in administration and advancement for various arts organizations around the country, including The Cleveland Orchestra and the San Diego Symphony. Em also serves on the board of the Friends of Cain Park. She is the mom of 1 human and 3 dogs, and she enjoys making music, being outdoors, and reading a good book (among other things!)

With Gratitude

With deepest gratitude, CityMusic Cleveland thanks our partners whose vital support brings our concert seasons and programs to life.

Interim Managing Director Henry Peyrebrune said, “It is impossible to adequately express our thanks to all who have made the past twenty years of CityMusic possible – and all those who will make the next twenty years possible. We are grateful that you care enough to want to share CityMusic with your friends and neighbors. Thank you.”