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Address | 11001 Euclid Avenue Cleveland, Ohio United States |
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Coordinates | 41°30′23″N81°36′34″W / 41.50639°N 81.60944°W |
Owner | Musical Arts Association |
Operator | Cleveland Orchestra |
Capacity | Concert hall: 2,000 Reinberger Chamber Hall: 402 |
Construction | |
Opened | February 5, 1931 |
Reopened | 2000 |
Architect | Walker and Weeks |
Website | |
clevelandorchestra |
Severance Hall, also known as Severance Music Center, [1] is a concert hall in the University Circle neighborhood of Cleveland, Ohio, home to the Cleveland Orchestra. Opened in 1931 to give the orchestra a permanent home, the building is named for patrons John L. Severance and his wife, Elisabeth Huntingdon DeWitt Severance. [2] It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places as part of Cleveland’s Wade Park District. [3]
In addition to serving as the Cleveland Orchestra’s home and as a commencement site for Case Western Reserve University, Severance Hall is available to rent for concerts, weddings, corporate events, and receptions. On Severance Hall’s ground floor is Reinberger Chamber Hall, a separate 402-seat auditorium that is frequently used for more intimate performances and pre-concert lectures.
Founded in 1918, the Cleveland Orchestra first performed at Grays Armory in downtown Cleveland and moved to the Masonic Auditorium for concerts during the 1920s. [4] But both buildings also hosted other types of events that occasionally created scheduling conflicts for the Orchestra, including, most famously, twice when the ensemble had to find an alternate location because of a poultry exhibition. [5] The Orchestra’s administration soon came to realize the advantages that having a permanent concert hall would bring to the ensemble's performances, rehearsals, and radio broadcasts.
After encouragement from Cleveland Orchestra founder Adella Prentiss Hughes and music director Nikolai Sokoloff, plans for Severance Hall began to emerge based on a plot of land offered by Western Reserve University (now Case Western Reserve University) at a leasing cost of $1.00 per year [6] and potential funds contributed by the general public and local philanthropists. [7] During a gala concert celebrating the Orchestra’s tenth-anniversary, Dudley Blossom, an early benefactor, announced that John L. Severance, president of the Musical Arts Association, and his wife, Elisabeth, had pledged $1 million to the construction of a new hall. [8] In support of an associated fundraising campaign, Blossom and his wife donated $750,000 the following day. [8] Though Elisabeth Severance died in 1929, John Severance was determined to see the project through to its completion and intended for the concert hall to serve as a de facto memorial to his late wife. Despite a collapse of the United States’ economy in 1929, the groundbreaking for Severance Hall was held on November 14, 1929 and Severance’s contribution eventually ballooned to more than $2.6 million. [9] The concert hall was designed by the Cleveland firm of Walker & Weeks, [10] which had also built Cleveland’s Federal Reserve Bank and Public Library. [11] Severance Hall opened on February 5, 1931, hosting a gala concert broadcast live across the radio to mark the occasion. [12]
As the use of taxis and chauffeured vehicles declined, Severance Hall’s tiled drive-through entrance was closed in 1970. A dining area was created in the resulting space. Later, one of the access corridors on the ground floor was converted into a dressing room for female orchestra members (harpist Alice Chalifoux had used her instrument case to dress in the late 1930s and early 1940s, when she was one of the few women in the ensemble). [13]
Beginning in 1998, Severance Hall underwent an extensive two-year, $36 million restoration and expansion led by architect David M. Schwarz. The renovated building reopened in January 2000, winning a National Preservation Honor Award. [14] The most significant aesthetic change was the replacement of the “Szell Shell” with a new shell that combined the acoustics of the old model with a decorative style in harmony with the rest of the hall. [15] The stage included a place for the relocation of the Orchestra’s newly-restored Ernest M. Skinner organ. [16] The project also created a street-level lobby, a new restaurant, and additional offices for the Orchestra’s administrative staff. [15]
On September 30, 2021, the Cleveland Orchestra and Musical Arts Association announced that it would rename the venue Severance Music Center. [17] [18]
Designed by Cleveland firm Walker & Weeks, Severance Hall is located at the intersection of Euclid Avenue and East Boulevard. The front entrance features a grand lobby in the form of a domed rotunda, with the main auditorium and various service spaces spread out in a conjoined fan. The building’s exterior was designed to complement the nearby Cleveland Museum of Art, featuring a neoclassical portico [19] and an Art Deco relief by New York sculptor Henry Hering.
The interior of Severance Hall features a variety of architectural styles, including Art Deco and elements of Egyptian Revival. The Grand Foyer is surrounded by marble columns and decorated with papyrus and lotus flower patterns that are used in a number of places. [20] The main concert hall features a silvery aluminum leaf ceiling with designs based on 18th-century English point lace. [20] [21] [22]
Shortly after the opening of Severance Hall, several acoustic problems were noted. These were attributed to the use of velvet curtains in audience boxes, thick carpet across much of the hall, and a large, sound-absorbing fly space located above the stage. [23] In addition, removable shells created for the Orchestra were constructed of materials that didn't reflect sound. Finally, the 6,025-pipe Ernest M. Skinner organ could be heard, but its positioning outside the auditorium itself was experimental and limited the options for addressing the auditorium's dry acoustics. [24]
In 1958, at the prompting of music director George Szell, an acoustical redesign of the hall was undertaken. To make the auditorium more resonant, the original proscenium and blue velvet curtains were removed and the use of carpet was reduced to a minimum. [25] On the stage, a permanent acoustical shell was built — affectionately known as “The Szell Shell” — which consisted of thick wooden walls formed in a series of convex curves. [26] To make the walls less absorbent and more reflective of sound, they were filled with sand. The result was a more vibrant-sounding space which complemented the Orchestra’s tone under Szell's direction. [27]
Visually, though, the new Modernist stage clashed with the elegant Art Deco design of the concert hall. In addition, the organ's pipe chambers were effectively sealed off from the auditorium by the new shell — rendering the organ non-functional unless its sound was transmitted into the auditorium through microphones and speakers. [27]
Severance Hall was featured in the 1997 Harrison Ford film Air Force One . [28] The scene during the opening credits shows a night-time military raid on the presidential palace of the leader of Kazakhstan. Severance Hall's roof, with additional architectural elements added as set-dressing, was chosen to depict the palace.
A segment of the Cirque du Soleil film, The Journey of Man, was filmed in the main lobby. Shot in 1999 in IMAX, the segment Banquine, utilized the 40 foot ceilings in the Bogomolny-Kozerefski Grand Foyer.[ citation needed ]
The Cleveland Orchestra is an American orchestra based in Cleveland, Ohio. Founded in 1918 by the pianist and impresario Adella Prentiss Hughes, the orchestra is one of the five American orchestras informally referred to as the "Big Five". The orchestra plays most of its concerts at Severance Hall. Its current music director is Franz Welser-Möst.
Erich Leinsdorf was an Austrian-born American conductor. He performed and recorded with leading orchestras and opera companies throughout the United States and Europe, earning a reputation for exacting standards as well as an acerbic personality. He also published books and essays on musical matters.
Lorin Varencove Maazel was an American conductor, violinist and composer. He began conducting at the age of eight and by 1953 had decided to pursue a career in music. He had established a reputation in the concert halls of Europe by 1960 but, by comparison, his career in the U.S. progressed far more slowly. He served as music director of The Cleveland Orchestra, Orchestre National de France, Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, and the New York Philharmonic, among other posts. Maazel was well-regarded in baton technique and possessed a photographic memory for scores. Described as mercurial and forbidding in rehearsal, he mellowed in old age.
George Szell, originally György Széll, György Endre Szél, or Georg Szell, was a Hungarian-born American conductor and composer. Considered one of the twentieth century's greatest conductors, he was music director of the Cleveland Orchestra of Cleveland, Ohio, and recorded much of the standard classical repertoire in Cleveland and with other orchestras.
The Bridgewater Hall is a concert venue in Manchester city centre, England. It cost around £42 million to build in the 1990s, and hosts over 250 performances a year. It is home to the 165-year-old Hallé Orchestra as well as to the Hallé Choir and Hallé Youth Orchestra and it serves as the main concert venue for the BBC Philharmonic.
Orchestra Hall is a concert hall that is located on 11th Street at Peavey Plaza in downtown Minneapolis, Minnesota. The home of the Minnesota Orchestra, it is a major landmark of the southern portion of Nicollet Mall and hosts many events throughout the year, in addition to being the Orchestra's home.
The Bell Telephone Hour, also known as The Telephone Hour, is a concert series broadcast on NBC Radio Network from April 29, 1940 to June 30, 1958. Sponsored by Bell Telephone as the name implies, it showcased the best in classical and Broadway music, reaching eight to nine million listeners each week. It continued on television from 1959 to 1968. Throughout the program's run on both radio and television, the studio orchestra on the program was conducted by Donald Voorhees.
Liverpool Philharmonic Hall is a concert hall in Hope Street, in Liverpool, England. It is the home of the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Society and is recorded in the National Heritage List for England as a designated Grade II* listed building. It is not the original concert hall on the present site; its predecessor was destroyed by fire in 1933 and the present hall was opened in 1939.
Christoph von Dohnányi is a German conductor.
Blossom Music Center, locally referred to simply as Blossom, is an outdoor amphitheatre in Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio, United States. The venue is the summer home of The Cleveland Orchestra and the site of the ensemble’s annual Blossom Festival. Blossom Music Center is owned by the Musical Arts Association, the Orchestra’s parent organization.
Municipal Auditorium is a multi-purpose facility located in Kansas City, Missouri. It opened in 1935 and features Streamline Moderne and Art Deco architecture and architectural details.
Public Auditorium is a multi-purpose performing arts, entertainment, sports, and exposition facility located in the civic center district of downtown Cleveland, Ohio. The 10,000-capacity main auditorium shares its stage with a second venue housed at the facility: the 3,000-capacity Music Hall, and as of 2024 serves as the home arena to the Cleveland Charge of the NBA G League. Although Public Auditorium was planned and funded prior to World War I, construction did not begin until 1920, and the building did not open until 1922. Designed by city architect J. Harold McDowell and Frank Walker of Walker and Weeks in a neoclassical style matching the other Group Plan buildings, it was the largest of its kind when opened, then seating 11,500.
Nikolai Grigoryevich Sokoloff was a Ukrainian-American conductor and violinist.
Walker and Weeks was an architecture firm based in Cleveland, Ohio, founded by Frank Ray Walker and Harry E. Weeks.
Adella Prentiss Hughes was a pianist and impresaria based in Cleveland, Ohio. She is best known for founding The Cleveland Orchestra.
Alice Chalifoux was the principal harpist with the Cleveland Orchestra from 1931 to 1974 and was its only female member for twelve years. Chalifoux learned to play the harp from her mother, studying music at local schools before studying under Carlos Salzedo at the Curtis Institute of Music. She was an authority on his music and took over the Salzedo Summer Harp Colony after his death. She had a reputation as a specialist in orchestral harp technique and a master teacher. She taught at the Cleveland Institute of Music, the Oberlin Conservatory of Music, and the Baldwin-Wallace Conservatory of Music. She continued teaching harp until her death in 2008, at the age of 100. Chalifoux received two honorary degrees for her work. In her personal life, Chalifoux married John Gordon Rideout in 1937 and had one daughter.
The Cleveland Orchestra, which was founded in 1918, was first recorded in 1924. Most of the orchestra's recordings have been made either in its concert home, Severance Hall, or in nearby Masonic Auditorium.
The Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra (COYO) is a group of 100 young musicians, selected from over 45 cities across Ohio and Pennsylvania.
John Long Severance was a businessman and philanthropist in Cleveland, Ohio.
William Thomas Appling was a renowned American conductor, pianist, educator and arranger. As a conductor he led the William Appling Singers & Orchestra for almost twenty-five years and conducted other choirs and musical organizations, premiering new works by many American composers. As a pianist he played under the batons of conductors including Robert Shaw, Louis Lane, and Darius Milhaud, and he was the first African American to record the complete piano music of Scott Joplin. As an educator he taught at American schools and universities including Vassar College, Case Western Reserve University, the Cleveland Institute of Music and Western Reserve Academy. He made a number of recordings as both conductor and pianist, and his choral arrangements have been performed and recorded by such prominent ensembles as Chanticleer, Cantus and Dale Warland Singers.