The university’s Performing Arts Center celebrates its 10th anniversary season with the Athens debut of the internationally renowned Cleveland Orchestra Jan. 25 at 8 p.m. in Hodgson Concert Hall.
Tickets are $65 (rear balcony) and $75 (orchestra/front balcony). Tickets are half price for UGA students with a valid ID.
Long considered one of America’s great orchestras, the Cleveland Orchestra stands today among the world’s most revered symphonic ensembles. The orchestra’s Athens engagement will be its first Georgia appearance in more than 20 years and the only one in the state this season.
The Cleveland Orchestra was founded in 1918 under the direction of Russian-American conductor Nikolai Sokoloff, who initiated an extensive domestic touring schedule, educational concerts, commercial recordings and radio broadcasts. Under current music director Franz Welser-Möst, the orchestra made the first of regular European Festival Tours in August 2004. This critically acclaimed tour included performances at the Edinburgh Festival and the beginning of an annual series of appearances at the Lucerne Festival.
The 2003-2004 season marked the start of twice yearly residencies in Vienna by the Cleveland Orchestra under Welser-Möst’s direction. The celebrated performances were the first such residencies by an American orchestra in the history of the famed Musikverein.
Vladimir Ashkenazy will conduct the Cleveland Orchestra’s Athens performance. Maestro Ashkenazy served as chief conductor and music director of Deutsches Symphonie Orchester Berlin from 1988 to 1996 and as chief conductor of the Czech Philharmonic from 1998 to 2003. In 2004 he was named music director of the NHK Symphony Orchestra in Tokyo.
A pre-concert lecture will be given by Mark Cedel, director of the UGA Symphony. The lecture begins 45 minutes prior to the concert and is free and open to the public.
