Hopes remain for Cleveland Orchestra’s IU performance

To ring in the new year, the IU Auditorium welcomes a world-renowned musical group to open its doors in 2010.

The Cleveland Orchestra, one of the country’s premier symphonic ensembles, is scheduled to take up residency at the IU Auditorium Jan. 18–20. The residency, sponsored in part by the Jacobs School of Music, will cap off the three-day educational experience with a concert. Students from the music school will have the opportunity to work with various members of the orchestra, including conductor Franz Welser-Möst.

However, because of a contract dispute between the musicians and management, the possibility of a strike beginning on Monday could disrupt the scheduled residency. According to a Cleveland.com article published Tuesday, the IU performance is most at risk because its initial date coincides with the first possible day without a musicians’ contract. A second, later residency in Miami indicates stronger ticket sales, bolstering its chance of production.

“There’s always a worry,” Gwyn Richards, dean of the Jacobs School of Music, said in the Cleveland.com article. “We’re just innocent bystanders. But we have high hopes.”
Doug  Booher, director of the IU Auditorium, said that this would be the orchestra’s first performance in Bloomington since 1981. Despite the contract strike, Booher said he believes the group will fulfill its contract and perform next week.

“We’ve been in daily talks with the orchestra, and they’re still very hopeful that they’ll be here for their performance next week,” Booher said.

Maria Talbert, events manager for the IU Auditorium, said they have been told the performers plan to come.

“We are looking forward to them arriving on Monday,” Talbert said.

Should the group renegotiate their contract and begin their residency on Monday, a scenario that Booher said would most likely happen, a series of events has been scheduled to provide an educational experience for various groups of students at the University.

“The Cleveland Orchestra was interested in bringing their entire orchestra for a couple of days to tie in a lot of different activities in the life of the university,” Booher said.

On Monday, the orchestra is planned to host master classes with students from the Jacobs School, as well as panels about orchestral management for students majoring in arts management.

On Tuesday, Welser-Möst will work with the IU Philharmonic, while the orchestra’s associate conductor will work with both members of the Cleveland

Orchestra and members of the Jacobs school in a side-by-side rehearsal. A full listing of the programs can be found at www.iuauditorium.com, Booher said.

The Cleveland Orchestra will cap off the week’s activities with a performance at the IU Auditorium. Booher said tickets are still available at the box office and online. Student prices start at $24, while general admission prices begin at $43. In the event that the orchestra foregoes its residency as part of the strike and reschedules, tickets can be exchanged for another show or refunded by the box office. A cancellation of the event without rescheduling will result in a full refund.

Booher said the chance to see one of the country’s premiere orchestras is a great opportunity, both for students and the general public.

“The opportunity to hear the Cleveland Orchestra perform here on our campus is one that is pretty monumental,” he said. “This is the first time we’ve had one of the top symphony orchestras in the country play in Bloomington since 1991, and the opportunity to hear this absolutely phenomenally talented ensemble perform here and fill the auditorium with the lush sounds of a full orchestra is definitely not to be missed.”