Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra's 2019-20 Season At Severance Hall Announced, Featuring Three Cleveland Premieres

The Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra (COYO) and its music director Vinay Parameswaran announced details of the 2019-20 season. The Youth Orchestra, under Mr. Parameswaran's direction, will perform a three-concert series at Severance Hall on November 15, 2019, March 1, 2020 (with the Cleveland Orchestra Youth Chorus), and May 3, 2020. Subscription packages and individual tickets are on sale now.

The 2019-20 season marks Vinay Parameswaran's third as music director of the Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra and as assistant conductor of The Cleveland Orchestra.

"I've tried to create a group that's versatile, that's equally comfortable playing Mozart as it is playing a piece written this year," said Mr. Parameswaran. "This new crop of students is up to the task; they realize the expectations we have in the group and they're fitting in seamlessly. This season is really a season of exploration. The majority of the works that we're playing have never been played by COYO before, and one work on each of the three concerts has never been played in Cleveland before, so it allows us to showcase the versatility of this orchestra. It's going to be an exciting and challenging season for us, but all of us in the Cleveland community should be proud of what these young musicians can accomplish."

The Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra's 2019-20 Severance Hall season begins on Friday, November 15, 2019, at 8:00 p.m. with a program featuring the Cleveland premiere of American composer Sarah Kirkland Snider's Something for the Dark, a piece originally commissioned by the Detroit Symphony Orchestra in 2016. The evening also includes Shostakovich's Cello Concerto No. 1 - performed by Annie Zhang, co-winner of the 2019 COYO Concerto Competition - and Sibelius's Symphony No.2.

The Youth Orchestra's Severance Hall concert series continues on Sunday, March 1, 2020, at 7:00 p.m. The Cleveland Orchestra Youth Chorus joins the Youth Orchestra in performances of Mendelssohn's Hear My Prayer (soprano soloist to be announced) and the Cleveland premiere of Arvo Pärt's In Principio. The concert will conclude with the 1945 suite from Stravinsky's The Firebird.

The Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra's third and final concert will be on Sunday, May 3, 2020, at 3:00 p.m. The program begins with the Cleveland premiere of Tumblebird Contrails by Gabriella Smith, an American composer who was a classmate of Mr. Parameswaran at the Curtis Institute of Music. The concert also features a concerto spotlighting the winner of this season's Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra Concerto Competition, and Debussy's La Mer.

In addition to performances at Severance Hall, the COYO season includes concerts in nearby communities by both the full orchestra and by chamber ensembles comprised of COYO members. A Prelude Concert, featuring Youth Orchestra members performing chamber music, begins one hour before each Severance Hall concert in Reinberger Chamber Hall.

As part of an ongoing partnership with ideastream to provide greater access to music and culture, WCLV Classical 104.9 will present a live broadcast on-air and online of each of the three COYO concerts at Severance Hall during the 2019-20 season.

The Under 18s Free ticket program is available for all Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra performances. The Under 18s Free program offers complimentary tickets (one per regular-priced adult paid admission) to young people ages 7-17. The free tickets eligible for this program must be obtained through the Severance Hall Ticket Office. Under 18s Free is a program for young people, supported by The Cleveland Orchestra's Center for Future Audiences. The Center, created with a lead endowment gift from the Maltz Family Foundation, was established to fund programs to develop new generations of audiences for Cleveland Orchestra concerts in Northeast Ohio.

Three-concert subscriptions to the Youth Orchestra's 2019-20 Severance Hall season are currently on sale for $30 per seat, or $60 for a box seat. One Under 18s Free subscription is available with each adult subscription purchased (box seat subscriptions are not available in the Under 18s Free program). For more information or to order the three-concert package, call Cleveland Orchestra Ticket Services at 216-231-1111 or 800-686-1141, or visit clevelandorchestra.com.

Individual performance tickets are available for $15 per seat or $25 for a box seat. For more information or to order tickets, call Cleveland Orchestra Ticket Services at 216-231-1111 or 800-686-1141, or order online at clevelandorchestra.com. Please note that Severance Restaurant will be open for all Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra concerts. For reservations, call 216-231-7373 or reserve online at clevelandorchestra.com.