Franz Welser-Möst
Music Director
Kelvin Smith Family Endowed Chair
The Cleveland Orchestra

Austrian conductor Franz Welser-Möst begins his third season as Music Director of The Cleveland Orchestra in September. Mr. Welser-Möst first conducted The Cleveland Orchestra in 1993. His appointment as Music Director was announced in June 1999, and in May 2003 his initial five-year contract was extended through the 2011-12 season.

Following a gala opening night concert of 18th-, 19th- and early 20th-century Viennese music, Franz Welser-Möst begins The Cleveland Orchestra’s 2004-05 subscription season with performances of Mendelssohn’s Elijah. Other highlights during the season include Bartók’s Concerto for Orchestra, the five Beethoven piano concertos with Radu Lupu as soloist, Mahler’s Symphony No. 3, Mozart’s Symphony No. 36, Schubert’s Symphony No. 8, Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 11, concert performances of Humperdinck’s Hansel und Gretel, the world premieres of Oliver Knussen’s Cleveland Pictures and a new work by Susan Botti (both commissioned by the Orchestra), and the United States premiere of Sir Harrison Birtwistle’s Night’s Black Bird. Mr. Welser-Möst closes the 2004-05 Severance Hall season with performances of Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis.

The 2003-04 season marked the start of biennial residencies in Vienna by The Cleveland Orchestra under Mr. Welser-Möst’s direction. The critically acclaimed performances were the first such residency by an American orchestra in the history of the Musikverein. Under Mr. Welser-Möst’s direction, The Cleveland Orchestra makes the first of regular European Festival Tours in August 2004, including performances at the Edinburgh Festival and the beginning of an annual series of appearances at the Lucerne Festival. During the 2004-05 season, Mr. Welser-Möst and the Orchestra will appear in their second Carnegie Hall Residency together and will make their first West Coast Tour together.

Other highlights of Mr. Welser-Möst’s concerts with The Cleveland Orchestra during his first two seasons as Music Director included the world premieres of Marc-André Dalbavie’s Rocks Under the Water, Kaija Saariaho’s Orion, and Rolf Wallin’s ACT, all commissioned by the Orchestra, and United States premieres of works by Uri Caine, Olga Neuwirth, Matthias Pintscher and Rolf Wallin in addition to a wide-ranging repertoire that included concert performances of Verdi’s Don Carlo and Richard Strauss’s Elektra.

In 2003, Mr. Welser-Möst made his first of regular appearances at the Blossom Festival, conducting The Cleveland Orchestra during the opening weekend of the Festival in concerts that celebrated the reopening of Blossom after a major renovation of the facility, which serves as the Orchestra’s summer home. He conducts two programs at the Blossom Festival in August 2004.

In Cleveland, Mr. Welser-Möst participates in a number of community concerts and educational programs, including “Day of Music” and the Martin Luther King, Jr. Celebration Concert. In addition to the inauguration of new partnerships with area colleges and universities, he also is involved with the Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra.

Following his American debut with the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra in 1989, Mr. Welser-Möst returned regularly to the United States, appearing with the orchestras of Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, New York, Philadelphia and Saint Louis. He appeared again with the Los Angeles Philharmonic in February 2004, during the inaugural season of the Walt Disney Concert Hall.

Franz Welser-Möst served as Music Director of the Zurich Opera from 1995 to 2002 and became Principal Conductor at the beginning of the 2002-03 season. During his tenure as Music Director, he conducted 27 new productions and, each season, led numerous revivals, including operas from the French, German, Italian and Slavic repertoires. Highlights include performances of Wagner’s complete Ring Cycle during the 2001-02 season and at the 2002 Zurich Festival. As Principal Conductor, he led the Zurich Opera during the 2002-03 season in a television production of Berg’s Lulu, performances of Schubert’s Fierabras, a revival of Wagner’s Tannhäuser, and new productions of Korngold’s Die tote Stadt and Mozart’s Die Entführung aus dem Serail. During the 2003-04 season, Mr. Welser-Möst conducted the Zurich Opera in televised productions of Wagner’s Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, Lehár’s The Merry Widow, and Richard Strauss’s Der Rosenkavalier. Among his performances at the Zurich Opera for the 2004-05 season, Mr. Welser-Möst will conduct Strauss’s Der Rosenkavalier, Debussy’s Pelléas et Mélisande, Verdi’s Macbeth and Falstaff, and Mozart’s La Clemenza di Tito.

Mr. Welser-Möst also has conducted at the Deutsche Oper Berlin, at the Glyndebourne Festival in Great Britain, and at the Vienna State Opera, where he appeared in September 2003, leading acclaimed performances of Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde. He is scheduled to conduct a new production of Wagner’s Ring Cycle at the Vienna State Opera during the 2007-08 and 2008-09 seasons.

Mr. Welser-Möst’s rise to international fame as a conductor began in 1986 when he made his debut with the London Philharmonic, for which he was appointed music director in 1990, a position he held for six years. He works regularly with the Vienna Philharmonic and next appears with that orchestra in April 2005. Mr. Welser-Möst last conducted the Berlin Philharmonic in December 2003, and he conducted the London Symphony Orchestra in February 2004. He also regularly appears with the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra. In addition, Mr. Welser-Möst has conducted the Gustav Mahler Youth Orchestra many times since the ensemble’s founding in 1986. Their recording of Bruckner’s Symphony No. 8 was released in 2002 by EMI.

Mr. Welser-Möst made numerous recordings with the London Philharmonic under an exclusive recording contract with EMI, including music of Mozart, Bruckner and Schumann, and 20th-century works by Schmidt, Stravinsky, Orff, Kancheli, and Pärt. His recording of Franz Schmidt's Symphony No. 4 won the 1996 Gramophone Award for “best orchestral recording.” His recording of Bruckner’s Mass No. 3 and Te Deum was nominated for a Grammy Award, as was his first recording with the Philadelphia Orchestra, of music by Korngold. More recent releases are HK Gruber’s Frankenstein!!, Schmidt’s The Book of the Seven Seals (which received a Grammy nomination), Schubert’s “Death and the Maiden” String Quartet (as orchestrated by Mahler) coupled with Schreker’s Chamber Symphony, and the world-premiere recording of Johann Strauss Jr.’s Simplicius with the Zurich Opera Orchestra, which won the Deutsche Schallplattenpreis.

In October 1995, Mr. Welser-Möst received an “Outstanding Achievement Award” from the Western Law Center for Disability Rights in Los Angeles in recognition of his personal support and advocacy on behalf of people with disabilities, and in particular for his support of the Hartheim Institute, a home for the disabled in Linz, Austria, Mr. Welser-Möst’s hometown. In November 2002, Mr. Welser-Möst was named an honorary member of the Vienna Singverein. In December 2002, he received the 2003 Conductor of the Year Award from the Musical America International Directory of the Performing Arts. In May 2003, he received an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree from Case Western Reserve University. In November 2003, Mr. Welser-Möst was presented with the Silver Medal of the Region of Upper Austria.