The Cleveland Orchestra opens its winter season this month.
The Cleveland Orchestra at the Adrienne Arsht Center.
Miami may have surrendered LeBron James to his Cleveland hometown, but all is not lost: We do get the Cleveland Orchestra. Since 2007, the revered ensemble has traveled to the Knight Concert Hall in the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts downtown for an annual winter residency. It’s a blending of two urban identities that has paid off for both. “It’s an interesting hybrid,” says Holly Hudak, managing director of the orchestra’s Miami residency. “You have an old, established city that is making its way back to robustness, and you have a young city that is growing very fast.”
On November 14 and 15, the orchestra presents the rising young Montenegrin guitarist Miloš Karadagli in Joaquín Rodrigo’s beloved Concierto de Aranjuez. The program, conducted by Giancarlo Guerrero, also includes pieces by Tchaikovsky, Respighi, and Rimsky-Korsakov. Music Director Franz Welser-Möst leads the orchestra in symphonies by Beethoven and Shostakovich on February 27 and 28, and in the epic Symphony No. 6 of Gustav Mahler on March 6 and 7. The season closes March 26 to 28 with three Guerrero-led performances of Carl Orff’s cantata Carmina Burana, with soloists Nadine Sierra, countertenor Anthony Roth Costanzo, and baritone Stephen Powell. Says Hudak of the Cleveland Orchestra’s commitment to excellence, “Once you get that sound in your head, it stays with you and becomes part of your understanding of beauty.” Knight Concert Hall, Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts, 1300 Biscayne Blvd., Miami, 305-949-6722