The Cleveland Museum of Art Announces 2023 Fall Performing Arts Series Tickets on Sale Now

Cleveland (July 12, 2023)—The Cleveland Museum of Art (CMA) includes film and a variety of music styles in its fall 2023 Performing Arts Series, which features a range of internationally renowned artists. From ragas and jazz to folk, classical, and a cappella, there is something for everyone to enjoy. Highlights include Grammy Award–winning professionals Kurt Elling, Arooj Aftab, and Omara Portuondo, as well as performances inspired by the exhibitions A Splendid Land: Paintings from Royal Udaipur and Material and Immaterial in Korean Modern and Contemporary Art.

“I am excited to offer this eclectic lineup of musical performances, showcasing talent from around the world as well as from right here in Cleveland,” said Gabe Pollack, director of performing arts. “I hope this music will inspire, entertain, and uplift.”

2023 Performing Arts Series

• Hasu Patel: Mystical Ragas
• Cleveland Silent Film Festival: Birth of the Modern Industrial City
• SuperBlue: Kurt Elling and Charlie Hunter
• Soh-Hyun Park Altino: Traditional Korean Sanjo on the Violin
• Love in Exile: Arooj Aftab, Vijay Iyer, and Shahzad Ismaily
• Le Poème Harmonique
• Omara Portuondo
• Freedom First: Keith LaMar and Albert Marquès
• Accent
• Apollo’s Fire: Wassail

Tickets for individual performances through December can be reserved at cma.org/performingarts. Members receive discounted admission to most performances, and student rates are available at the door for select performances. 

Free Ames Family Atrium concerts and gallery concerts are also returning this fall. 

2023 Fall Performing Arts Series

Programs are subject to change.

Hasu Patel: Mystical Ragas
Friday, August 25, 2023
7:30–9:00 p.m.
Gartner Auditorium
$22 members; $25 nonmembers

Coinciding with the exhibition A Splendid Land: Paintings from Royal Udaipur, world-renowned and Cleveland-based musician Hasu Patel presents an evening of ragas inspired by India’s monsoon season. Trained in Gujarat, a region bordering the kingdom of Mewar where the Udaipur paintings were made, Patel is one of the few contemporary world-class female artists performing classical music on sitar, specializing in a style known as gayaki ang, where the sitar replicates the fluidity and subtle nuances of the human voice. Her performance highlights include playing at the 1999 Woodstock anniversary concert, the Chicago Asian American Jazz Festival, and the Women’s Composers Festival of Hartford. The United Nations awarded Hasu its Lifetime Achievement Award for her extraordinary service to humanity. She will perform alongside Krish Dewan on sitar, Sudhanshu Deshpande on tabla, Tejas Nair on esraj, and Tom Cvetkovich on tanpura.

Cleveland Silent Film Festival: Birth of the Modern Industrial City
Friday, September 8, 2023
7:00–9:00 p.m.
Gartner Auditorium
$15 members; $18 nonmembers

The Cleveland Museum of Art is proud to partner with the Cleveland Silent Film Festival and Colloquium and the Cleveland Institute of Art’s Cinematheque in presenting two very different films about the birth of the modern industrial city.

The Heart of Cleveland (1924), originally produced for the Cleveland Electric Illuminating Company, follows the adventures of two rural Northeast Ohio children in Cleveland as they learn about electricity. The film features glorious aerial shots of Cleveland during its industrial heyday.

The 1929 documentary Man with a Movie Camera regularly ranks in the top films of all time. Presenting a mesmerizing tour of Soviet urban life, the film is considered one of the most radical, influential, and fun avant-garde features ever made. Both The Heart of Cleveland and Man with a Movie Camera will be accompanied by the incomparable Mont Alto Motion Picture Orchestra, a group nationally recognized for their performances of original scores from historic photoplay cues.

SuperBlue: Kurt Elling and Charlie Hunter
Wednesday, September 27, 2023
7:30–9:00 p.m.
Gartner Auditorium
$38/$46/$53 members; $43/$52/$59 nonmembers

Grammy winner Kurt Elling is without question today’s preeminent male jazz vocalist, renowned worldwide for his unparalleled virtuosity and flair for trailblazing artistic exploration. From his stunning reinvention of timeless standards to his own captivating original songcraft, the Chicago-based musician has fused his dazzling talents across a panoply of musical approaches, emblazoning each with signature imagination, insight, and emotional intelligence. SuperBlue is a recent collaboration with producer/guitarist Charlie Hunter and the multi-instrumentalist duo of drummer Corey Fonville and bassist-keyboardist DJ Harrison for a kaleidoscopic collection of new songs, surprising covers, and dynamic reinventions. 

Soh-Hyun Park Altino: Traditional Korean Sanjo on the Violin
Friday, September 29, 2023
12:00–1:00 p.m.
Recital Hall
FREE

Coinciding with the exhibition Material and Immaterial in Korean Modern and Contemporary Art, Soh-Hyun Park Altino discusses and performs the world premiere of the violin version of The Long Sanjo. 

Sanjo is a genre of Korean traditional folk music composed for a solo melodic instrument, such as the zither (kayagum) or flute (taegŭm), accompanied by the changgu, an hourglass-shaped drum. Sanjo consists of several movements built on Korean rhythmic patterns known as changdan that increase speed as they progress. The solo instrument plays dramatic and expressive melodic phrases that draw from the inflections of spoken Korean language that are also characteristic of p’ansori, a dramatic and narrative style of singing.

Love in Exile: Arooj Aftab, Vijay Iyer, and Shahzad Ismaily
Wednesday, October 4, 2023
7:30–9:00 p.m.
Gartner Auditorium
$45/$55/$62

The Cleveland Museum of Art has partnered with the Grog Shop to present Love in Exile, the trio of Arooj Aftab, Vijay Iyer, and Shahzad Ismaily—three of the most innovative composers and music-makers of today. Together, they create lush, haunting soundscapes of meditation and yearning, weaving bass, piano, and vocals into a breathtakingly unified sound. Individually, the artists’ accolades are substantial: vocalist Arooj Aftab, the first Pakistani to win a Grammy Award, wows audiences worldwide with her mesmerizing live shows and otherworldly voice; MacArthur Fellow and Grammy nominee Vijay Iyer is one of today’s most influential pianists; and multi-instrumentalist Shahzad Ismaily’s sensitivity and technical acumen have made him a legend among musicians such as the late Lou Reed, for whom he was a session player.

Le Poème Harmonique
Wednesday, October 25, 2023
7:30–9:00 p.m.
Gartner Auditorium
$30/$35/$40 members; $33/$39/$45 nonmembers

Since 1998, Le Poème Harmonique has brought together—around its founder, Vincent Dumestre—passionate musicians devoted to the interpretation of 17th- and 18th-century music. The ensemble’s inventive and demanding programs are a testament to its enlightened approach to Baroque repertoires and to its in-depth work on vocal and instrumental textures. For this performance, the ensemble performs the program Music for a Young King, exploring popular and royal music before Louis XIV moved his court to Versailles, with excerpts from the very first operas given in France, drinking songs, and tunes that were hummed throughout Paris at the time. The evening also features the fantastic French mezzo Eva Zaïcik.

Omara Portuondo
Wednesday, November 1, 2023
7:30–9:00 p.m.
Gartner Auditorium
$38/$46/$53 members; $43/$52/$59 nonmembers

Omara Portuondo is the grande dame of classic Cuban song. Even in her 90s—her seventh decade of performing—she remains a beloved chanteuse and celebrated entertainer. Outside her native Cuba, Portuondo is most recognized for her work with Buena Vista Social Club. The Cuban ensemble’s eponymous debut album went on to sell more than eight million copies and win both the 1997 Grammy Award for Best Tropical Latin Performance and the Tropical/Salsa Album of the Year by a Group at the 1998 Billboard Latin Music Awards; the accompanying 1999 film was nominated for Best Documentary Feature at the 72nd Academy Awards. She has been awarded prizes, medals, honorary degrees, and more from around the world, including the laureate of the Order of Félix Varela (the highest decoration in Cuban culture), the Gold Medal of Merit in the Fine Arts from the Spanish Ministry of Culture and Sport, and the Order of the Rising Sun from the Japanese emperor, not to mention a music-specific Latin Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award for her contributions to Latin American and world music.

Freedom First: Keith LaMar and Albert Marquès
Wednesday, November 8, 2023
7:30–9:00 p.m.
Gartner Auditorium
$22 members; $25 nonmembers

Cleveland-born poet, writer, and activist Keith LaMar tours Europe, the US, and Chile performing his debut album, Freedom First, but does so from his cell at the Ohio State Penitentiary, where he has spent 30 years in solitary confinement on death row for a crime he testifies that he did not commit. Produced by Catalan pianist Albert Marquès, Freedom First (2022) is the first album to be released by an inmate on death row. The record is a collaboration between international jazz musicians playing new compositions and LaMar, who recites poetry live via phone and video. It is jazz that has kept LaMar intellectually stimulated in prison. At the same time, jazz has kept LaMar connected to an ever-growing group of supporters who, through music, advocate for him to be granted a new trial to prove his innocence before his scheduled execution by the State of Ohio in November 2023.

Accent
Friday, December 8, 2023
7:30–9:00 p.m.
Gartner Auditorium
$30/$35/$40 members; $33/$39/$45 nonmembers

Accent is composed of six singers from five countries forming one vocal supergroup. In the increasingly popular world of a cappella singing groups, Accent has carved out its own niche. Since forming in 2011, the ensemble has released five albums; performed at the London A Cappella Festival; played dates across Europe, North America, and Asia; and was featured in two sold-out Christmas shows at London’s Royal Albert Hall. Accent’s singular blend and arrangements have been acclaimed by a cappella devotees and fellow musicians alike, including Cedric Dent of TAKE 6 and Clark Burroughs of the Hi-Lo’s. The ensemble’s lush sound is embellished by its deep and innate musicality. As Alan Paul of the Manhattan Transfer said, “You guys carry on the vocal group legacy.”

Apollo’s Fire: Wassail!
Created and Directed by Jeannette Sorrell
Sunday, December 10, and Sunday, December 17, 2023
4:30–6:00 p.m.
Gartner Auditorium
$30–$80; $10 students

Cleveland’s own internationally acclaimed, Grammy-winning ensemble Apollo’s Fire brings to life the music of the past for audiences of today. On Christmas night in Old Ireland, families and friends gathered for singing, storytelling, and plenty of wassail. From a caroling party through the streets of Dublin to a holiday barn dance in Virginia, this heartwarming program follows the hopes and fears of the Irish who bravely crossed the Atlantic. Irish singer Fiona Gillespie joins with fiddles, medieval harp, hammered dulcimer, and bagpipes in this communal celebration of the American immigrant experience. The people of the mountains welcome Christmas with love, singing, dancing, and prayer.