Sold-out opening concert featuring The Cleveland Orchestra on Sunday, Sept. 27, to be televised, live-streamed online
Following 11 months of careful renovation, the opens this Sunday, Sept. 27, with an extraordinary concert—an event not only celebrating the building’s new role as home to the performing arts at ϳԹ, but also honoring its history and significance as a religious landmark. The concert will feature members of the world-renowned Cleveland Orchestra and celebrated violinist Shlomo Mintz playing restored instruments that were used before and during the Holocaust. These instruments—collectively known as the Violins of Hope—serve as testaments to the resilience of the human spirit and the power of music to lift hearts in even the most horrific of circumstances. Amnon Weinstein, a second-generation violin maker based in Tel Aviv, Israel, has collected and repaired more than 45 Holocaust-era violins from around the world, some with the Star of David on the back and others with names and dates inscribed within the instrument. The violins have been played in concerts from Jerusalem to Berlin and Charlotte, North Carolina—their only previous appearance in North America. The violins return to the U.S. stage Sunday in the Maltz Performing Arts Center’s Silver Hall. The soaring, seven-sided sanctuary has been sensitively renovated into a state-of-the-art performing arts hall. Silver Hall is named in honor of nationally recognized religious leader Rabbi Abba Hillel Silver, the Temple’s leader for nearly a half a century, and his son, Rabbi Daniel Jeremy Silver, who succeeded his father as senior rabbi. Rabbi Daniel Silver’s widow, Adele, plans to attend the opening concert and will be joined there by more than 15 Holocaust survivors. Among those leading the effort to bring Violins of Hope to Cleveland are Richard Bogomolny, chairman of the Musical Arts Association, the umbrella organization for the Cleveland Orchestra, and Milton Maltz, founder and chair of the Maltz Museum of Jewish Heritage and lead donor for the Milton and Tamar Maltz Performing Arts Center. More than 40 individual, corporate and foundation donors provided major financial support for the initiative. The concert marks the official launch of —a community collaboration featuring more than 50 performances, exhibitions, plays, films and lectures throughout the fall across Northeast Ohio. Seven nonprofit organizations have partnered on the initiative: The Cleveland Orchestra, ϳԹ, the Cleveland Institute of Music, Facing History and Ourselves, ideastream, the Jewish Federation of Cleveland and the Maltz Museum of Jewish Heritage. Sunday’s concert, which begins at 3 p.m., has no remaining seats, but will be broadcast live on WVIZ/PBS TV and WCLV Classical 104.9 Radio and live streamed at . Viewers in the region can watch WVIZ/PBS on the following television channels:- Over the air at Channel 25 and Channel 25.1
- Cable systems:
- AT&T: Channel 25 and HD on 1025
- ϳԹ: 25.1
- Cox: Channel 13 and HD on 1013
- Time Warner: Channel 2, 5, 10 or 13 and HD on 1002, 1005, 1010 or 1013
