The Cleveland Museum of Art Announces 2022 Spring Performing Arts Series Tickets on Sale Now

Cleveland (February 3, 2022) — The Cleveland Museum of Art (CMA) represents a variety of traditions in its 2022 Spring Performing Arts Series, which features a range of internationally renowned artists. Highlights include a performance by Grammy Award–winning professional chamber choir The Crossing with special guest organist Scott Dettra, Indian classical music by tabla legend Zakir Hussain, contemporary African music by Fatoumata Diawara, a performance by Chinese sheng virtuoso Wu Wei and a performance on the McMyler Memorial Organ in Gartner Auditorium by organist Nicole Keller.

The series also includes a special performance by internationally known Serbian composer Aleksandra Vrebalov, who created an original composition inspired by a work of art from the museum’s collection—part of a major commissioning series co-sponsored by the Cleveland Foundation’s Creative Fusion program.

“We are so pleased to be able to offer concerts in the museum again and are reminded how essential music is to all of us,” said Tom Welsh, director of performing arts.

Tickets for individual performances are on sale now, and prices range by location of seating. Members receive a 10 percent discount on tickets. Special student rates are available for select performances. Tickets can be reserved by calling the CMA’s ticket center at 888-CMA-0033 or online at cma.org/performingarts.

2022 Spring Performing Arts Series

Programs are subject to change.

• CIM Organ Studio
  Sunday, February 27, 2 p.m.
  Gartner Auditorium
  FREE; no ticket required

  Conservatory musicians from the Cleveland Institute of Music in the studio of acclaimed organist Todd Wilson present an afternoon recital of works for solo organ on the museum’s McMyler Memorial Organ.

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• Fatoumata Diawara
  Wednesday, March 2, 7:30 p.m.
  Gartner Auditorium
  Tickets: $43–$59, CMA members $38–$53

  Hailed as one of the most vital standard-bearers of modern African music, Fatoumata Diawara is boldly experimental yet respectful of her roots. Her spectacular 2011 debut album made the Malian singer and guitarist the most talked about new African artist. Hers is the voice of young African womanhood—proud of her heritage but with a vision that looks confidently to the future and a message that is universal.

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• Wu Wei
  Friday, March 11, 7:30 p.m.
  Gartner Auditorium
  Tickets: $25, CMA members $22

  Wu Wei is a sheng soloist who has helped to develop this 4,000-year-old Chinese wind instrument into an innovative force in contemporary music. Born in China, Wu Wei studied the sheng at the Shanghai Conservatory of Music and was a soloist with the Shanghai Chinese Orchestra before studying at the Hanns Eisler Academy of Music in Berlin, where he is now based. His performance at the CMA features traditional and contemporary Chinese music as well as masterworks of the European baroque period.

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• The Crossing
  Friday, March 25, 7:30 p.m.
  Gartner Auditorium
  Tickets: $33–$45, CMA members $30–$40

  The Crossing is a professional chamber choir conducted by Donald Nally and dedicated to new music. It is committed to working with creative teams to make and record new, substantial works for choir that explore and expand ways of writing for choir, singing in choir and listening to music for choir. Many of its nearly 110 commissioned premieres address social, environmental and political issues. The Crossing has received two Grammy Awards for Best Choral Performance (2018, 2019) and six Grammy nominations. This concert includes the world premiere of Stacy Garrop’s “In a House Besieged,” for choir and organ, featuring guest organist Scott Dettra. Garrop’s work is the first Robert G. Schneider memorial commission, sponsored by the Musart Society. Schneider taught for more than thirty years as the chair of the Music Department and director of choirs at Shaker Heights High School; he died in 2018.

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• Zakir Hussain
  Wednesday, April 20, 7:30 p.m.
  Gartner Auditorium
  Tickets: $43–$59, CMA members $38–$53

  The preeminent classical tabla virtuoso of our time, Zakir Hussain is appreciated both in the field of percussion and in the music world at large as an international phenomenon. A national treasure in his native India, he is one of the world’s most esteemed and influential musicians, renowned for his genre-defying collaborations. Hussain presents an evening of Indian classical music, with guests Kala Ramnath (violin) and Jayanthi Kumaresh (veena).

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• Creative Fusion: Composers Series Performance
  Aleksandra Vrebalov’s Antennae
  Friday, May 13, 7:30 p.m.
  Ames Family Atrium
  FREE; no ticket required

  Inspired by the CMA’s Icon of the Mother of God and Infant Christ (Virgin Eleousa) on view in the Byzantine gallery (105), composer Aleksandra Vrebalov premieres Antennae, a site-specific concert in the galleries and the Ames Family Atrium. This evening-length work for large choir, organs, trumpets and percussion features three Serbian monks singing Byzantine chant, surrounded by the Cleveland Chamber Choir and other musicians from the community. Commissioned by the CMA in partnership with the Cleveland Foundation.

  Vrebalov’s music ranges from concert music and opera to music for modern dance and film, and has been performed by Kronos Quartet, Serbian National Theater, English National Ballet, Belgrade Philharmonic and many others.

  Generously supported by the Cleveland Foundation

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• Nicole Keller
  Spring 2022, date to be announced
  Gartner Auditorium
  FREE; no ticket required

  Organist Nicole Keller, associate organist at Trinity Cathedral (Episcopal) of Cleveland and faculty member at Baldwin Wallace University Conservatory of Music, has concertized around the world in venues including St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York, Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris and the Kazakh National University of Arts in Astana, Kazakhstan. She offers a solo recital on the McMyler Memorial Organ, featuring works by Johann Sebastian Bach, Calvin Hampton, Rayner Brown, Paul Hindemith, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Florence Price.

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Additional Information

The CDC and the Cuyahoga County Board of Health recommend wearing face coverings in public settings to slow the spread of COVID-19. The CMA requires everyone—all visitors, staff and volunteers—to wear a face covering inside the building.