First Impressions

While the fall performing arts season features encore performances by Les Délices, Apollo’s Fire, Relic Ensemble, and Dancing Wheels, as well as the Cleveland Silent Film Festival, there are some genre-defying bands making their CMA debuts that are sure to excite all music lovers.

Monsieur Periné
Wednesday, September 23, 2026, 7:30 p.m.

Monsieur Periné is one of Colombia’s most influential bands blending genres such as pop, jazz, and swing with Latin American sounds like guaracha, salsa, cumbia, and bolero. In 2015, the band won the Latin Grammy Award for Best New Artist and since then has won an additional Latin Grammy Award, been nominated for two US Grammy Awards, and received seven more Latin Grammy Awards nominations. Playing in the intimate setting of Gartner Auditorium during Hispanic Heritage Month, the band brings its global fame to Cleveland.

The Bad Plus Farewell Tour
Wednesday, October 7, 2026, 7:30 p.m.

The Bad Plus has left its mark on contemporary jazz and improvised music. The Bad Plus’s now-legendary 2003 LP, These Are the Vistas, was named one of the 50 Most Important Recordings of the Decade by NPR’s All Songs Considered. After 26 years of music making and reinventing themselves and the genre, the Bad Plus is disbanding. The group’s concert at the CMA marks their last appearance in Cleveland.

Hiromi: The Trio Project
Wednesday, October 14, 2026, 7:30 p.m.

Jazz piano phenomenon Hiromi’s many triumphs include the opportunity to represent her native Japan with a performance at the 2021 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, a 2024 win for Best Music Score for the animated feature film Blue Giant (Award of the Japanese Academy), and a Grammy Award for a collaboration with fusion hero Stanley Clarke. With Cleveland being a mid-market, it took three years to pull off this booking—sometimes all it takes is patience and the stars to align. 

Leenalchi
Wednesday, November 4, 2026, 7:30 p.m.

Bursting onto South Korea’s music scene in 2019, Leenalchi is an alternative pop group from Seoul that found viral success with its fusion of pansori-style singing, electronic synths, and groovy bass lines. The band gained international success by collaborating with brands, including Gucci and the Korean Tourism Board, as well as through viral songs, such as Tiger Is Coming. As the landscape for touring visas can be difficult to navigate, it is special to have a band from South Korea perform at the CMA. In addition, Leenalchi’s concert coincides with the special exhibition Ten Kings of Hell: The Afterlife in Medieval Korea, so the timing for this concert could not be more lucky or perfect.