The Motrola to MIX: A Brief History of the Performing Arts at the CMA

Ten years ago, when I was working as a sound engineer at Nighttown, the famed Cleveland Heights jazz club, Tom Welsh and I swapped business cards after we had a conversation about Cleveland’s musical landscape. His title at the time was director of City Stages, but many of you know Tom as my director of performing arts predecessor at the Cleveland Museum of Art (CMA).

When I was interviewing for Tom’s position a couple of months ago, I pulled his business card out of my wallet and shared it with the folks conducting my interviews. I felt like a kid sharing a highly collectible baseball card with friends. The interviewers knew I had a CMA collectible because the card was printed in red ink as opposed to the current blue!

It may seem strange, but keeping Tom’s business card in my wallet for more than a decade was a physical manifestation of my admiration for his work and the CMA’s rich history of presenting diverse and cutting-edge productions. In fact, I feel that many of the performing arts events that guests enjoy at the CMA today are linked to the museum’s earliest days. In my new role, I am excited to contribute to this special legacy.

The performing arts program at the CMA was founded in 1918, only two years after the establishment of the museum itself and the same year as the Cleveland Orchestra’s inaugural concert. The first major concert of note in the museum was a performance by the New York Philharmonic, under the direction of Josef Stránský. Soon after, Frederic Allen Whiting — the museum’s first director — sought to expand the CMA’s commitment to music, and the museum hired Thomas Whitney Surette as its first music curator in 1921. Since then, there have been eight curators of music, including me. Likely the oldest such department equal in status to the visual arts in any of America’s art museums, the CMA’s performing arts department has been foundational to the museum’s mission for over 100 years.

In its history, the CMA has produced more than 5,000 concerts featuring artists from at least 100 countries, promoting both Western and non-Western cultures. Extraordinary artists that have graced the CMA include Maurice Ravel, Béla Bartók, Aaron Copland, Steve Reich, Philip Glass, John Adams, the Limón Dance Company, the Kronos Quartet, Eighth Blackbird, Ravi Shankar, Amadou and Mariam, Zakir Hussain, and a 14-year-old Joshua Bell. More recently, the museum has presented John Zorn, Vijay Iyer, the International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE), the Calder Quartet, the JACK Quartet, and the Cleveland Orchestra.

History provides insight into what role the performing arts have played and why the performing arts are important at the CMA. When the museum first opened, its interior garden court served as a place where people could rest from “museum fatigue” while enjoying the gentle chirping of canaries. A few years later, inspired by the birds’ natural soundtrack, Whiting installed a Motrola, a mechanical music-playing device donated to the CMA by Thomas Edison. As Whiting admonished in the museum’s monthly bulletin, “Those in the vicinity of the Garden Court are requested to sit or stand quietly during the musical numbers, as the acoustics are such that the movement of feet on the pavements prevents enjoyment of the music by those who wish to listen.” Furthermore, Whiting firmly believed that providing a space where artists can be stimulated by interacting with people from other disciplines was essential to the CMA’s success. To me, playing recorded music in an atrium while providing a space for creative collaboration sounds a lot like the CMA’s modern-day MIX!

In 1918, Surette — one of the country’s foremost music educators — was tasked by the CMA to design a program incorporating music into an art museum. Surette’s guiding principle was that, like the visual arts, music was a social force for educating. As he explained in the museum’s bulletin that May, the very act of singing was transformative: “What an inspiring thing it would be to sing with hundreds of others in so noble a place! How splendid the setting! Surrounded by forms of beauty, the people could make new and delicate music-forms go echoing through the great halls.”

I find Surette’s quote fascinating because it suggests that the beauty of the art and architecture at the museum can inspire the creation of new music. This sounds like a direct link to Creative Fusion, a 2018 partnership between the CMA and the Cleveland Foundation, which commissioned six composers to create new works inspired by pieces in the CMA’s permanent collection.

Douglas Moore, who was appointed as music curator at the CMA in 1922, wrote in Fine Arts Review, “Is there not a real service that a museum may render to the community by offering a musical standard as well as a pictorial one?” Across its entire history, the CMA has achieved what Moore set out to do. Furthermore, to remain relevant, create wholesome experiences, and reach the widest audience possible, the performing arts department has intentionally expanded offerings and activated locations throughout the CMA, including Gartner Auditorium, the Ames Family Atrium, Transformer Station, and specific galleries. Three flagship programs — MIX, Solstice, and City Stages — are prominent examples of how a museum can uniquely present music.

My role must honor this rich history yet provide something new and accessible for CMA constituents. Discussions are taking place to determine whether we can transform the museum’s restaurant, Provenance, into a music club one night per week. Perhaps we can launch a family music series at the CMA’s Community Arts Center in the Clark-Fulton neighborhood. Transformer Station, which transitions to complete museum ownership this spring, will benefit from a performing arts program that may include music, dance, film, and more.

More immediately, we have two upcoming performing arts events in early December. MIX: Holiday FUNKtion is scheduled for December 2 from 6:00 to 10:00 p.m. and features Shoreline Funk All-Stars, who were recently voted as Cleveland’s best new band at this year’s Cleveland Music Awards. Then, in Gartner Auditorium on December 7 at 7:30 p.m., Trio Mediæval blends sacred polyphony with folk music and improvisation, melding these elements into a style that is uniquely its own. I welcome you to become part of history in the making, and I hope to see you at a show soon!