The Cleveland Women’s Orchestra at 90 Years

The historic Cleveland Women’s Orchestra closes out its celebratory 90th-anniversary season with a performance in Gartner Auditorium featuring mezzo-soprano Kira McGirr. The program is being conducted by Music Director Eric Benjamin.

Founded in 1935, the orchestra continuously provides performance opportunities for women musicians, showcases talented young soloists, and performs a series of free “Gift of Music” outreach concerts for various social service agencies, schools, hospitals, retirement homes, and nursing homes. Over its many years, the orchestra has performed over 500 free outreach concerts—a record unmatched by any other orchestra in the area.

For this concert, McGirr performs repertoire spanning from Baroque to contemporary. Her solo performances have included Elgar’s Sea Pictures, Mozart’s “Requiem” and Coronation Mass, and Handel’s Messiah, among many other works. Debuting this season with the Lexington Bach Festival, the Heights Chamber Orchestra, the Musical Theater Project, and the Cleveland Women’s Orchestra, she also returns to the Cleveland Repertory Orchestra and the Perrysburg Symphony Orchestra. McGirr regularly sings with the Cleveland Chamber Choir at Trinity Cathedral.

More information about the Cleveland Women’s Orchestra can be found on the ensemble’s website (opens in a new tab).

Program:

Overture in C--------------------------Fanny Mendelssohn

Sea Pictures ---------------------------Edward Elgar

                                 Kira McGirr, mezzo-soprano

“The Coast”----------------------------Clara-Jane Maunder

                              (US premiere)

Symphony No. 1-----------------------Florence Price

The views expressed by performers during this event are their own and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the Cleveland Museum of Art