CLEVELAND – The Cleveland Orchestra announced today that Daniel Reith is the next Assistant Conductor of The Cleveland Orchestra and Music Director of the Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra (COYO). Appointed by Franz Welser-Möst, Mr. Reith joins the Orchestra’s conducting staff as Assistant Conductor of The Cleveland Orchestra and Music Director of the Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra in September at the start of the 2022-23 season at Severance Music Center.
As Assistant Conductor, Mr. Reith will serve as cover conductor for Severance Music Center and Blossom Music Festival subscription concerts and provide assistance to Music Director Franz Welser-Möst. He will also be actively involved with the Orchestra’s many education programs and community performances, including his work leading the Youth Orchestra. He will hold the Elizabeth Ring and William Gwinn Mather Assistant Conductor Endowed Chair. Mr. Reith succeeds current Associate Conductor Vinay Parameswaran, who completes his fifth and final year at the end of the 2021-22 season.
As Music Director of the Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra, Mr. Reith will oversee the ensemble’s artistic planning, select personnel for the ensemble, and lead rehearsals and performances of the Youth Orchestra. The Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra, which begins its 37th season in 2022-23, is a full symphony orchestra comprised of middle- and high-school-aged musicians from northern and central Ohio who are coached by musicians of The Cleveland Orchestra. Founded in 1986, the Youth Orchestra provides talented young musicians with a pre-professional orchestra training experience of the highest artistic standard. The Youth Orchestra performs three concerts at Severance Music Center each season, as well as orchestra concerts in the community, and a performance during the annual Martin Luther King, Jr. Day of Music.
“We are pleased to welcome Daniel Reith to the conducting staff as the next Assistant Conductor of The Cleveland Orchestra and Music Director of the Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra,” said Ilya Gidalevich, Vice President of Artistic Planning of The Cleveland Orchestra. “Daniel was selected by Franz Welser-Möst following a rigorous audition process. His experience, talent, musical understanding, enthusiasm, and collaborative spirit make him an ideal addition to The Cleveland Orchestra family.”
“I have always admired The Cleveland Orchestra – their distinctive sound culture, with both flexibility and precision,” said conductor Daniel Reith. “I’m greatly looking forward to working with the Orchestra and Franz Welser-Möst; being involved with the Orchestra’s multiple activities, conducting the family and education concerts, and learning from the best. I feel that there is a humble, faithful, devoted, and determined way of music-making in The Cleveland Orchestra. It is a dream come true to be surrounded by this spirit and sound every day.”
As of May 2022, details of The Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra’s 2022-23 concert season programming and performance dates at Severance Music Center on November 20, February 14, and May 5 is included in the calendar listing section below. Information about programming in February and May will be announced later in 2022.
From Daniel Reith: About working with The Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra:
“I find working with young musicians extremely rewarding and fulfilling, especially their energy, curiosity, development, and growth. The early years of music-making are important for the future development of these young musicians, and an inspiring environment is one of the most essential parts of that. The Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra provides and creates such an environment for everyone, and I am so thrilled with the concept of this orchestra program where the young musicians get coached by the great and experienced musicians from The Cleveland Orchestra. At the same time, they get experience and development as a collective of young musicians, striving for the same aim of enjoying making music together on a high level.”
From Daniel Reith: Ideas behind 2022-23 COYO programming
“With the 2022-23 season programs, I tried to bring as many perspectives of orchestral music to the Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra musicians as possible. There will be pieces the orchestra members wished for, and we will have two wonderful musicians from the orchestra appearing as soloists. We will play music from the core orchestra repertoire as well as some less familiar but yet fantastic pieces. In the first concert, we will tell the famous story of Romeo and Juliet in Prokofiev’s moving and very colorful composition. In connection to this, we will open the concert with Lili Boulanger’s D’un soir triste (Of a Sad Evening), a rarely performed piece which is the last composition Boulanger was able to finish, knowing she was about to die. Contrasting these two works, we will hear the winner of the last Concerto competition, Moshi Tang, performing Tchaikovsky’s Violin concerto.”
Ticket Information
$15 tickets for the Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestras 2022-23 concert series at Severance Music Center will go on sale in September 2022. For more information, please visit clevelandorchestra.com.
About Daniel Reith
Daniel Reith was the 2019 winner of Opptakt, Talent Norway’s program for fostering young conductors. He has since established himself as a new talent on the Nordic orchestral scene with a string of promising debuts and returns, including the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra, Norwegian Radio Orchestra, Stavanger Symphony Orchestra, and Trondheim Symphony Orchestra. In 2022, Mr. Reith made his debut with the Kristiansand Symphony Orchestra conducting soloist Julian Rachlin. Mr. Reith completed his Masters in conducting at the Norwegian Academy of Music with Ole Kristian Ruud, having originally studied piano and music theory in Freiburg and Oslo as well as conducting in Frankfurt. In addition to his conducting work, Mr. Reith is a talented pianist and chamber musician, having performed in concerts and competitions throughout Germany, Norway, and other countries. Mr. Reith has been awarded several scholarships in Germany, where he’s worked with orchestras such as the Hamburg Philharmonic and Neubrandenburg Philharmonic. For more information visit harrisonparrott.com/artists/daniel-reith.
About the Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra
The Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra is a full symphonic ensemble composed of approximately 100 young musicians drawn from 35 communities in seven counties across Northern Ohio. Founded in 1986 by Jahja Ling (then resident conductor of The Cleveland Orchestra), the Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra (COYO) provides serious young music students of middle and high school age with a unique pre-professional orchestral training experience.
Among the acclaimed artists to work with COYO are Marin Alsop, Pierre Boulez, Stephane Deneve, Christoph von Dohnanyi, Giancarlo Guerrero, Witold Lutosławski, Yo-Yo Ma, Gil Shaham, Michael Tilson Thomas, Antoni Wit, and Cleveland Orchestra Music Director Franz Welser-Most. The ensemble has been featured on three international tours.
The Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra is part of a suite of Cleveland Orchestra programs designed to nurture aspiring young musicians, which also includes the Cleveland Orchestra Youth Chorus, the Cleveland Orchestra Children’s Chorus and Preparatory Chorus, and the Crescendoand Music Mentorspathways initiatives for students in Cleveland schools. In addition, with the support of many generous individual, foundation, corporate, and governmental funding partners, the Orchestra’s full range of education and community programs reach more than 100,000 young people and adults annually, helping to foster a lifelong relationship with music by removing barriers to participation, advocating for and helping to facilitate equitable access to comprehensive music education in schools, and harnessing the life-changing power in service to the community. For more information, please visit: clevelandorchestrayouthorchestra.com/.
Calendar Listing: Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra 2022-23 Season
All Performances take place in Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel Concert Hall at Severance Music Center
Sunday, November 20, 2022 at 3:00 PM
Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra
Daniel Reith, conductor
Moshi Tang, violin
L. BOULANGER D’un Soir Triste (Of a Sad Evening)
TCHAIKOVSKY Violin Concerto in D Major, Op.35
PROKOFIEV Romeo and Juliet
Friday, February 14, 2023 at 8:00 PM
Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra
Cleveland Orchestra Youth Chorus
Daniel Reith, conductor
Program to be announced
Friday, May 5, 2023 at 8:00 PM
Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra
Daniel Reith, conductor
Winner of the 2022 Concerto Competition, to be announced
Program to be announced
All artists and programs are subject to change