Franz Welser-Möst Returns to Conduct The Cleveland Orchestra 

Following two months of cancer treatments, the GRAMMY nominee will lead five concerts this January

In September 2023, Austrian conductor Franz Welser-Möst withdrew from his conducting engagements with the Cleveland Orchestra through the end of 2023, due to his receiving further treatments from a removal of a cancerous tumor.

Though his treatment plan will continue throughout this year, Welser-Möst will lead the orchestra in Mahler’s Adagio from Symphony No. 10 and Krenek’s Kleine Symphony at the Mandel Concert Hall from January 11–13, 2024.

Other works on the program include a string orchestra arrangement of Bartók String Quartet No. 3, and Bartók’s suite from the ballet The Miraculous Mandarin. This concert program will also feature at Carnegie Hall at the end of January. 

On January 17 and 18, Welser-Möst will conduct the orchestra in Prokofiev’s Symphonies No. 2 and 5, as well as Webern’s Symphony Op. 21.

Welser-Möst joined the Cleveland Orchestra as its seventh music director in 2002. With his contract extended to 2027, the three-time Grammy Award nominee is the longest-serving leader in the orchestra’s history.