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Nikolai Sokoloff Contract

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Title	Nikolai Sokoloff Contract
Subject	Arts and Entertainment Cleveland Orchestra Conductors Orchestras
Place	Cleveland (Ohio) Cuyahoga County (Ohio)
Description	This is the initial contract between the Cleveland Musical Arts Association and Nikolai Sokoloff, signed on September 12, 1918. It is 2 pages and measures 7.25" x 10.5" (18.42 x 26.67cm). Sokoloff's main charge was to further the interests of music through existing associations and communities, and in particular through the Cleveland Public Schools, where he was to survey the instrumental music program. The contract also made a vague reference to developing music among amateur and professional musical organizations, but contained no direct references to forming an orchestra in Cleveland. Sokoloff was interested in all these endeavors, but in addition he wanted to start a permanent orchestra, which until then had been an elusive thing for Cleveland. The Great Flu Epidemic of 1918 and the subsequent closing of schools helped make it possible for Sokoloff to focus on this goal. Under his leadership, The Cleveland Orchestra was established in 1918. The contract is signed by Sokoloff and David Z. Norton, first president of the Musical Arts Association. The letterhead shows that John Long Severance, who provided the funding for the first year of Sokoloff's salary, was vice president at the time, and Adella Prentiss Hughes was secretary and treasurer. Another vice president had been Howard P. Eells, but he became ill and as the handwritten addition shows, was replaced by William Gwinn Mather. Nikolai Sokoloff (1886-1965) in Kiev, Russia, and moved to New Haven, Connecticut, at the age of thirteen. He graduated from the Yale University music school. He was the founding conductor of The Cleveland Orchestra and served for fourteen years (1918-1932). After leaving Cleveland, he became the director of the Federal Music Project (1935-1937). He later organized an orchestra in La Jolla, California, where he remained until his death. The Cleveland Orchestra, along with Boston, New York, Philadelphia and Chicago, is acknowledged as one of the "Big Five" American symphony orchestras. Its first concert was a benefit for St. Ann's Parish (in Cleveland Heights) at Grays Armory on December 11, 1918. Adella Prentiss Hughes and the Musical Arts Association recruited Nikolai Sokoloff as conductor. A substantial gift from Mr. and Mrs. John L. Severance enabled the Association to build its permanent home in University Circle, five miles east of downtown Cleveland. Severance Hall opened in February 1931. At the end of its 50th season in July 1968, the Orchestra inaugurated its summer home, Blossom Music Center, in Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio. In 1992 the Orchestra became the first American orchestra to establish a residency at Austria's Salzburg Festival. After a two-year, $36.7 million renovation and restoration project, The Cleveland Orchestra reopened Severance Hall in January 2000. The Orchestra's seventh music director, Franz Welser-Moest, began his tenure in September 2002.
Creator	Cleveland Orchestra
Date of Original	1918
Source	Unpublished material (archives/manuscripts) Box #GE-23
Submitting Institution	Cleveland Orchestra [The]
Type	Text
Format	manuscripts

Title	Om1738_1744419_001
Rights	For rights and reproduction requests, go to the Ohio Historical Society's Audiovisual and Graphic Reproduction Services page at http://www.ohiohistory.org/resource/audiovis/photodup.html; Online access is provided for research purposes only. For rights and reproduction requests or more information, go to http://www.ohiohistory.org/images/information
File Name	Om1738_1744419_001.tif
Image Height	3110
Image Width	2118
File Size	1917.537 KB

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