Franz’s Final Season With The Cleveland Orchestra: CLE Daily

Plus, MSB's band heads back to the stage, and other news and notes from around Cleveland and Northeast Ohio.

by Ron Ledgard | Sep. 17, 2026 | 5:00 AM

Photograph courtesy The Cleveland Orchestra

🌳 Sears Family Gives $1.5M to Expand Holden's Science Center: Sally and Larry Sears are funding a 10,000-square-foot addition to Holden Arboretum's research building in Kirtland — new labs, public learning space, construction starting 2027. The first floor will bear their name.

🏥 Akron Children's Ranks Nationally in Three Specialties: U.S. News & World Report's 2026-27 rankings put Akron Children's in the Top 50 for Behavioral Health, No. 20 for Orthopedics and No. 42 for Urology.

🤘 Metallica Books Huntington Bank Field for June 15, 2027: The M72 World Tour adds a 2027 leg, with Limp Bizkit and Avatar opening Cleveland's first announced 2027 stadium show. Presale starts Monday; general tickets Sept. 25.

ICYMI: Remember Chloe's story on CMA's AI-powered ArtLens Reimagined? Today's Sears gift to Holden is another NEO institution betting big on research.

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Today's Trivia

During his playing days at the University of Tennessee, future Browns coach Sam Rutigliano roomed with what future pro wrestler who was also a regular in music videos by Cyndi Lauper?

Music: Franz Welser-Möst opens his 25th and final season as The Cleveland Orchestra's music director today.

By Annie Nickoloff

Welser-Möst's farewell season begins with Strauss and Shostakovich, capping a run longer than any music director in the orchestra's history, including George Szell. He's now cancer-free after treatment for a bladder tumor sidelined him for parts of the past two seasons — and didn't miss a Severance show all of 2025-26.

A Complicated Legacy: He weathered brutal early reviews, including a defamation suit from a Plain Dealer critic he clashed with, but has gone on to appoint 53 of the orchestra's 99 musicians. He also furthered the group's commissioning record, starting with 2002's "Orion." "With Franz, it was always fresh," says violist Stanley Konopka.

The Send-Off: The season builds to a fully staged production of Strauss' "Die Frau ohne Schatten" in 2027, alongside a Miami residency, Carnegie Hall shows and a European tour. A successor hasn't been named.

Read the full story.

Talk of the Town

I-90's West Side closures keep piling up. Two more ramps shut Sept. 14 — eastbound to Alger, Warren and Bunts roads — part of ODOT's $328 million reconstruction running through 2032.

Ohio's voter registration deadline is Oct. 5. Absentee ballots can't go out until Oct. 6, a one-day gap that's sparked confusion ahead of the Nov. 3 election.

Hopkins is getting a new nonstop to Vegas. United launches year-round CLE-Las Vegas service Sept. 24, its latest route addition at the airport.

Ohio electric bills keep climbing, and data centers are a big reason why. Utilities' demand forecasts are driving up capacity prices and grid spending, even though critics say many of the roughly 150 planned Ohio data centers may never get built. AEP Ohio expects demand to nearly triple over the next decade.

Ohio's space industry convenes in Cleveland today. The Ohio Space Forum brings leaders to Hilton Cleveland Downtown to talk lunar energy, space health and nuclear propulsion, part of the same Ohio Space Week that opened Tuesday.

Michael Stanley and Jonah Koslen | Photographed by Janet Macoska

Music: Jonah Koslen brings Michael Stanley Band's landmark Stage Pass back to the stage for one last run.

By Chloe Banno

Koslen, who co-founded MSB with Michael Stanley in 1973, plays the Kent Stage Oct. 22 and 24 — the exact anniversary dates of the 1976 Agora Ballroom shows that became Stage Pass, the double live album some still call the best live rock record ever made. Stanley died in 2021; Koslen says these are his last dedicated MSB tribute shows.

A Hometown-Only Phenomenon: MSB broke attendance records at Blossom and the Coliseum but never broke out nationally. "They had a level of quality that definitely could have gone beyond the limits of Cleveland," says former WMMS program director John Gorman.

Selling Fast: The shows, backed by 27-year-old guitarist Michael Weber, sold more than 1,000 tickets in three days and are nearly sold out. "It just seems like the right time," Koslen says. "This is a chance to play Michael's music one last time."

Read the full story.

Yesterday's Trivia Answer

Who was Cleveland's first mayor? John W. Willey

Check back tomorrow for the answer to today's question.

From the Editor

Two goodbyes and one great migration in the stories this week: Franz Welser-Möst's last season on the Severance podium, Jonah Koslen closing the book on Michael Stanley Band with one more spin of Stage Pass, and, from yesterday, monarchs clearing out of Northeast Ohio on schedule.

Everything's heading somewhere this month — bands, batons, butterflies, even the weather, with fall six days out.

— Ron Ledgard, Managing Editor

Let us know what is on your mind at conversation@clevelandmagazine.com.

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Ron Ledgard

Ron Ledgard is the managing editor for Cleveland Magazine. He is a native of Pittsburgh and graduated from the University of Pittsburgh. He has worked for a number of publications, including The Athletic and Akron Beacon Journal, among others. He enjoys being outside and searching out restaurants to try and things to do. Sports is his subject of choice. Most Starbucks baristas in the area know Ron like the Cheers crowd knew Norm.