The Cleveland Orchestra Returns to South Florida for Its 19th Miami Residency of Concerts and Educational Programs
When The Cleveland Orchestra played its first concert in the Knight Concert Hall in January 2007, it was the beginning of a beautiful friendship between the classical music superstars from the Midwest and the performing arts center that had just opened in our magic city. For the past two decades, that friendship has blossomed into a dynamic artistic partnership between the Adrienne Arsht Center and The Cleveland Orchestra that has produced some of the most memorable concerts experienced by South Florida music lovers. Now, The Cleveland Orchestra returns for its 19th Miami residency, with performances in January and March, plus a host of richly diverse educational programs and vital community engagement initiatives.
“The Knight Concert Hall provides a superb venue for connecting with Miami’s enthusiastic audiences,” says André Gremillet, president and CEO of The Cleveland Orchestra, “and we are proud to be part of Miami’s thriving cultural scene.”
The orchestra’s January 2026 concert schedule offers three programs, including a magnificent choral work, award-winning film scores featuring a legendary violinist and iconic masterpieces by Mozart and Beethoven.
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Verdi’s Requiem: A Dramatic Tour de Force
The monumental Requiem is Verdi’s largest non-operatic work, loved and admired for its fusion of religious ecstasy and dramatic passion. When experienced live, its commanding choruses, exquisite vocal solos, awesome symphonic score and theatrical libretto can produce such a staggering emotional intensity that some music fans half-jokingly refer to it as Verdi’s best opera.
A powerful tribute to hope for life eternal, this Requiem is perhaps best known for the fateful fortissimo pounding of the bass drum that announces the hair-raising “Dias Irae,” the second stop in Verdi’s breathtaking journey through the stages of grief. Equally sublime, though, is that journey’s end, the “Libera me,” a nearly 15-minute operatic scena for the soprano soloist that is as complex and emotionally charged as Leonora’s “Pace, pace mio Dio” from La Forza del Destino or Elisabetta’s “Tu che le vanità” from Don Carlo. In this performance, conducted by Cleveland Orchestra music director Franz-Welser Möst, that stirring scene will be sung by 2025 International Opera Awards Singer of the Year Asmik Grigorian, whose sumptuous voice and intense theatricality have made her a leading star and an audience favorite at the great opera houses of the world. Joining her at the Arsht will be the formidable voices of mezzo-soprano Deniz Uzun, tenor Joshua Guerrero and baritone Tereq Nazmi, alongside the magnificent Cleveland Orchestra Chorus.
This not-to-be-missed musical event will take place Jan. 23-24 at 8 p.m.
A Movie Date With Itzhak Perlman
Yes, you’ve scored a movie date with that Itzhak Perlman, the world-renowned violinist who’s been honored with 16 Grammy Awards, four Emmy Awards, a Kennedy Center Honor and a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award, and who’s performed with every major orchestra around the globe.
On Jan. 28, The Cleveland Orchestra will present a one-night-only special event: Itzhak Perlman: Cinema Serenade, fusing the magic of the movies to the excitement of live orchestral music. With his extraordinary technique and ravishingly beautiful sound, Perlman brings to life some of the most iconic film scores in the history of motion pictures, including the great Ennio Morricone’s BAFTA Award-winning music for the nostalgic Cinema Paradiso and John Williams’ haunting, heartbreaking theme from Schindler’s List, which was introduced to the world in 1993 by Perlman himself in the film’s Oscar-, BAFTA- and Grammy-winning soundtrack.
Featuring The Cleveland Orchestra led by assistant conductor Taichi Fukumara, Itzhak Perlman: Cinema Serenade is the ticket you need to celebrate not just the legendary violinist’s 80th birthday season, but also to be transported by the power and poetry of music in film.
Itzhak Perlman: Cinema Serenade will take place on Jan. 28 at 8 p.m.
Mozart and Beethoven Masterworks: “Jupiter” and “Emperor”
The Cleveland Orchestra’s trio of January concert programs concludes Jan. 30-31 with music director Franz Welser-Möst conducting two of the most loved pieces in the repertory: Beethoven’s grand Piano Concerto No. 5, “Emperor” and Mozart’s sublime Symphony No. 41, “Jupiter.” Sharing powerful and evocative nicknames, both have been considered, across the ages, the epitome of symphonic art.
Pianist Yefim Bronfman, who takes center stage for the first half of the concert, has long been praised for his elegant and commanding performance of Beethoven’s revolutionary concerto, bringing a sweeping grandeur and piercing intelligence to what has been regarded as the apotheosis of the composer’s creative spirit.
Mozart’s formidable “Jupiter” Symphony, his 41st and last, is a miraculous conclusion to one of the shortest but most brilliantly productive lives of any genius. A triumphant work, it is a culmination of Mozart’s highest ideals, a masterpiece of invention, a breathtaking swan song, an everlasting gift to all of us.
Bronfman Plays Beethoven will take place on Jan. 30-31 at 8 p.m.
The Cleveland Orchestra will return in March with The Rite of Spring and The Princess Bride.
Tickets for The Cleveland Orchestra’s concerts at the Adrienne Arsht Center’s Knight Concert Hall are available by calling (305) 949-6722 or visiting ArshtCenter.org/Cleveland.