Three years ago, after the Cleveland Orchestra’s first Hispanic Heritage Month concert, bandleader Sammy DeLeon was so pumped up, he needed time to recover.
He and his orchestra had flown so high playing to a packed Severance Music Center, bringing listeners to their feet, he almost couldn’t bring himself back down to Earth.
“It was a magical event,” said DeLeon, a timbales master and fixture in local Latin jazz. “I was in awe for a few days. It took me two or three days to get any rest.”
It’s time for DeLeon to start banking sleep. As the third edition of the orchestra’s highest-profile overture to Cleveland’s Hispanic community approaches on Sept. 13,, the bandleader said he plans to turn it up to 11. Specifically, he aims to “triple” the energy, to succeed again in transforming patrons from passive listeners into active, dancing participants.
Success on that front is likely. DeLeon said he’s been crafting a set-list for weeks, brainstorming with his orchestra and guest vocalists Bertin Vasquez and Tamara Morales to put together a lineup that rouses patrons from their seats and does justice to the enormous variety and depth of popular music across Latin America.
“We just want people to get in there and have fun for 90 minutes,” said DeLeon, a Lorain native whose parents hail from Puerto Rico. “It’s all about having fun and putting a smile on people’s faces.”
Getting people in there may in fact be the higher priority. Architect Richard Levitz, a native of Colombia and a member of the orchestra’s Hispanic sub-committee, said that while there’s no physical wall around Severance Music Center, many in his community perceive a barrier nonetheless.
After both Hispanic Heritage Month concerts to date, Levitz said he heard guests say they’d enjoyed the music but were just as delighted to have visited Severance Music Center for the first time. Many, he said, weren’t aware it’s the home of the Cleveland Orchestra, or had regarded classical music as a world apart, something not for them.
“For us, it’s about bringing classical music off its pedestal and making it transparent to the community,” Levitz said, linking the Hispanic Heritage concert to the orchestra’s ongoing education programs in Cleveland-area schools. “We’ve got to speak to the community in the language they understand. We have to give them a flavor that they understand and appreciate.”
There’s more to it, though, than offering a flavor, he said. For the effort to be truly successful, listeners need to connect what takes place at Severance Music Center the rest of the year, when it isn’t Hispanic Heritage Month.
That’s where the first half of the Sept. 13 concert comes in. Before DeLeon and his orchestra do their level best to blow the roof off, a group of Cleveland Orchestra musicians will take the Severance stage with a very different program, one that teases out the Latin American thread that runs through the history of Western classical music.
Mozart, Beethoven, and Brahms likely won’t be on the program. Instead, listeners will hear works by Aldemaro Romero, a late composer from Venezuela; Ernesto Lecuona, a popular Cuban composer; Cuban-American star Paquito de Rivera; and Argentine tango master Astor Piazzolla. This half of the program will also feature Flamenco dancing by Alice Blumenfeld.
Latin American music “includes classical music and medieval music, and it’s evolved just as it has in every other country,” Levitz explained. “To me, the goal is to normalize the programming of this music and these composers. And it’s been happening. Whenever I can get one or two [Latin American] pieces on a concert, I’m happy.”
In many ways, the Hispanic Heritage Month Concert resembles the Martin Luther King, Jr. Celebration Concert, another open-door event held every year by the Cleveland Orchestra. Like its January counterpart, the Hispanic Concert is free, high-energy, and hugely popular. Both encourage listeners to sing, dance, and clap along.
But there’s another important overlap, one that isn’t often noted: neither exists exclusively for the community it celebrates.
Both Levitz and DeLeon were quick to note that while the Hispanic Heritage concert specifically embraces one culture, all people are welcome. One of its main goals, after all, is to clear musical barriers, wherever and in whatever form they exist.
“It’s really a gift to Cleveland, to share Hispanic music and break that mold,” Levitz said. “We need to start that conversation.”
PREVIEW
Cleveland Orchestra
What: Free Hispanic Heritage Month Concert
When: 7 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 13
Where: Severance Music Center, 11001 Euclid Ave., Cleveland
Tickets: Free, but tickets required. Visit clevelandorchestra.com or call 216-231-1111.
