The Cleveland Orchestra received a $5 million gift from The Kelvin and Eleanor Smith Foundation to endow the Kelvin Smith Family Chair in honor of Music Director Franz Welser-Möst.
Welser-Möst, who joined the Cleveland Orchestra at the beginning of the 2002-’03 season, will soon be the longest-serving conductor in the orchestra’s history. He has announced he will step down when his contract ends in June 2027, concluding a quarter-century-long, critically acclaimed tenure.
The Kelvin and Eleanor Smith Foundation is a private philanthropy that makes grants to non-profit, charitable organizations that serve the people of Cleveland, Ohio. A lover of the arts, Kelvin Smith used his wealth from co-founding the Lubrizol Corporation, a Cleveland-based chemical company, to establish his family’s foundation in 1955. The organization frequently gives to the Cleveland Orchestra and is listed among the ensemble’s institutional partners.
