Franz Welser-Möst to retire as Cleveland Orchestra music director in June 2027

CLEVELAND (AP) — Franz Welser-Möst will retire as music director of the Cleveland Orchestra in June 2027, ending a 25-season tenure that will be the longest in the ensemble’s history. The orchestra said in September that the 63-year-old had a cancerous tumor removed and he was canceling conducting performances from late October through the end of the year. Welser-Möst is to conduct the Orchestra at Severance Hall starting Thursday night and is to lead it on tour to New York’s Carnegie Hall on Jan. 20 and 21.  Welser-Möst’s time leading Cleveland will surpass that of George Szell, the orchestra’s music director from 1946-70.