Cleveland Orchestra's Blossom Music Festival starts Saturday. Here's the full season lineup

It's finally Blossom Music Festival time, as the Cleveland Orchestra kicks off its 54th Blossom Music Festival Saturday, with fans gathering to soak up the world-class music as they enjoy picnics on the lawn at Blossom Music Center in Cuyahoga Falls.

The Cleveland Orchestra's festival lineup will run through Sept. 9, featuring 23 concerts of 15 different programs. The orchestra will offer 16 pops concerts and seven classical concerts, starting with Beethoven's Symphony No. 9 "Choral" Saturday.

That triumphant symphony will be conducted by Susanna Mälkki, featuring the Blossom Festival Chorus and soloists Elizabeth DeShong, Felicia Moore, Issachah Savage and Soloman Howard, with Moore and Savage making their Cleveland Orchestra debuts.

This season's classical concerts will range from Mozart to Rachmaninoff and include contemporary music by John Adams, Yasushi Akutagawa, Caroline Shaw and Sarah Kirkland Snider.

Ending the festival in September will be the Akron Symphony Orchestra performing the concert "Distant Worlds: Music from Final Fantasy," celebrating a video game series.

Here's the full season.

Full Blossom Music Festival lineup

● 8 p.m. July 1: "Beethoven's Ode to Joy." Susanna Mälkki conducts the Cleveland Orchestra, soloists and the Blossom Festival Chorus in Beethoven's masterpiece Symphony No. 9. William Grant Still’s "Mother and Child" and Samuel Barber’s "Knoxville: Summer of 1915" also will be performed. Special performance is not on the subscription series. Fireworks will follow, weather permitting.

● 8 p.m. July 2-4: The Blossom Festival Band performs "Salute to America," featuring patriotic marches, Broadway favorites, an Armed Forces Salute and more, conducted by Loras John Schissel. Fireworks to follow.

Local Flavor: Momo House in Akron is an adventure in Nepali cuisine

● 7 p.m. July 7-9: Sarah Hicks conducts the Cleveland Orchestra in a live movie night of "Jurassic Park," the film with live orchestra underscore by John Williams. The concert celebrates the epic film's 30th anniversary.

● 7 p.m. July 15: "Romantic Rachmaninoff," featuring Russian pianist Nikolai Lugansky in his Cleveland Orchestra debut under the baton of Russian conductor Stanislav Kochanovsky, also in his Cleveland Orchestra debut, for Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto No. 3. The concert also includes the Cleveland Orchestra premiere of Rachmaninoff's Symphony No. 1.

● 7 p.m July 16: "She's Got Soul," featuring vocal powerhouse Capathia Jenkins singing a range of R&B classics by Adele, Toni Braxton, The Jackson 5, Earth, Wind & Fire, Chaka Khan, Stevie Wonder and others. Lucas Waldin will conduct.

● 7 p.m. July 22: Kakchun Wong will conduct American cellist Zlatomir Fung in his Cleveland Orchestra debut in Shostakovich's Cello Concerto No. 1. Also on the program are Debussy's impressionistic "La Mer" and the Cleveland Orchestra premiere of Akutagawa's Music for Symphony Orchestra.

● 7 p.m. July 23: "Two Pianos: Who Could Ask for Anything More." Pianist Jean-Yves Thibaudet, pianist and vocalist Michael Feinstein join forces with conductor Keith Lockhart and the Cleveland Orchestra for the music of Gershwin, Cole Porter, Richard Rodgers and more. The program will include Gershwin's "Rhapsody in Blue."

Beatles art show: Beatles cartoon pop-up art show comes to Cuyahoga Falls this weekend

● 7 p.m. July 28-30: Movie Night Live will feature "The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers," with Howard Shore's epic score performed live by the Cleveland Orchestra, Blossom Festival and the Cleveland Orchestra Children's Chorus to the second installment of the epic film trilogy. Ludwig Wicki will conduct.

● 7 p.m. Aug. 5: "Sibelius' First Symphony," featuring the Cleveland Orchestra and pianist Conrad Tao conducted by David Robertson. The program will include the Cleveland Orchestra premiere of Snider's "Something Dark," Sibelius' Symphony No. 1 and Tao in the John Adams' piano concerto "Century Rolls," commissioned and recorded by the Cleveland Orchestra. The Kent Blossom Chamber Orchestra also will perform.

● 7 p.m. Aug. 12: Nicholas McGegan will conduct the Cleveland Orchestra in Mozart's Overture to "The Marriage of Figaro"; Mozart's Clarinet Concerto, featuring principal clarinetist Afendi Yusuf; the Cleveland Orchestra premiere of Langer's Suite from "Figaro Gets a Divorce"; and Mendelssohn's Symphony No. 4, "Italian."

● 7 p.m. Aug. 13: "An Evening with Audra McDonald," conducted by Andy Einhorn. Broadway icon McDonald will join the Cleveland Orchestra for favorites by Rodgers and Hammerstein, Stephen Sondheim, George Gershwin and others, plus songs from her latest album,"Sing Happy."

More: Who is food writer Stephen Satterfield? Host of Netflix's 'High on the Hog' coming to Akron

● 7 p.m. Aug. 19: Conductor Ryan Bancroft and Japanese pianist Mao Fujita, a rising star, will make their Cleveland Orchestra debuts with Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto No. 1. Also on the program will be the Cleveland Orchestra premiere of Shaw's Entr'acte and Dawson's Negro Folk Symphony.

● 7 p.m. Aug. 26: Fabien Gabel will conduct the concert "French Impressions," including violinist Simone Lamsma in Saint-Saens' Violin Concerto No. 3, Ravel's "Alborado del gracioso," De Falla's Suite No. 2 from "The Three-Cornered Hat" and Ravel's Suite No. 2 from "Daphnis and Chloe."

● 7 p.m. Sept. 1-3: Susie Benchasil Seiter will make her Cleveland Orchestra debut conducting the live movie night "Disney: The Sound of Magic."

The concert will celebrate 100 years of Disney's most beloved films and soundtracks, including "Peter Pan," "Moana," "Aladdin," "The Jungle Book," "Frozen," "The Lion King," "Fantasia," "Encanto" and more.

● 7 p.m. Sept. 9: Arnie Roth will conduct the Akron Symphony Orchestra, Cleveland Orchestra Chamber Chorus and vocalist Susan Calloway in "Distant Worlds: Music from Final Fantasy," the video game series with music by composer Nobuo Uematsu. The concert will include high-definition projections on giant screens. The special performance is not on the subscription series. Lawn ticket books cannot be redeemed and under 18s free ticketing is not applicable for the concert.

Blossom Music Festival ticket information

Pavilion tickets start at $25 for adults and $15 for students and children. Individual lawn tickets start at $25. Lawn ticket books of 10 adult vouchers cost $180 and include 20 Under 18s Free vouchers and two free upgrade passes.

Subscriptions start at $123, and a create-your-own series package is also available. For more information, see www.clevelandorchestra.com or call 216-231-1111.

Arts and restaurant writer Kerry Clawson may be reached at 330-996-3527 or kclawson@thebeaconjournal.com.

This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Cleveland Orchestra announces full season for Blossom Music Festival