Severance Hall has been the home of The Cleveland Orchestra since it opened on February 5, 1931, and it remains one of the most architecturally striking concert halls in the country. Set in Cleveland’s University Circle neighborhood, the building pairs a stately neoclassical exterior with an Art Deco and Egyptian Revival interior dramatic enough to draw visitors who’ve never heard a note played inside.
Businessman John L. Severance funded the roughly $2.5 million hall as a memorial to his wife, Elisabeth Huntington DeWitt Severance, hiring the Cleveland firm Walker and Weeks to design it. Nearly a century later, following a $50 million naming gift in 2021, the building now operates as Severance Music Center — though most people, including longtime Clevelanders, still just call it Severance Hall.
Quick Answer
Severance Hall — officially renamed Severance Music Center in 2021 — is the 1931 concert hall in Cleveland’s University Circle that has served as the permanent home of The Cleveland Orchestra for more than nine decades. It was built with a roughly $2.5 million gift from businessman John L. Severance, designed by the Cleveland firm Walker and Weeks, and seats about 2,000 people in its main concert hall plus 402 in the smaller Reinberger Chamber Hall.
When Was Severance Hall Built?
Severance Hall opened on February 5, 1931. Before that date, The Cleveland Orchestra — founded in 1918 — had spent its first twelve years performing in borrowed spaces around the city, including Grays Armory and the Masonic Auditorium, and was reportedly bumped from at least one venue by a scheduling conflict with a poultry exhibition. John L. Severance’s gift finally gave the young ensemble a permanent, purpose-built stage of its own.
A Purpose-Built Home for the Orchestra
John L. Severance commissioned Walker and Weeks to design a building that would give The Cleveland Orchestra a lasting home, and the hall has remained its principal performance venue ever since. The auditorium also houses the Norton Memorial Organ, a roughly 6,025-pipe E.M. Skinner instrument installed with the original 1931 building, which still hosts organ recitals in addition to orchestral concerts.
The Grand Foyer is the building’s most photographed space, with marble columns decorated in papyrus and lotus-flower motifs that reflect the Egyptian Revival style popular when the hall was built — a striking contrast to the more restrained neoclassical portico on the building’s exterior.
Severance Hall, Severance Music Center, or “Severance Music Hall”?
The venue’s official name has changed only once. It operated as Severance Hall for 90 years, and in 2021, following a $50 million naming gift, it was renamed Severance Music Center to reflect an expanded mission that includes music education alongside concerts. You may also see people search for “Severance Music Hall” — that isn’t and never has been an official name, but it’s an understandable blend of Severance Hall and Severance Music Center, both of which refer to the same building.
In practice, all three names point to the same address and the same organization. The Cleveland Orchestra still performs in the same main concert hall inside the building, and most locals, press outlets, and even the orchestra’s own casual references still call it Severance Hall.
Reinberger Chamber Hall
Reinberger Chamber Hall is the smaller, 402-seat performance space on Severance Hall’s ground floor, distinct from the roughly 2,000-seat main concert hall upstairs. It’s used for chamber music, recitals, pre-concert lectures, and other intimate programming that doesn’t require the full orchestra’s stage, giving Severance two very different-feeling venues under one roof.
Preservation and Modernization
Severance Hall’s acoustics and interiors have been revisited multiple times, most notably in 1958, when conductor George Szell oversaw changes to the stage shell, and again from 1998 to 2000, when a $36 million restoration project led by architect David M. Schwarz modernized backstage and public spaces while preserving the building’s Art Deco character. That restoration earned a National Preservation Honor Award, and it set the stage for the 2021 naming gift and rebrand to Severance Music Center.
Not the Severance Hall You Were Looking For?
If you searched for “Severance Hall” hoping to find a residence hall at Wellesley College in Massachusetts, that’s a different building entirely — a Gothic-style Wellesley dormitory dating to the 1920s, unrelated in design, location, or ownership to Cleveland’s concert hall.
The two buildings do share a family connection, though. Wellesley’s Severance Hall is named for Elisabeth Severance Prentiss, a Wellesley College graduate (class of 1887) and sister of John L. Severance, the same Cleveland businessman who funded Severance Hall in Cleveland as a memorial to his wife. Prentiss was a philanthropist in her own right, funding buildings at both her alma mater and in her native Cleveland.
Planning Your Visit
Severance Music Center is located at 11001 Euclid Avenue in Cleveland’s University Circle, on the Case Western Reserve University campus. The Cleveland Orchestra’s classical season typically runs from September through May, and tickets are sold through the Severance Ticket Office online, by phone, or in person; the ticket office generally keeps weekday business hours and stays open later on concert evenings, with different hours on non-concert days.
Because concert calendars, ticket prices, and ticket-office hours shift from season to season, check the official Cleveland Orchestra site for Severance Music Center before you go — it has the current schedule, seating charts for both the main hall and Reinberger Chamber Hall, and parking and accessibility details.
Severance Hall FAQs
When was Severance Hall built?
Severance Hall opened on February 5, 1931, funded by businessman John L. Severance as a memorial to his wife, Elisabeth Huntington DeWitt Severance.
Is Severance Hall the same as Severance Music Center?
Yes. The venue was renamed Severance Music Center in 2021 following a $50 million naming gift, but it’s the same building and organization that has operated as the Cleveland Orchestra’s home since 1931.
What is Reinberger Chamber Hall?
Reinberger Chamber Hall is a 402-seat secondary performance space on Severance Hall’s ground floor, used for chamber music, recitals, and pre-concert lectures — separate from the roughly 2,000-seat main concert hall.
Is the Severance Hall at Wellesley College the same building?
No. That’s a Wellesley College residence hall named for Elisabeth Severance Prentiss, John L. Severance’s sister; it has no architectural or organizational connection to Cleveland’s Severance Hall.
Who performs at Severance Hall?
The Cleveland Orchestra has been the resident ensemble at Severance Hall since it opened in 1931.
How many people does Severance Hall seat?
The main concert hall seats about 2,000, and the venue’s Reinberger Chamber Hall seats 402.
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