NEW YORK — Franz Welser-Möst is back on the Cleveland Orchestra’s podium, concentrating again on music instead of his health.

“It was not my best year, the last year,” he said Wednesday. “I feel good. You learn to live with the circumstances, and I’m extremely and grateful that I’m back at work.”

On track to surpass George Szell as Cleveland’s longest-tenured music director, the 63-year-old Austrian returned to his orchestra at Cleveland’s Severance Music Center last week and leads it in a pair of programs at Carnegie Hall this weekend. He will be in Austria for five concerts with the Vienna Philharmonic in late February, then leads that orchestra on a seven-concert tour in early March to New York and Naples and West Palm Beach, Florida.

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

Quite a schedule, given his setbacks in 2023.

He had a slipped disk in his neck while conducting Wagner’s four-opera “Der Ring des Nibelungen (The Ring of the Nibelung)” at the Vienna State Opera in June, an injury that caused him to enter an orthopedic clinic in the second half of July and again in August. He was forced to cancel a high-profile new production of Verdi’s “Macbeth” at the Salzburg Festival.

Welser-Möst had surgery Sept. 1 to remove a cancerous tumor from his bladder and came back to Cleveland to conduct the orchestra’s season opener on Sept. 28. After leading two weeks of programs there, he took the orchestra to Vienna and Linz for their 21st international tour together, then had a second operation on Oct. 25.

That was followed in November by six weeks of once-a-week immunotherapy treatment. He is scheduled for additional three-week cycles of treatment in March, July and October.

“The doctors are very happy. So am I, that it seems to work. It has been in my family, so it’s genetic,” Welser-Möst said. “Both my brothers had the same thing a couple of years ago. Both are very well now, so there’s every reason to be optimistic.”

Welser-Möst has been Cleveland’s music director since 2002-03 and has appointed 69 musicians, including 52 of the current 105 members.

“One of the keys to Franz’s success is his incredible discipline. He’s like a great athlete in that way,” said André Gremillet, the Cleveland Orchestra’s president and CEO. “He’s very focused, very disciplined in the way he approaches everything, and I think that has served him well also in facing his health challenges.”

His name at birth in Linz, Austria, was Franz Leopold Maria Möst, and he switched it in 1985 to Welser-Möst in honor of Wels, a nearby city he grew up in. The change was made on the advice of a benefactor, Baron Andreas von Bennigsen of Liechtenstein.

Welser-Möst spent a decade studying the technique of Herbert von Karajan, the Berlin Philharmonic’s chief conductor from 1954-89. He was 19 when he was brought to Karajan in 1979 by Albert Moser, then general director of Vienna’s Musikverein. Welser-Möst was among the 10 finalists of the Karajan International Conductors Competition, though he failed to win.

“I’d been to a lot of rehearsals in Vienna, in Salzburg and Berlin, and that made a huge impression on me because Karajan was highly efficient in rehearsals,” Welser-Möst recalled. “He would just say one sentence and the sound of the orchestra changed completely. And in those days, of course, I was like: How on earth is he doing that?”

Welser-Möst first conducted the Cleveland Orchestra in 1993 and became music director for the 2002-03 season. On the afternoon of his return concert on Jan. 11, he announced he will retire as music director at the end of 2026-27, his 25th season. Welser-Möst maintained he wasn’t focused on topping Szell’s reign, which stretched from 1946-70.

“I’m not into that game. It just happened,” he said.

Welser-Möst’s New York concerts are part of Carnegie Hall’s “Perspectives” series and its focus this winter and spring on the fall of the Weimar Republic.

“It is something that is so important to him and so important to his life,” Carnegie Hall executive director Clive Gillinson said. “I remember doing one Zoom call where he was in his library and he showed me all the books he’s got on Weimar.”

Welser-Möst is proud of extending the orchestra’s flexibility by programming semi-staged operas, with Mozart’s “Die Zauberflöte (The Magic Flute)” next this May. He already has scheduled Janáček’s “Jenůfa” for next season, Beethoven’s “Fidelio” for 2025-26 and Strauss’ “Die Frau ohne Schatten (The Woman without a Shadow)” for 2026-27.

“I’m an old dog when it comes to opera,” he said. “I’ve conducted about 90 different operas in my life. When I was in Zurich for nearly 14 years, I conducted 43 opening nights of a piece.”

His retirement creates another coveted U.S. podium vacancy. Riccardo Muti stepped down from the Chicago Symphony Orchestra in June and Gustavo Dudamel shifts from the Los Angeles Philharmonic to the New York Philharmonic for the 2026-27 season.

“Every institution needs once in a while new input and new ideas,” Welser-Möst said. “I’m not saying I’m running out of ideas, but I always tried to live that philosophy here, that music comes first, the institution second, the individual third.”

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. At the time, the orchestra said he would undergo treatment between conducting engagements for 12 to 16 months.

Welser-Möst was 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.

“I am immensely grateful for the extraordinary journey that I have had with the Cleveland Orchestra since I first came to Severance more than 30 years ago,” Welser-Möst said in a statement Thursday. “It is both a special and an emotional moment as I reflect on what we have accomplished together. But perhaps what matters most to me is the shared passion, the inspiring creativity, and the lasting friendships that I have had the privilege of building with our musicians, audiences, and fans around the world.”

Born in Austria, Welser-Möst was principal conductor of the London Philharmonic Orchestra from 1990-96, chief conductor of the Zurich Opera from 1995-2005 and its general music director from 2005-08. He was general music director of the Vienna State Opera from 2010-14.

Welser-Möst first conducted the Cleveland Orchestra in 1993 and became music director for the 2002-03 season following Christoph von Dohnányi’s 18-season tenure. Welser-Möst’s time leading Cleveland will surpass that of George Szell, the orchestra’s music director from 1946-70.

The Snowbelt Musical Arts Association, composed of four performing ensembles, was founded in 2017 by Greg Hillis, a former director of the Great Geauga County Fair Band. Following his term with the fair band Hillis began looking at opportunities for local musicians to play and perform and also to offer high quality concerts to area audiences.

He notes that his wish to make music widely available in Geauga and Lake counties started years earlier while growing up in Chardon.

“I always wondered why we had to leave the county to hear or play in a concert,” he said. “I’ve made it my mission to bring as much music to the area as possible.”

Partnering with a group of friends from the fair band who served as the first board of directors, Hillis’s goal was achieved.

SMAA is comprised of four performing ensembles: Lake Effect Concert Band, a community band for older teens and adults; Blizzard Youth Winds, a concert band for junior and senior high school students; Polar Vortex, a big band jazz ensemble; and Snowbelt Symphony, a professional symphony orchestra.

Recruiting members through flyers at local music stores and using social media and emails for networking proved to be successful.

“It was almost immediately apparent that the Lake Effect Concert Band would be viable,” Hillis said.

Since that time general interest and support for the group has consistently grown. The Lake Effect Concert Band drew nearly 400 attendees at its latest concert and the SMAA Facebook page has attracted more than 1,200 followers.

The wide span of musicians’ ages ranging from high school students to seniors in their 80s is advantageous, according to Dee Costello, mother of one of the younger concert band members.

“(There’s) fantastic mentoring by the amazing more experienced musicians,” she said. “They’re just super human beings.”

The chance for many family members to participate together is another benefit. Michael and Nancy McMillin claim that band practice serves as the couple’s date night.

“Music has been important to our lives since before we met 26 years ago,” Michael said. “Participating in the Lake Effect Concert Band, watching our son participate in the Blizzard Youth Winds, and volunteering for the Snowbelt Symphony has given us such joy and fulfillment. We are very lucky and blessed to have this opportunity.”

Each ensemble typically meets for five or six rehearsals followed by one or more concerts. Along with designated sessions members are expected to practice on their own to further hone their skills.

Although COVID prevented gathering in person for more than a year, ingenuity and technology were employed in order to maintain musical connections.

SMAA Board President Steve Ingrassia mixed audio and produced videos from submissions by individual musicians. The videos are available on Ingrassia’s YouTube channel, under the Snowbelt Musical Arts Association playlist, and most are also available on the SMAA YouTube channel.

Jim Vinciquerra is a musician who plays euphonium in Lake Effect. More than 50 years ago he was a member of the Wickliffe High School Band.

“As one of the ‘elder statespersons’ of the group, I find that challenges of practice and performance keep me both young at heart and mentally sharp,” he said. “In addition, I get a chance to be part of something that brings joy to me as well as an appreciative audience.

“I had wanted to get back into music since my high school band years, 55 years ago, and the Lake Effect Band has thankfully provided me with that opportunity.”

Although SMAA is busy performing at various venues from senior living centers to local jazz festivals, the group continues to work toward growing audiences, establishing regular financial support from corporate and grant sources, creating school outreach programs and more.

Upcoming concerts include the Blizzard Youth Winds at 7 p.m. Feb. 9 at a location to be announced, Snowbelt Symphony 4 p.m. Feb. 18 at New Promise Church in Kirtland and Lake Effect Concert Band at 7 p.m. March 22 at Berkshire High School in Burton.

For additional concerts and more information on SMAA visit snowbeltmusical.org.

It’s been more than four decades since supergroup ABBA closed the curtain on its touring years.

Those willing to voyage to Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in London can see the band perform digitally in a new hologram concert.

Or you can just head over to MGM Northfield Park on Jan. 5 to see MANIA: The ABBA Tribute to relive ABBA magic for a fraction of the cost.

Over the last two years, MANIA — a popular tribute band that’s been touring the globe since 1999 — had an 80-date sell-out tour across the country.

In the new year, the band is on tour celebrating the 50th anniversary of ABBA’s breakthrough single, “Waterloo,” the 1974 Eurovision Song Contest-winning single.

In a recent phone interview, vocalist Alison Ward, who portrays Agnetha Fältskog in the tribute act, points out that last year’s Eurovision winner was from Sweden.

“So, ironically, this year, 2024, it’ll be held in Sweden, and it’ll be 50 years since ABBA won with ‘Waterloo.’ So I’m thinking it’s going to be an epic Eurovision song contest in 2024,” she says excitedly.

Ward geeks out about ABBA things like this, which makes sense. She joined the tribute band in 2010 and explains that portraying Fältskog takes a lot more than throwing on a blonde wig and layering sequins.

“We do put on the Swedish accent,” says the native of Liverpool, England, speaking in her thick scouse accent. I don’t know if I’ve nailed it to a T, but I’ve given it a good go.”

Naturally, Ward is also a Beatles fan. (She even attended Penny Lane Nursery School.)

“Paul McCartney grew up on the street just off of my parents’ (street), so when you go on a Beatles tour in England, you pass basically by my childhood home, too,” she says. “So being around Strawberry Fields and Penny Lane, yeah, I’ve always been a Beatles girl, but I don’t know anyone who isn’t really. You have to love the Beatles. It’s like ABBA.”

Ward grew up singing, but she studied math instead of music.

“I was a maths geek in school. And then, my mom and dad gave me the go-ahead to go and do what I wanted. So, post-university, I’ve been singing ever since.”

She says joining MANIA was her first big gig.

“Mom and Dad wanted me to use the maths degree, but I picked the ABBA show, and I’ve been with them ever since.”

That is, with the exception of a two-year break she took to perform as a solo act on cruise ships worldwide.

Ward also performed as lead vocalist in a show at the New York-New York Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas.

She eventually rejoined the ABBA act, saying she missed it despite its physical demands.

“I give it my all,” she says. “It takes me a lot of energy to get it out every night because it’s, like, a two-and-a-half-hour show and I never leave. We have an intermission, but I’m on the whole time. So it’s a workout, and I have been doing it all this time.”

She explains that this band’s choreography is more involved than ABBA’s, which adds to the workload.

“To be honest, ABBA back then was very minimal with the moves, and they’re very simple with the performance,” she says.

The band adds their own choreography to keep their crowds hyped and dancing the whole time.

“Most people in the audience are there because they’re ABBA fans. Some people have been roped in with family and friends, but I know that by the end of it, everyone’s happy singing, dancing, joining in,” she says.

Ward says one of her favorite memories is her experience meeting her youngest fan, who was just a baby at the time.

The parents showed their baby the band’s performances via YouTube videos before eventually taking her to the show at just 15 months old.

“She was in a sparkly outfit that matched us. I’d never met this family and didn’t know them, but they just wanted her to come because she’d been watching our YouTube (videos),” Ward says. “And then it was just so cute to meet them backstage, and they were just so grateful. ‘They were like, ‘You’ll always be (her) first concert.’”

Ward says no matter the age, everyone comes and leaves the show feeling great.

“We have a lot of fun. It’s high energy. It’s a big party on and off stage. Everyone’s just having an absolute blast.”

MANIA: The ABBA Tribute

When: Jan. 5.

Where: MGM Northfield Park, 10777 Northfield Road, Northfield.

Tickets: Starting at $24.

Info: mgmnorthfieldpark.mgmresorts.com or 330-908-7625.

The family concert will have a Wild West theme this year, the release said.

This concert is completely free and open to the public, thanks to the generosity of: Randolph J. & Estelle M. Dorn Foundation, Geotrac Foundation and Ohio Arts Council, the release said.

At 3 p.m., before the concert, children and families can enjoy hands-on musical activities, including making their own instruments, coloring, bean bag toss, instrument displays, lasso activities and a real saddle photo booth, according to the release.

The Firelands Symphony Orchestra will offer bandanas for the children and encourage attendees to wear boots, hats, plaid shirts and any other western style wear, the release said.

The concert will feature the Firelands Symphony Orchestra, under the direction of music director and conductor Carl Topilow.

The concert will have family friendly programming with a western and cowboy theme from film, orchestra and popular culture, the release said.

Pieces in the program include “William Tell Overture,” “Pops Hoedown,” “Theme from The Magnificent Seven,” “Old MacDonald,” “Cowboys Overture,” “Sandpaper Ballet,” “Orange Blossom Special,” “Syncopated Clock” and “Hoedown from Rodeo,” according to the release.

While the concert is free and open to the public, free-will donations will be accepted, the release said.

Fortney wanted to start a venture of his own, and bring music into the wider Lorain County community.

He went on to create TrueNorth Cultural Arts, 33463 Lake Road in Avon Lake, and he has since served as its director.

TrueNorth, now in its 24th season, is hosting its annual Christmas concert Dec. 16 at Avon Lake Presbyterian Church, 32340 Electric Blvd.

“(TrueNorth) started in 1999,” Fortney said. “We have an orchestra, and we have a community choir.

“We do both the choir and the orchestra, and then we also have a studio on Lake Road in Avon Lake where we teach music lessons.”

Fortney advertised that the concert would include arrangements by composers Mack Wilberg, Dan Forrest and Gustav Holst.

Additionally, the concert will include, “A Christmas Festival” by Leroy Anderson which, since its release in 1950, has become one of Anderson’s most popular holiday-themed pieces for band and orchestra, along with “Sleigh Ride.”

“We’re doing Christmas music, all your favorite Christmas carols,” Fortney said. “We’re doing a number of arrangements from Mack Wilberg.

“We’ve done a lot of his arrangements.”

The Christmas concert is one of four major events on TrueNorth’s annual calendar, Fortney said.

In addition to their holiday pieces, the groups practice for a Thanksgiving concert, a springtime show normally scheduled for Good Friday, and a patriotic summer concert, he said.

“We do all styles of music, from classical to contemporary, from popular to avant garde,” Fortney said. “We kind of do it all.”

Fortney spoke on TrueNorth’s ability to enrich the lives of not only its participants, but the wider community.

He encouraged all to come out for a few festive holiday tunes and help support TrueNorth’s wider vision.

“Our vision is two-fold,” Fortney said. “(We want) to educate, equip and empower individuals so they can embrace and succeed in the creative arts; and to envision and encourage communities where creative arts and art appreciation flourish.”

The TrueNorth Cultural Arts 2023 Christmas concert starts at 7:30 p.m.

Attendance is free, but donations will be accepted to help mitigate concert expenses.

Thanks to the Bay Music Boosters, Malone’s decades-long resume now includes a jazz clinic at Bay High School, 29230 Wolf Road in Bay Village.

Malone and fellow accomplished jazz musician Jeff Antoniuk imparted their advice to the school’s jazz ensemble Dec. 4.

Antoniuk hosts Digging Deeper Jazz, a weekly podcast covering a variety of jazz topics, and is the founder of JazzWire, a lesson program.

He said he has students in more than 20 countries, but working with students in person is exceptionally valuable.

“Making a living as a musician is an interesting and tricky thing,” Antoniuk said. “One of the things I do, is go around to universities and colleges, and high schools like this, and talk about entrepreneurship.

“It’s certainly something I never thought I’d do. I’ve never taken a business class in my life, although I sure wish I had.”

Despite the trickiness of making it as a musician, Antoniuk encouraged the students to follow the opportunities that come to them.

Coming from an analytical background, he originally planned to study psychology in Canada before turning to the life of a performer.

“When I graduated high school, I was going to be a physicist; I loved science,” Antoniuk said. “I had no thoughts that I could do this for a living, or that I could be good enough or whatever.

“(But), I just kind of followed my nose to something that I loved, and opportunities kept opening up.”

Malone and Antoniuk both attended the University of North Texas for their musical education, though the two never met.

Malone said he has played over 4,400 live shows, and expressed to the students that playing live is perhaps the most valuable thing a musician can do outside of practicing.

“I just love to play music,” he said. “I can listen to music and just write it down, now.

“I don’t have to have a piano around. I started arranging when I was 13. I heard a record on the radio and I wanted to know what notes went together to make the record sound the way that it did.”

Darren Allen, Bay High School director of bands, spoke on Malone’s expertise, and the quality of advice he could offer students.

Malone, who plays 16 instruments at the professional level, can speak the language of nearly every one of the jazz band’s students.

“He likes to play everything,” Allen said of Malone. “He’s going to take a solo on many instruments up here.”

Malone’s segment of the clinic included jazz solos on saxophone, trombone, tuba and piccolo.

He said playing music comes easy to him, but teaching the next generation of performers is one of the joys of his career as well.

“I love working with kids,” Malone said. “I love that sparkle in a kid’s eyes when they understand a new concept.

“I thought (the jazz band) were very nice kids, and I thought they sounded great.”

The Bay High School jazz ensemble will play as part of the school’s annual Holiday Band Concert from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m., Dec. 14.

This year’s family holiday concert is titled “A Peppermint Twist Christmas” and features favorite holiday classics, as well as non-traditional holiday songs for a sweet twist, according to a news release.

The concert will not only feature the full orchestra, but also the Firelands Symphony Orchestra Chorale, under the direction of Michael Shirtz, and guest vocalist Connor Bogart O’Brien, the release said.

General admission tickets are available at FirelandsSymphony.com/Tickets or by calling the Firelands Symphony Orchestra office at 419-621-4800 from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., Monday through Thursday.

Adult tickets are $35, and student tickets are $5.

Selections include “Carol of the Bells,” “Sleigh Ride,” “Clarinet Candy” and more.

Highlighting the concert are the back-to-back versions of selections from Tchaikovsky’s traditional “Nutcracker Suite,” followed by Duke Ellington’s swing version of the “Nutcracker Suite.”

The chorale will lift their voices to perform many of the holiday classics both acapella and along with the orchestra, according to the release.

They will perform treasured holiday classics such as “O Come Emmanuel” and “Hark the Herald Angels Sing” as well as other pieces like “African Noel” and “Caroling Caroling,” the release said.

Having performed as a soloist on stage with many national orchestras, as well as on television, O’Brien will bring dulcet jazz tones as he performs pieces such as “Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas,” “The Most Wonderful Time of the Year,” “The Christmas Song” and more.

Now, he is putting the finishing touches on his first project, a multi-genre EP set to drop by the end of the year.

Tito Tahan, the record executive who signed DeHill to ProducerLife Records in 2021, is the man behind all of the instrumentals in the upcoming project. DeHill credited Tahan’s range as a producer.

“Tito makes all the beats,” Dehill said. “They’re soulful, tribal, country.

“We’re dipping our toes into everything and it’s working so far. I enjoy the music we’re making.”

Tahan said the range in genres makes the music strong but that putting together a multi-genre project still has some challenges.

“We’re trying to pick out what to release because (DeHill) does country, he does pop, he does EDM, he does rap, he does reggaetón,” Tahan said. “Trying to find what works is hard. Whatever he puts out will be put into a box.”

Finding ways to connect each track is something DeHill said can help the project flow.

“It still will feel intertwined together even though each song is different,” he said “I say something in a country song that I bring into a reggaetón song.”

Tahan said he has helped DeHill learn Spanish for the reggaetón songs the two have been working on. He noted that he has picked up singing in Spanish very quickly.

Being different is something that the pair embrace. Tahan said working in a city size of Lorain has challenges but that it gives them the opportunity to be different.

“A lot of times it’s difficult because there’s a scarcity of connections here in general,” Tahan said. “On the flip side of that, it’s really good because you also have the uniqueness of not having those connections and you’re able to be different in an industry that is so similar.

They aim to build off of the positive momentum from “One of a Kind” that Tahan said has about 1,800 monthly listeners since its release on Sept. 10.

“It’s doing really well for an artist who never released a song before,” Tahan said. “It was his first release ever and we really didn’t do much promotion either.”

They said they dropped that debut single about a month earlier than they originally planned but that it has been positive because they have had more time to see how people have reacted to it.

There is no official date set for the new release yet, but DeHill and Tahan said they aim to drop the project before the year is over, around Christmas or New Year’s. They also said listeners can expect a new single shortly before the full project.

NEW YORK  — Fans of hip-hop, country, pop, funk, R&B and rock all have reason to cheer the 2023 class entering the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.

Missy Elliott, Kate Bush, Willie Nelson, Sheryl Crow, Chaka Khan, “Soul Train” creator Don Cornelius and the late George Michael will be inducted into the hall on Friday night in New York. The ceremony is also streaming live for the first time on Disney+.

Also entering the hall are The Spinners, Rage Against the Machine, DJ Kool Herc, Link Wray, Al Kooper and Elton John’s longtime co-songwriter Bernie Taupin.

The ceremony in Brooklyn will feature either as presenters or performers John, Brandi Carlile, Dave Matthews, H.E.R., Chris Stapleton, St. Vincent, New Edition, Stevie Nicks, Adam Levine, Carrie Underwood, Common, Ice-T, LL Cool J, Miguel, Queen Latifah and Sia. There’s even money that John will sing some of the songs he wrote with Taupin.

Elliott becomes the first female hip-hop artist in the rock hall, which called her “a true pathbreaker in a male-dominated genre.” Taupin makes it into the rock hall 29 years after his writing partner.

The ceremony’s strong representation of women this year comes not long after the hall removed Rolling Stone co-founder Jann Wenner from its board of directors. Wenner, who also co-founded the hall, had said that Black and female musicians “didn’t articulate at the level” of the white musicians featured in his new book of interviews. He later apologized.

Artists must have released their first commercial recording at least 25 years before they’re eligible for induction. Nominees were voted on by more than 1,000 artists, historians and music industry professionals.

Bush was a nominee last year but didn’t make the final cut. She got in this year due to a new wave in popularity after the show “Stranger Things” featured her song “Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God).” The hall hailed her for “using lush soundscapes, radical experimentation, literary themes, sampling, and theatricality to captivate audiences and inspire countless musicians.”

Bush comes into the ceremony having broken three Guinness World Records, including becoming the oldest woman to reach No. 1 and the longest gap between No. 1s on the UK’s singles chart.

Michael, first as a member of Wham! and then as a solo artist, was cited for “paving the way for a generation of proud LGBTQIA+ artists, from Sam Smith to Lil Nas X to Troye Sivan” and the 90-year-old Nelson was simply described as “an American institution.”

Crow was recognized for key songs in the 1990s musical canon like “All I Wanna Do” and “Every Day Is a Winding Road,” while Rage Against the Machine “forged brazen protest music for the modern world.”

The hall called DJ Kool Herc “a founding father of hip-hop music” who “helped create the blueprint for hip-hop.” And Chaka Khan was described as “one of the mightiest and most influential voices in music” a “streetwise but sensual hip-hop-soul diva,” who paved the way for women like Mary J. Blige, Erykah Badu and Janelle Monáe.

The Spinners became a hit-making machine with four No. 1 R&B hits in less than 18 months, including “I’ll Be Around” and “Could It Be I’m Falling in Love.” Rock guitarist Wray was said to be ahead of his time, influencing Jeff Beck, Jimmy Page, Eric Clapton, Jimi Hendrix and Bruce Springsteen.

Cornelius, who died in 2012, was celebrated for creating a nationally televised platform for African American music and culture. He “became a visionary entrepreneur who opened the door — and held it open — for many others to follow him through.”

ABC will air a special featuring performance highlights and standout moments on Jan. 1.