The Cleveland Orchestra opened the recent Independence Day holiday weekend with a spectacular open-air concert in its home town in front of an audience of 70,000 people.

The Orchestra, which is performing two concerts at Edinburgh International Festival 2010, staged its annual Star Spangled Spectacular in Public Square, Cleveland. The holiday crowds enjoyed a programme including Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture, The Star-Spangled Banner and Copland's Hoe Down.

Led by Conductor Franz Welser-Möst, the Cleveland Orchestra brings its unique brand of musical magnificence to the Usher Hall on Tuesday 17 and Wednesday 18 August. In its first performances at the Edinburgh International Festival since two highly acclaimed concerts in 2004, the Orchestra's Festival 2010 programme includes Ives' From the Steeples and the Mountains and Berg's Lulu Suite with the superb American soprano Laura Aikin.

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