The festival was originally created to provide a summer concert vehicle for the Cleveland Orchestra and the Blossom Music Center was specifically built to host the festival.
The orchestra performs annually for the Blossom Festival, often appearing when the Cleveland Orchestra has other summer performance engagements outside of the Cleveland area.
[2] On July 28, 2007 the Blossom Festival made history; premiering the first live concert performance of Hoctor's Ballet which is one of the last orchestral works by Gershwin.
The last person to serve in that capacity was Jahja Ling.
After he stepped down from that position, the orchestra eliminated the post, and now the orchestra's full-time music director Franz Welser-Möst is in charge of the classical music concerts both during the regular concert season in Cleveland and the summer concerts at the Blossom Festival.