On today’s date in 1918, the celebratory “American Fantasy” of the Dublin-born American composer Victor Herbert opened the first program of the newly-formed Cleveland Orchestra.

Cleveland had reason to celebrate. World War I had ended one month earlier, and, for some time, city organizers had been trying to build a hometown orchestra. In December of 1918, Father John Powers of St. Ann’s Church wanted to give a concert to raise some money for his parish, and, as Father Powers also happened to be a fine Irish tenor, offered to perform on the same bill as the new orchestra, just in case the untried ensemble of 54 didn’t prove to be a sufficient box-office attraction.

So, along with Father Power’s songs and Herbert’s “American Fantasy,” conductor Nikolai Sokoloff lead the Orchestra in Bizet’s “Carmen” Suite, Tchaikovsky’s Fourth Symphony, Liadov’s tone poem “The Enchanted Lake,” and, for a rousing closer, Liszt’s tone poem “Les Preludes.”

Over the next 100 years, especially during the period when George Szell was music director of the Cleveland Orchestra, the ensemble came to be regarded as one of the best in the world.