Carl Baldassarre wrote his first song in 1976 as a humanities class project at Euclid High, never imagining it would mark the start of a 50-year songwriting career. On August 29, 2026, the Cleveland guitarist and composer will perform a career-spanning set at The Treelawn, revisiting everything from his teenage rock band to the orchestral works he has released since walking away from a decades-long finance career.
Baldassarre began playing guitar at age 12 and started taking music seriously after a high school teacher told him songwriting could be a real career, according to Cleveland Scene. That encouragement led him to start a band, and Baldassarre went on to release 11 albums of original music over the following decades. Long before any of that, though, he was captivated the moment he heard Jimmy Page's guitar solo on Led Zeppelin's “Heartbreaker” at age 11 in 1970, after his older sister brought the record home, as reported by CanvasRebel Magazine.
From Abraxas to a Stolen Truck
Baldassarre's first serious band, Abraxas, became locally successful, reaching No. 7 on the WMMS playlist, playing a WMMS Coffee Break Concert, and performing at Cleveland's storied Agora, per the same Cleveland Scene account. The group even opened for the Michael Stanley Band at the Youngstown Agora, with Hank LaConti supporting the band along the way. In those early days, Baldassarre earned just 15 dollars a day. Abraxas's run ended abruptly after the group's truck, loaded with its lights, sound equipment, and gear, was stolen.
After Abraxas folded, Baldassarre went on to form Syzygy, a progressive rock outfit he assembled after studying music and continuing to write. Syzygy achieved success both regionally and internationally, and one of the band's albums reached No. 1 on the progressive rock charts in Germany. The group released several albums during its run, including Cosmos & Chaos in 1993, The Allegory of Light in 2003, and Realms of Eternity in 2009, the latter featuring guest vocalist Mark Boals, according to entries on Discogs.
A Finance Career, Then a Full Return to Music
Somewhere along the way, Baldassarre worked in finance, eventually quitting his day job to pursue music full-time. Cleveland Magazine's profile of his path from corporate life back to the stage details a 35-year career in finance and private equity, including time at Cortec Group, before his retirement at age 56 in 2014 — a hiatus that helps explain how he was able to self-fund ambitious later projects, according to Cleveland Magazine. Once back in music full time, he released his debut solo album, Grand Boulevard, in 2022, produced by Grammy winner Phil Naish and recorded in part at London's Abbey Road Studios with a 30-piece orchestra, as noted by All Music Magazine.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, Baldassarre also formed a four-piece band that performed Led Zeppelin II from beginning to end, and he began producing YouTube videos analyzing Led Zeppelin's music from a composition perspective under the banner The Professor of Classic Rock. That channel amassed more than 1.5 million views by March 2023, per Authority Magazine. He also developed a Led Zeppelin tribute show, eventually forming Soul of Zeppelin, a project that included members of Tower of Power, Tears for Fears and Postmodern Jukebox, and he has booked many Soul of Zeppelin shows since.
The Treelawn Show and a Broader Orchestra Project
Baldassarre has also collaborated with OPUS 216, the Cleveland string quartet that became the core of what he calls the Rock Orchestra — an ensemble that performs classic rock and original shows, including a program paying tribute to music from 1965 to 1975. That broader touring project, billed as The Baldassarre Orchestra, has scheduled additional 2026 dates at regional venues including the Music Box Supper Club and Robins Theatre, according to OPUS 216.
The 50th-anniversary show itself will unfold at The Treelawn, the venue that opened in early 2023 inside the century-old former Slovenian Workmen's Home in Cleveland's Waterloo Arts District, as detailed by CoolCleveland. The complex houses a 100-capacity Social Club with a 1940s-era vintage bar alongside a 600-capacity Music Hall that still holds an original mirror ball salvaged from Cleveland's historic Euclid Beach Park.
At the Treelawn on August 29, Baldassarre will perform a set spanning classical, progressive rock, and musical theater pieces, bookending the night by playing the Abraxas song “Pretty Poison” at both the beginning and the end of the show. It's a fitting close to a set built around five decades of songwriting that started with a teenage guitarist inspired by a Led Zeppelin record and a high school teacher who believed a class project could turn into a career.
