For the second year in a row, The Florida Orchestra has set a record for ticket sales, with 125,700 paid seats in the 2017-18 season. That’s two consecutive seasons above the 100,000 mark. Add in free tickets and community concert crowds, and the count climbs to more than 215,000. Not bad for our 50th birthday party. Thank you, Tampa Bay!
As Tampa Bay cheers on the Lightning in the Stanley Cup playoffs, we’ll be the only ones bringing it with the awesome force of a full orchestra. For a special…
#GIVEDAYTAMPABAY reminds us about giving back and showing appreciation for what is important in our lives. Your Florida Orchestra believes that the most meaningful gift that we can give our…
In the summer of 1981, I had the privilege of an invitation for lunch at the St. Petersburg home of Irwin Hoffman and Esther Glazer. It was a hot day, and soon after greeting me at the door, the couple offered a pitcher of lemonade and sandwiches ─ and a genuine curiosity about the 25-year-old journalist sitting in their living room.
In classical music, it can be easy to overlook the influence of women. Beethoven! Mozart! Tchaikovsky! But now more than ever, women are making a huge impact on classical music…
You know you’re getting old when you find in a desk drawer a ticket stub to the opening of The Florida Orchestra’s 1981-82 season.
Expecting a bit of a letdown after our grand 50th anniversary celebration? Don’t. Music Director Michael Francis has put an enormous amount of thought into programming every concert in our most wide-ranging season yet, which starts in the fall. “It’s our first chance to show where we’re going as an orchestra in our new era,” he said.
Classical music is thriving underground in St. Petersburg. On the second Monday of the month, local musicians get together to perform in Classical Revolution St. Pete, a night of straight-up, high-caliber chamber music in the Iberian Rooster’s basement lounge for whoever wants to listen. For free.
For gamers, this is a big deal: Internationally revered FINAL FANTASY composer Nobuo Uematsu will attend both of The Florida Orchestra’s performances of Distant Worlds: music from FINAL FANTASY® coming up in just weeks at the Mahaffey Theater in St. Petersburg. This is Uematsu’s first time attending concerts in Florida.
In just one week, The Florida Orchestra performed for nearly 30,000 people -- almost all for free. It was an exhilarating, exhausting run as musicians and staff, led by Music Director Michael Francis, traveled to Pasco County, Tampa and St. Petersburg for hospital, youth, side-by-side and park concerts.