Akiko Fujimoto: It’s the music that matters, not the gender
When Marin Alsop stepped down as music director of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra last summer, she left a fraternity. With her departure, the nation’s top 25 orchestras stay centered on…
Open rehearsal: Come inside the workings of Mahler’s Symphony No. 5
That night 23 years ago will always be remembered as a touching moment in The Florida Orchestra’s history. In November 1998, I sat in a crowded Morsani Hall at what…
TFO Afterthoughts: Augustin Hadelich gives intense, intimate performance
Playing the big symphonic works with precision is a goal of any orchestra, and TFO always makes a point of delivering its sonic punches in detail. This was the case…
At the top of his game, violinist talks Harry Potter, Prokofiev, playing by memory
Augustin Hadelich is justly regarded as a phenom in the music world, a brilliant violinist who channels his mastery of the instrument and material through a penetrating mind. Sometimes music…
Opening Night Afterthoughts: New music, old favorites shed light on today’s world
I first met Michael Ippolito at his parents’ home in Brandon more than 20 years ago, as he sat at the piano crafting his latest creation. The Rhapsodie Pathetique, which was…
Chief violinist tunes up for well-seasoned music
I got on an elevator the other day and piping through a speaker was – you guessed it – Antonio Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons. On the way home, I stopped…
Live recordings of TFO concerts start this week on Classical WSMR radio
Here is your chance to hear some of The Florida Orchestra’s most talked about concerts this season if you missed them live at the Mahaffey Theater. Live recordings of nine…
Afterthoughts: A precious season that defied the odds
Since The Florida Orchestra began playing music in 1968, no season has been like this one, and no experience – including various woes and hurricanes – compares to what Covid…
Concert Afterthoughts: TFO gives orchestral gems new life onstage
The Florida Orchestra continues to adapt during this unusual season, and anyone who attended the Tampa Bay Times Masterworks program this past weekend got an unexpected twist under the baton…
Maestro Wilkins: ‘We’re seeing a fresh fervor for making and hearing music’
Thomas Wilkins is a busy guy these days, regardless of the setbacks Covid has made on the arts, especially symphony orchestras.He should know. The former resident conductor of TFO from…