For cellist Joshua Roman, composer is just a text away
“Classical rock star” Joshua Roman performs the Bates Cello Concerto, written just for him. What’s it like to work with a composer who’s alive? Today on the blog.
Like an old friend, conductor Thomas Wilkins returns home to TFO
When beloved maestro Thomas Wilkins returned to conduct Gershwin this week, it was like coming home – and not just because he still lives in Tampa Bay. Read about the former TFO conductor and this weekend’s concerts on the blog.
Remembering the Night of Broken Glass through music
On Nov. 9, 1938, the Nazis unleashed a wave of pogroms, state-sponsored terrorism, against the Jews in Germany and Austria. Within a few short hours, thousands of synagogues, Jewish businesses and homes were damaged or destroyed.
The nightingale song that ruffled feathers in ‘Pines of Rome’
Composers often use the orchestra like a giant paintbrush, splashing colors across an imaginary canvas, evoking ideas and images through a bundle of instruments.
In his wildest dreams, FAU student composes a winner
For David Browne, winning The Florida Orchestra’s Student Composition Contest was a dream come true. “Shattered Clock Fanfare is a musical depiction of a recurring dream I had as a child wherein I was forever lost in a universe where time never existed,” said Browne, 22, in his artist statement on the short work, which premieres on the Beethoven’s Pastoral Symphony concert May 18-20.
TFO showcases Florida artwork, music at the Straz
From the moment you walk into the Straz Center on Friday, Florida will come to life through art and music. Fourteen works of art, all inspired by Florida, will be displayed in the Morsani lobby by the Life Enrichment Center for the Arts (LEC).
For first time in 10 years, TFO brings full fury of Verdi’s Requiem
To say the earth will tremble this weekend when The Florida Orchestra stages Verdi’s Requiem seems a bit dramatic. But that’s Verdi for you.
During Holocaust, why did Jews sing Verdi’s Requiem to their captors?
Located 30 miles north of Prague, Terezin/Theresienstadt was turned into a Jewish ghetto and concentration camp by the Nazis after their occupation of Czechoslovakia. The camp was unusual in that inmates included highly educated Jewish scholars and scientists as well as internationally renowned artists, musicians and actors including Czech composer Rafael Schächter and the famous German rabbi Leo Baeck.
Classical music powered by women
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…
Remember when fire alarms went off in Beethoven’s 9th?
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.