Florida Orchestra composes a 50th anniversary season of celebration

Andrew Meacham, Tampa Bay Times, 15th March 2017

The Florida Orchestra has been planning its 50th anniversary season all year and the party is on.

The theme is celebration.

Highlights include a jubilant opening concert, the Carmina Burana (Oct. 6), with the Master Chorale of Tampa Bay; Tchaikovsky’s Romeo and Juliet paired with West Side Story, as the world marks 100 years since the birth of Leonard Bernstein (Feb. 16-18); the return of longtime music director Jahja Ling, conducting Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 1 (Jan. 6-7); and the orchestra’s first performance of Verdi’s Requiem since 2002 (April 20-22).

And that’s just the masterworks series. The 2017-2018 season also includes the rollout of matinee concerts at the Mahaffey Theater, the world premiere of a major commissioned work and another expansion of the popular Coffee concert series. The lineup pays homage to old favorites and new works, and also showcases some of the orchestra’s best as selected by Michael Francis, 40, who will be entering his third year as music director.