Garrett Harris, San Diego Reader, 31st December 2015
“If there were a concert that was full of the most great moments, it would have been the Mainly Mozart Festival’s concert of Mozart Piano Concerto No. 21 and Beethoven’s Symphony No. 7. Jon Kimura Parker further solidified his place as one of San Diego’s favorite guests.
The […]
Sharon Kennedy Wynne, Tampa Bay Times, 31st December 2015
“I love how fancy it makes me sound to say that my favorite concert of the year was the debut of Michael Francis as music director of the Florida Orchestra. The Oct. 2 Masterworks concert featured a dazzling pianist on Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 3 and […]
NYO Canada, 17th November 2015
Enjoy NYO Canada’s sensational performance of Holst’s The Planets, Rachmaninoff’s Symphonic Dances, and two new pieces from Canadian composers; Emilie LeBel’s (RBC Emerging Composer) monograph of bird’s eye views and Alfredo Santa Ana’s (NYO Canada Emerging Composer) Ocaso.
Under the baton of acclaimed conductor Michael Francis, the 2015 NYO Orchestra spent […]
Marianne Hayes, 83 Degrees, 17th November 2015
The Florida Orchestra recently kicked off its latest season with a packed house at the Straz Center in downtown Tampa. New music director Michael Francis may have something to do with all the buzz.
“There’s a tremendous increase in excitement; a new energy on stage that you can feel […]
Tom Aldridge, Nuvo, 19th October 2015
“[Michael] Francis, with crisp, exacting baton work, got corresponding playing from his orchestra: perfect phrasing, excellent dynamic shaping, continuous precision. After experiencing that opener [Mendelssohn’s Overture to Calm Sea and Prosperous Voyage, Op. 27], I expected and got similar finesse in the Tchaikovsky, and especially in the big closing […]
Jay Harvey, Jay Harvey Upstage, 17th October 2015
“Francis and the ISO caught the becalmed mood of the first part of “Calm Sea and Prosperous Voyage” perfectly, which made the transition to the energetic second half of the piece all the more exciting. The ensemble exhilaration was well-maintained right through to the triumph of […]
Andrew Meacham, Tampa Bay Times, 5th October 2015
The Florida Orchestra will give free concerts this week for patients and staff at Hillsborough County hospitals, part of an ongoing effort to reach the sick and the elderly.
The orchestra will perform at 11 a.m. Wednesday in the atrium of St. Joseph’s Hospital-North in Lutz. The program […]
Andrew Meacham, Tampa Bay Times, 23rd September 2015
The new maestro of the Florida Orchestra walks into his empty office, sets down his briefcase and gestures to the empty bookshelves lining one wall.
“You can see I haven’t really done much with decor,” says Michael Francis, 39, who is about to debut as the fourth music […]
18th September 2015
The Tampa Bay Rays invited Michael Francis to throw the ceremonial first pitch as the new Music Director of The Florida Orchestra for their game against the Baltimore Orioles on Thursday, September 17th 2015.
Photograph by Michael Pastreich
Andrew Meacham, Tampa Bay Times, 16th September 2015
The Florida Orchestra is entering a new season with four new musicians, hand-picked from across the country.
Filling the positions is one of music director Michael Francis’s first major moves in shaping the orchestra. Francis is only the fourth person to hold the position in nearly 50 years…
