In Friday’s (6/26) FloridaTrend magazine (subscription required), John Fleming writes, “Over the past two years, all of the top five professional symphony orchestras in the state—along with the Florida Orchestra, they are the Jacksonville Symphony Orchestra, the Naples Philharmonic, the Sarasota Orchestra and the Orlando Philharmonic—have appointed new music directors.” The article offers a profile of each orchestra, and discusses their successes and challenges “in fundraising and engaging a new generation of concert-goers.” Quoted in the article are Florida Orchestra Music Director Michael Francis and President and CEO Michael Pastreich; Naples Philharmonic Music Director Andrey Boreyko and Kathleen van Bergen, CEO and president of Artis-Naples, the Philharmonic’s parent organization; Sarasota Orchestra Music Director Anu Tali and President and CEO Joe McKenna; Jacksonville Symphony Orchestra Music Director Courtney Lewis and President and CEO Robert Massey; and Orlando Philharmonic Music Director Eric Jacobsen and Executive Director David Schillhammer. (The article briefly profiles the New World Symphony, which is “made up of recent graduates from music conservatories who live in Miami Beach on fellowships provided by the symphony, which functions as a training ground for their orchestra careers.”) The article also includes a roster of Florida orchestras, from the Atlanta Classical Orchestra to the Venice Symphony.
Posted July 1, 2015
Photo: Music Director Michael Francis leads the Florida Orchestra. Photo credit: Tim Redman
