Music Director Designate Giancarlo Guerrero leads the Sarasota Orchestra in November 2024. Guerrero becomes music director with the 2025-26 season. Photo by Sarasota Orchestra.
In Tuesday’s (2/11) Sarasota Herald-Tribune (Florida), Jay Handelman writes, “In what is considered one of the largest financial gifts ever to an American orchestra, the Sarasota Orchestra has announced a $60 million donation toward the planning and construction of its new music center. The donor wants to remain anonymous, and the gift does not include naming rights for the new facility, which the orchestra plans to build on a 31-acre site it purchased in 2023 … The planned facility will include a 1,700-seat concert hall and a roughly 700-seat recital hall, as well as rehearsal rooms, offices, and space for the organization’s many educational programs…. Joseph McKenna, the orchestra’s president and CEO, … called it a ‘transformational gift responding to this incredible opportunity for the community with the new music center.’ He said the donor has been attending orchestra programs for years, including youth orchestra performances and the summer Sarasota Music Festival…. He estimated groundbreaking would happen in early 2027 and that the grand opening could kick off the 2029-30 season…. In October, the orchestra hired Boston-based William Rawn Associates as the design architect…. McKenna said the orchestra expects to reveal initial concept designs by the end of March.”
