Sarasota Orchestra Concertmaster Daniel Jordan (at left in photo taken before the pandemic) will be one of two soloists in the opening concert of the orchestra’s 2020-21 season of small-ensemble programs. Photo by Rod Millington

“The coronavirus may have forced the Sarasota Orchestra to cancel its Masterworks and other large orchestral programs for the 2020-21 season, but it has provided the organization with some new and unexpected opportunities,” writes Jay Handyman in Thursday’s (10/1) Sarasota Herald-Tribune (FL). “Artistic advisor Jeffrey Kahane … has revealed a revised schedule of smaller chamber programs that will be offered to a limited in-person audience at Holley Hall and streamed online for wider viewership [featuring] ‘repertoire that Sarasota Orchestra audiences wouldn’t normally get to hear,’ he said…. There will be 13 programs—10 classical and three pops concerts—and they will focus, at least initially, on strings, percussion and piano, instruments that can be played by musicians wearing masks…. The series … begins Nov. 5-8 with … Joseph de Boulogne’s Symphonie concertante No. 2 in G Major … and Tchaikovsky’s Serenade for Strings…. Pricing … will be announced by mid-October…. Joseph McKenna, president and CEO of the Sarasota Orchestra, said donors and sponsors will cover the costs of the 2020-21 season…. There will be no conductor for most of the concerts, which will feature up to 16 musicians and run about an hour with no intermission.”