The Florida Orchestra says that its “community and education programs have grown 47%, reaching more than 91,000 people in the 2018-19 season at mostly free events like park, youth and hospital concerts.”
It hopes to see even more people at its free concerts and demos during the upcoming 2019-2020 season.
St. Petersburg gets first crack at Pops in the Park — think film scores, Broadway hits and symphonic favorites, all lead by Associate Conductor Daniel Black — when TFO plays Vinoy Park on October 19 where the Master Chorale of Tampa Bay will join in for the performance. The series heads to Tampa (October 20 at River Tower Park; May 10 for a Mother’s Day show at Julian B. Lane Riverfront Park) and Clearwater (May 9 at Coachman Park) after that.
Even better is the news that TFO will continue its free Inside the Music series where Music Director Michael Francis brings his dry English humor to ensemble test drives where the orchestra demos a full piece after Francis provides in-depth analysis. Venues for the series include Tampa’s Blake High School (October 10) plus Gibbs High (December 5) and Mahaffey Theater (April 30) in St. Pete.
TFO free Happy Hour Concerts also return to Tampa’s Armature Works for a Halloween themed concert (October 30 featuring Saint-Saens’ “Danse Macabre” and Mussorgsky’s “Night on Bald Mountain”), a Latin-flavored one (January 7 featuring Gershwin’s “Cuban Overture” and Marquez’s “Danzon No. 7”) and a Russian-themed performance on May 13.
Admission-required events returning to the TFO agenda include its Family Concerts, Woodson Chamber Concerts and Sing Out Tampa Bay. More info on all of it is available via floridaorchestra.org.
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This article appears in Sep 5-12, 2019.