Florida Orchestra’s ‘Soundwaves’ chamber music series is coming to Clearwater’s gorgeous Church of the Ascension

Here’s a good reason to go to church. The Florida Orchestra (TFO) has plans to expand its “Soundwaves” chamber music series by bringing three concerts to downtown Clearwater’s Church of the Ascension.

The shows happen on Feb. 10, March 9 and April 21. Admission to each is $25, with 8 p.m. start times across the board.

The historic Episcopal church (rare for downtown Clearwater these days, we know!) was built in 1925 and an icon of Florida Gothic architecture, complete with stunning stained glass windows.
TFO assistant conductor Chelsea Gallo wields the baton for the first two concerts where the small ensemble—roughly 16 musicians playing strings, woodwinds, brass, harp and percussion—will take on a Julian Yu arrangement of Modest Mussorgsky’s 1874 piano suite “Pictures at an Exhibition,” plus one of Beethoven’s greatest hits, septet for “Winds and Strings in E-flat major.”

On March 9, Gallo & co. move through an intermission-free program that includes French composer Paul Dukas’ symphonic poem “The Sorcerer's Apprentice,” the work of another Frenchman (Camille Saint-Saëns’ tone poem “Danse macabre”), and Stravinsky’s “Dumbarton Oaks” concerto.

Michael Francis, TFO’s musical director, steps in on April 21 when the ensemble plays an intimate chamber version of Anton Bruckner's Richard Wagner tribute, “Symphony No. 7 in E major.”

If you’re sure to burst into flames when you step into a church, TFO is staging the same exact programming at St. Petersburg’s Palladium Theater on Feb. 11, March 12 and April 22.