The Sarasota Orchestra is an American symphony orchestra located in Sarasota, Florida. The orchestra is administratively based at the Beatrice Friedman Symphony Center. The orchestra performs concerts in Sarasota at several venues:
In the fall of 1948, Ruth Cotton Butler, a Sarasota music teacher, enlisted the support of businessmen Dr. W.D. Sugg and J. Lorton Francis of Bradenton, and George Gibbs, an amateur musician from Venice, to form an orchestra. Their combined effort produced the debut concert of the Florida West Coast Symphony on 12 March 1949, conducted by Lyman Wiltse, at the Sarasota Municipal Auditorium. Wiltse worked with the ensemble for one year, as de facto music director. The orchestra's first season contained three concerts, with the first taking place on 19 January 1950. [1] Alexander Bloch was the first full-time music director of the orchestra, from 1950 to 1962. [2] During the first six years of the orchestra, the orchestra did not have a single resident venue. In 1955, the Sarasota city commission approved construction of rehearsal space for the orchestra in the Sarasota civic center. The construction was completed in November 1955. [1]
In 1961, Paul Wolfe began a 35-year tenure as artistic director and conductor. His leadership allowed the orchestra to establish a core chamber and four resident chamber ensembles, expand the Youth Orchestra Program and consolidate the then Florida West Coast Symphony and the Music Festival of Florida, to create the Sarasota Music Festival. In 1985, the orchestra merged with the Sarasota Music Festival. [1]
Leif Bjaland succeeded Wolf as music director in 1997, and served in the post until 2012. His work during his tenure included the instigation of a concert series titled 'Journeys to Genius'. [3] In February 2011, Anu Tali made her first guest-conducting appearance with the orchestra. [4] In June 2013, the orchestra named Tali as its next music director, effective August 1, 2013, with an initial contract of 3 years. [5] She is the first female conductor to be named music director of the orchestra. The orchestra extended her contract for another 3 years in 2016. In October 2017, the orchestra announced that Tali is to stand down from her music directorship of the orchestra in 2019. [6] [7] Following the departure of Tali as music director, Jeffrey Kahane served as artistic director with the orchestra from 2019 to 2021. [8]
In the 2019-2020 season, prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, Bramwell Tovey first guest-conducted the Sarasota Orchestra. In August 2021, the orchestra announced the appointment of Tovey as its next music director, effective with the 2022-2023 season, with an initial tenure of four years. He tooke the title of music director-designate on 1 September 2021, [9] and served in that capacity until his death on 12 July 2022. [10]
The Vancouver Symphony Orchestra (VSO) is a Canadian orchestra based in Vancouver, British Columbia. The VSO performs at the Orpheum, which has been the orchestra's permanent home since 1977. With an annual operating budget of $16 million, it is the third largest symphony orchestra in Canada and the largest performing arts organization in Western Canada. It performs 140 concerts per season. The VSO broadcasts annually on the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. The orchestra is affiliated with the VSO School of Music, which was established in September 2011. Chamber music concerts by VSO musicians take place at Pyatt Hall on the VSO School of Music campus.
The BBC Concert Orchestra is a British concert orchestra based in London, one of the British Broadcasting Corporation's five radio orchestras. With around fifty players, it is the only one of the five BBC orchestras which is not a full-scale symphony orchestra. The BBC Concert Orchestra is the BBC's most populist ensemble, playing a mixture of classical music, light music and popular numbers. Its primary role is to produce music for radio broadcast, and it is the resident orchestra of the world's longest-running live music programme, Friday Night is Music Night on BBC Radio 2.
Joseph Harry Silverstein was an American violinist and conductor.
Bramwell Tovey was a British conductor and composer.
The Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra (WSO) is a Canadian orchestra based in Winnipeg, Manitoba. Founded in 1947, the orchestra plays most of its concerts at the Centennial Concert Hall. Including travelling performances, the WSO presents an average of 80 concerts per year, and also provides orchestral accompaniment to the Royal Winnipeg Ballet and the Manitoba Opera.
Jahja Ling is a conductor, music director and pianist. From 2004 to 2017, he was the music director and conductor at the San Diego Symphony. Following his retirement in 2017, he plans to do guest conducting, as well as teaching and volunteering. He is of Hokkien Chinese descent, formerly an Indonesian citizen and is now an American citizen. He was the first conductor of Chinese descent to serve as music director of a major U.S. orchestra.
Leif Bjaland is an American conductor.
The Colorado Symphony is an American symphony orchestra located in Denver, Colorado. Established in 1989 as the successor to the Denver Symphony Orchestra, the Colorado Symphony performs in Boettcher Concert Hall, located in the Denver Performing Arts center, and throughout the Front Range, presenting education and outreach programs, as well as Masterworks, Pops, Holiday, Family, and the Inside the Score and Symphony on the Rocks series.
Kevin Matthew Puts is an American composer, best known for his opera The Hours and for winning a Pulitzer Prize in 2012 for his first opera Silent Night and a Grammy Award in 2023 for his concerto Contact.
Anu Tali is an Estonian conductor.
The Luxembourg Philharmonic Orchestra, abbreviated to OPL, is a symphony orchestra based in Luxembourg City, Luxembourg. The orchestra formerly performed at the Grand Théâtre de la Ville de Luxembourg and the Conservatoire de Luxembourg. Its current home is the Philharmonie Luxembourg, a large concert hall opened in 2005 in the Kirchberg quarter in the northeast of the city.
Jeffrey Alan Kahane is an American classical concert pianist and conductor. He was music director of the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra for 20 years, the longest of any music director in the orchestra's history. He is the music director of the Sarasota Music Festival, a program of the Sarasota Orchestra, music director-designate of the San Antonio Philharmonic, and a professor of keyboard studies (Piano) at the USC Thornton School of Music in Los Angeles, California.
Brett Mitchell is an American conductor, composer, and pianist. He began a three-year term as Artistic Director & Conductor of the Sunriver Music Festival in August 2022. He previously served as music director of the Colorado Symphony from 2017 to 2021, Associate Conductor of the Cleveland Orchestra and Music Director of the Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra from 2013 to 2017, Assistant Conductor of the Orchestre National de France from 2006 to 2009, Assistant Conductor of the Houston Symphony from 2007 to 2011, Music Director of the Moores Opera Center in Houston from 2012 to 2013, and Music Director of the Saginaw Bay Symphony Orchestra from 2010 to 2015.
Sarasota Music Festival is an American classical music festival held annually during the month of June in Sarasota, Florida, under the sponsorship of the Sarasota Orchestra. The festival was founded in 1965 by conductor Paul Wolfe, who remained director of the festival through the summer of 2006. After Wolfe's retirement, conductor and composer Robert D. Levin became the festival's director. In 1984 it was designated by the Florida State Legislature as the "Official Teaching and Performing Festival of the State of Florida." In 2016 Jeffrey Kahane was appointed the festival's Music Director.
Broadus Erle was an American violinist.
Henry Simon Mazer, was an American and later Taiwanese conductor, recording artist and music educator who was the founding principal conductor and music director of Taipei Philharmonic Orchestra from 1985 until suffering a stroke in February 2001. Prior to his move to Taiwan, he was the conductor and associate conductor of major American symphonies including the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. He contributed greatly to the refinement of the performances of classical music in Taiwan, leading local musicians to gain recognition overseas. There is a cultural center dedicated to him in Taipei.
Tania Miller is a Canadian conductor.
Enrico Lopez-Yañez is the Principal Pops Conductor of the Nashville Symphony, Pacific Symphony, Principal Conductor of the Dallas Symphony Presents and Principal Pops Conductor Designate of the Detroit Symphony.
Robert Sirota is an American classical music composer based in New York City and Searsmont, Maine. Sirota has written solo instrumental, vocal, chamber, orchestral, operatic, and liturgical works. He is the father of American violists Nadia Sirota and Jonah Sirota, and husband to organist and Episcopal priest Victoria Sirota. Dating back to 1994, Robert Sirota's work can be found on nine studio albums recorded by an assortment of musicians including: Dinosaur Annex Ensemble, the Chiara String Quartet, and the American String Quartet. Most recently, Sirota's 2020 work for cello and piano, Family Portraits, was recorded by the Fischer Duo for their album 2020 Visions, released on Navona Records on August 26, 2022.
| Authority control databases: Artists |
|---|
