COMMENTARY
THE FLORIDA ORCHESTRA
IS BACK ON TRACK
After 86 concerts played for
carefully spaced live audiences
and online audiences during a
year of dealing with COVID-19,
the talented Florida Orchestra has roared
back with an even fuller schedule of some
100 concerts of terrific music, wonderful
talent and promising performances,
presenting both classical and popular
music. The full orchestra of more than 70
players is onstage, sitting side by side for
the first time in more than a year. Those
limited concerts last season did not include
all players because of masking and seat
separation requirements, and the concerts
were limited to their home base in the
Mahaffey Theater in St. Petersburg.
The Florida Orchestra made news by
becoming one of just a few symphony
orchestras in the country to perform
concerts during COVID-19. Since the
coronavirus seems to be under greater
control, The Florida Orchestra has returned
in full force on our finest stages in the
Tampa Bay area after launching a new
schedule free of plastic walls, chair spacing
and a reduced number of performers. I
had almost forgotten what the entire
orchestra looked and sounded like on a big
stage with a large audience that was fully
engrossed with the opening performance
of Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony in C Minor,
which starts with the most famous four
notes in music, Da-Da-Da-Dah. It was
electric to see the soloist and orchestra’s
outstanding concertmaster, violinist
Jeffery Multer at the top of his game. Most
musicians and all of the audience members
continued to wear masks.
Our masterful conductor and Music
Director Michael Francis, who moved here
from London in 2014, led the season opener
in our area’s three finest performing arts
centers for the first time since the arrival
of COVID-19. The orchestra’s inspiration
continues to be its extraordinary conductor,
who has become one of the most popular
music directors ever to conduct The
Florida Orchestra, and we’ve had some
good ones. This proud “Brit” who came to
us from The London Symphony now has
U.S citizenship and is married to Cindy, a
proud Tampa Bay lady with whom he has
128 TAMPA BAY MAGAZINE | NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2021
a nearly 7-year-old daughter, Annabella.
My wife and I and some friends
attended the season opener in the
recently renovated Ruth Eckerd Hall in
Clearwater, which has a stunning $12
million lobby, where other professional
musicians and entertainers can perform
in a casual social setting.
The Beethoven’s Fifth season opener
included an outstanding new work
written by local composer Michael
Ippolito, and another classic, Vivaldi’s
Four Seasons, with poetry recited between
movements by Francis. The orchestra’s
2021-22 season, the group’s 54th, promises
to be one of the best ever with its variety
of music. It puts The Florida Orchestra
onstage at the Straz Theater in Tampa,
the Mahaffey Theater in St. Petersburg
and Ruth Eckerd Hall in Clearwater. It has
never sounded better, thanks to its great
musicians and a truly skilled conductor
who has raised the performance level of all
players to give us the very best. Welcome
back, masks and all, Florida Orchestra. We
missed you. 9
EDITOR’S NOTE: John Wilson, who retired
from Fox TV in 2014, worked more than 50
years in radio and television news broadcasting.
By John Wilson
John Wilson