Orlando Philharmonic Announces 25th Anniversary Season

2017 2018 SEASON SLIDER

One-Night-Only Gala Concert to Feature Celebrated Cellist Yo-Yo Ma  

The Orlando Philharmonic announced its 25th Anniversary Season today, including a one-night-only gala anniversary concert featuring acclaimed cellist, Yo-Yo Ma and violinist Colin Jacobsen on Tuesday, May 8, 2018 at the Bob Carr Theater.

The 25th Anniversary Season includes five concerts in the FAIRWINDS Classics Series, five programs in the Pops Series and five concerts in the Focus Series. The 2017 Sounds of Summer Series and the 2017-2018 Women in Song Series will be announced at a later date.

“Our 25th Anniversary Season is really going to be special because we have amazing and diverse programming with world premieres by local composers, the great musicians of our orchestra, and Yo-Yo Ma is performing with the Philharmonic for the first time,” said Eric Jacobsen, music director.

As the Orlando Philharmonic celebrates its past during the anniversary season, it also looks toward the future with the groundbreaking of Steinmetz Hall at the Dr. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts scheduled for Monday, March 6.

“There’s never been a more exciting time for the Orlando Philharmonic,” said Christopher Barton, executive director. “There’s so much to look forward to with the groundbreaking of Steinmetz Hall, the Yo-Yo Ma Gala Anniversary Concert next year, a new season that offers something for everyone and a community-wide anniversary celebration that will allow everyone to celebrate with us.”

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Orlando Philharmonic 25th Anniversary Season

25th Anniversary Season Gala Concert featuring Yo-Yo Ma and Colin Jacobsen

Double Concerto in A minor, Op. 102 by Johannes Brahms

Tuesday, May 8, 2018

 

FAIRWINDS Classics Series at Bob Carr Theater

25th Anniversary Season Opening: Beethoven’s Ninth

Saturday, September 30 at 8 p.m.

Sunday, October 1 at 2 p.m.

Eric Jacobsen, conductor

Sherezade Panthaki, soprano; Kate Maroney, mezzo soprano; Dann Coakwell, tenor; and Dashon Burton, baritone; UCF Chorus 

Beethoven – Symphony No. 9 in D minor

One of the best-known works in classical music, Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 is motivated by the idea of the “brotherhood of man” and is the great composer’s final complete symphony. For lovers of classical music, it is a “bucket list” moment because it’s a life-affirming and joyful anthem for humanity. Destiny, exuberance, love and joy… this is Beethoven’s Ninth.

 

Beethoven & Mozart

Saturday, November 18 at 8 p.m.

Jeffrey Kahane, conductor and pianist

Beethoven – Piano Concerto No. 4, in G Major

Timo Andres – Eno Paraphrase

Mozart – Symphony No. 38 in D Major, “Prague”

Travel with us to Vienna and Prague as conductor and pianist Jeffrey Kahane, music director of the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, conducts from the piano. Beautiful and original, Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 4 combines lyricism and intimacy with gravity and power. Mozart’s Symphony No. 38 premiered in Prague in 1787 and is popularly known as the “Prague” Symphony. Transport yourself in time and place.

 

Rimma Plays Mendelssohn

Saturday, January 20, 2018 at 8 p.m.

Eric Jacobsen, conductor

Rimma Bergeron-Langlois, violin

Stella Sung – World Premiere

Mendelssohn – Violin Concerto in E minor

Bartók – Concerto for Orchestra

Our own Concertmaster Rimma Bergeron-Langlois joins conductor Eric Jacobsen for Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto, which is beloved by both musicians and audiences. The Concerto for Orchestra is one of Bartók’s best-known and most popular works. It challenges and pushes the entire orchestra, while also serving as a showpiece, giving each section a defining moment.

Bernstein and the New World

Saturday, February 17, 2018 at 8 p.m.

Eric Jacobsen, conductor

Orli Shaham, piano

Bernstein – Overture to West Side Story

Bernstein – Symphony No. 2 “The Age of Anxiety”

Kojiro Umezaki – (Cycles) America

Dvořák – Symphony No. 9 in E minor “From the New World”

Celebrate the 100th Anniversary of one of America’s most beloved composers, Leonard Bernstein, as we begin the evening with the Overture to West Side Story.

Orli Shaham has an impressive reputation as one of today’s most gifted pianists and will perform Bernstein’s Symphony No. 2 The Age of Anxiety based on a Pulitzer Prize-winning poem by W. H. Auden. It portrays the spiritual journey of self-discovery of four people in a New York bar.

We conclude with one of the most popular of all symphonies, Symphony No. 9, also known as “New World,” because Dvořák wrote it during his experience in the United States in the 1890s.

Brahms Symphony No. 1

Saturday, April 7, 2018 at 8 p.m.

Eric Jacobsen, conductor

Awet Andemicael, soprano; Alexander Elliot, baritone, William Ferguson, tenor

Kevork Mourad, visual artist

Charles Griffin – World Premiere

Brahms – Symphony No. 1 in C minor

Rimsky-Korsakov – Excerpts from Capriccio Espagnol

De Falla – Master Peter’s Puppet Show

Join us for an evening of collaboration of art and music.

Few great works of music have taken so long to get to a finished product as Brahms Symphony No. 1. He insisted that it took 21 years from sketches to finishing touches. It’s monumental!

The first masterpiece by composer Manuel De Falla, Master Peter’s Puppet Show is a puppet-opera in one act, with puppets and real characters adapted from one of the episodes of Don Quixote. Visual Artist Kevork Mourad shares the stage with your Orlando Philharmonic with his technique of spontaneous real-time animated painting.

 

 

Pops Series at Bob Carr Theater

Classical Mystery Tour: A Tribute to The Beatles

50th Anniversary of the Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club

Saturday, October 14 at 2 & 8 p.m.

Eric Jacobsen, conductor

Beatlemania is back with Classical Mystery Tour to celebrate the 50th anniversary of The Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. The show features original members of the Broadway sensation Beatlemania performing 30 Beatles hits as they were originally recorded. The Los Angeles Times calls the show “more than just an incredible simulation.” If you like The Beatles, you will LOVE “Classical Mystery Tour,” in concert with the Orlando Philharmonic Orchestra.

 

Home for the Holidays!

Saturday, November 25 at 2 & 8 p.m.

Albert George Schram, conductor

Opera Orlando Youth Chorus

Central Florida Community Arts Chorus

Holiday Singers

There’s no place like home for the holidays. Join us for a musical celebration of community and capture the spirit of the season at one of our region’s most popular holiday concerts. Ring in the holidays with family and friends and join in the popular audience sing-along. We can’t wait to celebrate with you.

 

Cirque de la Symphonie: Cirque Goes to the Cinema

Saturday, February 3, 2018 at 2 & 8 p.m.

Yaniv Segal, conductor

Cirque de la Symphonie returns with an all-new program of awe-inspiring physical feats of power and beauty! Paired with the music from blockbuster movie classics, including Star Wars, Harry Potter, Batman, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Mission Impossible, and Titanic and more, this thrill ride includes the spectacle of acrobats, jugglers and aerial flyers soaring high above the heads of your Orlando Philharmonic Orchestra.

 

My Sinatra Starring Cary Hoffman

Saturday, March 10, 2018 at 2 & 8 p.m.

Albert George Schram, conductor

Swoon to Ol’ Blue Eyes with Sinatra Songs and more starring Cary Hoffman performing the concert version of his hit NYC off-Broadway show with the Orlando Philharmonic Orchestra.

Hoffman has performed the music of Frank Sinatra for the past eight years in over 55 Performing Arts Centers around the World, including a performance for the President of Singapore. He is New York’s premiere Sinatra interpreter. His compelling blend of vocal performance and stories led to a national PBS television special seen by more than two million viewers.

 

A Tribute to Ella!

Saturday, April 21, 2018 at 2 & 8 p.m.

Larry Blank, conductor

Capathia Jenkins, Harolyn Blackwell and Aisha de Haas, vocalists 

Join us for this swinging tribute to Ella Fitzgerald in celebration of her 100th birthday. We will honor the “First Lady of Song” and present some of the glorious songs that she made her own, including “It Don’t Mean A Thing, If It Ain’t Got That Swing” and “Summertime” You’ll also hear top hits by her sister jazz greats, including Dinah Washington, Billie Holiday and Sarah Vaughan.

 

Focus Series – The Plaza Live

Eric Plays Haydn

Monday, October 23 at The Plaza Live at 7 p.m.

Colleen Blagov, flute

Eric Jacobsen, cello

Haydn – Cello Concerto in D Major

Judd Greenstein – Flute Concerto

Haydn – Symphony No. 94 – “Suprise”

Touch of Genius

Monday, December 4 at 7 p.m.

Michelle Merrill, conductor

Randall Goosby, violin

Dvořák – Serenade for Wind Instruments in D minor

Ponce – Estrellita for violin and orchestra

Saint-Saëns ­– Introduction and Rondo Capriccioso for violin and orchestra

Schubert – Symphony 5 in B-flat major

An Evening with the Mendelssohns

Monday, January 15, 2018 at 7 p.m.

Eric Jacobsen, conductor

Fanny Mendelssohn – Melody in C-sharp minor

Janáček – Idylla

Mendelssohn – Scherzo from A Midsummer Night’s Dream

Fanny Mendelssohn – Notturno in G minor

Mendelssohn – The Hebrides “Fingal’s Cave”

Mendelssohn – Symphony No. 3 in A minor “Scottish”

American Roots

Monday, April 2, 2018 at 7 p.m.

Eric Jacobsen, conductor

Jeremy Kittel, vocalist, songwriter

Lyman Brodie, solo trumpet

Central Florida Community Arts Chorus

Copland – Quiet City

Copland – Old American Songs

Jeremy Kittel – World Premiere

Beethoven – Symphony No. 8 in F Major

Mozart & Dvořák

Monday, April 16, 2018 at 7 p.m.

Benjamin Hochman, conductor and pianist

Mozart – Piano Concerto No.12 in A Major

Dvořák – Serenade for Strings in E Major

About the Artists:

Sherezade Panthaki http://www.sherezadepanthaki.com

Dann Coakwell http://danncoakwell.com/Dann_Coakwell,_Tenor___Official_Website/Home.html

Kate Maroney http://www.katemaroney.com

Dashon Burton http://www.dashonburton.com

Jeffrey Kahane http://www.cmartists.com/artists/jeffrey-kahane.htm

Rimma Bergeron-Langlois https://orlandophil.org/person/rimma-bergeron-langlois-5/

Stella Sung https://www.stellasung.com

Orli Shaham http://www.orlishaham.com

Kojiro Umezaki http://kojiroumezaki.com

Awet Andemicael http://awetandemicael.com/bio/

Alexander Elloitt http://www.alexanderelliottbaritone.com

Kevork Mourad http://www.kevorkmourad.com/km/home.html

William Ferguson http://www.williamferguson.com/

Jesse Diener-Bennett http://jessedb.com

Colleen Blagov https://orlandophil.org/person/colleen-blagov/

Michelle Merrill http://www.michelle-merrill.com

Randall Goosby http://www.sphinxmusic.org/bio-randall-goosby/

Jeremy Kittel http://jeremykittel.com

Benjamin Hochman http://www.benjaminhochman.com

Colin Jacobsen http://www.colinjacobsen.com

Yo-Yo Ma http://www.yo-yoma.com

All programs and artists are subject to change. Visit orlandophil.org for the most up-to-date information. 

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