“The Florida Orchestra, this year’s winner in the Arts, Culture and Humanities category,” writes Kathleen Spring in Friday’s (6/24) Tampa Bay Business Journal (Florida), referring to the paper’s 2011 awards for nonprofit organization of the year, “is the second-largest performing arts organization in the state. TFO, as it is popularly known, performs everything from serious symphonic music to pops for growing audiences throughout the entire Tampa Bay area. TFO was born in 1966 right in the middle of Tampa Bay when representatives of the Tampa Philharmonic and the St. Petersburg Symphony, traveling by boat, met and agreed to merge and become the Florida Gulf Coast Symphony, a name that was changed to The Florida Orchestra in 1984. In its first season in 1968, the orchestra presented five concerts. Now, under Music Director Stefan Sanderling, TFO performs nearly 80 concerts a year. … TFO’s market research indicated the importance of removing attendance barriers, so the orchestra completely restructured its 2011-2012 ticket prices, reducing the top price from $67 to $45, and giving subscribers greater flexibility and customization of concert selection, at a lower price of $25 a ticket.”
Posted June 29, 2011
