In Monday’s (11/18) Classical Voice America, the journal of the Music Critics Association of America, John Fleming writes that the opening concert of the Sarasota Orchestra under new music director Anu Tali on November 8 “marked the arrival of a new leader on Florida’s Gulf Coast [and] also signaled a changing of the guard throughout the state. Two other orchestras, the Florida Orchestra in the Tampa Bay area and the Jacksonville Symphony, are in the midst of music director searches, while the Naples Philharmonic completed its search in April when it appointed Russian conductor Andrey Boreyko as music director-designate. ‘It’s not unusual that a lot of orchestras are looking for a music director at the same time, but it’s an interesting coincidence for them all to be in Florida,’ said Michael Pastreich, CEO of the Florida Orchestra. Sarasota, Tampa Bay, Jacksonville, and Naples have Florida’s largest professional orchestras, with budgets ranging roughly from $7 million to $10 million.… Tali was chosen by a search committee made up of musicians, board and staff members, and community leaders, and signed a three-year contract. She will spend at least 12 weeks a season in Sarasota…. In Naples, … with a five-year contract, the 56-year-old [Andrey Boreyko] will conduct a single masterworks program this season and then take over in 2014-15.”
Posted November 21, 2013
Pictured: Anu Tali, music director of the Sarasota Orchestra
