“The Florida Orchestra will take on an expanded presence throughout Florida, thanks to new funding that will send musicians to cities around the state,” writes Andrew Meacham in Friday’s (1/6) Tampa Bay Times. “An ambitious state residency program [is] funded by more than $700,000 in grant money from the state of Florida’s Division of Cultural Affairs and the Florida Council on Arts and Culture. The program starts today with a Masterworks concert in Daytona Beach. Other concerts through March take the orchestra to schools and community orchestras in Volusia, Highlands and Alachua counties…. The orchestra got an additional boost via renovation grants, $1 million from the state and another $800,000 from the city of St. Petersburg, to rehab the Mahaffey Theater’s acoustic shell. Work on the shell … will begin in May. [Orchestra President and CEO Michael] Pastreich also announced a new hire by the orchestra. Violinist Kristin Baird will travel among Pinellas County schools, working with music directors and teachers … [as] a professional classical musician doubling as a public schools instructor.… Beginning January 22, the orchestra is adding a Sunday series of pay-what-you-can chamber concerts at the Dr. Carter G. Woodson African American Museum.”
Posted January 9, 2017
