As Larry David might say, The Florida Orchestra is pretty, pretty, pretty good.
If that sounds like damning with faint praise, let me quickly make amends: TFO – its acronymic branding — is arguably the top symphony orchestra in Florida and one of the leading regional ensembles in the Southeast.
Certainly, its $14 million annual operating budget suggests as much. Few regional orchestras have bigger corporate kitties, and in prestige perhaps only the Nashville Symphony shines brighter, with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra ranked among the nationals.
For me, the most impressive humble brag TFO might offer is that it’s been steadily headed in the right direction since its creation in 1968 from the merger of the St. Petersburg Symphony (founded in 1958) and the Tampa Philharmonic (1959).
Initially christened the Florida Gulf Coast Symphony, the musical marriage was marked rather literally in a ceremony in the middle of Tampa Bay. It adopted the TFO name in 1984.
Irwin Hoffman, a protégé of renowned conductor Serge Koussevitsky, was the TFO’s first music director. He died in 2018 at age 93.
By almost any metric, TFO has marked notable improvement, year after year. Its funding base has continued to swell, while its musical fare seems only to climb in quantity and quality each season.
The organization’s current music director and talented chief baton-waver — Michael Francis, a Brit married to a gal from Lutz — oversees an impressive number of activities, including some on the “community engagement” front that seems a forte.
With 70 full-time musicians and conductors, TFO performs 150 well-attended concerts each year. Offerings range from its Masterworks programs, Morning Matinees and Soundwaves chamber series to Pops concerts and youth-oriented educational programs.
Under Francis, TFO and sister organization the Master Chorale of Tampa Bay have taken on some ambitious programming in recent seasons, including two huge Mahler pieces —Mahler’s 2nd (“Resurrection”) Symphony last season and his Symphony No. 3, set for May. Their staging requires enormous talent resources, and there can be no fiddling about over musical demands either.
“Programming the Masterworks series is a journey that balances familiar classics with new discoveries,” Francis told The Artisan recently. “My goal is for each concert to tell a story and spark a meaningful conversation that stays with our audience long after they leave the concert hall.”
The TFO music director added that he aims to “challenge and stimulate” the musicians with programming that also requires “building trust” with patrons.
“We aspire that our audiences will come, even though they might not recognize a composer or a piece,” he said. “My hope is that people will be excited to continue the journey with us year after year.”
TFO presents its Masterworks concerts in three venues: Ruth Eckerd Hall in Clearwater, the Mahaffey Theater in St. Petersburg and the Straz Center in Tampa. The orchestra also presents chamber concerts in more intimate performance halls and churches.
In August, TFO floated a $30 million proposal to build a space for rehearsals, education programs and offices, though it’s unclear if that level of fundraising is feasible. (The orchestra now rehearses at the Mahaffey but occasionally must set up elsewhere. TFO has offices nearby, at 244 Second Avenue N.)
“One option is the proposed Center for Music Education and Innovation — an expansion of the Mahaffey Theater that would provide fixed rehearsal space, classrooms and offices — but it is not the only option,” TFO spokesperson Kelly Smith said recently.
Managing upward
Francis’ predecessor, Stefan Sanderling, clashed with management over finances and programming — common areas of conflict when such relationships go sour. He left TFO after its 2014 season, despite having two years remaining on his contract. Both sides, it seems, wanted out.
Francis’ initial tenure went over so well with the suits upstairs they handed him a new 10-year pact starting with the current season. Now that’s job security — and well won, for my 2 cents.
TFO’s board of more than three dozen members is chaired by Linda Cassaly, who’s also involved locally with the Tampa Oratorio Singers.
Ignacio Barron Viela has been TFO’s chief executive office since August 2023, after a brief tenure in the same role with the Reno (Nev.) Philharmonic and a four-year stint as executive director of the Billings (Mont.) Symphony. Viela tops an administrative and operations staff of 30. There’s also a 44-person board of consultants and 18-member board of advisors.
In addition to corporate sponsors, TFO donors include several well-heeled individuals, such as Rick and Amy Smith, who sponsor the Soundwaves chamber series, and Suzette and Monroe Berkman, who underwrite resident conductor Chelsea Gallo. Others fund section principals’ salaries.
Bottom line: TFO ain’t hurting. Which makes it feel a bit bush league when execs come out before concerts to urge further support. That’s routine for community orchestras, not so much for professionals.
Lax on wax?
I said earlier that TFO’s ascension to the top of comparable musical ensembles has been “almost” entirely positive. For me, the one exception would be its lack of recording history under Francis, whose personal discography is impressive. TFO’s sole notable recording — of Delius’ “Appalachia” and “Sea Drift” — dates to 2012 during Sanderling’s tenure.
After I moved to the area in 2020, I told a friend in California how impressed I was by my first TFO concert. She replied that she hadn’t ever heard of them recording, so how good could they be?
Overstated by a good bit, of course, but it’s a point unlikely to be lost on musicians from outside the area whom TFO might like to recruit. Recordings add to a player’s professional standing and represent supplemental income for ever-underpaid career musicians.
All in good time, I suppose. For now, it would be churlish to pick such nits, considering the many musical bounties offered by the orchestra. •
