Southwest Florida Symphony announces 60th concert season
The Southwest Florida Symphony recently announced its 2021-22 season lineup of performances.
The highlight of the 60th anniversary season, Diamond Jubilee, is the impressive list of guest conductors who will lead the orchestra during an artistically transitional year. They include Maestro Vladimir Kulenovic, Maestra Laura Jackson, Maestro Stephen Mulligan and Maestro Radu Paponiu.
In addition to celebrating a milestone anniversary, the orchestra will finally embark on a search for its new music director after the pandemic forced the postponement of the search process last season.
The symphony will bookend the season with a high energy Pops Series featuring “experience artists” who pay tribute to some of the greatest music of the 1970s, The Bee Gees and Elton John.
The Masterworks Classical Concert Series has been expertly curated by all four guest conductors, along with the guidance of music director search consultant Bob Moir. Moir served as the senior vice president for artistic planning and audience engagement with the Pittsburgh Symphony for 26 years, facilitating the recruitment of Manfred Honeck and Marvin Hamlisch to Pittsburgh.
The Diamond Jubilee Masterworks Series will feature familiar well-loved works like Stravinsky’s “Firebird Suite,” Beethoven’s “Symphony No. 7” and Haydn’s “Cello Concerto No. 1.” The visiting conductors and Moir have also masterfully woven undiscovered compositions throughout the series to complement familiar works. Included in the repertoire are the St. Georges “Symphony No. 1,” “Op. 11” by Joseph Bologne and “Fiesta!” by Jimmy Lopez Bellido.
Masterworks Series concerts will happen on Dec. 11, Jan. 22, Feb. 19 and April 23.
The Pops Series also honors symphonic classics of a different kind; the sweeping strings of the disco era with The Music of The Bee Gees on Oct. 23 and the ornate Music of Elton John on April 30.
Holiday Pops programs will travel to venues throughout Lee, Charlotte and Collier counties from Dec. 1-14. Holiday string quartet performances will take place at the Sidney & Berne Davis Art Center’s annual Festival of Trees, at the Bell Tower’s tree lighting and at Mercato’s tree lighting in Naples. A larger ensemble will deliver sparkling holiday performances with a big band twist featuring guest vocalist Heather Ivy at the Gulf Theater in Punta Gorda, the Village Church at Shell Point and First Presbyterian Church in Bonita Springs.
The symphony continues its collection of TinyConcerts. The performances will also span three counties: The Goldberg Variations will be performed on Nov. 11-13, pianist Andrew Armstrong returns to perform with a Southwest Florida Symphony string quartet in V.I.Piano from March 10-13, and guitarist, singer, composer, arranger and storyteller Andrew Lipke returns with Rock & Roll and the String Quartet Remastered from May 11-15.
Season subscriptions and single tickets to some individual concerts are on sale.
For more information, visit http://www.swflso.org/ or call 239-418-1500.