By Henry Adams

The Florida Orchestra’s upcoming 2014/2015 season has lots of series to choose from to meet the needs of just about everyone’s musical tastes, budget and personal calendar, and with concerts in Tampa, St. Petersburg and Clearwater, live symphonic music is always nearby. Aside from great concerts, subscribers enjoy various benefits, including a free friend voucher to invite a friend to a concert, 10 percent savings off single tickets and free flexible ticket exchanges for most concerts so that subscribers don’t have to worry about missing a concert due to a busy schedule.

The orchestra’s main musical offering is the Tampa Bay Times Masterworks series, where concertgoers can enjoy symphonies by Beethoven, Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninoff, Haydn, Mahler and others by selecting one of several different Masterworks packages, running the gamut of 14, 10, 7 and 5 concerts.

FLORCHPeter_Serkin_credit_Kathy_ChapmanAnd there are plenty of heart-stopping concertos as well with Peter Serkin in Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 1, Midori in Schuman’s Violin Concerto, Pascal Rogé in Saint-Saens’ Piano Concerto No. 2, Karen Gomyo in Mozart’s Violin Concerto No. 5 and Jeremy Denk in Bartok’s Piano Concerto No. 3.

And to encourage concertgoers to introduce their children and grandchildren to live symphonic music, the upcoming season will offer children 18 and younger free “Classical Kids Tickets” to masterworks concerts with the purchase of adult tickets.

If symphonic classics are not your thing, the orchestra also offers some classic rock with such rockin’ effects as smoke, lasers, strobes and more. Next season’s Rock Concert series kicks off with The Music of the Rolling Stones, including such hits as Under My Thumb, I Can’t Get No Satisfaction, Honky Tonk Women and more. The series  continues with a Radiohead+Brahms Mash-Up in a mystical mix of songs from Radiohead’s landmark OK Computer album combined with the dramatic and soaring themes of Brahms’ Symphony No. 1. The series closes with a celebration of one of the premiere British rock bands of all time, The Who, in a night of hits from such iconic albums as Tommy, Quadrophenia, Who’s Next and Who Are You, among others. 

From October through May, the orchestra regularly performs at the Straz Center for the Performing Arts in Tampa, Duke Energy Center for the Arts – Mahaffey Theater in St. Petersburg, and Ruth Eckerd Hall in Clearwater. Nine different concert packages are now on sale or individuals can select preferred concerts with a Compose Your Own series.  Most concerts offer affordable single-ticket prices of $15, $30 and $45, which go on sale Monday, August 11.

For a free season brochure or to order a series package, visit www.floridaorchestra.org or call 727-892-3337 or 1-800-662-7286, Monday to Friday from 9 a.m.-5 p.m.

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