After 11-going-on-12 years as The Florida Orchestra\u2019s music director and principal conductor, Michael Francis gets a kick out of confounding expectations.<\/p>\n
Francis has curated the organization\u2019s 59th season, starting in October, with a combination of familiar classical favorites, newer works by American composers (it\u2019s that 250th anniversary thing, you know) from Bernstein to Zappa, and music that crosses genres in wildly interesting ways.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s always my desire to give you the things that you love,\u201d he said, \u201cbut at the same time to introduce you to things I know you\u2019ll love \u2013 you just don\u2019t know it yet.\u201d<\/p>\n
Season tickets went on sale Friday. Single tickets go on sale Aug. 11.<\/p>\n
Understandably, Beethoven always turns up, in every TFO season. And as the 200th anniversary of the great composer\u2019s death is approaching, Francis put this thinking cap on. Here\u2019s what he came up with: Three Beethoven pieces that The Florida Orchestra has never in its long history performed.<\/p>\n
In the season\u2019s very first Masterworks concert, Oct. 2 and 4, \u201cHere we\u2019ve got Wellington\u2019s Victory, which is the French against the English. On the one side you\u2019ve got a French marching band, on the other an English marching band. And that\u2019s paired with Tchaikovsky\u2019s 1812 Overture. So it\u2019s probably the most bombastic opening to a season we\u2019ve ever done.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cFidelio (March 20 and 21, with the Master Chorale of Tampa Bay) is this masterpiece of an opera, and actually works very, very well in concert. It doesn\u2019t require complex staging. So we\u2019ll just do it simple, almost like an oratorio, singing it.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd we\u2019ve also got Egmont; Beethoven wrote the incidental music to a play (by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe). So we\u2019re going to put that together with narration, and that\u2019ll be fun to see.\u201d<\/p>\n
Guest artists for Season 59 include conductor Leonard Slatkin, classical\/jazz pianist Makoto Ozone, violinist Noah Bendix-Balgley (first concertmaster of the Berlin Philharmonic), classical and bluegrass violinist Tessa Lark, pianist Joyce Yang, violinist Charles Yang and conductor JoAnn Falletta.<\/p>\n
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Masterworks series<\/p>\n
Oct. 2 and 4. Rossini: Overture to William Tell; Christopher Theofanidis: The Gift; Beethoven: Wellington\u2019s Victory; Tchaikovsky: 1812 Overture.<\/p>\n
Oct. 16 and 17. Karen LeFrak: American Promise; Florence Price: Piano Concerto in One Movement; Rimsky-Korsakov: Scheherazade.<\/p>\n
Nov. 6-8. Gabriela Ortiz: Teenek; Alberto Ginastera: Harp Concerto; Falla: The Three-Cornered Hat (full ballet music).<\/p>\n
Nov. 20 and 21. Constanze Geiger: Ferdinandus Waltz; Friedrich Gulda: Cello Concerto; Johann Strauss, Jr.: The Blue Danube; R. Strauss: Der Rosenkavalier Opera: Suite.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe wildest piece on this program is the Friedrich Gulda Cello Concerto,\u201d Francis enthused. \u201cIt starts like the soundtrack to Shaft \u2013 it\u2019s funky, then it turns into a crazy waltz, then a drinking song. It has a middle movement that sounds like Jimi Hendrix on one of his wilder nights, shall we say.\u201d<\/p>\n
Gulda, a 20th century Viennese composer, was also a jazz artist. Gulda described the concerto as \u201cjazz, a minuet, rock, a smidgen of polka, a march, and a cadenza with two spots where the star cellist must improvise.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jan 16 and 17: Wagner: Prelude and Liebestod from Tristan und Isolde; Joan Tower: Piano Concerto (Homage to Beethoven) with pianist Joyce Yang; Florent Schmitt: Antoine et Cl\u00e9op\u00e2tre, Suite No. 1; Tchaikovsky: Romeo and Juliet Overture-Fantasy.<\/p>\n
Jan. 29 and 31. John Williams: The Cowboys: Overture; Kris Bowers: For a Younger Self (with violinist Charles Yang); Richard Strauss: Symphonia Domestica.<\/p>\n
Feb. 19-21. Mozart: Overture to The Abduction from the Seraglio; Noah Bendix-Balgley: Fidl-Fantazye: A Klezmer Concerto; Mahler: Symphony No. 1, \u201cTitan.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI did the Klezmer Concerto in California,\u201d Francis said. \u201cPeople went crazy for it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Feb. 26-28. Beethoven: Egmont: Music for Goethe\u2019s Tragedy; Brahms: Piano Concerto No. 2 (with pianist Tzimon Barto).<\/p>\n
March 20 and 21. Beethoven\u2019s Fidelio with The Master Chorale of Tampa Bay.<\/p>\n
April 2 and 3. Conducted by Leonard Slatkin. Ron Nelson: Savannah River Holiday; Leonard Bernstein: The Age of Anxiety; Dmitri Shostakovich: Symphony No. 5.<\/p>\n
April 16-18. Michael Torke: Sky Violin Concerto (with violinist Tessa Lark); Rachmaninoff: Symphony No. 2.<\/p>\n
May 1 and 2. Stravinsky: Petrushka (1947 version); Frank Zappa: Three selections from The Yellow Shark \u2013 Dog Breath Variations, Outrage at Valdez,\u00a0 G-Spot Tornado; Gershwin (orch. Grofe): Rhapsody in Blue (with pianist Makoto Ozone). \u201cHe\u2019s a consummate jazz performer,\u201d Francis said. \u201cSo he will do this in a way that no one\u2019s ever heard it. With huge improvisations in the middle of it. This will be Rhapsody in Blue as you\u2019ve never heard it before.\u201d<\/p>\n
May 14-16. Maria Theresia von Paradis: Overture to The School Candidate; Mozart: Violin Concerto No. 5, \u201cTurkish\u201d; George Walker: Lyric for Strings.<\/p>\n
May 28 and 30. Verdi: Requiem with the Master Chorale of Tampa Bay.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf anybody\u2019s seen Mad Max, it\u2019s the soundtrack to that,\u201d Francis explained. \u201cIt\u2019s the most operatic, thunderous interpretation of a requiem mass ever done. It\u2019s one of the greatest masterpieces of all time.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Pops series<\/p>\n
Revolution: The Music of The Beatles (Oct. 9 and 10). With guest vocalists.<\/p>\n
John Williams at 95 (Oct. 30 and Nov. 1). Saluting the legendary film composer.<\/p>\n
Holiday Pops (Dec. 10-13). Six performances.<\/p>\n
Soul Sisters (Jan. 8 and 9): Music made famous by Aretha Franklin, Whitney Houston and R&B vocalists.<\/p>\n
The Wonderful Music of Oz (Jan. 22 and 24): Music from The Wizard of Oz, Wicked and The Wiz.<\/p>\n
Come Swing with Me (Feb. 12 and 13): Tunes from Frank Sinatra, Bobby Darin and the Rat Pack era.<\/p>\n
Dreams of Bollywood (May 21 and 22, 2027): With the Veils of Bollywood dancers, vocalists and tabla\u00a0virtuoso Shawn\u00a0Mativetsky.<\/p>\n
Said Francis: \u201cDaniel Black, who was our resident conductor, has been putting this show together. It\u2019s something we\u2019ve really been looking to do for quite a number of years.\u201d<\/p>\n
The 2026-2027 also includes six \u201cMorning Matinee\u201d concerts; additional performances will be announced. Concerts take place in the Mahaffey Theater (St. Petersburg), the Straz Center (Tampa), Ruth Eckerd Hall (Clearwater) and other locations.<\/p>\n