Arts Alive! podcast: Michael Francis, The Florida Orchestra 10-3-25 ; Bill DeYoung, St. Pete Catalyst
Season 2, Episode 1204, Oct 03, 02:30 PM
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The orchestra’s musical director and principal conductor discusses the imminent 58th season.
Here’s Michael Francis, entering his 11th season as musical director and principal conductor of The Florida Orchestra, telling Arts Alive! all about the big ensemble’s 58th season, which begins tonight in the Straz Center’s Morsani Hall.
“Well, we’ve been going for a few weeks already,” Maestro Francis corrects his interviewer, pointing out that TFO performed several quite popular concerts in September, without him at the podium, playing the score underneath a pair of movies, and with Morgan Freeman’s blues band.
It’s the 2025-26 Masterworks Series that starts tonight, the deep-dive classical shows by which the orchestra has made its considerable name. He always conducts Masterworks.
“And of course,” Francis says, “I’m a typical conductor who says the season starts only when I arrive.”
He’s joking, of course, which he tends to do often. But Francis is dead serious about music, and about the musicians in The Florida Orchestra, and the trouble he goes to in order to plan and execute a varied, balanced and entertaining season.
Tonight (and again Sunday afternoon, at the Mahaffey Theater) is all about Richard Strauss’ 22-movement tone poem An Alpine Symphony. “It’s the most epic program you can imagine,” he explains. “It’s all about the power and majesty of nature.”
The Strauss work, he adds, “is the biggest piece of music to date. It’s an enormous score, written for over a hundred musicians.” Then there’s the Gewitter und Sturm movement, with real wind and real (musical) thunder.
He’s paired it with two similarly nature-focused pieces: Vaughan Williams’ The Lark Ascending, and Respighi’s Pines of Rome. Find details and tickets here.
On our podcast, Francis describes the weekend’s program in detail and expounds on other anticipated highlights of the new season. #TFO #floridaorchestra #michaelfrancis #stpetecatalyst #billdeyoung #artsalive #tampabay #radio #radiostpete
Here’s Michael Francis, entering his 11th season as musical director and principal conductor of The Florida Orchestra, telling Arts Alive! all about the big ensemble’s 58th season, which begins tonight in the Straz Center’s Morsani Hall.
“Well, we’ve been going for a few weeks already,” Maestro Francis corrects his interviewer, pointing out that TFO performed several quite popular concerts in September, without him at the podium, playing the score underneath a pair of movies, and with Morgan Freeman’s blues band.
It’s the 2025-26 Masterworks Series that starts tonight, the deep-dive classical shows by which the orchestra has made its considerable name. He always conducts Masterworks.
“And of course,” Francis says, “I’m a typical conductor who says the season starts only when I arrive.”
He’s joking, of course, which he tends to do often. But Francis is dead serious about music, and about the musicians in The Florida Orchestra, and the trouble he goes to in order to plan and execute a varied, balanced and entertaining season.
Tonight (and again Sunday afternoon, at the Mahaffey Theater) is all about Richard Strauss’ 22-movement tone poem An Alpine Symphony. “It’s the most epic program you can imagine,” he explains. “It’s all about the power and majesty of nature.”
The Strauss work, he adds, “is the biggest piece of music to date. It’s an enormous score, written for over a hundred musicians.” Then there’s the Gewitter und Sturm movement, with real wind and real (musical) thunder.
He’s paired it with two similarly nature-focused pieces: Vaughan Williams’ The Lark Ascending, and Respighi’s Pines of Rome. Find details and tickets here.
On our podcast, Francis describes the weekend’s program in detail and expounds on other anticipated highlights of the new season. #TFO #floridaorchestra #michaelfrancis #stpetecatalyst #billdeyoung #artsalive #tampabay #radio #radiostpete