by Max Marbut
Staff Writer
Jacksonville Symphony Orchestra opens 60th season Friday
The Jacksonville Symphony Orchestra was founded in 1949 by a small group of local patrons of the arts. The orchestra performed its first concert the following year at the Barnett National Bank Building at the corner of Laura and Adams streets.
The first five seasons were presented at a variety of Downtown venues including the George Washington Hotel and the Armory on Market Street before the symphony found a new home when the Prudential (now Aetna) Building opened in 1955. Several seasons later, it moved again to the new riverfront Civic Auditorium which was renovated and expanded to become the Times-Union Center for the Performing Arts in 1997. That marked the first time the JSO performed in its own dedicated space, the Robert E. Jacoby Symphony Hall.
Resident Conductor Michael Butterman will tap his baton Friday at 8 p.m. to open the Jacksonville Symphony Orchestra’s 60th season with the first of three performances of the classic Rodgers and Hammerstein musical, “Oklahoma!” Singers and dancers from the Alhambra Dinner Theatre will be performing on the stage with the orchestra.
For a symphony orchestra to open a landmark season with the presentation of selections from a Broadway musical is something that probably would not have happened even 10 years ago, said JSO General Manager Richard Naylor. Naylor joined the symphony this month after previously serving as general manager of the Virginia Symphony Orchestra in Norfolk, Va.
He described his job as that of being “a revolving door of information” and said, “I’m the person who makes sure everyone knows what’s happening and when it’s happening. Then I make sure it happens.”
Another of Naylor’s responsibilities is to help develop the programming for the symphony’s season. While he won’t be personally involved in the selection of material until next season, he understands the reasoning behind the selection of “Oklahoma!”
“Orchestras these days are presenting a wider range of music to appeal to a wider audience. You have to consider the community’s tastes, especially on the pops side,” he said referring to the decidedly non-classical first performance of the season.
Naylor said one of the things that helped him make the decision to move his family to Jacksonville and go to work for the JSO was the Jacoby Symphony Hall.
“I have never worked with an orchestra that had its own hall and this one is magnificent,” he added.
The symphony will also perform this season across the lobby in the Jim and Jan Moran Theater. The holiday production of the First Coast Nutcracker and and Mozart’s opera “Cosi Fan Tutte” are two of the works on the schedule there this season.
Also on the program for 2009-10, the Fidelity National Masterworks Series begins Sept. 25 with “Lincoln Portrait” led by Music Director and Principal Conductor Fabio Mechetti and featuring violinist Anne Akiko Meyers. The BlueCross BlueShield of Florida Pops series begins Oct. 2 with “Fly Me to the Moon” featuring Michael Andrew singing songs that were hits for Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin and Nat King Cole. The 2009-10 “Plugged In” series offers the music of Eric Clapton, Woodstock and James Taylor performed by the orchestra.
New this season is “Friday Fusion,” a series of four Friday evening concerts beginning Oct. 9 that will pair the music of Germany, France, Italy and the Latin countries with a
sampling of each region’s cuisine served before the performance.
Naylor said the highlight of the season, especially for classical music purists, will be the Jan. 9 performance by the reigning virtuoso of the violin Itzhak Perlman, who performed with the JSO in its inaugural concert in Jacoby Hall in 1997.
“That’s big time,” said Naylor. “You can’t just pick up the phone and book Itzhak Perlman.”
Visit www.jaxsymphony.org for a complete program list.
356-2466