Sinfonia Competitors

Established in 1945, the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra continues to affirm its position as one of America’s leading orchestras with excellent live performances, renowned guest artist features and engaging education initiatives. As a cornerstone for artistic development in the Southeast, the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra performs a full schedule of more than 150 concerts, including educational and community concerts, each year for a combined audience of more than half a million. To learn more, visit www.aso.org.

The Jacksonville Symphony is one of Northeast Florida’s most important cultural institutions. Founded in 1949, the Symphony now enjoys a national reputation, regularly heard on more than 250 public radio stations across the country on Performance Today. Combined with performances aired on Jacksonville’s public radio station WJCT and the organization’s continually growing streaming program, the Symphony reaches over 60,000 individuals through these digital channels. In 2018, the orchestra was selected as one of four orchestras from across the country to participate in the 2020 SHIFT: A Festival of American Orchestras in Washington, D.C.* The Symphony’s performance home, Robert E. Jacoby Symphony Hall, is an acoustic gem and offers an intimate and acoustically superior concert experience. Each year thousands enjoy the Symphony’s performances both at Jacoby Symphony Hall in the Times-Union Center for the Performing Arts and at venues located throughout the state of Florida.

The Florida Orchestra’s history is steeped in orchestral tradition from both sides of Tampa Bay. In 1966, the Tampa Philharmonic and St. Petersburg Symphony merged as the Florida Gulf Coast Symphony, which opened its first season on November 14, 1968, under the baton of Music Director Irwin Hoffman. Performing as the Florida Gulf Coast Symphony until changing its name to The Florida Orchestra in 1984, the orchestra has since been led by music directors Jahja Ling and Stefan Sanderling. In 2015, Michael Francis took over as music director. Over the years, The Florida Orchestra has had a series of successes. In 2011, it launched a multi-year cultural exchange with the Cuban Institute of Music as well as its Accessibility Initiative, which effectively reduced ticket prices to all of its Masterworks and Pops concerts. The orchestra also has taken steps to be more involved with the Tampa Bay community, including a collaboration with the Tampa Bay Lightning to produce the team’s onetime theme song and free pop-up concerts in hospitals, malls and beyond. To showcase its artistic excellence, the orchestra released a CD featuring music by Florida influenced classical composer Frederick Delius on the Naxos label in 2012. On the CD, the orchestra is joined by The Master Chorale of Tampa Bay and baritone Leon Williams in a performance of Delius’ Sea Drift and Appalachia. In 2014, the orchestra released another CD, Holiday Pops Live! on its label TFO Live! The Florida Orchestra is recognized as Tampa Bay’s leading performing arts institution, one of the leading professional symphony orchestras in Florida, and one of the most vibrant orchestras in America. Through extraordinary musical performances, the orchestra inspires the people of Tampa Bay and serves as a leader and beacon for the musical arts throughout the state.