Jacksonville Symphony Orchestra
Founded in 1949, the Jacksonville Symphony Orchestra recently celebrated its 60th anniversary season, as well as the tenth season of Music Director and Principal Conductor Fabio Mechetti. Having hosted some of the most renowned artists of the past century, including Isaac Stern, Benny Goodman, Duke Ellington, Marilyn Horne, Luciano Pavarotti, Itzhak Perlman and Mstislav Rostropovich, the Jacksonville Symphony is poised as an American orchestra for the 21st century.
As a non-profit cultural and educational organization, the Jacksonville Symphony Orchestra's mission is to create experiences that enrich the human spirit and inspire a lifelong love of music. Its programming reflects the diversity of the community with a variety of live symphonic music that is relevant to today's audience - from the classic masterpieces, to contemporary works, to grand opera and musical theater, to popular styles.
Each season more than 80,000 young people benefit from the Orchestra's diverse educational opportunities, including concerts, in-school ensemble performances, Jump Start Strings after-school enrichment, Symphony Schools partnership, master classes, and the Jacksonville Symphony Youth Orchestra.
The Orchestra's quality and commitment to Florida composers "offered a timely reminder of how much interesting music-making goes on outside what are traditionally regarded as major music centres," as reported by the Toronto Star. The Orchestra has performed twice at Carnegie Hall and has appeared the national radio program "Performance Today."
Jacksonville audiences are enjoying the 2011-2012 season, featuring violin superstar Joshua Bell, Beethoven's Fifth, Seventh and Ninth Symphonies, a fully-staged production of Puccini's La Bohème, Tchaikovsky's Fifth Symphony, and Mozart's Jupiter Symphony, as well as popular variety from Canadian Brass to Cirque de la Symphonie to Michael W. Smith in a special Holiday performance.
An American orchestra with its own dedicated concert hall, the Jacksonville Symphony Orchestra's home is the acoustically superb Robert E. Jacoby Symphony Hall at the Times-Union Center for the Performing Arts. The Jacksonville Symphony also performs in community venues on the First Coast and statewide.
Beyond the stage, the Jacksonville Symphony Orchestra is an outstanding community partner, serving four county school districts and collaborating with a wide range of organizations. And close to 2,000 music lovers in the community are members of symphony volunteer groups.
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