The Florida Orchestra

PRESS RELEASE
RELEASE DATE: September 24, 2009
CONTACT:  Sherry Powell, Director of Marketing & Communications, 727.362.5540 or Henry Adams, Associate Director of Marketing & Communications,  727.362.5441 

The Florida Orchestra Announces Special Concerts:
Cherish the Ladies, Music of Led Zeppelin and The Blue Planet Live

ST. PETERSBURG, FL -- The Florida Orchestra (TFO) has announced three Special Concerts for the 2009/2010 season: Cherish the Ladies: A Celtic Christmas, December 16; The Music of Led Zeppelin: A Rock Symphony, January 16; and The Blue Planet Live!, May 7.  Tickets are now on sale for subscribers to any of this season’s concert series, with single tickets going on sale to the general public on October 1.  For tickets, call The Florida Orchestra ticket center at 727.892.3337 or 1.800.662.7286, Monday through Friday, 9 am to 5 pm, or buy online at www.floridaorchestra.org.

Cherish the Ladies: A Celtic Christmas
Wednesday, December 16, at 8 pm
Progress Energy Center for the Arts – Mahaffey Theater, St. Petersburg

Hailed by The New York Times as “passionate, tender and rambunctious” and singled out by The Washington Post as “an astonishing array of virtuosity,” the Irish traditional music and dance group, Cherish the Ladies, joins The Florida Orchestra for A Celtic Christmas.  They will toast the holiday season with their wondrous weaving of Irish vocals, old-world airs and tug-on-your-heartstrings yuletide tunes, complete with fiddles, flutes, penny whistles, guitar, banjo, accordion, mandolin and even some step dancing.

With eleven recordings to their name, including a Grammy nomination for their Celtic Album with the Boston Pops, they have received numerous honors, including being selected as the Best Musical Group of the Year by BBC.  In fact, their recording On Christmas Night was chosen as one of the Top Christmas Albums of the Year by The New York Times, Chicago Tribune, The Village Voice and The Washington Post.

In addition to performing with such major orchestras as the Boston Pops, Houston Symphony, Cincinnati Pops, Atlanta Symphony, Detroit Symphony and Minnesota Orchestra, they have performed at the White House and made broadcast appearances on CBS This Morning, Good Morning America, Evening at the Pops, C-Span, PBS, BBC and National Public Radio, among others.

Tickets are $25, $40, $55 and $70, and are on sale to the general public starting October 1.  Call The Florida Orchestra Ticket Center at 727.892.3337 or 1.800.662.7286, Monday – Friday, 9 am to 5 pm, or online at www.floridaorchestra.org

The Music of Led Zeppelin: A Rock Symphony
Saturday, January 16, at 8 pm
Ruth Eckerd Hall, Clearwater

Following last season’s Pink Floyd tribute concert with The Florida Orchestra, conductor Brent Havens and rock vocalist Randy Jackson return to perform with The Florida Orchestra for a symphonic salute to Led Zeppelin’s ground-breaking fusion of rock, folk, blues, acoustic and eastern modalities with such hits as Whole Lotta Love, Ramble On, Kashmir and others.

Brent Haven, Conductor/Arranger
The music was arranged for orchestra and rock band by Brent Havens, who has also produced individual symphonic rock shows for the music of The Eagles, The Doors, Queen and Pink Floyd, the last one performed with The Florida Orchestra on the 2008/2009 season.  Haven’s concept for all of these shows has been to remain as true to the original recordings as possible while making the orchestra sound like another instrument within the band.  And to add to the spirit of the original music and the times in which it was created, the concerts are performed to retina-burning rock show lighting.

Brent Havens has performed his various symphonic rock shows with a variety of orchestras around the country, including the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra, Phoenix Symphony Orchestra, Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra, Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra and San Diego Symphony, among others.

Randy Jackson, Vocalist
Randy Jackson’s first foray into recording success began with the self-titled Zebra debut album, released on Atlantic Records in 1983. Critically acclaimed for its lush rock sounds, due in large part to Jackson’s searing lead vocals and soaring guitar leads, the album sold 75,000 copies the first week. Who’s Behind the Door, written by Jackson, received serious notice in the press and helped to form legions of Zebra fans almost instantly.  Randy Jackson is the lead singer of the rock band Zebra, and recently produced and engineered their latest album, Zebra IV. He has also toured as keyboardist and guitarist with the reunited Jefferson Airplane, and works extensively in the area of musical software and hardware development.

Tickets are $55, $75 and $95 and are on sale to the general public starting October 1.  Call The Florida Orchestra Ticket Center at 727.892.3337 or 1.800.662.7286, Monday – Friday, 9 am to 5 pm, or online at www.floridaorchestra.org

The Blue Planet Live!
Friday, May 7, at 8 p.m.
Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center, Morsani Hall, Tampa

The Blue Planet Live!, based on the BBC television series Blue Planet, provides a combined multi-media and concert experience featuring both the extraordinary beauty and variety of ocean life around the world.  With larger-than-life images of a seemingly endless parade of sea creatures ebbing and flowing across a towering movie screen, the audience is invited to submerge itself in this artistic collaboration of cutting-edge underwater photography with George Fenton’s multi-award-winning score being performed live by The Florida Orchestra.

The intent of the creators is for the audience to virtually feel the oceans come alive in wide-eyed wonder through an awe-inspiring underwater journey of spectacular global locations, including the Galapagos Islands, Cape of South Africa, Brazil, Australia, Alaska, Antarctica, Vancouver Island, the Bahamas, Florida and Mexico.  And since each of the ocean’s habitats is completely different, the composer has created unique music to capture their individual moods and the special character of their unique sea life.

George Fenton, Composer
Composer George Fenton has written a wide variety music for theater productions, television and films.  His scores for TV series include The Jewel in the Crown, The Monocled Mutineer, The History Man, Shoestring, Bergerac, Planet Earth and The Blue Planet, among numerous others.  For the music he composed for BBC’s television series The Blue Planet in 2001, he won various awards, including the Ivor Novello, BAFTA and Emmy awards for Best Television Score.  Following the series’ success, he created the score for the live concert production of The Blue Planet Live!, which has toured internationally with the music being performed by many of the world’s leading orchestras.  He has also composed for a wide variety of feature films, receiving Academy Award nominations for: The Fisher King, Dangerous Liaisons and Gandhi and was double-nominated for Cry Freedom for Original Score and Original Song.  Furthermore, Fenton has received a Royal Television Society Lifetime Achievement Award and has been appointed a Fellow of the British Academy of Composers and Songwriters. 

Tickets are $25, $45 and $65 and are on sale to the general public starting October 1.  Call The Florida Orchestra Ticket Center at 727.892.3337 or 1.800.662.7286, Monday – Friday, 9 am to 5 pm, or online at www.floridaorchestra.org

Dates, programs, artists and venues are subject to change.

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