Jacksonville Symphony Orchestra
| Jacksonville Symphony Orchestra | |
|---|---|
 official logo | |
| Founded | 1949 |
| Concert hall | Robert E. Jacoby Symphony Hall, Times-Union Center for the Performing Arts |
| Website | www.jaxsymphony.org |
The Jacksonville Symphony Orchestra (JSO) is an American orchestra based in Jacksonville, Florida.
Concert hall
As one of a handful of American orchestras with its own dedicated concert hall, the Jacksonville Symphony Orchestra performs the majority of its programs in the Robert E. Jacoby Symphony Hall at the Times-Union Center for the Performing Arts, the only true orchestra concert hall in Florida.
Artistic background
Founded in 1949, Jacksonville's symphony is one of Florida's longest-standing orchestras and hosted renowned artists such as Benny Goodman, Duke Ellington, Arthur Fiedler, Victor Borge, Jack Benny, Luciano Pavarotti, Kathleen Battle, Marilyn Horne, Mstislav Rostropovich, Emanuel Ax, Joshua Bell, Midori Gotō, Leon Fleisher, Art Garfunkel, Victoria Livengood, Itzhak Perlman, Wynton Marsalis, Pinchas Zukerman, Frederica von Stade, Andre Watts, Horacio Gutierrez, André Previn, Ravi Shankar, Henry Mancini, Isaac Stern, Leontyne Price, Olivia Newton-John, Van Cliburn, Rudolph Nureyev, Michael Feinstein, Maureen McGovern, Eugenia Zukerman, Roberta Peters, Leonard Bernstein, and Sarah Chang. The Jacksonville Symphony Orchestra has performed twice at Carnegie Hall, most recently in 1998. Led by Fabio Mechetti since 1999, past music directors of the orchestra include Roger Nierenberg, Willis Page, John Canarina, James Christian Pfohl and founding director Van Lier Lanning.
The Jacksonville Symphony Orchestra also performs in venues that vary from schools and senior citizen centers to stages throughout Florida and the Southeastern United States. Local listeners can hear weekly JSO broadcasts on WJCT-FM. The JSO has reached a national audience with appearances on National Public Radio's Performance Today and has performed twice at Carnegie Hall.
Performances
The Jacksonville Symphony Orchestra offers a variety of live symphonic music — reaching nearly ¼ million residents on the First Coast and throughout Florida.[citation needed] Nearly one-third of these residents are children, who benefit from the Symphony’s educational programs, including concerts, Jump Start Strings after-school enrichment, Symphony Schools, and the Jacksonville Symphony Youth Orchestra. In addition to a season schedule of approximately 130 concerts, Symphony musicians give educational ensemble performances in schools and senior centers, reaching nearly 15,000 students and 1,500 seniors in the four-county area.
Current conductors are Fabio Mechetti, Michael Butterman, and Michael Krajewski.
Radio Broadcasts
Select concerts performed by the Jacksonville Symphony Orchestra are broadcast Monday evenings at 7 p.m. on 89.9 FM WJCT Public Radio. “89.9 Presents the Jacksonville Symphony Orchestra” is a one-hour program featuring performance highlights – recorded in Jacoby Symphony Hall – and conversation with Music Director and Principal Conductor Fabio Mechetti along with guest artists from the program’s performance.
Sources
- Jean, Betty B. (1999). The Jacksonville Symphony Orchestra: Fifty Years of Great Music. Jacksonville: Jacksonville Symphony Association. ISBN 1-879894-18-1