Between South Florida鈥檚 companies and performing arts centers, the classical music calendar can fill up fast.
To help you pick what you want to see, we鈥檝e organized a list of this season's must-hear performances into these categories: Locally Sourced, For The Drag-Alongs, and Water Cooler Talkers.
Locally Sourced (I Like To Support Home-Grown Talent)
Miami Symphony Orchestra is opening its 25th Anniversary Season with a world premiere, Rincones de Espa帽a, a homage to Cuban painter Waldo Balart by the symphony鈥檚 Director Eduardo Marturet. The orchestra will also be performing Joaquin Rodrigo's with classical guitarist Angel Romero. Also on the play bill: Symphonic Dance from West Side Story by Leonard Bernstein.
Florida Grand Opera is opening its season with at the Broward Performing Arts Center. Broward-based composer Martin David Levy wrote the opera that's only been performed by four other companies.
This will be its Southeast American premiere. FGO is building an entirely new production that will include innovative light projects.
Mourning Becomes Electra is a retelling of an ancient Greek tragedy set in 19th Century New England and sung in English. A wife falls in love with another man and poisons her husband鈥� but before he dies he鈥檚 able to tell his daughter what happened. Melodic misfortune ensues. Performances are November 7 and 9 at the Broward Center and November 16, 17, 19 and 23 at the Arsht Center.
While it may not be as easily recognizable as Beethoven鈥檚 5th Symphony, Mozart鈥檚 still ranks among one of the most famous pieces of music ever written, despite the fact that Mozart died before he finished it. Now, Seraphic Fire has asked composer Gregory Spears to try his hand at completing the masterpiece. Seraphic Fire and Firebird Chamber Orchestra will premiere the work in at the All Saints Episcopal Church. They perform in at the First United Methodist Church and in at St. Gregory鈥檚 Episcopal Church.
Palm Beach Symphony's promises to be an evening of both beautiful music and architecture. The symphony is performing two works, each titled Four Seasons, but written by very different composers: baroque composer and modern Argentine composer . The performance will take place in an architecturally decadent setting: Henry Flagler鈥檚 gilded age mansion, the .
For The Drag-Alongs (Aw, Honey, Do We Have To?)
If you need a classical music fix but have a partner or kid who鈥檚 skeptical about spending a weekend evening at the concert hall, then you need to check out the offerings at . NWS broadcasts select concerts on the outside of its building in Miami Beach. You listen to the music (for free!) from an elaborate park-wide sound system while enjoying a picnic. It's family friendly, dog friendly, and loud-mouthed friend friendly.
Coming up is a performance you don鈥檛 want to miss called Beethoven and Schumann. Acclaimed pianist Emanuel Ax will be playing with the NWS with Michael Tilson Thomas conducting.
Want to get the Generation X-er or Millennial in your life hooked on orchestral music? Take them to see . Yes, this is a concert of videogame music adapted to an orchestra. And if it鈥檚 anything like , it鈥檚 going to be a good time. The performance takes place at the Arsht Center in downtown Miami on November 23.
Water Cooler Talkers (Hear What Everyone鈥檚 Talking About)
There are some big names in classical music coming to South Florida-- the stuff water cooler conversations are made of (that is, after the World Series and before the Super Bowl). Whether you鈥檙e an aficionado or you just want to see what all the fuss is about, here鈥檚 a list of some of the acts you don鈥檛 want to miss:
Celebrated soprano Deborah Voigt will be performing an eclectic rep ranging from Tchaikovsky to Bernstein .
Israeli, violin virtuoso Itzhak Perlman is performing and then .
The unique, conductor-less and Grammy Award-winning orchestra Orpheus Chamber Orchestra is presenting an all-Beethoven program at the and then at the .
Joining Orpheus will be award winning, blind, Japanese pianist Nobuyuki Tsujii.
America鈥檚 fourth-oldest symphony orchestra, the Detroit Symphony, is performing and .
World-renowned American violinist Joshua Bell and the acclaimed Academy of St. Martin in the Fields orchestra (under Bell鈥檚 direction since 2011) will be at the and then at the .
