Florida Orchestra’s upcoming season: from Beethoven to Dolly Parton

The Florida Orchestra announced its 2024-25 season and is celebrating 10 years of Michael Francis as music director with a wide variety of music.

For the opening of its Masterworks series, Francis was inspired by Tampa Bay’s Latin culture, so he selected Ravel’s “Bolero” (Oct. 5-6). Other highlights of the series are Beethoven’s “Symphony No. 5″ (Nov. 1-3), Rachmaninoff’s “Symphony No. 3“ (Oct. 19-20) and Vivaldi’s “The Four Seasons” (April 5, 2025), led by concertmaster Jeffrey Multer.

The series was expanded to 14 programs and will bring in guest artists from around the world. It also features new works, including Garth Neustadter’s “Seaborne” performed by The Percussion Collective on Feb. 7-8, 2025.

It’s notable that for the first time the orchestra is going country with its Raymond James Pops series, opening on Sept. 28 with Country Hits: Songs from Nashville, featuring the music of Garth Brooks, Johnny Cash and the queen, Dolly Parton.

The Pops series will also honor Andrew Lloyd Webber, Elton John and Paul McCartney with Music of the Knights on Nov. 16 and the music of Tina Turner with Simply the Best, May 16-18, 2025.

The series will also feature film composer James Newton Howard conducting his scores with the program Pretty Woman to Hunger Games, Feb. 14-15, 2025. Conductor and virtuosic trumpeter Byron Williams brings his signature Ragtime, Blues and All That Jazz on May 30, 2025.

Blockbuster Broadway (March 22-23. 2025) brings Broadway vocalists to perform songs from “Wicked,” “Chicago” and “A Chorus Line,” to name a few.

The Morning Matinee series returns, led by resident conductor Chelsea Gallo, who is also leading the Holiday Pops, (Dec. 20-22) which is the orchestra’s most popular concert.

Season tickets are on sale now. Concerts are performed at St. Petersburg’s Mahaffey Theater, Clearwater’s Ruth Eckerd Hall and The David A Straz Jr. Center for Performing Arts in Tampa. For the full lineup, visit floridaorchestra.org.