Provided by the Southwest Florida Symphony 

At 58 years old, the Southwest Florida Symphony is the fourth oldest continuously operating orchestra in the State of Florida. As was intended at its inception, it continues to serve as an “audio museum,” performing great classical repertoire written for full orchestra and chamber ensembles, but as Florida’s demographic evolves, becoming younger and more diverse, the Southwest Florida Symphony has made great strides to acclimate to Florida’s ever-changing cultural landscape.

Beginning in 2016, the symphony began experimenting with crossover concerts that blended classical music with other genres; indie rock, electronica, jazz and Latin. As artistic trust continued to develop between the symphony and its audiences and our community expressed more “classical curiosity,” the symphony became more artistically confident in its ability to expand its horizons and establish a new concert series called Brave New Music. Not exactly Pops, though featuring popular music – and not exactly classical, though always featuring classical repertoire, this series is designed to encourage dedicated, knowledgeable classical music enthusiasts to examine familiar works through a new lens and to remove classical music’s historic intimidation factor for audiences that are not ordinary classical music consumers.

Ultimately, this is a way to demonstrate the relevance of classical music to new patrons of the arts and to lead classical audiophiles on a musical journey that begins in familiar territory for them. In addition to the music these audiences experience, these concerts provide educational opportunities through guest artist and conductor Q&A sessions, to meet our orchestral musicians to gain their perspective on these concerts, pre-concert lectures and social gatherings. The best, most beautiful part is that it brings both of those audiences together; spanning generations, socioeconomic and cultural strata, forging relationships among them. It has been said that music is the greatest social network. That’s what we for envision Brave New Music. The Southwest Florida Symphony is honored that Brave New Music can serve as the cornerstone of that network in our community.

Brave New Music initiatives have included jazz arrangements of Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition created and performed by Israeli jazz pianist, Yaron Gottfried and Bach – Jazz fusion arrangements created and performed by pianist Matt Herskowitz. Upcoming Brave New Music programs include an evening of Beethoven v. Coldplay, featuring original electronica – classical compositions and visionary arrangements by Maestro Steve Hackman. This concert culminates the Southwest Florida Symphony’s 58^th season with a fusion of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 3 and tunes by British pop band, Coldplay, on Saturday, May 4^th. The orchestra commences its 59^th season with a screening of the classic thriller film, Psycho, with live orchestral accompaniment on Friday, October 25^th and Saturday, October 26^th, then closes its 59^th season with a celebratory program of tolerance and joy – Symphabulous! A Symphonic Drag Show features nationally known drag performer Chris Weaver. We have every expectation that this innovative programing will enlighten and bring audiences together and will inspire other orchestras to do the same.

To learn more about the Southwest Florida Symphony, visit their website: https://www.swflso.org/.

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