It's been years in the planning, and now with a prime spot on Fruitville Road, close to I-75, The Sarasota Orchestra can begin the design and engineering of its new music center. The land was purchased with $14 million from private donors.
Sarasota Orchestra President and CEO Joe McKenna, said the music center will benefit the entire community.
"We believe a music center of the region will further enhance the brand vibrancy of Sarasota," McKenna said. "And we also know that these kinds of projects are incredible economic generators, in addition to being sort of cultural epicenters of activity, and the social education benefits that come with the cultural and economic benefits are really transcendent."
At the heart of the music center will be a concert hall, which McKenna said is different from a performing arts center. According to a news release, it will be "built with the primary purpose of showcasing acoustic, non-amplified music. It will be the fourth of its kind in Florida and first on Florida’s Gulf Coast (others include the New World Center in Miami Beach, Knight Concert Hall in Miami and Steinmetz Hall in Orlando)."
"Being able to do that work means that the orchestra will take giant steps forward," McKenna said. "And we've done a great job in the last number of decades. But to think about the artistic trajectory, the orchestra with a fine acoustic space, it's the orchestra getting an instrument for itself. That's what the concert hall is."
The concert hall will have an 1,800-seat capacity and is expected to have a ceiling height of up to 110 feet to optimize room acoustics.
A dedicated space
For many years, The Sarasota Orchestra has done a lot of calendar juggling to make its season and youth programs happen. They've split time at different venues, including The Van Wezel, Holley Hall, Riverview High School, Neal Performing Arts Center at State College of Florida, Sarasota Opera House and North Port High School.
Musicians have had to rehearse in one space and perform in another. The Sarasota Orchestra is responsible for more than just the orchestra itself. It runs the Sarasota Music Festival, which was founded in 1965, eight levels of youth orchestra and a summer camp.
"So the range of programs have grown, the quality of programs have grown," McKenna said. "But the one thing that has remained consistent is this constrained absence of a really fine acoustic so that, you know, achieving both calendar relief and acoustical excellence in a new venue, will really put the orchestra on the pathway to, you know, the new century."
According to the release: "Approximately 20 of the site’s 32 acres will be dedicated to the Music Center, an additional building for possible future expansion and related parking facilities. The remaining 12 acres will be dedicated to wetlands, water features, natural parks and trails."
McKenna said the space will allow The Sarasota Orchestra to serve more people and expand its educational offerings.
He wouldn't provide a ballpark figure for the cost of the music center. But Steinmetz Hall in Orlando, which was completed last year, cost about $240 million, according to a WESH story.
A vision coming to fruition
McKenna said they are working on a fundraising feasibility study to work through some estimates.
"We are having to index for what we call as the post-Covid period, which, has affected the cost of projects, whether it's a hospital or dormitory for college, the supply chain issues, and then this inflationary period that we're in," said McKenna, adding he expects the preliminary cost estimates to be further refined this summer and fall.
McKenna said over the years, music directors like Leif Bjaland, Anu Tali and Bramwell Tovey worked with him toward the vision for the new music center.
The Sarasota Orchestra has been without a music director since the untimely death of Bramwell Tovey from cancer last summer.
McKenna said they have been helped artistically by Peter Oundjian, a past music director of the Toronto Symphony. And David Allen Miller has served as an artistic advisor and is assisting with auditions and tenure review.
McKenna couldn't say just when a new music director will be on board. "So this coming season, we have a full roster of guest conductors, some may be candidates, some may not be candidates, again, everyone's a guest conductor, you know, until the search committee moves through its process," he said. He added that he hopes a new music director will be identified in the next year or so.
