Just over a year after announcing plans to build a new music center on Fruitville Road, just west of Interstate 75, the Sarasota Orchestra closed the property this week.
“This is a vital milestone for the Sarasota Orchestra and the Sarasota community,” said President and CEO Joseph McKenna. “We’ve been working on this for almost two decades and now we’ve closed the assets and have a position where vision can flourish. “It’s exciting in the long run. “
The Orchestra paid $14 million for the assets of Wal-Mart Stores East LP, which McKenna described as “exceptional for 32-acre assets in an ideal location. “
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There are still many steps to be taken before the music center is designed and built, but the organization plans to create a 1800-seat concert hall. It also hopes to have the money to charge a 700-seat flexible-use function room, as well as several practice sessions and practice rooms, music storage, and area for offices and educational programs. There may be more than one construction on site. The drivers discussed with many other artistic teams the shared use of the facilities.
McKenna said, “Buildings of this nature take two years to design and design and 3 years to build. “
But the organization is still conducting a fundraising feasibility study, discussing potential fundraising goals with donors, buyers and foundations before determining a design and setting a cost.
The study will provide insight into the community’s investment capacity (how much the organization can expect to raise) and whether the task will be built in stages.
“It’s a glorious tool for telling planning,” McKenna said, noting that the Sarasota Orchestra will celebrate its 75th anniversary next season.
“We have a long culture of duty and prudence, while elevating artistic standards and service to the community,” he said.
The Orchestra will compete for online fundraising with Mote Marine Laboratory, Selby Botanical Gardens, Sarasota Performing Arts Center and other nonprofit organizations that have submitted primary structure projects.
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A network survey that generated thousands of responses last year indicated “a wonderful enthusiasm for the orchestra and a wonderful interest in a new music center,” McKenna said. “There is no specially designed concert hall on the west coast of Florida. It will be an iconic construction that will establish a musicalArray a superior acoustics and a delight of visitors enArray
Sound design will be of paramount importance, he said.
“It’s about acoustics and creating a place where music can happen,” McKenna said. An acoustician will paint with a theater planner before hiring an architect to “give personality to the design. “
The Orchestra announced in 2018 that it planned to move out of its existing home at the Beatrice Friedman Symphony Center, which it leases to the city of Sarasota. He offers his Masterworks concert series at the Van Wezel Performing Arts Hall. The organization cited a lack of more of its schedule based on Van Wezel’s availability as a primary explanation for why to seek its own facility. The Sarasota City Commission rejected the orchestra’s initial proposal to build the music center near Payne Park after the plan generated widespread opposition, namely from supporters of Payne Park’s tennis courts.
McKenna said the organization has met with landowners surrounding the new one to get their support.
“The need for a music center is existential,” board chairman Tom Koski said in a statement. “Like the magnificent corridors that have spawned orchestras around the world, the Sarasota Orchestra Music Center and its acoustic concert corridor are critical to the continued energy and expansion of our organization and the sale of the region’s performing arts brand. “
The end of the sale comes as the organization prepares to launch a new search for a music director with a number of guest conductors booked for the upcoming season. McKenna said the new music director will be a leading voice in the structural project.
Some of the guest directors will be considered as candidates for the position, those who may not have expressed interest may replace their minds.
Bramwell Tovey was not an official candidate until he visited Sarasota and conducted the orchestra. He was hired in August 2021, but died suddenly almost a year later before he could publish the season schedule he had announced months earlier. Tovey is one of musicians’ favourite musicians and delighted in managing fundraising and making plans for a music centre in Vancouver, where he spent 18 years as music director of the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra.
“A music director is the ultimate centerpiece of an orchestra,” McKenna said. “We believe the music director will be a champion in nurturing the orchestra, the institutional cadres and the vision we have for the future. “
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