Bramwell Tovey, Sarasota Orchestra’s newly appointed Music Director, has planned an upcoming season of spectacular musical moments, starting with a series called “Discoveries.” The three-concert series is perfect for those interested in exploring classical music and its emotionally uplifting impact.

The Orchestra’s Discoveries concerts are held at the Sarasota Opera House and offer accessible music enriched by the conductors’ comments for context and perspective. Read on to learn more about each of these programs, designed to delight newcomers and longtime members of the Orchestra audience alike.

Subscribers to the three-concert series get the best available seats at a 20% discount, free ticket exchanges, and a first chance to purchase tickets to a special concert featuring the classical music world’s most celebrated cellist, Yo-Yo Ma, coming up this season on March 2, 2023.

Discoveries 1: Mozart and Tchaikovsky
October 1, 2022 | Sarasota Opera House

Tovey’s underlying theme for Sarasota Orchestra’s Discoveries season is “influences.” The music of Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky is showcased alongside that of one of Tchaikovsky’s greatest inspirers: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Tovey will collaborate on Tchaikovsky’s Rococo Variations with cellist Zlatomir Fung, First Prize winner at the International Tchaikovsky Competition.

Discoveries 2: The French Influencers
December 21, 2022 | Sarasota Opera House

Australian-born conductor Sarah Ioannides conducts a program with Georges Bizet’s Symphony in C as its crown. The Overture No. 1 by Louise Farrenc, another 19^th-century French composer, opens the concert. A great innovator, Farrenc and her music were largely forgotten in the popular repertoire until a recent surge to address the classical music world’s underrepresentation of women composers led to her rediscovery. The concert also includes the seasonally intriguing “Pastoral Music at the Manger” from the oratorio Christus by Franz Liszt, who spent his formative years in Paris. 

Discoveries 3: Musical Postcards
May 13, 2023 | Sarasota Opera House

American conductor Joseph Young leads a concert of music from around the globe. German composer Felix Mendelssohn was inspired during a trip to Italy to write his irrepressibly joyful Symphony No. 4 (nicknamed the “Italian”), which closes the concert. In the opening work, Bachianas Brasileiras No. 9, Heitor Villa-Lobos’ fuses the qualities of Brazilian folk music with the style of Baroque master Johann Sebastian Bach. Korean classical guitarist Bokyung Byun brings the most famous guitar concerto by Spanish composer Joaquín Rodrigo to life. 

To learn more about Discoveries subscriptions and its concert programs, visit Sarasota Orchestra’s website. To explore all subscriptions for the upcoming season, head over to the Orchestra’s Subscriptions webpage. All programs and featured artists are subject to change.