Tennessee Williams Theatre

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5901 College Rd
Key West, FL 33040 United States Get Directions
(305) 295-7676
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South Florida Symphony Orchestra Presents Stravinsky, Ravel, Bernstein & Zwilich

Tennessee Williams Theatre 5901 College Rd, Key West, FL, United States
Music lovers rejoice! South Florida Symphony Orchestra (SFSO), led by Sebrina María Alfonso, presents an enthralling March Masterworks program that will take audiences on an epic journey through a Russian fairytale to a sensuous Spanish tavern to the streets of 1940s Times Square all the way up to a modern stirring elegy for 9/11. The region’s foremost symphony will premiere two first-time performances of Bernstein’s “Three Dance Episodes” and modern composer Ellen Taaffe Zwilich’s Clarinet Concerto featuring David Shifrin plus popular favorites Stravinsky’s The Firebird Suite and Ravel’s Boléro at 7:30 p.m. on Friday, March 29, at the Tennessee Williams Theatre at the College of the Florida Keys. Russian composer Igor Stravinsky’s (1882 - 1971) The Firebird Suite, based on the Russian fairy tales of the Firebird and the blessing and curse it possesses for its owner, was first performed at the Opéra de Paris in 1910 and was an instant success, catapulting him to international fame. The memorable neo-classical work embodying good and evil has been described as a work of genius. Maurice Ravel’s (1875 - 1937) Boléro was commissioned by dancer Ida Rubinstein in 1922, and was a raving success when it premiered at the Paris Opera in 1928, Instantly recognizable, the popular, Spanish-influenced rhythmic earworm remains one of the most romantic and well-known classical pieces in his canon. Leonard Bernstein (1918 – 1990), America’s famed composer and conductor, takes his concert suite "Three Dance Episodes" from the hit musical On the Town, a wartime romantic comedy about three sailors with 24 hours’ shore leave in New York City. Composed in 1944, this popular, jazzy piece was Bernstein’s first composition for Broadway. This work is a South Florida Symphony premiere. Another South Florida Symphony premiere is Pompano Beach-based Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Ellen Taaffe Zwilich’s Clarinet Concerto featuring the equally award-winning talents of clarinetist David Shifrin (original performer of the piece). Zwilich had already begun her Concerto for Clarinet (commissioned by the Arlene and Milton D. Berkman Philanthropic Fund) by the time the 9/11 World Trade Center attacks occurred. In his review of the 2003 world premiere performance of the piece in 2003, Peter G. Davis of New York Magazine observed: “Like everyone else, composers were badly shaken by 9/11, and their musical responses are beginning to be heard. (This work) would surely have turned out to be quite a different piece had not the fatal date arrived just as she was about to start work on the second movement. That inevitably became an elegy, and the subsequent two movements grew from there.” Winner of the coveted Avery Fisher Prize, David Shifrin has long been one of the most highly respected American clarinetists for his work as orchestral soloist, recitalist, chamber music collaborator and educator. He has appeared with the nation’s foremost symphonies and internationally with orchestras in Italy, Switzerland, Germany, Japan, Korea and Taiwan. A much sought after chamber musician, he has collaborated with such distinguished ensembles and artists as the Guarneri, Tokyo, Emerson, Orion, Dover and Miro String Quartets, trumpeter and composer Wynton Marsalis, and pianists Emanuel Ax, Andre Previn and André Watts. He has served as principal clarinetist with the Cleveland Orchestra, American Symphony Orchestra (under Stokowski), the Honolulu, Dallas and New Haven symphonies, the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra and the New York Chamber Symphony. Shifrin joined the faculty at the Yale School of Music in 1987, and since 2008, has been artistic director of the Chamber Music Society of Yale and Yale's annual concert series at Carnegie Hall. In January 2022, he was named the Samuel S. Sanford Professor in the Practice of Clarinet. He has also served on the faculties of The Juilliard School, University of Southern California, University of Michigan, Cleveland Institute of Music and the University of Hawaii. He has received three Grammy nominations, is the recipient of a Solo Recitalists' Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts and a Concert Artist Guild Virtuoso Award, among many other prestigious honors. Following its highly acclaimed 25th anniversary season, including sold-out shows and a celebrated performance accompanying award-winning alt-rock indie vocalist Natalie Merchant, South Florida’s largest symphonic orchestra is continuing its musical journey of excellence inspiring audiences of all ages. Single tickets begin at $25 for this program at the Tennessee Williams Theatre at The College of the Florida Keys and are on sale now. Tickets may be purchased by visiting southfloridasymphony.org/masterworks-iv-2023-24 or by calling (305) 295-7676. For tickets and additional information, visit southfloridasymphony.org, call (954) 522-8445 or email info@southfloridasymphony.org.
$25 – $95

South Florida Symphony Orchestra Presents Price, Montgomery, Brahms & Bach Featuring Awadagin Pratt

Tennessee Williams Theatre 5901 College Rd, Key West, FL, United States
In advance of Black History Month, South Florida Symphony Orchestra (SFSO), led by Music Director Sebrina María Alfonso, will present an adventurous program illuminating two prominent African American female composers – Florence Price, the first Black woman to have a composition performed by a major orchestra and Jessie Montgomery, whose Rounds for solo piano and orchestra is currently nominated for a GRAMMY for Best Contemporary Classical Composition. Award-winning pianist Awadagin Pratt will accompany SFSO for its premiere of Montgomery’s new piano concerto and Bach’s Keyboard Concerto No. 4. The program is anchored by Brahm’s lyrically sweeping Symphony No. 1. The Key West season opening concert will begin at 7:30 p.m. on Saturday, January 20, at the Tennessee Williams Theatre at The College of the Florida Keys (5901 College Road). Awadagin Pratt joins SFSO for Jessie Montgomery’s Rounds. Rounds is the opening track on Pratt’s 2023 release STILLPOINT, which explores the truth and beauty found within T.S. Eliot’s Four Quartets, named by NPR as one of the 10 Best Classical Albums of 2023. For SFSO’s premiere of Johann Sebastian Bach’s Keyboard Concerto No. 4, (originally for harpsichord) Pratt will perform the sprightly work created in 1738. It’s a shimmering work that scholars believe may have once been a concerto for oboe, given the exceptional lyrical melodies for the soloist, but one will never truly know. Since winning the prestigious Naumburg International Piano Competition in 1992 and receiving a 1994 Avery Fisher Career Grant, Pratt has received international acclaim for delivering “forceful, imaginative, and precisely tinted” performances (Washington Post) and is hailed as “one of the great and distinctive American pianists and conductors of our time” (WGBH). He has performed across six continents with the Boston and Chicago Symphony Orchestras, the New York Philharmonic, and many others; solo recitals at the Kennedy Center, Carnegie Hall, and Lincoln Center. Between performances at the piano, Pratt also maintains a bustling conducting career. He is professor of piano at the San Francisco Conservatory. He remains the only graduate of the Peabody Institute (where he studied alongside SFSO’s Maestra Alfonso) to earn performance certificates in three areas — violin, piano, and conducting — and has received the Distinguished Alumni award from Johns Hopkins University and honorary doctorates from Illinois Wesleyan University, Susquehanna University, and the Boston Conservatory. Jessie Montgomery is an acclaimed composer, violinist, and educator. A recipient of the Leonard Bernstein Award from the ASCAP Foundation and the Sphinx Medal of Excellence, Montgomery weaves classical music with elements of vernacular music, improvisation, poetry, and social consciousness. Her composition Rounds for solo piano and orchestra was commissioned by Awadagin Pratt and is based on exacting tensions from T.S. Eliot’s poem “Burnt Norton” which would later become the first of his “Four Quartets.” Rounds is nominated for a 2023 GRAMMY for Best Contemporary Classical Composition and The Washington Post stated of the work, “Rounds” was something of a revelation, and a reinforcement of Montgomery’s reliably vital voice as a composer.” Florence Price was the first African American woman to be recognized as a symphonic composer, and the first to have a composition played by a major orchestra - the Chicago Symphony’s performance at the 1933 World’s Fair — the Century of Progress Exposition. Price composed over 300 works: four symphonies, four concertos, as well as choral works, art songs, chamber music and music for solo instruments. SFSO will pay homage to this unsung hero with its premiere performance of her Andante Moderato, a piece from a string quartet that fuses Price’s fluency with African American spirituals with Western musical forms. Rounding out SFSO’s Masterworks program is a performance of Johannes Brahms’ Symphony No. 1 in C minor, Op. 68. Brahms, himself, declared that the symphony, from sketches to finishing touches, took 21 years, from 1855 to 1876. The premiere of this symphony, conducted by the composer's friend Felix Otto Dessoff, took place in 1876, in Karlsruhe, then in the Grand Duchy of Baden. Following its highly acclaimed 25th anniversary season, including sold-out shows and a celebrated performance accompanying award-winning alt-rock indie vocalist Natalie Merchant, South Florida’s largest symphonic orchestra is continuing its musical journey of excellence inspiring audiences of all ages. Upcoming concerts include masterworks from Bernstein, Ravel, Stravinsky, and more, plus a SFSO premiere by Ellen Taaffe Zwilich. SFSO will also host a 200th anniversary celebration of Beethoven's magnificent Symphony No. 9. Additional popular music performances including Maestra Alfonso conducting SFSO in a live performance of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone ™ In Concert on April 5 and 6 and Classical Mystery Tour: A Symphonic Tribute to The Beatles on May 11, both at Broward Center for the Performing Arts (separately ticketed events). Season subscriptions are on sale, now, for the Key West Season at the Tennessee Williams Theatre. Tickets may be purchased by visiting southfloridasymphony.org/2023-24-season or by calling (954) 522-8445. Subscribers receive a 20% discount off single ticket prices and have access to the best seats in the house. Three-concert packages in Key West start at $60; Flexible ticket packages are also available. For additional information, visit southfloridasymphony.org, call (954) 522-8445 or email info@southfloridasymphony.org.
$25 – $95

South Florida Symphony Orchestra Presents Brahms, Sibelius & Berlioz

Tennessee Williams Theatre 5901 College Rd, Key West, FL, United States
South Florida Symphony Orchestra will present a passionate evening of masterworks from Brahms, Sibelius and Berlioz on Saturday, February 18, at 7:30 p.m., at the Tennessee Williams Theatre at The College of the Florida Keys. Led by Music Director Sebrina María Alfonso, SFSO’s 25th anniversary season brings Brahms’ final symphonic work, Double Concerto for Violin and Cello in A minor, Op. 102, featuring duo Geneva Lewis on violin and Gabriel Martins on cello, along with Finnish composer Sibelius’ Symphony No. 5 in E-flat major, Op. 82 and the spirited overture to Berlioz’s Béatrice et Bénédict, to new and returning classical music enthusiasts. Johannes Brahms' Double Concerto for Violin and Cello in A minor, Op. 102, is the remarkable realization of a composer's dream -- to create a new "super" instrument that transcends customary limits. This composition united the violin and cello for the first time. The piece was composed as a conciliatory effort to his closest musical friend and collaborator Joseph Joachim, whom he had a falling out with over Joachim’s divorce. The first private performance of this piece was on September 21, 1887, at the Baden-Baden casino. The public premiere followed on October 18, and the work was performed several more times during that concert season. Jean Sibelius was commissioned to write Symphony No. 5 by the Finnish government in honor of his 50th birthday on December 8, 1915, which had been declared a national holiday. The original version of the work was premiered by the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Sibelius that day. The second version, only part of which survives, was first performed by the Orchestra of Turun Soitannollinen Seura in Turku exactly one year later. The final version, which is the one most commonly performed today, was premiered again by the Helsinki Philharmonic, conducted by Sibelius, on November 24, 1919. The first version of the new symphony kept much of his familiar orchestral style (consonant sonorities, woodwind lines in parallel thirds, rich melodic development, etc.) but also shows some similarities with the more modernist Fourth Symphony, featuring a few bitonal passages. The 1919 version seems more straightforward, monumental, and classical, and also cleared away some digressions and ornaments. Sibelius commented on his revision: "I wished to give my symphony another – more human – form. More down-to-earth, more vivid." Though his unique and innovative music was championed in Germany, France never fully recognized Hector Berlioz in his own lifetime. Béatrice et Bénédict, his final completed work, would be premiered not in Paris, but in Baden. Composed between 1860 and 1862, this comic opera dates from a difficult period in the composer’s life, but despite his disappointments and increasing ill health, the work is one of his lightest, most delightful creations. The opera’s plot is a simplified version of “Much Ado About Nothing” by Shakespeare, one of Berlioz’s chief sources of inspiration. Beatrice and Benedict cannot stand each other, so on a lark their friends and families decide to get them together through a series of deceptions (the basic outline of the romantic comedy has changed little in 400 years). SFSO’s 25th anniversary season concludes in Key West with an all Dvořák program on March 25. Tickets for the Masterworks III program at the Tennessee Williams Theatre at The College of the Florida Keys start at $25 and may be purchased by visiting southfloridasymphony.org/masterworks-iii-2022-2023 or by calling (954) 522-8445. For additional information, visit southfloridasymphony.org, call (954) 522-8445, or email info@southfloridasymphony.org.
$25 – $95

South Florida Symphony Orchestra Presents Shostakovich, Gottsch & Great Opera Arias

Tennessee Williams Theatre 5901 College Rd, Key West, FL, United States
South Florida Symphony Orchestra’s (SFSO) 25th anniversary season continues to shine with Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 9, the world premiere of Ocklawaha by composer-in-residence John Gottsch, and a selection of great opera arias from Puccini, Verdi, and Lara. Led by Music Director Sebrina María Alfonso with guest soloists Catalina Cuervo, soprano, and Adam Diegel, tenor, the Masterworks program is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. on January 28, opening the season at Tennessee Williams Theatre at The College of the Florida Keys in Key West. Originally intended to be a grandiose piece that would glorify Stalin’s regime and Russian victory over the Nazis in 1945, Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 9 rendered a more complex, thoughtful, and sometimes carefree composition. The composer was known for his resistance to Soviet rule and his subversion tactics often promising to compose the piece the regime wanted while actually giving it something else. SFSO’s composer-in-residence John Gottsch will present the world premiere of Ocklawaha. The Ocklawaha is a river originating in the lakes of central Florida and flowing north through some of the most mysterious, wild, and breathtakingly beautiful parts of the state. As a young boy, the composer traveled the Ocklawaha with his father, learning the history of the river and surrounding lakes, which brought to life on passing shores, the escaped slaves, Seminole warriors, and a Civil War battle. The musical narrative brings to life the storied struggles of Florida’s Native American ancestors through thoughtfully arranged orchestral movements. John D. Gottsch was born in New Orleans, Louisiana, and moved to Florida with his family, shortly thereafter. He spent his youth in the lake country of the Sunshine State traveling extensively and observing natural habitats. These explorations of Florida gave him an enduring love for its beauty and wildlife. He has been a lifelong composer and a number of his compositions reflect his deep appreciation of the outdoors. Last year, SFSO premiered the live performance of Gottsch’s original composition Princess Yurievskaya, and in 2020, SFSO premiered Sunset, both of which were featured on Gottsch’s 2020 debut album released by Naxos Records, the world’s leading classical music label. SFSO also performed Gottsch’s Bagatelles for Violin & Piano as part of its Summer With the Symphony Series in June 2021. His piano suite, Homosassa, premiered in Palm Beach in 2020. His piano quintet, Maryland Hunt, premiered at the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in Washington, DC in 2018 and has been performed in Philadelphia, Vienna, Rotterdam, and Baltimore. Gottsch, a full-time doctor, now splits his time between Baltimore and Key West. In addition, the program includes a selection of great opera arias performed by Catalina Cuervo and Adam Diegel – Puccini’s “O Mio Babbino Caro,” “Un Bel Dì, Vedremo,” and “O Soave Fanciulla,” Agustín Lara’s “Granada,” Verdi’s “La Donna è Mobile” and “Brindisi” (The Drinking Song from La Traviata). Upcoming SFSO concerts include Brahms, Sibelius, and Berlioz on February 18 and a Dvořák program on March 25. Tickets for the Masterworks II program at Tennessee Williams Theatre at The College of the Florida Keys start at $25. Tickets may be purchased by visiting southfloridasymphony.org/2022-23-season or by calling (954) 522-8445. For additional information, visit southfloridasymphony.org, call (954) 522-8445, or email info@southfloridasymphony.org.
$25