With roots that reach back nearly half a century, the Florida Philharmonic Orchestra is Florida’s largest performing arts organization and the resident professional orchestra of Miami-Dade, Broward, and Palm Beach Counties. From its northern home at the Kravis Center in West Palm Beach to as far south as the Florida Keys, the Florida Philharmonic offers approximately 165 performances each year to a region populated by more than five million people. Concert series are presented at seven venues in collaboration with some of the world’s leading guest artists.
Formed in 1985 from a merger of the Fort Lauderdale Symphony, which was established in 1949, and the Boca Raton Symphony, the Florida Philharmonic Orchestra thrived under the vigorous leadership of the former Music Director James Judd, followed in 2002 season by the conductor and violinist Joseph Silverstein, acting as Music Director. The Philharmonic has achieved recognition generally reserved for more established organizations, with a series of acclaimed recordings, and has widespread support from the South Florida business and civic communities. It views the tri-county market as a single metropolis in which the diversity of cultures and musical heritages presents opportunities that are unequalled by any other American orchestra. Programmes include a full season of classical concerts, covering the full range of masterpieces from the entire orchestral repertoire, ranging from Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert and Mendelssohn to Brahms, Wagner, Liszt and modern masters, the Matinée Series featuring familiar orchestral favourites, and the Peter Nero and Pops at the Philharmonic series showcasing popular orchestral music. The orchestra is host to Neighbourhood Concerts, a series of free concerts across South Florida, and each year the Philharmonic conducts extensive educational programmes, serving more than 50,000 children annually.
