As I near the end of my summer break and get ready for performance season to start up in September, I’ve started thinking about the various concerts coming up and which ones I’m most looking forward to.
This season will be my 25th year with The Florida Orchestra, and we will start the season off playing the music along with the film of Jurassic Park on September 22 and 23 at the Mahaffey Theater. Our first Masterworks concert will be the following week with Gustav Holst’s masterpiece The Planets (September 30 at the Mahaffey Theater and October 1 at Ruth Eckerd Hall). Two other Masterworks programs I am looking forward to are Faure’s Requiem (April 26, 27 & 28 at the Straz and Mahaffey Theaters) and Mahler’s Symphony No. 2 (May 23, 25 & 26 at the Mahaffey Theater and Ruth Eckerd Hall).
We also perform morning matinee concerts with The Florida Orchestra, and two pieces I am looking forward to are Respighi’s The Birds and Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake Suite (October 4 at Ruth Eckerd Hall and October 5 at the Mahaffey Theater).
On March 8 & 10 The Florida Orchestra will partner with Opera Tampa to perform Humperdinck’s beloved opera Hansel and Gretel, one of my favorite pieces of music. I love playing opera, and I especially love to play this one.
We will also perform the music live to two other movies, as well: How the Grinch Stole Christmas (December 2, Mahaffey Theater), and Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (March 22 & 23, Straz). I have seen both of these movies many times and am looking forward to playing along with them with the orchestra.
Lastly, one of the concerts I’m most excited about is a concert I am playing with my harp and percussion duo, the Mackle Shaw Duo. As members of the Palladium Theater’s Creative Class 2023, we will be performing a full recital of wonderful music for harp and percussion at the Palladium Theater in St. Petersburg, including the world premiere of a piece we commissioned for the occasion by composer Mattea Williams. Some of the percussion instruments featured on the program will include marimba, vibraphone, steel pan, kalimba, Tibetan bowls, thunder sheet, wind chimes and wine glasses. The performance will take place April 13, 2024 at 2pm at The Palladium Theater, St. Petersburg.
I hope to see you at some of these performances!
