Orchestrating the Future

by Ryan G. Van Cleave 
Feature Photography: Tom Winchester with photo assistant Julio Sanchez

With an eye on today and the future, Sarasota Orchestra CEO Joe McKenna faces the urgent need for a new world-class concert venue.

For most of its seven decades, the Sarasota Orchestra has made The Beatrice Friedman Symphony Center—located between US 41 and the Van Wezel—their home. For some time, the hope has been that the Bayfront 20:20 plan would mean the Sarasota Orchestra might stay put for another seven decades. After all, the shared vision statement agreed to by more than 55 arts, neighborhood, foundation, and business groups is this: “We support the creation of a long-term master plan for the Sarasota Bayfront that will establish a cultural and economic legacy for the region while ensuring open, public access to the Bayfront.”

But the extended time it’ll take the Bayfront to fully develop doesn’t align with the Orchestra’s pressing needs. The Orchestra—one of the city’s oldest major performing arts organizations—has quite simply outgrown their current space, reports CEO Joe McKenna. And by “space,” he means “spaces,” since they currently use Holley Hall, the Van Wezel, the Neel Performing Arts Center, the Sarasota Opera House, Riverview High School, and the North Port Performing Arts Center. Each venue has its own challenges as well as its own schedule, which means sometimes the Orchestra can’t get enough time at each place for needed rehearsals. It also means that the Orchestra is unable to expand their programming beyond its current schedule. Plus the energy and expense of working at six different venues keeps the production team scrambling to ensure equipment and resources are always where they need to be.

Understandably, McKenna explains that “the need for a new space can only be described as urgent. We’ve reached a point now where the most effective path forward is to create a new, viable home for the Orchestra.” In light of that realization, they’ve taken steps toward building a world-class concert venue in Sarasota that can accommodate a concert hall, the Sarasota Music Festival, the Youth Orchestra, and so much more.

This plan, however, doesn’t mean that the Orchestra is ignoring its neighbors. From the beginning, they’ve played an active leadership role in the creation of Bayfront 20:20. They’ve also been involved with The Sarasota Bayfront Planning Organization. “They’ve done phenomenal work on behalf of the community,” notes McKenna. “We have a very good relationship with them. I have no doubt that they will develop an outstanding master plan for the Bayfront that will be amazing.”

Despite the Orchestra’s sincere interest in the Bayfront project going well, the board realized that while they needed to look at alternatives away from the bayfront, they intend to find the Orchestra’s new home right here within the city. “The two things that really drove us ahead in our plan,” McKenna says, “were the idea of congestion along the bayfront—traffic and parking, primarily—and the possibility of sea-level rise.”

That last point is an important one. Much of the Orchestra’s success comes from the stunning and consistent generosity of our music-loving community. The reality is that donors would prefer to have their legacies be free of any potential future imperilment related to climate change issues. He explains this point further, saying that when they approach donors to seek support for the Orchestra, they want to present a plan that includes a 100-year vision. They want to ensure that current and future donors feel secure enough to invest in the Orchestra’s future.

“[The city] immediately appreciated our needs and the urgency for action.”

Possibly the most important factor in proposing such a move is how the Orchestra’s relocation might affect the community. The good news is that the city has been supportive. “When we presented our relocation proposal to the city in late June,” says McKenna, “we took the time to help the officials and staff understand our business a bit more fully. We laid out the context and the background of our situation. Their reaction was one of understanding. They immediately appreciated our needs and the urgency for action.”

One artistic reason for building a new concert hall is that the musicians will have a chance to rehearse and perform in the same space. The importance of that can’t be emphasized enough. Having a proper space to play in is as vital as having the right instrument to play on. In a sense, the room an orchestra plays in IS the instrument of the entire orchestra. So having a half dozen different spaces around town for rehearsals? That’s less than ideal. “It’s like a violinist who has to play on a different violin every single day,” McKenna explains. “There’s no continuity. And there are challenges that wouldn’t be present if the performer had the same instrument every time.”

McKenna further explains that from a repertoire and artistic standpoint, an orchestra really needs to rehearse in the same space where they’re going to perform—not in whatever space is available across town. That type of consistency and quality is key to having a high-quality outcome in both the exquisite performances and the first-class musical education we’ve come to expect from the Sarasota Orchestra.

Creating a destination-worthy music venue, too, doesn’t just benefit the Orchestra’s artistic needs—a signature concert hall can help define a city and become a powerful statement of artistic and cultural values. It can also spur an economy and create various sub-economies, as well. In addition, a recent study showed that the Orchestra’s growth has been constrained by the limitations of the performances available to them, so this relocation will allow them to organically grow as needed.

McKenna remains confident about the Orchestra’s proposal, which began nearly four years ago. From the start, they brought in world-class consultants because “you simply don’t build a concert hall or music center every day, so you need to bring in experts with a breadth of experience.” And the ones they’ve enlisted know what they’re doing. Thanks to their guidance and expertise in the realms of engineering, design, architecture, legal and philanthropic issues, and more, the process has been smooth, considered, and purposeful.

“A dedicated concert hall is something that can be appreciated now but will ultimately be around for future generations, too,” McKenna says. “It’s time for the next step in the process toward creating a new performance space worthy of our community’s commitment to the arts.”

For more information on Sarasota Orchestra, please visit www.sarasotaorchestra.org or call 941.953.3434. For more information on Bayfront 20:20, please visit www.sarasotabayfront2020.com.

For more about the Orchestra, visit these articles.