Jacksonville Symphony Orchestra

The Jacksonville Symphony Orchestra (JSO) is an American orchestra based in Jacksonville, Florida. Widely recognized for its high artistic quality, the JSO ranks among the nation’s top 30 to 40 orchestras in terms of number of performances and population served. Its success has been defined by the Palm Beach Post as “the standard to which all other Florida orchestras should strive.”
==Concert hall==
As one of a handful of American orchestras with its own dedicated concert hall, the Jacksonville Symphony Orchestra performs the majority of its programs in the acoustically superb and internationally recognized Robert E. Jacoby Symphony Hall at the Times-Union Center for the Performing Arts, the only true orchestra concert hall in Florida.
==Artistic background==
Founded in 1949, Jacksonville's symphony is one of Florida's longest-standing orchestras and hosted renowned artists such as Benny Goodman, Duke Ellington, Arthur Fiedler, Victor Borge, Jack Benny, Luciano Pavarotti, Kathleen Battle, Marilyn Horne, Mstislav Rostropovich, Emanuel Ax, Joshua Bell, Midori Gotō, Leon Fleisher, Art Garfunkel, Victoria Livengood, Itzhak Perlman, Wynton Marsalis, Pinchas Zukerman, Frederica von Stade, Andre Watts, Horacio Gutierrez, Andre Previn, Ravi Shankar, Henry Mancini, Isaac Stern, Leontyne Price, Van Cliburn, Rudolph Nureyev, Michael Feinstein, Maureen McGovern, Eugenia Zukerman, Roberta Peters, Leonard Bernstein, and Sarah Chang. The Jacksonville Symphony Orchestra has performed twice at Carnegie Hall, most recently in 1998. Led by Fabio Mechetti since 1999, past music directors of the orchestra include Roger Nierenberg, Willis Page, John Canarina, James Christian Pfohl and founding director Van Lier Lanning.
The Jacksonville Symphony Orchestra also reaches audiences in venues that vary from schools and senior citizen centers to stages throughout Florida and the Southeastern United States. Local listeners can hear weekly JSO broadcasts on WJCT-FM. The JSO has reached a national audience with appearances on National Public Radio's Performance Today and has performed twice at Carnegie Hall.
==Performances==
The Jacksonville Symphony Orchestra offers a variety of live symphonic music that is relevant to today’s audience — reaching nearly ¼ million residents on the First Coast and throughout Florida. Nearly one-third of these residents are children, who benefit from the Symphony’s educational programs, including concerts, Jump Start Strings after-school enrichment, Symphony Schools, and the Jacksonville Symphony Youth Orchestra. In addition to a season schedule of approximately 130 concerts, Symphony musicians give educational ensemble performances in schools and senior centers, reaching nearly 15,000 students and 1,500 seniors in the four-county area.
Beyond the stage, the Jacksonville Symphony Orchestra is an outstanding community partner, serving four county school districts, offering student internships and collaborating with a wide range of organizations, from arts, community and cultural groups to media and corporate partners. And close to 2,000 music-lovers in the community support the Symphony through volunteer organizations including BRASS, ARIAS, The Guild, Youth Orchestra parents and concert ushers. 
Current conductors are Fabio Mechetti, Michael Butterman, and Michael Krajewski.
==Radio Broadcasts==
Select concerts performed by the Jacksonville Symphony Orchestra are broadcast Monday evenings at 9 p.m. on 89.9 FM WJCT Public Radio. “89.9 Presents the Jacksonville Symphony Orchestra” is a one-hour program featuring exciting performance highlights – recorded live in Jacoby Symphony Hall – and insightful conversation with Music Director and Principal Conductor Fabio Mechetti along with guest artists from the program’s performance.
The musicians of the Jacksonville Symphony Orchestra have graciously donated these broadcasts with permission from the American Federation of Musicians Local 444. WJCT is a proud partner in these Jacksonville Symphony Orchestra broadcasts.
Anyone can listen live by going to the radio station's Listen Online website and selecting an option under 89.9 Live.
==Sources==
* Jean, Betty B. (1999). The Jacksonville Symphony Orchestra: Fifty Years of Great Music. Jacksonville: Jacksonville Symphony Association. ISBN 1-879894-18-1
==External links==
*Official site
Category:American orchestras
Category:Culture of Jacksonville, Florida
Category:Visitor attractions in Jacksonville, Florida