The Southwest Florida Symphony Returns to Glory

After near collapse three years ago, the symphony is back as a force in the community now

It was dress rehearsal for the Southwest Florida Symphony’s 2015-16 season opener, and conductor Nir Kabaretti was picking apart the score, fine-tuning sections of Carmina Burana, the big, full-bodied work that would anchor the program.

Later that evening, 133 singers from two regional choruses would join the 74-person orchestra and flood the Barbara B. Mann Performing Arts Hall with sound.

“Once again, same place,” Kabaretti instructed. Even in little snippets, the power of Carl Orff’s masterpiece is palpable.

Just a few weeks before, Acting Executive Director Amy Ginsburg, never one to clog media inboxes with trivialities, had sent a couple of lengthy announcements detailing a bevy of administrative and musician hires.

Anyone who’s been following Southwest Florida’s arts scene would recognize that this was indeed big news.

A mere three seasons ago, the board had laid off its administrative staff, watched its bank accounts shrink to nearly nothing and considered canceling concerts due to lack of funds—the stamp of the great recession.

“Everybody’s house had a foreclosure sign on it. There wasn’t the population base to buy tickets,” says Ginsburg, who was hired as the orchestra’s director of strategic marketing and development but received management training along the rise to her current position. Board members rallied to raise money; musicians, led by principal flutist Bill Larsen, brought in donations themselves; and Ginsburg strategized ways to re-engage the community as the economy settled and started to rebound.

“To not have an orchestra in the community changes the cultural dynamic significantly,” she says.

No one talks about the possibility of losing Southwest Florida Symphony anymore.

Over the past year, the symphony rebuilt its administrative team, hiring six new specialists from artistic administrator to finance director. A competitive audition process yielded four musicians, including a principal cellist and principal bassist.

“I think it’s really allowing people who specialize in areas to focus on those areas,” Ginsburg says. “Anybody who has ever owned a business knows that as what you provide expands, you need to bring in more hands.”

Board Chairman Tom Uhler calls the administrative team the “best office staff that we have ever had.”

Financial figures are turning around, too.

Attendance rose 10 percent between 2013-14 and 2014-15 and early figures from this season indicate another bump. The first Masterworks concert, the one featuring Carmina Burana, was the best-selling opening night in the symphony’s history. Masterworks series subscriptions are up 7 percent, and individual donations are up 11 percent.

Most involved in the organization agree that the hiring of Kabaretti was an instrumental part of the turnaround—both for the caliber of the man himself (he’s conducted internationally and worked with some of classical music’s most recognizable figures) as well as for the publicity and audience engagement the selection process brought. Ginsburg and the board turned the search into an America’s Got Talent-style showcase in which audiences could see the top five candidates in action and then offer feedback.

“I think we hit a homerun with Nir,” Uhler says. “The audience loves him, the musicians love him, the board loves him.”

Now in his second season, Kabaretti sees vast potential in the orchestra he acquired and is ready to push for a new phase.

“This is an area of growth. ... People come here from different places and they have expectations of having a cultural life, and that’s a huge factor in why the symphony can and should grow,” Kabaretti says.

Following a nationwide trend, the symphony about 15 years ago transitioned from a volunteer community orchestra into a paid, professional group. These days, Kabaretti says, regional orchestras like this one are attracting top talent.

“This is one of the only professions I know of where there are more and more artists, more schools, more graduates but no more professional positions,” he says. Hundreds of musicians will audition for a seat—a good thing for driving the quality of orchestras.

The two new principals, cellist Troy Chang and bassist Edward Paulsen, migrated to Florida after working in Boston and New York and saw a chance to shine in the Sunshine State’s burgeoning arts scene.

“Anybody who has ever owned a business knows that as what you provide expands, you need to bring in more hands.” — Amy Ginsburg

“Florida has been very good to me,” says Chang, who also plays with the Sarasota Orchestra and The Florida Orchestra. “It’s exciting to see where the symphony is going to go. Even in the small amount of time I’ve been there, large strides have been made.”

Kabaretti intends to give audiences a wide array of works. This season ranges from stalwarts like Carmina and Rimsky-Korsakov’s Scheherazade to new compositions, such as American composer Christopher Rouse’s Der Gerette Alberich, a concerto for solo percussion and orchestra.

The conductor likes collaborations. In addition to the choral groups, he’s bringing in dancers-in-training from Gulfshore Ballet and former principals from Miami City Ballet for next month’s concert featuring Romeo and Juliet and A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

“When we join forces, we are much stronger,” he says.

The orchestra will also embark on a more unusual collaboration—a world premiere featuring Glen Phillips, lead singer of the band Toad the Wet Sprocket. Ginsburg initiated that one. She had met Phillips after a Toad concert in Orlando, stayed in touch via Facebook and pitched the idea of an orchestral venture. (We’ll bring you more details closer to the May 6 performance.)

“It’s new for me,” Kabaretti says. “I have worked with pop artists but never a rock and roll star. ... This kind of initiative is very important in today’s time.”

Musicians and board members are anxious to push ahead in other ways. Uhler’s dream is to have a permanent cadre of musicians; right now, the orchestra hires them concert by concert because there’s not enough work in Fort Myers to sustain them and they juggle jobs around the state.

Rachel Cox, a violinist who has been with the orchestra since 1998, hopes for a symphony center to boost the orchestra’s community presence. Right now, the group performs primarily at the Barbara B. Mann and rehearses at Riverside Community Center in Fort Myers, and its administrative staff operates out of a tucked-away office off College Parkway.

“You really need a physical presence so people know you are in the community,” Cox says.

Cox, who has written a comprehensive account of the symphony’s history, says the orchestra feels like it’s on a “precipice,” ready to surge. After the recessionary scare, that’s a pretty sweet melody to hear.