Contact
Phone: 407-539-0245 or 407-956-5378
Fax: 407-539-1525
Question? Comment? Suggestion? Email us at
Administration Office
1353 Palmetto Avenue, Suite 120, Winter Park, FL 32789
Box Office
1111 N. Orange Ave. Orlando, FL 32804 (Dr Phillips Center – Orlando Ballet)
Performance Venues
Bob Carr Performing Arts Centre – Orlando Map & Directions | Seating Chart
Northland Performing Arts Center – Longwood Map & Directions | Seating Chart
Osceola Performing Arts Center – Kissimmee Map & Directions | Seating Chart
Making Plans? –> Hotels and Restaurants Near Concert Venues
Frequently Asked Questions
What determines the onsale date for individual (i.e. non-season subscription) tickets to a particular performance? Answer
Where are the best seats for a symphony orchestra performance? Answer
I always get confused by left and right in concert hall seating assignments. Which is which? Answer
How are ticket prices determined, and who gets the profits? Answer
Questions About Programming
How does the Festival of Orchestras attract world famous symphony orchestras to Orlando? Answer
Why are there five or six performances on the series, and usually only a single performance for each orchestra? Why not have more—or fewer? Answer
Who determines the programs and soloists for Festival of Orchestras performances? Answer
Why do you sometimes schedule performances on the same dates and times as arena sports events? Answer
Frequently Asked Questions
What determines the onsale date for individual (i.e. non-season subscription) tickets to a particular performance?
The Festival of Orchestras 2009–2010 season opens with the Naples Philharmonic Orchestra. Single tickets for individual concerts will go on sale June 2nd, 2009. It is quite common for our performances to sell out, so we delay single concert ticket sales in order to give first preference to season ticket subscribers. To ensure you get tickets to the performances you want, why not consider a season subscription? You’ll get the best seats available, save up to 20 percent and receive other subscriber benefits like invitations to our special events, receive our quarterly newsletter, and free reprinting of any misplaced tickets.Back
Where are the best seats for a symphony orchestra performance?
This is largely a matter of personal preference. Some people like to be right up next to the stage so they can watch the facial expressions and technique of the conductor, soloists, and string players at close range. Others like to be up in the balcony so they can look down and see the entire orchestra, including those players in the rear sections. Still others like to be in the balcony on the left side of the hall so they can see the keyboard clearly when a piano soloist performs.
And if you have ever attended a performance that is being recorded, the microphones are usually suspended at a 45-degree angle from the stage, on the theory that sound travels out from the orchestra in an omni-directional cone. This suggests that the front center balcony seats might be acoustically the best.
So the truth is, it depends. For all but the most exquisitely trained ears, it probably doesn’t really matter where you sit as long as you have an enjoyable and fulfilling experience.Back
I always get confused by left and right in concert hall seating assignments. Which is which?
The side designations assume the frame of reference of an audience member facing the stage. Thus, the left side is to the left of an audience member as he or she faces toward the stage.Back
How are ticket prices determined, and who gets the profits?
Well, for starters, classical music concerts do not as a rule generate profits. Most classical music organizations—the Festival of Orchestras included—are nonprofit entities, and ticket prices typically cover only 40 percent of the total costs of presenting classical music performances.
As for how ticket prices are determined, they are usually set after examining estimated upcoming programming costs and recent historical trends in unearned income. Unearned income includes state arts funding, foundation grants, United Arts of Central Florida allocations, and private gifts.
The Festival of Orchestras is sensitive to current economic conditions and therefore, we have opted to lower our ticket prices for certain levels of the 2009–2010 concert season.Back
Questions about programming
How does the Festival of Orchestras attract world famous symphony orchestras to Orlando?
It isn’t just us; it’s Florida. Florida is the fourth most populous state, so we’re a very large and attractive market for anyone selling anything. But our state also has a relatively older population, which is ideal for symphonic music. And finally, many Florida residents have moved here from the home cities of the symphony orchestras that visit us; many of these people look forward to a chance to see their hometown orchestra perform here.
The Festival of Orchestras in particular has become a very popular series venue for visiting orchestras from around the world, for several reasons. First, we are close to Disney World, Universal and a multiplicity of other recreational venues, so a performance in Orlando represents a bonus vacation opportunity. Second, Orlando is an excellent central location for “run-outs” by bus to Tampa, Clearwater, Sarasota, Melbourne, and Daytona Beach, which can save the stress and inconvenience of nightly hotel room changes. Third, while many sponsor-presenter organizations hold post-concert receptions for the conductor and soloist, the Festival of Orchestras has acquired an international reputation for honoring the orchestra and its major musicians after each performance.Back
Why are there five or six performances on the series, and usually only a single performance for each orchestra? Why not have more—or fewer?
The magical number of five orchestras each season is a careful balance between costs and market demand. First, the average symphony orchestra subscription in the United States just a few years ago was for 4.5 concerts. We suspect that a big reason for this is that more than five concerts would make the average price of a season subscription too expensive for the average season subscriber (particularly when you consider that the average subscriber household buys two subscriptions).
Also, given the costs associated with bringing a world-class symphony orchestra to Central Florida (between $60,000 and $175,000 for a single performance, with $75,000 being about average), it would probably be too risky to pay the costs of a second performance by each orchestra, given our assessment of local market demand for classical masterworks performances. Back
Who determines the programs and soloists for Festival of Orchestras performances?Programs and soloists are usually determined by the orchestra’s music director. A touring orchestra will typically prepare and rehearse two, and in rare cases three, alternate programs. Event sponsor-presenter organizations such as the Festival of Orchestras are given the option of choosing from among these predetermined programs.Back
Why doesn’t the Orlando Philharmonic perform on the Festival of Orchestras series?
The Festival of Orchestras was originally conceived as a series expressly for visiting symphony orchestras from around the world. The Orlando Philharmonic Orchestra performs its own classical masterworks concert series each season, at Bob Carr Performing Arts Centre and other venues. You can view their current season schedule here. We encourage you to support our local symphony orchestra by attending these performances.Back
Questions about the concert hall
I’ve heard that the acoustics of Bob Carr Performing Arts Centre are less than ideal for symphonic music. Is this true?
A great symphony orchestra still sounds great in the Bob Carr Performing Arts Centre regardless. But it is true that the Carr Centre has characteristics that make it less than ideal as a venue for symphonic music. It most likely will not make a difference in your symphony experience.
The primary drawback is the shape of the hall, which is an outward-spreading (from the stage) fan shape. The fan shape allows sound waves to diffuse as they spread outward. Symphony concert halls are ideally configured as rectangles in a “shoebox” shape, so that sound waves more immediately bounce off the walls and reflect back into the audience.
We have had very good success when the symphony orchestra positions its string sections as close to the front edge of the stage as possible (e.g. within three feet or so). This can make an enormous difference in the volume and clarity of the orchestra, because sound diminishes with the square of the distance. In plain English, this means that the clarity and loudness of sound waves falls off at an increasing rate for each additional increment of distance from the stage.
Thus, if we can get an orchestra to move just three or four feet closer to the edge of the stage, we can create a very significant improvement in sound clarity and volume.
All this technical jabbering aside, rest assured that a great, electrically charged performance in the Bob Carr Performing Arts Centre is still a great performance, and we’ve had dozens of them. Just make sure you don’t miss the next one!Back
Why do you sometimes schedule performances on the same dates and times as arena sports events?
Our concert dates are usually scheduled two to three years in advance, long before basketball, ice hockey and other schedules are determined. We do everything within our power to alert our patrons when we do learn of a schedule conflict, to minimize parking and traffic difficulties.Back
The Festival is sponsored in part by Wachovia, Darden Restaurants Foundation, Edyth Bush Charitable Foundation, the State of Florida, Department of State, Division of Cultural Affairs, the Florida Arts Council, the National Endowment for the Arts, United Arts of Central Florida, and WMFE.
The Festival of Orchestras is a proud partner of the Central Florida Concierge Association and the Red Chair Project.
Dates, times, prices and artists are subject to change.
Festival of Orchestras, Inc., a Florida not-for-profit corporation, is classified as a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt entity by the Internal Revenue Service. The contents of this Website are ©2003–2009 Festival of Orchestras, Inc. All rights reserved worldwide. “Ticketmaster” and the Ticketmaster logo design are registered trademarks of Ticketmaster Corporation.
