Five world premieres will mark The Florida Orchestra's five decades of music-making in the Tampa Bay community.
There will be one new fanfare for each decade of the Florida Orchestra's existence. The TFO and universities and colleges across the state commissioned these new compositions.
And the first of the five fanfares to debut comes from composer Paul Reller, an associate music professor at the University of South Florida.
Reller said he's not a typically a"fanfare" kind of guy, but he was excited about the Florida Orchestra musicians playing his work.
And if you're not familiar with fanfares, "it just means this celebratory announcement, usually with brass."
“And I think trying to realize the fanfare or embody the fanfare is probably the most difficult thing because I'm not really a fanfare type of guy. So it doesn't take long for the fanfare to explode and we end up in a really strange place," Reller said.
Reller predicts the audience will be challenged by his fanfare, the name of which came from a phone app that generated words - that is until the most recent update of his smartphone killed off the app.
“'Horizon Gravy' was just something that stuck with me and for celebrating the 50th anniversary of this great orchestra, it seemed upbeat, with like horizon being the future and gravy being good stuff on top,” Reller said.
Reller normally performs rock and blues music and says his classical compositions are "all over the map." But he relished the idea of being able to write for virtually every instrument in this orchestra.
This weekend's Masterworks concerts will feature Reller's Horizon Gravy fanfare to open each performance. Friday's evening performance is in Tampa at the Straz Center, with a Saturday evening show and Sunday matinee in St. Petersburg at the Mahaffey. You can find out more at floridaorchestra.org.
And Classical WSMR 89.1 and 103.9 plans to air Reller's "Horizon Gravy," along with the rest of one of the Orchestra's concerts this weekend, as part of its "Thursday Masterwork with the Florida Orchestra" series on Nov. 9 at 7:00 p.m.
