VERO BEACH — When Penny Odiorne first moved to Vero Beach in the early 1990s, an old friend from New York regularly invited her and her husband to Melbourne to hear the local orchestra. Twenty years hence, she enjoys the same music a lot closer to home – in her own church.
The Brevard Symphony Orchestra was already well-established when she first heard them perform. They had just been installed as resident orchestra in brand-new digs – what is now known as the King Center.
For a mid-sized Florida county, whose best-known cultural landmark had been the Ron Jon Surf Shop, Brevard Symphony Orchestra was a big deal.
By comparison, Indian River County had an outsize offering of culture for being a quarter the size of Brevard.
There was Riverside Theatre, the Center for the Arts (now the Vero Beach Museum of Art), a theatre guild, an opera guild and a jazz society. And in 1991, conductor Andy McMullan raised the baton with his newly created Atlantic Classical Orchestra, a chamber group.
Even with Atlantic Classical Orchestra, Vero still lacked a large symphonic orchestra, able to play the full repertoire of orchestral music. When Odiorne heard from her Melbourne friend that Brevard’s orchestra was looking for a second city to play in, she and other interested music lovers formed the Indian River Symphonic Association in 1993, with the mission of presenting professional orchestras in Vero.
In January 1994 the Brevard Symphony Orchestra gave its first concert in Vero in the Community Church, still Indian River Symphonic Association’s venue of choice. Today its three Vero performances are part of a season of seven Indian River Symphonic Association events that include national and international touring orchestras. “They started on a high note and I think they’re getting substantially better,” says John Crosby, Indian River Symphonic Association’s current president.
A subscriber to the New York Philharmonic for 30 years, Crosby says that since arriving in Vero around 2000, the Brevard Symphony Orchestra has improved “exponentially.”
The Brevard Symphony Orchestra draws from a roster of 180 musicians, with principal chairs and seconds under contract, and the rest all career musicians.
Among orchestras operating with budgets under $1 million, the Florida Arts Council consistently ranks Brevard Symphony Orchestra at the top of the list.
“They’ve always been strong but I think the maturity is increasing dramatically,” says Crosby.
When the orchestra arrived for its pops concert, the sanctuary of Community Church was already abuzz a full half-hour before the performance. By the time conductor Christopher Confessore raised the baton, the room was packed – some 800 attendees.
Confessore is also resident conductor of the much larger, year-round Alabama Symphony Orchestra. With a budget of up to $7 million and 54 fulltime musicians, it is a much larger organization than Brevard Symphony Orchestra, which works on a budget one-tenth that size.
Vero, he says, is Brevard Symphony Orchestra’s “home away from home.”
“We feel incredibly fortunate to be invited back year after year to be such a significant part of the (Indian River Symphonic Association) series,” Confessore says.
This is his 19th season at the King Center. When he first arrived, there were still some volunteer musicians in the orchestra. After some “delicate conversations” with amateur players, it is now fully professional, “the first step” in allowing him to choose increasingly difficult repertory.
Fran Delisle, the orchestra’s executive director, predates Confessore by a couple of years.
“I have a great collaborative partner in Fran,” says Confessore. “It’s great for the organization for the two of us to have the longevity that we do. I know not to make extravagant requests. She knows I’m not going to come to her with a new idea unless I think it’s something really important.”
Delisle praises Confessore for constantly coming up with new ways of attracting listeners, from Brevard’s annual Concert under the Stars to space-themed concerts.
He partners with arts organizations including the Space Coast Ballet and once invited an artist to paint during a performance.
Brevard Symphony Orchestra was founded in 1954 by 13 musicians who got together to accompany the Northrop Glee Club’s production of “The Mikado.”
“They had such a great time they decided to stay together. Other people involved in the community joined in and it started growing from there,” says Delisle.
In 1966, the group incorporated as a non-profit and hired its first professional conductor, Joseph Kreines.
He remains involved in music: “We commissioned him to compose a piece for us for our March concert,” Delisle says.
That piece will also be performed in Vero the same month. The orchestra is debt-free, she says. Fundraising is limited to Brevard County; despite the long relationship with Indian River Symphonic Association, it has never made an appeal for donations in Vero.
“Even though I know there are really deep pockets in Vero, I don’t step on those kinds of toes. We just concentrate so hard here.”
W h a t Brevard Symphony Orchestra wants from Vero is a larger total audience.
Being on the coast limits Brevard Symphony Orchestra’s expansion, and to the north, Daytona Beach has demonstrated limited interest in classical music. Orlando to the west already has an orchestra.
“We’re geographically challenged here, and I think our growth is going to be to the south.”
In addition to Indian River Symphonic Association, Brevard plays for other Vero organizations. For years, it has performed the annual May Pops Concert at Windsor, benefiting the Indian River Medical Center Foundation.
And it has accompanied performances by the Vero Beach Opera, one avenue of music Brevard lacks.
In January, Brevard Symphony Orchestra members performed under conductor Anton Coppola in Vero Beach Opera’s “Cavalleria Rusticana.”
In April, the orchestra is bringing an enormous production to Vero High School’s Performing Arts Center, courtesy Vero Beach Opera.
“Carmina Burana,” a collection of 11th- and 12th-century poems set to music by Karl Orff in 1936, will be performed by 80 musicians in the orchestra, plus the 100-member Brevard Community Chorus, that group’s concert choir, a children’s chorus and guest soloists.
It is the most elaborate production ever staged by the orchestra, Delisle says.
“It’s going to be just spectacular. It’s so huge, it’s just a monster,” says Delisle. “Being able to perform it is a dream come true.”
And next month, Brevard will host some Vero listeners on its home turf.
A busload of children from Vero Beach Elementary is driving up to the King Center to fill the grand tier for a Saturday matinee.
Last month, the children were supposed to go to Brevard Symphony Orchestra’s annual concert for all of Indian River County’s fifth graders. But the afternoon of the concert, a fifth grade teacher, Heidi Evans, sent Delisle an email.
“I sit here with a heavy heart,” she wrote. The school had closed for two days after classrooms were flooded by a plumbing leak. Because there were no classes, the students missed the children’s concert. “We’re devastated,” Evans wrote.
Delisle launched into action, offering the students the chance to come to Melbourne for a concert for free, including parents.
“She wrote back, ‘I’m speechless. We are all in happy tears for our students.’”
“We’re thrilled to be able to do this,” says Delisle.
