South Florida Symphony Tickets

The South Florida Symphony – The 2016 Season

The South Florida Symphony's 2015-16 concert season is one of their most highly anticipated seasons to date. Led by conductor and founder Sebrina Maria Alfonso, the Symphony is presenting And the Tony Goes To…, Beethoven's Ninth Symphony, One Thousand and One Nights, and Spring is in the Air. Whether they are covering Broadway hits or timeless classical works, the South Florida Symphony is one of the most formative cultural elements of the region. Don't miss out – get your tickets today!

About the South Florida Symphony

The South Florida Symphony is led by Maestra Sebrina Maria Alfonso. The San Jose Mercury News remarked that, while she conducted the San Jose Chamber Orchestra, Alfonso brought the audience into world of feeling, imagery, and fantasy – essential elements to making fine music. Alfonso is, without question, a true conductor.

In 2002, Alfonso was the first Cuban-American invited to conduct Cuba's foremost orchestra. For her performance, she earned standing ovations and drew standing-room-only crowds. She continues to work with that orchestra, and she has performed in Cuba on four more occasions.

Alfonso has appeared as a guest conductor for other orchestras, including the Aspen Music Festival Orchestra, the Women's Philharmonic, the Missouri Symphony Society, the Ann Arbor Symphony, the Orchestre de Rus in Italy, the Prague Radio Symphony, the Charleston Symphony, the North Carolina Symphony, the San Antonio Symphony, the Pacific Symphony, the San Jose Symphony, the National Orchestra of Cuba, and the Los Angeles Philharmonic.

Alfonso has worked with noted individual performers, such as John Whittlesey, Christopher Taylor, Svetlana Smolina, Davron Monroe, Zuill Bailey, Jeffrey Chappell, Natasha Paremski, Awadagin Pratt, Nicolette Benedetti, Elmar Oliveira, Sharon Isbin, Robert McDuffie, Lara St. John, Chee-Yun, and Cho-Liang Lin, among others. She has also collaborated with the WannaBeatles and the Vienna Boys Choir for sold-out performances.

With her continually expanding national reputation, Alfonso has been featured in stories in Miami News (ABC), Deco Drive, New York's MS Magazine, the Associated Press, CNN, and CBS Radio News. She has also been covered by Reuters.

Alfonso is a passionate advocate of American composers, a commitment which led her to organize group commissions for a number of orchestras. With the Prague Radio Symphony, she has recorded the music of James Grant via the Boston-based MMC label. She is also one of the San Jose Chamber Orchestra's featured conductors for their American Composers series.

At the Conductors Institute during the summer, Alfonso has held fellowships, and she was invited to conduct a number of world premieres, including of her own piece "Freedom Crossing". This work commemorated the tenth anniversary of the Mariel Cuban crossing in which thousands of immigrants risked their life to find freedom.

Alfonso hails from Key West, Florida, and she has a strong commitment to bringing orchestra to the Key West area. In July of 1997, she presented a strategy to the Key West arts community outlining the economic impact, cultural value, and educational benefit of having an orchestra in the community. The 1998-99 concert season launched with the realization of her effort, and it was a great success. Her orchestra program has now expanded to encompass the whole South Florida region.

Since that inaugural season, her South Florida Symphony has become a world class ensemble. With the 2015-16 concert season, Alfonso has reaffirmed her passion for presenting the best of symphonic performances in order to enrich the cultural scene of South Florida. Her vision is for the South Florida Symphony to enhance the lives of visitors and residents alike, bringing vitality to the cultural landscape of the region through a refreshing mix of repertoire that includes edgy new material and classic masterworks.

In an article in Southern Living, Carlos Harrison reported on Alfonso's character as a conductor, describing how the music seemed to flow from and through her the instant she stepped onto the podium in her tuxedo. She started to bounce rhythmically and subtly twitched her baton. She gently tapped her left heel. As the music swelled, her body swayed and her eyes closed. She rose to the tips of her toes, reaching with sweeping, powerful arcs of her baton – slashing, pulling, pointing. And finally, she bowed. The audience broke into a thunderous applause, rising from their seats. Cries of "Bravo!" reverberated throughout the concert hall. The crowd and the musicians were ecstatic. The Maestra had once again projected the music and its meaning. Her unwavering passion to discover, expand, and grow continues to drive Alfonso. The Symphony's 18th season is bound to be one of their most excellent to date.

This season's featured artists include Janna Baty, Ray Bauwens, Mara Bonde, Carter Brey, Bridgette Gan, Beth Holland, Davron Monroe, Neil Nelson, Eileen Strempel, Elena Urioste, John Whittlesey, and the Master Chorale of South Florida.

Previous Hits

Sebrina Maria Alfonso made her New York conducting debut with the American Symphony Orchestra for the Stokowski International Competition finals in the Lincoln Center's Avery Fisher Hall. The audience met this winner with a standing ovation after her performance and deemed her the best conductor in an audience poll presented at the end of the competition. In an article for Westsider, New York critic Bill Zakariasen wrote that Alfonso was a commanding, dynamic Maestra with a wealth of orchestral experience. Throughout her performance, she was a coherent, confident leader portraying total freedom of phrasing and expression. For her, the orchestra played flawlessly, and she was the only conductor to earn bravos from the audience that evening. The New York Times was similarly enthusiastic, noting that Alfonso was clearly the audience's favorite.

Trivia

On the lighter side, conductor Sebrina Alfonso was invited by Florida's Tourist and Development Council to conduct a concert underwater for more than 400 divers, which received press across the world.

The South Florida Symphony Concert Experience

Bring your friends and family to one of the South Florida Symphony's world class performances. Led by the incomparable Maestra Sebrina Alfonso, the Symphony is an internationally acclaimed ensemble. Seeing a performance by this group will be the cultural highlight of your year. Whether you want to hear the Middle Eastern-inspired strains of One Thousand and One Nights or the swing and style of Broadway's greatest songs, the South Florida Symphony puts on one of the best concerts in the region.