Pops Orchestra features celebrities in its 2017-18 season

Besides the usual array of great local musicians that we’ve become used to, the upcoming Pops Orchestra season features a couple of big-time national celebrities.

One is Audrey Landers, who’s an accomplished singer even though she’s probably better known as an actor. Landers played singer Afton Cooper on “Dallas” during its heyday, and she was a ubiquitous TV presence in the 1980s. In the ’90s, she and her sister Judy Landers created and starred in a hit PBS show called “The Huggabug Club.”

She has 11 albums to her credit, most which were bigger hits in other countries than they were here at home.

Landers will join the Pops Orchestra in the third concert of its recently announced 2017-18 season. The February concert is titled “From Dallas, With Love” and it features Landers singing some of her favorite numbers from the Great American Songbook.

The other big name on the season schedule is Dick Hyman, who has been a major force in jazz for more than half a century. Non-jazz fans know Hyman for his work as a composer and pianist in a lot of Woody Allen films, including “Zelig,” “The Purple Rose of Cairo,” “Broadway Danny Rose,” “Stardust Memories” and “Hannah and Her Sisters.”

Hyman will perform jazz standards and original compositions with the orchestra in the final concert of the season, “Hyman in the House,” in March.

Hyman and both Landers sisters live in Sarasota.

The other two concerts this season feature Neil Diamond tribute artist Bobby Palermo in a patriotic concert (Nov. 12-13), and local soprano Jenny Kim-Godfrey in the orchestra’s holiday concert in December.

Season and single-event tickets are on sale and can be purchased on the Pops website at thepopsorchestra.org or by calling 941-926-7677. Single-show tickets are $15-$25 for the “America” concerts and are discounted for veterans and their families.

Each concert is performed twice, at 3 p.m. Sunday at the Riverview Performing Arts Center in Sarasota and at 7:30 p.m. Monday at the Neel Performing Arts Center at State College of Florida.

Asolo looks to the future

In other area arts news, Asolo Repertory Theatre in Sarasota has announced a five-year plan it’s calling “Staging Our Future.”

Probably the most visible element of the plan is a new production facility planned for 7590 Commerce Court. Asolo Rep has acquired the property, which is adjacent to its production and rehearsal facility on Tallevast Road. The new facilities will include additional rehearsal spaces, plus exercise and physical therapy rooms.

Also on tap are major upgrades to Asolo Rep’s home theater, the FSU Center for Perfoming Arts, including a new sound system for the Mertz Theatre. Audiences will get to experience the new sound system for the first time when Asolo Rep stages “Evita” in November.

Anu era

The Sarasota Orchestra announced that its music director, Anu Tali, will be leaving the orchestra at the end of the 2018-19 season, when her contract is up.

Tali has led the orchestra since 2013, and her contributions have been significant. Among them are bringing to Sarasota some works that classical music audiences in mid-sized cities don’t usually get to hear from their symphony orchestras, including the world premiere of Erkki-Sven Tüür’s “Strata” and performed the Florida premiere of Heiner Goebbels’ “Songs of Wars I Have Seen.”

This story was originally published October 27, 2017 at 5:00 PM with the headline "Pops Orchestra features celebrities in its 2017-18 season."