Is The Florida Orchestra homeward bound?

After 56 nomadic years, The Florida Orchestra is ready to put down roots and stay put.

CEO Ignacio Barrón Viela emphasizes the educational opportunities presented by the proposed facility. “We want to be a player, along with all the other players in this community, and be able to drive the next generation of talent. And we need a hub for that.” TFO photo.

President and CEO Ignacio Barrón Viela has proposed the construction of the Center for Music Education and Innovation, a three- to four-story facility that could be built adjacent to the city-owned Mahaffey Theater. TFO hired a local architect to design it and create lifelike renderings.

A lot has to happen before ground can be broken on the 24,000-32,000 square foot building, which would house classrooms, offices and, most significantly, fixed rehearsal space for the 70-plus member orchestra.

Funding, for one thing. Barrón Viela says the most recent estimate for the Center is $30 million; he approached the County Tourist Development Council in July with a request for $9.5 million from its Capital Projects Funding Program.

As for the remainder, the CEO explains, “we have more than one donor willing to make that happen. And we have an anonymous, generous donor who believes in the orchestra, and is willing to support the Center with a living gift. And we are very grateful for that.”

In other words, the City of St. Petersburg – and taxpayers – wouldn’t have to spend a nickel to house the veteran nonprofit, which performs for an estimated 150,000 people annually.

Barrón Viela and his board are in talks with the City. It’s “very early days,” he stresses.

The need for such a facility, however, has been obvious for a long time. TFO plays concerts in St. Petersburg, Tampa and Clearwater during its October-to-May season, along with community outreach and other special programs. Its current, cramped offices are in the St. Petersburg College building on 3rd Street N.

“Every month, we travel so many times around Tampa Bay, even to rehearse,” Barrón Viela explains. “Let’s say we have concerts on a Friday night, Saturday night, Sunday – there are weeks where we’ll rehearse in two or three places. That means moving the whole orchestra, all the musicians, 80 people, 90 people moving.

“We would love to have a center where we can rehearse without moving so much. That’s just not efficient for anybody.”

The concert schedule would not change, Barrón Viela emphasizes – TFO would continue rotating performances between the Mahaffey, Tampa’s Straz Center for the Performing Arts and Clearwater’s Ruth Eckerd Hall.

The financial benefit for the orchestra would be considerable. Currently, according to orchestra documents, $2 million of its $12 million annual budget goes to venue rentals, for both rehearsals and performances. And more than $700,000 of that is just for the Mahaffey Theater.

It’s conceivable that the Center for Music Education and Innovation could include a small performance space, for such things as chamber music concerts, Barrón Viela says.

“And collaborations with other arts and cultural organizations in the community. It could be a place, also, for a Youth Orchestra or other youth programs.”

In no way, he adds, would this be competition for the 2,100-seat Mahaffey. “If you look at other venues around the country, it is very common to see a performing arts center with a bigger hall and a smaller hall. And it’s really enhancing the possibilities.”

If his request to the TDC goes through – it might be as much as a month before the group votes – the next step for Barrón Viela is additional conversations with the City, to see how TFO’s vision might fit into the developing Master Plan For the Arts.

“The potential for that area, the waterfront – the Dali, the Mahaffey and whatever else can be developed there – is incredible,” he says. “The City has to drive this and be on board with all these ideas. This is just one phase of many more that will happen, so we really need the City’s alignment and full endorsement.”

He is enthused, while remaining cautiously optimistic. “We can be a role model for the world, in terms of what arts and culture can do for the community,” Barrón Viela says. “St. Petersburg has a great momentum happening.”