Weekend spotlight: Mozart and the orchestra

The chief conductor of Sweden’s Gävle Symphony Orchestra – his name is Christian Reif – takes the reins of The Florida Orchestra’s latest Masterworks program Friday evening at the Straz Center (Morsani Hall) and again Saturday night and Sunday afternoon at the Mahaffey Theater.

The “headlining” piece is Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 21, with guest soloist Evren Ozel, from Minneapolis.

Mozel was the Bronze Medalist at the 17th Van Cliburn International Piano Competition (2025), where he also received a separate distinction for “Best Performance of a Mozart Concerto.”

Wagner’s epic Ring of the Nibelung is distilled into a 10-minute piece called Siegfried’s Rhine Journey from Götterdämmerung, adapted by Engelbert Humperdinck (the composer of the Hansel and Gretel opera, not the guy who sang “After the Lovin’”).

The program also includes Shostakovich’s final symphony, No. 15, and a “mystery piece” selected by TFO music director Michael Franis (Maybe it’s “After the Lovin’”).

For performance times and tickets visit the TFO website.

TFO musicians will bring their instruments to the Museum of the American Arts & Crafts Museum Saturday for a “see, touch and play” instrument petting zoo. The 10 a.m. event is included with museum admission.

Theater and dance

Rajiv Joseph’s dark, puzzling and ultimately compelling drama Gruesome Playground Injuries opens a two-weekend run Friday at the Off-Central. The play, which follows (in non-linear fashion) two friends who measure their lives in injury, misery and self-inflicted pain (hey, it has light moments too) stars Troy Padraic Brooks and Sarah Beth Saho, and is directed by Anthony Gervais. Showtimes and tickets are here.

Brooks and Gervais guest on Friday’s edition of our Arts Alive! podcast.

Saturday at The Studio@620, dancers from the projectALCHEMY company will create an improvisational work drawing from their experiences doing pop-up movement this week for their MIXed: Across St. Pete initiative. Tickets for Saturday’s 7:30 p.m. show are at this link (click this link to hear a recent Arts Alive! podcast interview with projectALCHEMY dancers).

More music

Well, fans of classic folk music, there’s good news and bad news. All three original members of the Kingston Trio, that pioneering, harmonizing group from the early 1960s – have passed on. It’s been a few years now.

The good news is that there’s still an “authorized” Kingston Trio, and they’ve got a concert tonight at the Central Park Performing Arts Center in Largo. The trio’s main motivator is Mike Marin, who as a younger man was a family friend to founding KT member Nick Reynolds and his kids.

This is “Hang Down Your Head Tom Dooley” and “Where Have All the Flowers Gone” stuff, and yes, the “new” guys are still wearing blue and white striped button-down shirts.

The show is tonight at 7:30; find tickets here.

Irish singer and songwriter Brendan Nolan, a longtime resident of St. Pete Beach, plays and sings songs and stories Saturday at the Palladium Theater’s Side Door Cabaret. Tickets are here.

Friday brings the rock orchestra Classic Albums Live to the Capitol Theatre, for a song-by-song live performance of the last Beatles album, Abbey Road. The Catalyst spoke this week with CAL founder Craig Martin about his organization, and why it’s several notches above your basic tribute act. Read that here (there’s a ticket link included).

Big weekend for tuneage at the Safety Harbor Art & Music Center: Friday brings singer/guitarist Yates McKendree, a Nashville-born studio rat and tunesmith, the son of blues player Kevin McKendree. Master Yates has recorded and performed with Delbert McClinton and John Hiatt, among others.

Powerhouse blues singer Kelli Baker and her smokin’ band play the Safety Harbor venue Saturday, while Sunday night’s performer is American singer/songwriter (and onetime Glee cast member) Noah Guthrie.

Find tickets here for all shows at the Safety Harbor Art & Music Center.

Friday at Bayboro Brewing, it’s acclaimed Minneapolis singer/songwriter Mason Jennings. Tickets.

These mutts, they’re nuts! Sunday, 1 p.m., Ruth Eckerd Hall. Publicity photo.

And now, this

For your family’s Sunday afternoon pleasure, Ruth Eckerd Hall has a visit from the national tour of Mutts Gone Nuts!, the four-legged, all-dog (well there are some people too) variety show. It’s at 1 p.m., and tickets are available here.

Your Weekend Spotlight appears every Thursday in the Catalyst’s CREATE section. 

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