Local Man Trying to Save Florida Philharmonic

Released on = April 10, 2005, 3:32 pm

Press Release Author = Independent News : Paul Harris, Editor

Industry = Entertainment

Press Release Summary = LOCAL MAN TRYING TO SAVE FLORIDA PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA

Press Release Body =
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Local Man Trying to Save Florida Philharmonic
By Paul Harris
Publisher

Several years ago the Florida Philharmonic Orchestra seemed to die. he orchestra was disbanded and their building on North Federal Highway in Fort Lauderdale was disposed of…. A gay man, Donald Covert, from West Palm Beach though is attempting to revive the orchestra. He has already announced a first concert to be given by former members of the orchestra next year on Sunday, January 8 at the 340 seat Crest
Theatre in Delray Beach. The concert will comprise two well known pieces of music - Schubert’s Fifth Symphony in B-Flat, and the Siegfried Idyll by Wagner. It is costing about $11,000 to mount the concert and he is confident that classical music
lovers will support his endeavor and that it will lead to the renaissance of the seemingly dead orchestra.

The forty-seven year old Covert was born and raised in West Palm Beach, going to school at Forest Hill High School. He then went on to study piano at the New England Conservatory in Boston, and went on to study conducting at Juilliard in New York City and at the Hochschule in Vienna. He went on to work in Europe conducting at Amsterdam’s Promenade Orchestra, the Netherland’s Philharmonic, the Zurich Synphony Orchestra, the Norwegian Chamber Orchestra, and the Hungarian Post Symphony before
returning to the States where he conducted the Tampa Bay Orchestra and also with Opera Tampa.

He has been working to try to revive the Florida Philharmonic for the past two years sustaining himself meanwhile by playing piano at various country clubs and hotels. When asked about his favorite Beethoven Symphony he declares that he hasn’t got one.
“They are all the same. It depends what mood I am in.” When asked which are his favorite conductors he told the Independent that he “can’t watch other conductors.” Somewhat unusually he never conducts with a score preferring to do it from memory.

For further information about the ongoing project to revive the orchestra go to www.FloridaPhilharmonic.com.

Web Site = http://www.freewebs.com/floridaphilharmonic

Contact Details = { Please not for publication } : Contact Donald Covert , 2266 Avenida Alhambra, W. P. B., FL 33415. Tel.: # 561-853-4098. Email Address: flphilharmonic@aol.com