Orchestra to hold meeting on venue plans

Two weeks after announcing its desire to build a new music hall in Payne Park, the Sarasota Orchestra will hold its first community meeting to gather input on the proposal.

On Tuesday, March 12, the orchestra will invite the public to a workshop at City Hall to discuss the concept for a new venue. Project leaders, including orchestra officials and an architectural consultant, will be in attendance for the meeting.

The workshop will include an overview of the proposal, which seeks to construct a dedicated music hall on about seven acres of the city-owned park near downtown Sarasota. A question and answer session will follow, according to an orchestra release.

The orchestra announced plans to leave its current venue, the Beatrice Friedman Symphony Center, last summer. The organization cited scheduling issues and space constraints as motivating factors for the decision.

The orchestra announced Payne Park as its preferred site for the music hall at a City Commission workshop in February. The preliminary vision for the music hall includes a 1,800-seat concert hall, a 700-seat flexible recital hall, rehersal spaces and an education wing.