- May 18, 2026
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Not everyone who donates millions to a Sarasota cultural group wants their name on the building. In fact, some people like to keep their philanthropy beneath the radar. That's the case with an $11.7 million donation announced by the Sarasota Orchestra on Monday, May 18.
The anonymous donation brings the total of publicly disclosed gifts earmarked for the Music Center that the Sarasota Orchestra is building near the intersection of Fruitville Road and Interstate 75 to nearly $87 million.
The latest donation follows a $60 million anonymous gift, $10 million from Jack and Priscilla Schlegel and $5 million from Tom and Sherry Koski.
At a meeting to update the media on the progress of the Music Center, Sarasota Orchestra President and CEO Joseph McKenna confirmed that the latest estimate for the cost of the project is still between $375 million and $425 million.
However, the number is likely to rise due to factors such as tariffs on Canadian lumber and rising gas prices, which affects transportation costs.
While the latest donor didn't want their their name publicized, they had some thoughts on what they like about the Sarasota Orchestra's new Music Center, which is expected to be completed by the end of the decade.
“Creating a home where the orchestra can fully control its artistic calendar, safeguard its instruments and library, and expand opportunities for music education made this a deeply meaningful investment," the anonymous donor was quoted as saying in a press release. "It’s a vision that strengthens both the artistic future of the orchestra and its role in the broader region.”
Right now, the Sarasota Orchestra has a somewhat nomadic schedule that depends on the availability of other venues. It holds its smaller concerts in Holley Hall in its Beatrice Friedman Symphony Center at 709 S. Tamiami Trail, but it must rent the adjacent Van Wezel Performing Arts Hall or the Sarasota Opera House for larger performances.
At the same time that it disclosed the latest $11.7 million donation toward the Music Center, the orchestra released new design renderings to bring its "vision into sharper focus," McKenna said.
The Music Center's schematic design, led by design architects at William Rawn Associates in collaboration with executive architects at HKS, is the latest step on its path to a 2027 groundbreaking.
The centerpiece of the Fruitville Road campus is the first concert hall on Florida's Gulf Coast to be built specifically for acoustic music, which will hold about 1,800 patrons. Another versatile recital hall with about 700 seats will complement the larger auditorium.
The Music Center design also includes an education center for Sarasota Orchestra's eight youth orchestras, offices and storage facilities and parking for 1,000 vehicles. To emphasize the environmental awareness of the campus, which will include a reflecting pond and ample landscaping, the parking lots have been dubbed "parking groves."
Although the orchestra didn't close on its $14 million purchase of a 32-acre parcel of land until May 2023, McKenna quipped that he's been working on the new Music Center for 24 years. That's just one year less than his tenure at the orchestra.
During that time, the project has been sidelined by the recession of 2008, which McKenna says "really lasted five years." It was then delayed by the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020-21. The four weather events of 2024, including a hurricane that shut down the Van Wezel for nearly three months, underlined the need for the project's environmental sustainability, he noted.
Originally envisioned to withstand a 100-year weather event, the Music Center's later iteration has been designed to survive a 500-year event, McKenna said.
Asked if he'll be around for the opening of the new Music Center, McKenna said, "God willing."
With the arrival of the Sarasota Orchestra's new music director, Giancarlo Guerrero, at the beginning of the 2025-26 season, the momentum for a new Music Center has gained speed.
Commenting on the release of the latest designs, Guerrero said in a statement, “What is emerging is far more than a concert hall — it is a shared cultural haven, a place where music in all its forms can flourish, where creative partnerships can thrive, and where Sarasota’s voice can resonate powerfully across the global musical landscape.”
