This is director Andrew Kurtz’s dream for 26 years: a permanent home for the Gulf Coast Symphony.
Now it’s even though everything’s happening.
The orchestra announced the news last week. They opened a 400-seat acting arts corridor and a center at the Universalist Unitary Church in South Fort Myers.
This is a big step for the orchestra, which could radically replace its effect in southwest Florida. Plans include a new professional chamber orchestra, daily art and music categories for all ages, loose concerts for Lee County academics, and even rap and indie-rock tours.
“Potentially, this will quadruple our budget over the next two years,” says Kurtz, founder and music director of the Fort Myers Orchestra. “We may move from a $2 million organization to a $10 million organization before blinking, because of all the activities we do.”
Playing in a pandemic: musicians, comedians take the stage. Some say they have no choice
The assignment is a partnership with the church, which will continue to use the sanctuary on Sunday and will also have access to new video and sound equipment.
The symphony rents the area on a sliding scale that will succeed at around $6,000 a month, Kurtz says. They will also include a percentage of the utility and other expenses.
The position would possibly not just be a performing arts room, Kurtz says. It will be a center for arts, music and culture for others of all ages, backgrounds and interests.
That’s why they call it the Music – Arts Community Center – or the MACC, in short.
“We’re excited,” Kurtz said. “It’s wonderful news. It’s a great replacement for us.”
But first you have to prepare the space. Renovations began this week at the church sanctuary and its 12.5-acre campus right next to Daniels Parkway. This will probably continue for about two months.
Changes come with electrical updates; renovation of existing church, social corridor and sanctuary classrooms; New theater and audio apparatus in the sanctuary; A video recording suite and robotic cameras for live concerts and distance learning programs.
“Our purpose is that when consumers come in, don’t think, “Oh, wow, this is a sanctuary where this band performs,” says Ryan Davis, director of marketing and progression of the symphony audience. “It’s a theater where they have a church. We’re turning that dynamic.”
Kurtz estimates they will earn around $100,000 in the next two months.
Goodthroughe, Harbourside: New Caloosa Sound to open with the first event, followed by an amphitheatre
For now, they remain on the padded benches of the sanctuary, but Kurtz says they can also upgrade them. It would probably be a $500,000 project.
“Lately we’re making an investment in generation: the essentials,” Kurtz says. “The seats are longer term.”
The venue can be opened until October with live concerts or recorded from the level (without audience or with a small audience). Then, as the pandemic permits, they will gradually begin to build their live audience.
Virtual arts and music categories can begin in September.
Many others may not yet be able to attend face-to-face concerts, Kurtz says. So it’s going slow for now.
He expects to have full hearings through October 2021.
“We think of everything in stages,” Kurtz says. “There are other people who are fainting now, but I think only 50% of my normal people will be willing to pass out.”
Gulf Coast Symphony will continue to offer all of its wonderful exhibits at the Barbara B. Mann Performing Arts Hall once the Fort Myers South Hall reopens, Says Kurtz. The MACC level cannot handle the full orchestra required for primary operas, musical theatre and classical concerts.
“Anything that includes a choir and an orchestra will be compatible with this new space,” Kurtz says. “I’d say we can have about 50 orchestras comfortably.”
MACC already has a full-time conductor, Shawn Rieschl Johnson, former production director of the Atlanta Opera. And eventually, you’ll have a full-time ticket sales manager and an in-house technician to manage the lights, sound and video.
“This is the right equipment in place,” Kurtz says.
Kurtz says he has dreamed of having his own functionality since the creation of Gulf Coast Symphony in 1995.
The smaller area will allow you to take on more scheduling hazards without worrying about renting the Mann Hall or filling this 1874-seat location. And it allows you to have exhibitions that can last several days instead of one in Mann, where the symphony will have to coexist with musicals, tours and many other occasions of the place.
“It’s much less difficult to experiment in your own field,” says Johnson, MACC’s director. “The scope and scale of the imaginable projects that we can achieve in today’s long-term environment are immense. We will have the flexibility to experiment and locate: where are the dissatisfied desires in this community?”
Kurtz says he enjoyed last year’s collaboration with Sugarland singer-songwriter Kristian Bush at the annual Island Hopper festival. He’d do more of those things at MACC.
He also hopes to bring classical, chamber and jazz tours that he would associate with the orchestra. This includes rock and hip-hop acts.
“We can bring the artistic and cutting-edge things that take position and take them to this network,” Kurtz says. “It’s a kind of way for us to elevate this region culturally. Array… I need it to be a position where everyone in this network feels welcome.
Kurtz issues the orchestra’s motto: “We play the music you like to listen to.”
“In a sense, it’s just an additional extension of that,” he says. “I think we’re still the most productive of music in this space.”
PLANS for MACC include:
Some of those things will do this year, Kurtz says. And others are longer term.
“There are so many possibilities,” Kurtz says.
For more information on the Gulf Coast Symphony and its plans, visit gulfcoastsymphony.org.
Connect with this reporter: Charles Runnells (Facebook), @charlesrunnells (Twitter), crunnells1 (Instagram)