Cheers to London group

It would be a reporting shame if Festival of Orchestras’ BBC Concert Orchestra performance under popular conductor Keith Lockhart were to return to London without due praise in our local press.

In 1983, in our living room, my beloved wife and I founded this series of great “Carnegie Hall quality” concerts in Orlando. We enlisted the aid of friends Ruth Zlotoff, Lily and Sam Polakoff, and Sylvia Reynolds. Seventeen years later, we retired. After 27 years, our community rejoices that Festival of Orchestras — reduced from five to four concerts this season — is presenting such performances as that which London’s BBC Concert Orchestra played on Nov. 19 at Northland Church Auditorium in Longwood.

The program contained Mozart’s “Marriage of Figaro Overture”, Mendelssohn’s “Excerpts from A Midsummer Night’s Dream”, as well as his “Piano Concerto No. 1” in a superb performance by brilliant pianist Ilya Yakushev.

The evening ended with the subdued English Vaughan Williams’ “Symphony No. 5”.

The quality of Festival of Orchestras’ world-class music surely validates support for the permanence of this outstanding contribution to Central Florida music.

As a lifetime professional musician who already doctored a hall in this area, let me note that acoustically, Northland Auditorium would benefit from added thrust to project exciting musical moments into the hall to their just reward.

The Bob Carr remains our most successful musical venue.