The Florida Orchestra is an American orchestra based in Florida, USA. It was founded as the Florida Gulf Coast Symphony, when the St. Petersburg Symphony Orchestra and the Tampa Philharmonic agreed to merge in 1968. The orchestra changed its name to The Florida Orchestra in 1984. The Florida Orchestra performs nearly 100 concerts annually in the tri-city area of Tampa, Clearwater, and St. Petersburg. Concert series include Tampa Bay Times Masterworks, Raymond James Pops, Coffee Concerts, Rock Concerts, free Pops in the Park Concerts, and educational Youth Concerts. 　　The orchestra will mark its fiftieth anniversary with the 2017-2018 season. Highlights include Carl Orff's Carmina Burana, and Tchaikovsky's Romeo and Juliet (Tchaikovsky) paired with Leonard Bernstein's West Side Story. 2018 marks the 100th anniversary of Bernstein's birth. The Florida Orchestra's history is steeped in orchestral tradition from both sides of Tampa Bay. In the 1930s, Tampa already had a strong orchestra scene with a WPA orchestra, and by the mid 1940s, the Tampa Symphony Orchestra was born, although it would be renamed the Tampa Philharmonic in 1959. Similarly, across the bay in St. Petersburg, community and city orchestras had already formed by the mid-to-late 1940s, and in 1950, members of the Carreno Music Club formed the St. Petersburg Symphony. 　　Talks of the two orchestras merging began to surface in 1964. Instrumental in these talks were the conductors of the two orchestras, Alfredo Antonini of the Tampa Philharmonic and Thomas Briccetti of the St. Petersburg Symphony. An official intent of the merger was made on November 23, 1966, and on that day, representatives from both the Tampa Philharmonic and the St. Petersburg Symphony traveled by boat to the center of Tampa Bay, where they married the two institutions in a symbolic union and became the Florida Gulf Coast Symphony. The St. Petersburg Times, now known as the Tampa Bay Times, noted in an article on November 24, 1966, “The mood was one of pride for the entire Tampa Bay area, not one city over another.” 　　The merger became official two years later, and the Florida Gulf Coast Symphony opened its first season on November 14, 1968, under the baton of 43-year-old Music Director Irwin Hoffman, who had previously guest conducted the Tampa Philharmonic. The program included Berlioz’ Overture to Benvenuto Cellini, Respighi's Pines of Rome, and Shostakovich's Symphony No. 5, Op. 47. That first season, the Florida Gulf Coast Symphony presented five concerts from November through April, performing each concert three times. 　　The orchestra continued to perform as the Florida Gulf Coast Symphony until its name was changed to The Florida Orchestra in 1984. 　　Leonard Stone was President from 2000 – 2007 and was succeeded by Michael Pastreich from 2007 through 2018. Mark Cantrell was named CEO in 2019.