Florida Orchestra offers premiere of Rogers work

  David Rogers is well-known to area music lovers. Before he left the Tampa Bay area last year to become executive director of the Yakima Symphony Orchestra, Rogers co-founded and performed at the prestigious Bonk Festival of New Music, which presented memorable concerts in Sarasota, St. Petersburg and Tampa for 14 years. He also taught composition at the University of South Florida and played with the avant-garde rock band Handshake Squad.
   He'll be back in the area this weekend to see the world premiere of his work "Euphemism No. 3." The Florida Orchestra will perform a masterworks concert featuring

David Rogers

that piece, Bartok's "Piano Concerto No. 1" and Sibelius' "Symphony No. 4." Stefan Sanderling, the Orchestra's erstwhile music director, conducts.
   The concert will be performed three times, Friday at the Straz Center for the Performing Arts in Tampa, Saturday at the Mahaffey Theater in St. Petersburg, and Sunday at Ruth Eckerd Hall in Clearwater. St .Petersburg's obviously the closest one for Bradenton-area residents. That one starts at 8 p.m. Saturday. Tickets will run you $15-$45.
   Rogers will be part of the pre-concert presentation about an hour before each show.
   Call 727-892-3337 or go to www.floridaorchestra.org