Our new season at the Palladium – which begins in September – has all of us excited. It turns out John Fleming and the St. Petersburg Times are also excited about what’s coming up in 2011-2012.
Sunday’s Latitudes section (8-28-11) featured a major story on the season – Fleming, the Times arts writer and critic, was especially happy about some of the Broadway stars and young classical musicians who are on the schedule.
Here’s what John wrote:
the Young Concert Artist Series, which includes violinist Hahn-Bin (Jan. 18) and pianist Charlie Albright (April 18).* The Palladium’s Broadway Cabaret Series features a pair of Tony Award 
nominees, Marc Kudisch (Jan. 21) and Emily Skinner (March 22). “I was looking for areas in the market where we could make a statement,” executive director Paul Wilborn says. “With the Young Concert Artist Series, I felt like we could make it a community event where we could offer free or reduced tickets to students, and the artists will do a master class. I think it could be a big deal for the music community and especially the student music community.”
At 18, Goulding already has been nominated for a Grammy Award, for her debut recital CD two years ago, and performed as a soloist with the likes of the Cleveland Orchestra, Toronto Symphony and Dallas Symphony.
Skinner made her name on Broadway as one of the Siamese twins (with Alice Ripley) in Side Show. She’s now playing Mrs. Wilkinson in Billy Elliot. Kudisch, who was nominated for Tonys for his performances in 9 to 5, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and Thoroughly Modern Millie, has a cabaret show titled What Makes Me Tick.
Three Men and a Baby . . . Grand! (April 21), the third show in the series, features John Boswell, Brian Lane Green and Lee Lessack in Broadway and Frank Sinatra standards.
Wilborn, a musician himself (as well as a former reporter with the St. Petersburg Times), is especially looking forward to the Broadway Cabaret Series. “I handpicked these to start it off,” he said. “I think we’re a perfect venue for those kinds of things.”
Even performers as well known as Goulding, Kudisch and Skinner don’t command fees of more than $10,000, making them a reasonable risk. “I think it would be very hard to fail with them,” Wilborn said.
The Palladium still takes a grass-roots approach, with rentals to community arts organizations making up about half its business, according to Wilborn. These include St. Petersburg Opera, whose season opens Sept. 30 with Die Fledermaus; the Academy of Ballet Arts‘ Nutcracker Nov. 30 to Dec. 4; and the Encore chamber music series that begins Jan. 25.
Also notable this season is the American Stage production of August: Osage County (Oct. 22-30). The 2008 Pulitzer 
Prize winner by Tracy Letts is a sprawling show that the theater company thinks will work better in the Palladium than in its own smaller home.
Another large-scale production is Cirque des Voix (March 24-25), a “choral circus” by Circus Sarasota and the Key Chorale.
The Tampa Bay Symphony, a volunteer orchestra, will play at the Palladium for the first time, opening its season Nov. 1 with a program anchored by Sibelius’ Symphony No. 2, John Bannon conducting. Previously, the group played St. Petersburg concerts at Mahaffey Theater.
“It’s going to be crowded,” Wilborn says of accommodating the orchestra on the stage of Hough Concert Hall, which seats 850. “They believe they can fit. We think it’s going to work.”
Other bay area musical groups in the Palladium lineup are the Master Chorale of Tampa Bay (March 30) and the men’s chorus Una Voce (April 28).
One of the first shows in the Palladium season is the Nate Najar Trio (Sept. 22), playing the downstairs Side Door Cabaret, which has cultivated an audience for jazz, blues and folk music. “Our cabaret room is about my favorite place,” Wilborn says. “It came into its own in the last year, consistently selling 100 to 175 tickets for mostly local performers.”
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