Miami only major metro with no professional orchestra

[skycity]

On the culture front, Miami has one major weakness: it has no professinal orchestra. Miami used to be home to the Florida Philharmonic, but they let it go out of business and now there is a concert hall but no orchestra. When you consider that places like Spokane, Washington, Ft. Wayne, IN and Syracuse, NY have professional orchestras isn't it kind of embarrassing for Miami to be so missing in action in this area? Out of the top 50 metros, Miami is the only one to not have a professional orchestra.

[Gumsandals]

It is embarrassing, but don't forget, this is the fun and sun capital of the world, not the arts and cultural capital-- although it may pretend to be what with the new nearly half-a-billion dollar Performing Arts Center downtown.

[skycity]

Gumsandles makes a good point. I suspect this is why Los Angeles did not have a football team. When people want to just sit in the sun on a beach it is hard to build a sense of community that is important for orchestras and sports teams. However, orchestras in places like San Diego and Phoenix are doing well.

[metropolis]

I remember a few years ago in Miami the classical music station was in the news because it was losing funding and there weren't enough fans to keep it going. As nice as having an orchestra is for a city, Miami has a lot of other things that some cities do not have and the inhabitants of Miami focus on other things. Boating is much more important to the average Miamian; I'm sure Miami ranks quite high on the per capita boat population, right? Or salsa clubs...I can only imagine that Miami has more salsa clubs than any other city in the country.

A few years ago Andrea Bocelli performed at the American Airlines Arena and it was a ONE NIGHT ONLY event, and he did not sell out! I was there and I was shocked to see that the event did not sell out. Again, folks in Miami don't represent the average American city and their interests are focused on different things.