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A watercolor art show featuring works by members of eight local art clubs will be featured at the Oldsmar Library during September and October.

The art clubs represented include: East Lake Art Club, Oldsmar Art Club, Crystal Beach Art Group, Creative Artists Guild, Tarpon Springs Art Association, Studio 1212, West Pasco Art Guild and Pasco Arts Council.

The Oldsmar Library is located at 400 St. Petersburg Dr. E., Oldsmar. Hours are 9 a.m.-8 p.m. Mon.-Thurs.; 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Sat. Call 813-749-1178.

Experience communication through the years, from smoke signals to the latest technology — FiOS — in a new exhibit opening at the Safety Harbor Museum of Regional History. Displays include early telegraphs, hand-cranked telephones, candlestick telephones, an operators switch board, early radios and television.

The exhibit include a hands-on interactive work area with fully functional communications equipment from times past.

The exhibit will open Tuesday, Sept. 16 and run through January 2009.

The museum also is available for school tours featuring the Pre-History Gallery with bones, teeth, arrow heads covering the period from 12,000 BC to 1550 AD. A volunteer leads a “hands on” demonstration of ancient tools, such as a drill, fire-starting tools and an atlatl, a throwing spear and launching stick.

Contact the Safety Harbor Museum of Regional History at 727-726-1668 or visit www.safetyharbormuseum.org.

By Henry Adams
Special to Tropical Breeze

The Florida Orchestra is just weeks away from kicking off its 41st season with a variety of musical offerings. There are symphonies by Beethoven, Tchaikovsky, Haydn, Brahms, Borodin, Bruckner and Mozart; concertos by Shostakovich, Rachmaninoff and Martinu, among others; and two explosive choral works, Verdi’s Requiem and Mahler’s Resurrection Symphony.

And there are plenty of concerts for pops fans, including “A John Williams Tribute,” Doc Severinsen, a Halloween Pops, The Music of Pink Floyd and the 1939 film classic, The Wizard of Oz, with the orchestra playing the soundtrack live.

The season opens in October with conductor Alastair Willis on the podium at the Coffee Concerts, one of French music on Thursday, Oct. 2 and one featuring Latin-laced favorites on Oct. 30. The Pops series kicks off with the infectious fun and wit of pianist Rich Ridenour performing hits by Gershwin, Duke Ellington, Little Richard, Billy Joel, Mozart and more on Oct. 3, 4 and 5.

The Masterworks series opens with Beethoven’s ever-popular Symphony No. 7 on a program with a soaring Bach Cantata and Berg’s Violin Concerto, with concertmaster Jeffrey Multer as the soloist and Stefan Sanderling conducting. These concerts are on Oct. 24, 25 and 26 in Tampa, St. Petersburg and Clearwater.

With concerts from October through May, the orchestra regularly performs at the Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center in Tampa, Mahaffey Theater at the Progress Energy Center in St. Petersburg, and Ruth Eckerd Hall in Clearwater.

A variety of concert packages are available ranging from the 14-concert Imperial package to the 5-concert Discovery package. The orchestra also has a “Compose Your Own” series, which lets concertgoers select any six concerts from the 14 masterworks and 8 pops concerts.

For a free season brochure or to order a series package, visit www.floridaorchestra.org or call 727-892-3337 or 1-800-662-7286, 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Mon.-Fri.