South Florida Symphony Orchestra (SFSO) launches its 2024-25 season with “100 Years of Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue,” an anniversary tribute to one of popular culture’s most beloved masterpieces, featuring acclaimed pianist Benjamin Hochman, the orchestra premiere of Prokofiev’s The Love for Three Oranges Suite and Elgar’s Symphony No. 1.

Celebrating 100 years of Rhapsody in Blue, George Gershwin shocked critics who did not know how to process the unconventional work when it debuted in 1924. Gershwin’s melding of American jazz and classical music broke boundaries and shattered norms. Today, he is revered as one of the greatest American composers of all time. Acclaimed pianist Benjamin Hochman lends his talents to the masterpiece.

In all roles, from orchestral soloist, recitalist and chamber musician to conductor, Benjamin Hochman regards music as vital and essential. At 24, he debuted as a soloist with the Israel Philharmonic at Carnegie Hall conducted by Pinchas Zukerman. Orchestral appearances with the New York Philharmonic, Chicago and Pittsburgh Symphonies, and Prague Philharmonia soon followed. A winner of Lincoln Center’s Avery Fisher Career Grant, Hochman has performed at venues and festivals across the globe, including the Philharmonie in Berlin, Vienna Konzerthaus, the Kennedy Center in Washington, Suntory Hall in Tokyo, Germany’s Klavierfestival Ruhr, and Lucerne and Verbier festivals in Switzerland. Despite a medical setback in 2015 affecting his left hand, he pursued a conductor’s role, studying with Alan Gilbert at Juilliard where he received the Bruno Walter Scholarship and the Charles Schiff Award. He created the Roosevelt Island Orchestra, consisting of some of New York’s finest orchestral and chamber musicians alongside promising young talent from top conservatories. In 2018, fully recovered, he returned to the piano. Hochman’s recent highlights include conducting the Szeged Philharmonic in Hungary and the Orlando Philharmonic in Florida. He also appeared as a piano soloist in Beethoven Piano Concerto No. 3 with the Rheinische Staatsphilharmonie conducted by Benjamin Shwartz in Germany. His chamber music collaborations have taken him to Berlin, Budapest, Vancouver, Boston, Seattle, Dallas, Charlottesville, The Clark in Massachusetts, and Brown University. He curates the Kurtág Festival at Bard College New York. His new classical album, Resonance, will be released by Avie Records on Nov. 1.

Sergei Prokofiev, unorthodox and inventive, is known for his neo-classical, modernist approach. His The Love for Three Oranges Suite, taken from his comedic opera, is a whimsical musical jaunt about a cursed prince who is forced to journey to distant lands in search of three rather large oranges, each containing a princess. Will the affable prince break the curse and find his ‘main squeeze’ or run out of juice along the way?

A symphony in A-flat major? Quite rare indeed. Sir Edward Elgar’s Symphony No. 1 stands out as a remarkable exception in this regard. As a violinist, Elgar understood the challenges of playing in A-flat, yet that’s what he boldly composed in his first symphony, which beautifully explores the universal human experiences of love and hope.