Not since Michael Tilson Thomas wielded the baton in the 1970s has the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra performed in Florida.

The more than three-decade-long interval between appearances will end next month when the orchestra jets off for a weeklong tour of five Sunshine State cities planned with the help of orchestra supporters who are now full-time or seasonal Florida residents.

The Florida Friends Tour will kick off with a gala dinner and concert March 12 in Fort Lauderdale and continue with performances March 13 in Daytona Beach, March 15 in Vero Beach and March 16 in Sarasota before winding up March 18 in Gainesville.

Three years in the making, the Florida Friends Tour, featuring pianist Fabio Bidini as guest artist, will serve as the overture to the orchestra’s 75th anniversary celebration this fall.

Besides offering an opportunity to show off the Philharmonic’s artistic virtuosity, the event will be an important fundraiser following a year of recessionary belt-tightening, said Dan Hart, the orchestra’s executive director. At least two concerts are sold out, and the remaining seats are going fast.

The musicians will entertain not only their mostly well-to-do Buffalo fans but also members of the same Florida social circles who hail from other Northern cities, including some who were in the audience when the orchestra visited New York City’s Carnegie Hall six years ago— the last time it performed outside Western New York.

That kind of exposure can help build reputations in the world of classical music, Philharmonic leaders say.

Though tours have been few and far between in recent years, largely because of budget constraints, they can and should be “an integral part of the [orchestra’s] artistic development” said JoAnn Falletta, music director.

The Philharmonic expects to showcase “a vibrant blend of European sound and American flexibility” as well as “the unique and communicative personality of our orchestra,” she said.

Alex Jokipii, principal trumpet, said the musicians relish the idea of performing for music lovers beyond Western New York and reconnecting “with very generous supporters who have left the area.”

They also look at it as “an opportunity to further bond as an ensemble,” he said.

This will be the Philharmonic’s first multiple-city tour since a 1988 European trip under Semyon Bychkov. The orchestra’s last Florida excursion, in 1978, included concerts in Fort Lauderdale, Fort Myers and West Palm Beach, with Tilson Thomas conducting.

The opening gala concert in Parker Playhouse at Fort Lauderdale’s Broward Performing Arts Center will be sponsored by John and Carolyn Yurtchuk. The evening will include a fancy dinner, a performance by concertmaster Michael Ludwig for dinner guests, the orchestra performing Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto and Rachmaninoff’s Symphony No. 2, and a post-concert celebration.

Ticket prices range from $500 to $5,000.

The orchestra will play the same program at each stop as it moves up the Atlantic Coast to Daytona Beach the following night for a concert in Peabody Auditorium, presented by the Daytona Beach Symphony Society; back down to Vero Beach for a March 15 date in Community Church of Vero Beach, presented by the Indian River Symphonic Association; over to the Gulf Coast for a March 16 performance in Sarasota’s Van Wezel Performing Arts Hall, presented by the Sarasota Concert Association; and north to Gainesville for the concluding concert March 18 in the Curtis

M. Phillips Center, presented by the University of Florida Center for the Performing Arts.

The orchestra will be in fast company. The host venues also have booked performances by the likes of the Moscow State Symphony, Houston Symphony Orchestra, violinist Joshua Bell, soprano Dame Kiri Te Tanawa and pianist Lang Lang in the coming weeks.

Anthony J. Colucci Jr. and Carmela Colucci, and Patrick and Arlinda Marrano head fundraising for the tour, with Donald Dussing, Edwin Polokoff, Wilfred Larson, Reginald Newman and others assisting.

For more information, contact Jennifer L. Smith, the orchestra’s community relations manager, at

jsmith@bpo.org

or 885-0331, Ext. 419.