Atlantic Classical Orchestra — Vero Beach, Florida

The Atlantic Classical Orchestra, known locally as the ACO, is a professional orchestra headquartered in Vero Beach that plays a winter Masterworks Series in two Treasure Coast cities. Its Mission and History page traces the group to 1990, when Andrew McMullan set out to bring a professional orchestra to Florida's Treasure Coast. The ACO lists its administrative office on 14th Avenue in Vero Beach, and its Vero Beach concerts take place at the Community Church of Vero Beach, with the matching Martin County performances at the Lyric Theatre in Stuart.

The orchestra is deliberately compact. In a January 3, 2018 profile, Vero News described the ACO as a 45-member orchestra and quoted its music director comparing the nimble ensemble to driving a sports car. That scale suits the Community Church sanctuary in Vero Beach, and it sets the ACO apart from larger symphony orchestras elsewhere in South Florida. Programs mix standard repertoire such as Beethoven and Mendelssohn with recent American works, and a small chamber series uses individual ACO players.

The founder came to Vero Beach with a long musical career behind him. According to the ACO history, Andrew McMullan earned a master's degree from the Eastman School of Music, directed bands at the University of Connecticut, and later built a manufacturing company while still conducting and playing French horn. In 1990 he turned that experience toward a professional orchestra for the Treasure Coast, and the first ACO office was his dining room table, with grants and fundraising carried by volunteers in Vero Beach and Stuart.

Early concerts moved around. The ACO history records that rehearsals were held across the Treasure Coast in schools and churches, and that performances took place at the First Baptist Church in Vero Beach, later at the Waxlax Center for the Performing Arts, and always at the Lyric Theatre in Stuart. That two-city pattern, with one Indian River County venue and one Martin County venue, has held for more than three decades.

Leadership passed in 2004. Vero News reported on March 3, 2010 that McMullan passed the baton in 2004 to the Grammy-nominated Stewart Robertson, and the same story covered a 20th Anniversary Celebration Gala at The Moorings in Vero Beach that honored both conductors. The ACO notes that in January 2019 it said goodbye to its visionary founder, and in May 2023 to Jean McMullan, his wife and collaborator in building the Vero Beach orchestra.

For most of its first three decades the Vero Beach home of the orchestra was the Waxlax Center for the Performing Arts at St. Edward's School. A December 5, 2014 Vero News report listed three venues for that season: the Waxlax Center in Vero Beach, the Lyric Theatre in Stuart and the Eissey Campus Theatre in Palm Beach Gardens. The Eissey stop has since dropped from the schedule, and the current season pages list only Vero Beach and Stuart.

The move to the current Vero Beach hall came with the 2018 season. Vero News reported in January 2018 that the orchestra's Vero Beach performances were making the move from the Waxlax Center to the Community Church of Vero Beach, on 23rd Street, because the larger stage would let the ACO grow its programming, add grand piano works and bring in choirs. The same article marked that winter as the start of the 29th season.

The Waxlax Center still appears on the calendar. The 2026 Holiday Concert page schedules the Vero Beach performance for Sunday, December 6, 2026 at 4:00 pm at the Waxlax Center at St. Edward's, one day after a Stuart performance at Redeemer Lutheran Church. The program pairs Leroy Anderson and Tchaikovsky with an audience singalong.

The Masterworks Series is the core of the ACO season. The 2027 Masterworks page lists four programs from January through April, performed at the Community Church of Vero Beach and The Lyric Theatre in Stuart. Each program plays the Community Church on a Thursday evening at 7:00 pm and the Lyric Theatre the following Friday, with a 3:30 pm matinee and a 7:30 pm evening performance in Stuart.

Masterworks I, titled Stage and Screen, opens the series in Vero Beach on Thursday, January 21, 2027 with film and theater music by Copland, Rozsa, Korngold and Bernstein. Masterworks II, Dreams and Nightmares, follows on February 18, 2027 with Anna Clyne, Samuel Barber's Knoxville: Summer of 1915 with soprano Mary Wilson, and Mendelssohn. Communion and Combustion on March 18, 2027 closes with Beethoven's Seventh Symphony.

The final program, Rhythm and Ritual, comes to the Community Church of Vero Beach on Thursday, April 15, 2027, with Respighi, the Flute Concerto by Zhou Tian and Falla's El Amor Brujo. Its soloist, Christina Apelgren, is identified by the ACO as the orchestra's principal flute since its inception, a direct link back to the McMullan years. The ACO music director page states that David Amado conducts all four Masterworks programs this season.

David Amado is the third music director in the ACO's history. The ACO music director page states that Amado has led the Atlantic Classical Orchestra since July 2016, after the Robertson era that began in 2004. The page adds that he led the Delaware Symphony Orchestra for twenty seasons and was named its first Music Director Laureate in June 2023, and that his recordings on Telarc and Naxos earned Latin GRAMMY nominations.

Amado's imprint on Vero Beach programming shows in the 2018 Vero News profile, where he argued that a smaller, leaner orchestra gives audiences more intimacy and energy. The orchestra also runs Inside the Score, short films in which Amado and guest artists discuss each Masterworks program, and a chamber series whose March program features Amado at the piano, according to the ACO website.

Seating at the Community Church of Vero Beach is sold in four zones. The ACO Venues and Seating page lists Premiere seats at $85 single or $275 for a subscription, Preferred at $75 or $245, Reserved at $60 or $190, and Select seats, furthest from the stage, at $25 single or $85 for the series. Wheelchair spaces with companion seats are listed in every Community Church zone. For comparison, Vero News reported Community Church single tickets of $30 to $60 in January 2018.

Volunteer support is organized by city. The Vero Beach Friends page describes a group that supports the orchestra in the community where it performs at the Community Church of Vero Beach, helping with fundraising, receptions and ushering. Its Fall Luncheon is set for Monday, November 2, 2026 at Quail Valley River Club on Highway A1A. The Vero Friends have a longer record: in 2014 they hosted the 25th anniversary benefit concert at Orchid Island Beach Club in Vero Beach on December 10, 2014, which opened the 25th concert season, according to Vero News.