ST. AUGUSTINE, Fla. – There was standing room only in the Cathedral Basilica on Saturday night for the world premiere of a symphony commissioned to honor the 450th anniversary of the founding of America's oldest city.
In the final concert of the 2015 St. Augustine Music Festival, appropriately titled "Old World, New World,' the commissioned work "St. Augustine Suite for Chamber Orchestra" evoked memories from the Timucua to modern times.
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The composer, Piotr Szewczyk, a violinist with the Jacksonville Symphony Orchestra since 2007, was concertmaster for the performance. True to his own description of the piece, the music sounded at times like a Hollywood soundtrack to the city's five-century history, opening with a Native American flute, progressing through themes of exploring the Atlantic Ocean, battles over the Castillo de San Marcos and music inspired by the lighthouse's beam welcoming present and future visitors.
"You can see and feel here the presence of generations of people who changed this place, and who were, in turn, changed by St. Augustine," Szewczyk told the St. Augustine Record.
As St. Augustine Mayor Nancy Shaver noted in her introduction to the concert, the commission and performance of original symphony was inspired by the city's history, yet funded by the most modern of means: a Kickstarter crowdfunding campaign that raised $10,174.
The St. Augustine Music Festival has provided free classical music concerts for nine years. Saturday's performance, the sixth concert over two weeks at the just-renovated Basilica, also featured Motzart's Jupiter Symphony and his Piano Concerto No. 22 in E-flat major featuring Eugenio Urrutia-Borland.
The not-for-profit music festival, founded in 2007 by Jacksonville Symphony string player Jorge A. Pena and his cellist wife, Jin Kim-Pena, has become the largest, free classical music festival in the country.
"I hope you will be inspired by the power of classical music and by our commitment to bring you this festival," Jorge Pena said. "I encourage you to become a sponsor and pay it forward, especially as we plan for our big 10th year anniversary next yet."
