UT To Host Florida Orchestra Musicians Association Fourth Annual Benefit Concert

On Friday, Sept. 26, The University of Tampa will host The Florida Orchestra Musicians Association’s Fourth Annual Benefit Concert at 7:30 p.m. in Plant Hall’s Fletcher Lounge. The concert is free and open to the public.

Soloists for the concert will be the two Senior Division winners of FOMA’s 2013 Justine LeBaron Young Artist Competition, violinist Julia Hossain and pianist Jacques Antonorsi, a UT junior music performance major.

The Justine LeBaron Young Artist Competition, for highly accomplished young local musicians who play piano and orchestral instruments, is in its third year. The competition was named to honor the memory of LeBaron, a French horn player for more than 30 years with The Florida Orchestra who had a lifelong commitment to music education. Competition winners receive cash prizes as well as solo opportunities, including performing at the FOMA Benefit Concert.

The program for the concert includes Mozart’s Overture to The Magic Flute and Schubert’s Symphony No. 8 (The Unfinished) as well as first movements from both Chopin’s Piano Concerto No. 1 and Saint-Saens’ Violin Concerto No. 3.

The concert will be conducted by John Bannon, the chairman of FOMA and principal timpani of The Florida Orchestra. Bethany Cagle, classical music host for WUSF, will host the pre-concert Talk-Back.

“It’s impossible not to be excited when you’re performing great music with great soloists in support of a great community project,” said Bannon. “This is a tremendous performance opportunity for these young players and adds a fresh, vibrant dimension to our family-oriented Benefit Concert. We expect to see many young faces in the audience, and we know the audience will be inspired by our soloists as they debut in front of a professional orchestra.”

FOMA is an organization of musicians from The Florida Orchestra. Its members volunteer their musical and organizational skills for the yearly Benefit Concert, as well as the Young Artist Competition.

“In a time when the flourishing of the arts, especially the musical arts, depends upon the attainment of mutual interests and beneficial goals, it is more than a symbolic gesture that this FOMA concert should take place at The University of Tampa,” said Haig Mardirosian, dean of the College of Arts and Letters at UT. “Especially as we present two extraordinarily talented students with this orchestra, we celebrate together the reality of music making across boundaries of place, social status and the opportunities offered to students of talent and attainment.”

The concert’s goodwill offering with support FOMA’s 2015 Justine LeBaron Young Artist Competition.

For more information, contact Grigorios Zamparas at gzamparas@ut.edu or go to www.floridaorchestramusicians.biz.