UT Junior Performs with Florida Orchestra Musicians for Concert

One of Jacques Antonorsi’s favorite places on campus to play the piano is Plant Hall. He is usually alone in the Grand Salon, though the music melts out into the hallways, wafting over passersby.

However, this Friday, Sept. 26, Antonorsi will be playing a little further down the hallway in the Fletcher Lounge, and he won’t be alone. He’s one of two student soloists performing with The Florida Orchestra Musicians Association’s Fourth Annual Benefit Concert.

The concert begins at 7:30 p.m. and is free and open to the public.

“It’s nerve-wracking,” said Antonorsi ’16, a piano performance major from of Caracas, Venezuela, who came to UT to work with Associate Professor Grigorios Zamparas. “But I’m also really, really excited.”

Friday’s performance will mark the first time Antonorsi has played with professional musicians and with an orchestra. He is looking forward to being surrounded by the sounds and to being a part of the creation of the music.

Antonorsi is one of two Senior Division winners of FOMA’s 2013 Justine LeBaron Young Artist Competition, for highly accomplished young local musicians who play piano and orchestral instruments. Violinist Julia Hossain is the other winner and soloist.

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

“The piece has relaxing moments and moments that really electrify you,” said Antonorsi, who will be playing the Chopin piece. He one day hopes to be a solo artist, travelling and playing venues around the world.

Since he was 7 years old, Antonorsi has connected with classical music. His mother would buy him CDs of classical music to feed his desire, and by 10 years old he was taking piano lessons. No one else in his family plays an instrument or even listens to classical music, Antonorsi said, but being ever supportive, they will travel to Tampa for his performance on Friday.

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.

“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.”

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