Good weather helps make for good crowd for Symphony at the Park
A larger crowd filled Four Freedoms Park this year to listen to the Symphony at the Park by the Gulf Coast Symphony Saturday night.
Gulf Coast Symphony Marketing Director Amy Padilla said she was absolutely thrilled by the turnout they received Saturday. The event filled three parking lots and approximately 800 to 900 people attended the Symphony at Sunset.
She was glad to see everyone in their “own little dancing world” as the symphony played and excited about the boats that filled the Bimini Basin during the concert.
“We have boats again,” she said. “We got our boats back.”
The group offered an evening of jazz, light classics, waltzes, Latin rhythms and Broadway favorites. In between each song, Music Director and Conductor Andrew Kurtz told the audience the name of each piece they were about to perform.
Before the 15-minute intermission began, the Symphony played “West Side Story.”
Joe Gazdik decided to check out the concert Saturday night after he heard a commercial on the radio Friday.
“I like how they announce each piece before playing it,” he said at intermission. “So far I know all the pieces.”
Gazdik said he hopes they will begin the concert earlier during the day next year.
Kurtz said he enjoyed seeing so many people in the audience enjoying the music the Gulf Coast Symphony performed Saturday night.
“It was a good concert,” he said. “The orchestra played really well.”
Bethany Smith has played the French horn for the symphony for the past five years. She said she enjoys playing at the various different settings the symphony performs at in the community throughout the year.
The musician said she enjoyed the crowd which gathered at the park Saturday night.
“It was nice to have a big crowd join us,” she said, adding that it was also nice to have a sunny day this year.
Throughout the concert, many swayed in their chairs and tapped their feet along to the music until 6:30 when it became too dark for Kurtz to read the music.
Betty Smith was among one of the many members in the crowd who thoroughly enjoyed listening to the music the symphony played, especially because her son plays the trombone.
“I love it,” she said about listening to her son play. “I am a very proud momma.”
Although she goes to her son’s concerts, Smith explained that she had never been to Four Freedoms Park before.
“This is a beautiful facility, we were really impressed,” she said.
Last year the concert in the park only attracted about 200 people, due to the cold, rainy weather.
“I thought the turnout was wonderful,” Smith said. “There weren’t that many people that left during intermission. They really supported them.”
She explained that she really loves the Gulf Coast Symphony because all of the musicians are volunteers who work “really hard together and they put on a fine show.”
After Linda Keener’s husband received a brochure in the mail about the free concert, they decided to bring their chairs and enjoy the music.
“I think it is wonderful,” she said.
The American music was Keener’s favorite to listen to because “somehow that is very important these days.”
Kurtz is the founding music director of the Gulf Coast Symphony. He began the orchestra 16 years ago because he saw a need for a community orchestra in Southwest Florida.
“I started this group,” he said, adding that it has grown tremendously over the years.
Kurtz said he is very proud of the 65 musicians who perform in the orchestra. They are all volunteers, who have to audition for a seat. The Gulf Coast Symphony does not get paid for performing its 12 to 14 concerts a year.
“To be one of the top community orchestras in the United States is phenomenal,” he said. “It is a very high quality institution and it is professionally managed.”
The Gulf Coast Symphony, Kurtz said is really focused on the community and bringing people together through their music.
“We want to make sure we are heavily involved in the community,” he said.
Padilla said she hopes next year’s event in the park will attract more visual artists before the concert begins because she would love to see it become an all-day event.