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SAMF 2025
June 19, 2025 - June 29, 2025
Join us for another spectacular season!
June 19, 20, 21 & 22 and June 27, 28 & 29
SAMF 2025
By Glo MacDonald
Celebrating its 19th season bringing world class music to St. Augustine, the St. Augustine Music Festival will once again offer the largest free classical chamber music concerts to the Cathedral Basilica this June beginning June 19, 2025.
With a mission to produce, perform and promote a world-class traditional and contemporary classical/chamber music experience to a diverse audience, co-Founders and co-Artistic Directors, Jorge Peña and Jin Kim-Peña have been the heart and soul and creative force in providing these free concerts. Since its beginnings in 2007, they have sought to enhance the quality of life within the community through the inspiring power of music. Initially conceived to celebrate the rich artistic and cultural traditions of St. Augustine, the concert series has consistently attracted accomplished performers and young rising stars to every year. Attracting tourists and local residents alike, the SAMF summer series has since become the highlight of St. Augustine’s summer season.
Always with community in mind, the initial concert of the festival on June 19th celebrates the Juneteenth holiday, also known as Juneteenth National Independence Day, which commemorates the emancipation of enslaved people in the United States, marking the end of slavery in Texas, the last Confederate state.
James Weldon Johnson, born in Jacksonville, FL on Thursday, June 19th, 1871, composed “Lift Every Voice and Sing” in 1900 for a celebration of Abraham Lincoln’s birthday at the Stanton School in Jacksonville. The song was taught to and sung by a chorus of five hundred colored school children in Jacksonville. Within twenty years it was being sung throughout the South and in some other parts of the country. The NAACP (National Association of Colored People) adopted the song as its official anthem in 1919. On this 125th anniversary, Jacksonville’s own Ritz Chamber Players will perform the anthem. The concert on Thursday, June 19, will highlight the exceptional talents of the incredible Soprano and Atlanta native, Ann Marie McPhail.
Friday June 20th, dynamic violinist Nigel Armstrong will be the featured violinist in the performance of Four Seasons of Buenos Aires, a set of four tango compositions written between 1965 and 1970 written by Astor Piazzolla. Piazzolla revolutionized traditional tango incorporating elements from jazz and classical music. Armstrong, a longtime performer with the SAMF chamber orchestra, is a fan favorite. Felix Mendelssohn’s String Symphony No. 8 will complete the evening’s program.
Piano lovers will delight in the concert on Saturday June 21st, with various piano works culminating with Beethoven’s “Kreutzer” Violin Sonata No 9. Written in 1803 for piano and violin, and known for its technical difficulty and emotional scope, the sonata will feature SAMF’s own Gabriela Peña on violin.
The theme for Sunday June 22nd is “Bach to Mozart” and will premiere the Sinfonietta for String Orchestra by violinist Piotr Szewczyk, who has been a member of the Jacksonville Symphony since 2007 and previously a fellow at Miami Beach’s New World Symphony. A Sinfonietta is a symphony smaller in scale or lighter in approach than a standard symphony. Rounding out the evening will be Anton Webern’s Langsamer Satz, a composition for string quartet in one movement, J.S. Bach’s Brandenburg Concerto No. 1, and Mozart’s Horn Concerto No. 4.
A recital on Friday June 27th will feature The St. Augustine Invitational Choral Festival, under the direction of Darren Dailey and Festival Conductor Josh Pedde. The Jacksonville Children’s Chorus Touring Choir and Voices of Jacksonville will sing the seven movements of John Rutter’s Magnificat. The second half of the program will highlight the talents of the Indianapolis Children’s Choir and Festival Chorus accompanied by pianist Sachiko Frampton.
“Perfect Balance and Beauty” is the theme for Saturday June 28th, featuring Antonin Dvořák’s String Quintet in G, Op. 77, Puccini’s “Crisantemi” for string quartet (a haunting musical lament), Caroline Shaw’s Valencia for string quartet (an untethered embrace of the architecture of the common Valencia orange) and Camille Saint-Saëns’ Septet for Piano, Trumpet & Strings Op.65 (a neoclassical work that revives 17th-century French dance forms). A special feature of the evening is the introduction of rising young local composer, Alex Cooper, with his composition Rhythmic Colors integrating traditional tonal harmonies and structural arrangements with a sound that follows a thematic storyline, featuring accessible ideas and emotional language.
The finale concert for this 2025 series will be Sunday June 29th. This special evening will feature Mozart’s Symphony 35, also known as the Haffner Symphony and commissioned by the prominent Salzburg family, and Antonio Vivaldi’s Concerto for Mandolin, in C major, RV 425 (you may recognize the first movement used in the movie Kramer vs Kramer). The very special conclusion to this program and the series, will be Piotr Szewczyk’s original work, St. Augustine Suite for Chamber Orchestra, on the 10th anniversary of the inaugural premiere and the 460th anniversary of the founding of St. Augustine.
The concerts are offered free to the public; however, financial contributions can be mailed to St. Augustine Music Festival, PO Box 833, St. Augustine, FL 32085-833. Donations can also be made on www.samfestival.org. Reserved seating is available for donations of $350 and prime seating at $1,000.
For more information, visit www.samfestival.org or call 904-484-4960.