Sunday, May 3, 2026, 4:00-6:00 pm, Sydonie Mansion.“Future Nature in Song: An Evening of Art, Wine, and New Music”
Experience the natural beauty and cultural richness of the historic Sydonie Mansion in this unique program combining music, visual art, and wine.
Begin the evening with a stroll through Sinuhé Vega Negrin‘s lush nature-inspired artwork, followed by an original concert of new compositions by members of the Central Florida Composers Forum, each inspired by Negin’s work. This performance is an encore from our successful on-site event at the Art & History Museum of Maitland last year (in cooperation with the Howey Music Series). CF2 Composers featured include: Alex Burtzos, Charlie Griffin, Erik Branch, Gerald Law, Nate Chivers, Nick Scout, Paul Austin Sanders, and Troy Gifford.
Anna Eschbach, soprano Troy Gifford, guitar Olga Kolpakova, violin
4:00-5:00 pm: Art and wine stroll outdoors at the Sydonie Mansion 5:00-6:00 pm: Concert of new music inside the mansion
Tickets are general admission and include wine for the wine-and-art stroll. Doors will open at 4:00 pm. A cash bar will also be available.
Sunday, August 24, 2025 | 7:30 PMTimucua Arts Foundation
Join us for an evening of rich language, expressive music, and vibrant cross-cultural collaboration, where poetry and composition meet in a shared celebration of the Hispanic diaspora.
This second installment features all newly penned works by local composers setting iconic poems by remarkable poets from Nicaragua, Cuba, Argentina, Peru, and Chile. Featuring texts by Rubén Darío, Gertrudis Gómez de Avellaneda, José Martí, Alfonsina Storni, César Vallejo, Gabriela Mistral, and Vicente Huidobro, the concert pairs expressive new music with readings and cultural commentary, creating a rich, bilingual artistic experience.
Performers from OCCO, VoxO, and CF2: Keri Lee Pierson (soprano) Emily Heumann (mezzo-soprano) Julia Gessinger (violin) Kristine Griffin (piano) Troy Gifford (guitar)
Poems will be recited in both Spanish and English by Charlie Griffin (OCCO/CF2) and Thamara Bejarano, with cultural context provided by Bejarano (Open Scene Orlando).
The evening’s program brings to life the words of celebrated Latin American poets, each reimagined in new musical settings by composers from Central Florida. These vivid, contemporary interpretations, featuring combinations of voice, piano, guitar, and violin, create an intimate and expressive tapestry of sound and verse.
NICARAGUA Rubén Darío’s Sonatina, set by Gerald Law II for mezzo-soprano and guitar, opens the program with a dreamlike portrait of a young princess longing for a life beyond her royal surroundings.
CUBA Al partir by Gertrudis Gómez de Avellaneda is a poignant farewell to Cuba, filled with longing and sorrow, and is set by James Hall for soprano and piano. Orlando maverick composer Keith Lay offers a bold setting for soprano and piano of José Martí’s iconic Yo soy un hombre sincero, a powerful declaration of honesty, openness, and personal resolve.
ARGENTINA Alfonsina Storni’s Dulce tortura is a stirring depiction of conflicted desire and emotional complexity. Eric Heumann sets this poem for mezzo-soprano and piano, revealing both its sensuality and its quiet anguish.
PERÚ In Los Heraldos Negros, César Vallejo gives voice to deep spiritual and existential pain. Paul Austin Sanders’s setting for mezzo-soprano and piano draws out the poem’s dark gravity and unanswered questions of suffering.
CHILE Gabriela Mistral’s Hallazgo, a lyrical discovery of love, is set by Bob Walker Jr. for soprano, mezzo, and guitar, striving to capture the poem’s brief, luminous intimacy. Two works by Vicente Huidobro close the program: Días y noches te he buscado…, a symbolic search for truth and selfhood, set by Mark Piszczek for mezzo-soprano and piano; and Altazor, Canto I (fragment), an excerpt from Huidobro’s avant-garde masterpiece, set by Troy Gifford for soprano and guitar, evoking themes of flight, dislocation, and transcendence.
CF2 champions the creation and performance of new music by Central Florida composers, while Open Scene fosters artistic exchange across cultures and disciplines, amplifying the voices of Latin America. This shared vision makes Songs of the Hispanic Diaspora II a resonant and meaningful artistic gathering.
A truly unique and fascinating event will feature premières of works by 8 composers from the Central Florida Composers’ Forum on Wednesday, January 29th, starting at 5:30 PM as part of the “Music in the Gallery” at the Art & History Centers of Maitland (231 W. Packwood Ave., Maitland, FL 32751.) This concert is in conjunction with “Future Nature: The Silent Conversations of Sinuhé Vega,” the new exhibit featuring works of the artist Sinuhé Vega Negrin, whose painting and ceramic sculptures explore ecological and human frailty, drawing on the Dutch Vanitas tradition, and themes of magic realism, surrealism, and of humanity’s mental constructs and disconnection from nature.
The artist will give a talk about his work. The soprano Anna Eschbach, violinist Galen Kaup, and guitarist Troy Gifford will be performing a recital of lush, intimate and arresting music comprised of the premières of Erik Branch’s “There Was Always Time” (poem by Logan Anderson), Alex Burtzos’ “Four Haiku” (poems of Natsune Sо̄seki, Aida Bunosuke, and Yosa Buson), Charlie Griffin’s “Sunken City” (poem by Ariel Francisco), Gerald Law II’s “Take a Look” (poem by the composer), Nate Chivers’ “A Cloud of Flowers” Matsuо̄ Bashо̄, Nick Scout’s “Conversing With Statues” (poem by the composer), Paul Austin Sanders’ “Nature’s Connection To Us…As One We Are,” and Troy Gifford’s “Nothing Gold Can Stay” (setting Robert Frost’s well-known poem.) The event is free and open to the public (register for it on the Eventbrite link below as part of the museum’s “Last Wednesday” series, and is a co-production with the Howey Music Series.
