Sarasota Orchestra and Van Wezel Performing Arts Hall are joining forces today for a special benefit concert commemorating the 25th anniversary of September 11, 2001, with proceeds going directly to local first responders. The “Summon the Heroes” tribute performance is scheduled for Thursday evening in Sarasota, pairing a program of orchestral tribute music with a fundraising mission aimed squarely at the people who answer emergency calls in the city today.
Tickets range from $25 to $50 a seat, and organizers have arranged for proceeds to flow directly to four local nonprofits: Resilient Retreat, the Sarasota County Sheriff's Office Charitable Foundation, the Sarasota Firefighters Benevolent Fund, and the Sarasota Police Foundation, according to FOX 13 Tampa Bay, which first reported on the concert. The presenting organizations agreed to waive ticketing fees so that ticket revenue goes to the charities rather than administrative costs, the station reported.
The program itself leans heavily on works associated with remembrance and resilience. It features Aaron Copland's “Fanfare for the Common Man,” Samuel Barber's “Adagio for Strings,” a piece titled “Liberty for All,” and John Williams' “Summon the Heroes,” according to Sarasota Orchestra. Soprano Amy Owens will perform renditions of “Amazing Grace” and “America the Beautiful,” with narration from Westcoast Black Theatre Troupe founder Nate Jacobs, and guest conductor Evan Roider leading the orchestra, per the same listing.
A Six-Minute Fanfare With Olympic Roots
The concert borrows its title from the Williams composition at its center — a roughly six-minute orchestral piece originally commissioned by NBC and premiered at the opening ceremony of the 1996 Summer Olympic Games in Atlanta, according to Wikipedia. Williams dedicated the work to Boston Pops principal trumpet soloist Tim Morrison, the entry notes. Three decades after its Olympic debut, the piece now anchors a very different kind of ceremony, one built around gratitude for people who run toward danger rather than athletes competing for medals.
Sarasota Orchestra Vice President of Artistic Operations RoseAnne McCabe framed the concert's purpose plainly, telling WUSF that while Sarasota shares a historical tie to 9/11, the performance is intentionally designed to express gratitude to first responders currently serving the community rather than dwell solely on the past. McCabe originally joined Sarasota Orchestra in 2000 as a double bassist before moving into executive management, according to the station's report.
Why Sarasota's 9/11 Ties Run Deep
Sarasota carries an unusual historical connection to the day itself. President George W. Bush was visiting Sarasota's Emma E. Booker Elementary School, reading “The Pet Goat” to a second-grade classroom, when White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card informed him of the attacks on the World Trade Center, according to Your Observer. That moment — captured in some of the most replayed footage of that morning — gives 9/11 milestone anniversaries a distinct resonance in this particular community, the outlet notes.
The scale of first responder loss connected to that day remains staggering a quarter-century later. Of the 2,977 victims killed on September 11, 2001, 441 were first responders, and more than 4,300 emergency workers and rescue personnel have since died from toxic exposure-related illnesses, according to World Trade Center Health Project data cited by the same outlet. Nearly half of all post-9/11 exposure-related deaths have been first responders, per that reporting.
Institutions With Their Own History and Their Own Future
This isn't the first time the Van Wezel has staged a major 9/11 benefit. The hall previously partnered on a similar concert in 2011 to mark the 10th anniversary of the attacks, according to Executive Director Mary Bensel, as cited by Resilient Retreat, making Thursday's performance the second major 9/11 benefit concert produced at the hall. The city-owned, 1,741-seat venue opened in 1970, designed by William Wesley Peters of Taliesin Associated Architects with its now-famous seashell shape and purple facade chosen by Olgivanna Lloyd Wright, according to Wikipedia's entry on the hall.
Both presenting institutions are also navigating bigger changes to their physical futures. Sarasota Orchestra, founded in 1949 as the Florida West Coast Symphony and now the oldest continuously operating orchestra in the state with 76 professional musicians, is planning a new 32-acre Music Center campus on Fruitville Road, with a groundbreaking targeted for 2027 and backed by an anonymous $11.7 million donation announced in May, as Hoodline previously reported. The orchestra presents more than 100 classical, pops, and education concerts each year, according to WUSF's coverage of its history.
For one night, though, the focus shifts away from campus plans and architectural landmarks and toward the people in Sarasota who respond first when something goes wrong. The concert stands as a direct, dollar-for-dollar gesture toward four organizations built around supporting sheriff's deputies, firefighters, and police officers in the community, funded by an audience that showed up to hear Copland, Barber, Williams, and a soprano's rendition of “Amazing Grace.”
