On August 15, 1914, exactly one hundred years ago, the Panama Canal officially opened after more than ten difficult years of construction. The University of Florida is commemorating this historically significant centennial this weekend with an assortment of exhibits and activities. To start it all off, a concert of classical music was given at the Phillips Center for the Perfoming Arts. Melissa (pictured above in front of the Phillips Center) and I were there and we enjoyed it a lot. Presented by the Symphony of the Americas, which is based in Broward County, the concert featured the Mission Chamber Orchestra of Rome. The musicians included conductors James Brooks-Bruzzese and Lorenzo Turchi-Floris, along with violinists Orlando and Svetlana Forte and Aleksandre Tigishvili, cellist Juerg Eichenberger, flutist Marilyn Maingart, and oboist Juan Castillo. Turchi-Floris and Castillo each had premier performances of their own compositions, and Forte and Maingart performed their own arrangements of other composers. The music was a mix of old classical standards and more recent material. The composition of Juan Castillo, a Panamanian himself, fit the theme of the weekend well: it is titled "Rapsodia del Canal de Panama". To close it all, they performed as an encore a jazz piece of Cole Porter, arranged by Orlando Forte for the orchestra and violin...
