Victoria Bicentennial & New Local Commission
For the 200th anniversary of their city, the Victoria Symphony Orchestra focused its attention on the people, places, activities and way of life in Victoria and the surrounding Coastal Bend region. They commissioned us to put together a new visual piece created entirely from submitted imagery, both past and present, showing the city over the years and all the cool things its community is up to.
Talks with the VSO began a year in advance of our March concert, when our Multimedia Artist Nicholas Bardonnay and Maestro Darryl One began exploring the bicentennial piece’s thematic concept and brainstorming about a good musical fit. For the latter they landed on Paul Creston’s Dance Overture, a celebratory work that captures the esprit de corps of the project and presented enough variety to segue between visual subject matter and eras of time.
And so began a 6-month public submission window for “200 Years of Victoria” in which the VSO asked both individuals and local organizations to “help orchestrate this special story of Victoria” by submitting their best images showing what Victoria means to them. The community responded with over 1,900 images, nicely split between historic and present-day topics. In addition to the many individual photographers, the local newspaper, The Victoria Advocate, and the local historical archive, the Victoria Regional History Center, were major contributors.
To broaden the theme from the local to the national, we also presented our National Park Suite piece, set to the beautiful Largo movement from Dvořák’s New World Symphony. We originally premiered that version with the National Symphony during the centennial year of the National Park Service. Nicholas produced National Park Suite from photographs made in 30+ national parks and national monuments. Yellowstone, Yosemite, the Grand Canyon, and the Great Smoky Mountains are just a few of the dozens of places showcasing America’s most majestic natural treasures.
Also on the celebratory program at the Victoria Fine Arts Center were Ward’s Prairie Overture and Sibelius’s Symphony No. 2. It was a once-in-200-years kind of evening!
(Featured photographs provided by the Victoria Regional History Center, Danny Vivian, and The Victoria Advocate.)
