Summon the Heroes
On Sarasota’s waterfront, where the evening light often softens the edges of the city, music can make room for what ordinary conversation cannot.
By Edit Sarasota Staff
On Sarasota’s waterfront, where the evening light often softens the edges of the city, music can make room for what ordinary conversation cannot. This September, the Van Wezel Performing Arts Hall and the Sarasota Orchestra will gather the community for an evening shaped by remembrance, resilience, and the enduring power of shared listening.
Titled Summon the Heroes, the concert commemorates the 25th anniversary of September 11, inviting audiences to reflect not only on the devastation of that day, but also on the courage and compassion that followed. Led by conductor Evan Roider, the program centers heartfelt music as a form of civic memory—something both intimate and collective, capable of holding grief while acknowledging the strength found in coming together.
For Sarasota, a community that has long embraced the arts as part of its public life, the occasion carries particular resonance. The city’s concert halls and theaters are more than destinations for entertainment; they are places where residents encounter one another across generations and backgrounds. In that setting, a commemorative performance can offer a rare pause from the rhythms of daily life, allowing an audience to consider history in the company of neighbors.
The Van Wezel, with its distinctive sail-like silhouette and prominent place along Sarasota Bay, has served for decades as one of the region’s most recognizable cultural gathering spaces. Its partnership with the Sarasota Orchestra brings together two institutions deeply woven into the area’s artistic identity. The result is an evening designed not as a lecture or ceremony, but as a musical act of remembrance—one that trusts the orchestra’s sound, and the audience’s presence, to carry meaning.
A concert marking a quarter-century since September 11 also arrives at a moment when memory itself is changing. For some, the events remain immediate; for others, they belong to a history learned through family stories, classrooms, and recordings. Summon the Heroes creates space for both perspectives, offering Sarasota a way to remember together and to honor the values of empathy, service, and perseverance.
Summon the Heroes takes place Thursday, September 10, 2026, at the Van Wezel Performing Arts Hall, 777 N Tamiami Trail, Sarasota. The performance offers the community an evening of thoughtful reflection, led by the Sarasota Orchestra and conductor Evan Roider, on the eve of the 25th anniversary.