Sinfonia Gulf Coast presents Classical Connections featuring Howard Levy, harmonica and piano

Ten Seats to a World Premiere

Register by Tuesday, November 3. Winners notified Wednesday, November 4.

Date: Saturday, November 14, 2026, 7:30 PM
Venue: Destin High School, 4325 Commons Dr W, Destin, FL 32541

• Classical Connections is Sinfonia’s up-close series. Smaller room, no formality, the conductor talking to the audience between pieces about what they are about to hear and why it matters. Closest thing to sitting inside the orchestra rather than in front of it.

• Howard Levy is a two-time Grammy winner and a founding member of Béla Fleck and the Flecktones. At nineteen he worked out how to play a diatonic harmonica chromatically, a technique that had not existed before, and moved the instrument out of folk and blues into jazz, classical, and Eastern European music.

• He plays harmonica and piano at the same time. Not as a trick. As two full parts at once.

• This night is the world premiere of his Eastern European Harmonica and Piano Concerto for Single Soloist, written for both instruments and conducted by Demetrius Fuller. Bulgarian, Macedonian, and Greek tonalities, improvised cadenzas, full orchestra.

• A premiere happens once. Destin gets this one.