Debut summer orchestra show draws 150 music lovers

By Dana Kampa
| 1:45 p.m. July 20, 2026

Maestro Kenneth Bowermeister, conductor of Strings Con Brio, welcomes a full house to the orchestra's first performance on Longboat Key on July 16 at Temple Beth Israel.

Longboat Key
Neighbors

The iconic intertwining of stringed instruments coming into tune sang out from Temple Beth Israel on July 16 as 40 members of Strings Con Brio prepared to play.

The evening's lineup spanned everything from Americana to Broadway with a selection of tunes from "Fiddler on the Roof." The compositions brought together the best of the violin, viola, cello, bass and piano for the group's first show on Longboat Key.

Attendees shared their appreciation for the midsummer show on the Key and showed out strong, with an estimated 150 tickets sold.

Andrii Padkovskyi steps into the crowd while playing the violin solo opening from "Fiddler on the Roof" at a special string orchestra performance on Longboat Key.

Maestro Kenneth Bowermeister, who conducted the orchestra, incorporated humor into the program with asides on featured composers Georg Philipp Telemann, Gustav Mahler and others.

"This piece is by the great Johann Sebastian Bach, 'Air' from the fourth orchestral suite. To show you how prolific Telemann was, Bach wrote four orchestral suites — Telemann wrote 137," Bowermeister said, earning a few murmurs of surprise from the crowd.

Cantorial soloist Kei Sulhi from Longboat Key's Temple Beth Israel joins performers from Strings Con Brio for a one-of-a-kind show on the island. She sang a medley of songs made famous in "Fiddler on the Roof."

Cantorial soloist Kei Sulhi and St. Armands Key Lutheran Church minister of music and director of operations Michael Bodnyk also brought their on-island talents to the show.

This program has been several years in the making, and TBI Men's Club board member Alan Cohen said it was glad the timing worked well for so many Longboaters to attend.

author

Dana Kampa

Dana Kampa is the Longboat Key neighbors reporter for the Observer. She first ventured into journalism in her home state of Wisconsin, going on to report community stories everywhere from the snowy mountains of Washington State to the sunny shores of the Caribbean. She has been a writer and photographer for more than a decade, covering what matters most to readers.