Winter Park’s first Bach Festival was held in 1935 on the campus of Rollins College at Knowles Memorial Chapel. The event was organized by Christopher Honaas, dean of the college’s whimsically named Division of Expressive Arts.
In 1937, at the urging of then-President Hamilton Holt, a group of professors and community leaders formed a Bach Festival Committee “to present to the public for its enlightenment, education, pleasure and enjoyment musical presentations, both orchestral and choral.”
In 1940, the Bach Festival Society of Winter Park was incorporated as an independent nonprofit—with continuing ties to the college—under the leadership of the tireless Isabelle Sprague-Smith, a New York-born artist, educator and philanthropist.
But in 1950, when Sprague-Smith died, the society’s future seemed shaky. Enter John M. Tiedtke, who assumed control at the behest of boyhood friend Hugh F. McKean, an art professor about to ascend to the presidency of Rollins. Tiedtke would remain at the society’s helm for 54 years, acting as the defacto general manager and routinely funding operating deficits from his own pocket.
A savvy entrepreneur who made his fortune cultivating sugar in the Florida Everglades, Tiedtke loved music but wasn’t a musician. He believed strongly—and didn’t mind sharing this belief in no uncertain terms—that individuals and corporations who had the means ought to support the arts more generously than they did.
Nobody can say that he didn’t practice what he preached. In fact, it’s safe to say that without John M. Tiedtke, the Bach Festival might not be marking its 90th year when Artistic Director John V. Sinclair steps up to the chapel’s podium to conduct Handel’s Cantata La resurrezione, HWV 47.
The Handel work—slated for Saturday, February 15 at 7:30 p.m.—will mark the opening of the annual Bach Festival, a monthlong celebration of classical orchestral and choral music with some delightfully eclectic contemporary surprises. (To clarify, the Bach Festival is an entity unto itself, operated under the auspices of the Bach Festival Society, which presents programming year-round.)
Tiedtke, who died in 2004 at age 97, was also a founder of the Florida Symphony Orchestra, a local fixture for more than 40 years, and a major benefactor of the Orlando Museum of Art and of United Arts of Central Florida. In 1985, he helped his daughter Tina establish Enzian, the art-house cinema in Maitland that hosts the prestigious Florida Film Festival.
Still, I think Tiedtke would be proudest of the Bach Festival Society, today the region’s oldest continuously operating cultural organization. Sure, there were tough years—but the combination of Tiedtke’s commitment and Sinclair’s creativity was game-changing.
“Mr. Tiedtke knew I had strong opinions,” recalled Sinclair in a 2018 interview with Winter Park Magazine. “But he could be persuaded in some instances. Basically, he said, ‘You pick what you want to do and I get veto power.’”
Tiedtke hasn’t personally called the shots for a while now. But I’ll bet that somewhere, somehow, he’s able to simply enjoy the magnificent music—his legacy—along with the rest of us.
Polly Gnagy Seymour – 1929-2024
Polly Seymour, who died in November at age 95, was the wife of former Rollins College president Thaddeus Seymour, who died in 2019. But Polly, seemingly as reserved as her husband was gregarious, became a gently formidable community leader who left a powerful legacy of her own.
In 1993, three years after Thad retired, the Seymours helped to found the Habitat for Humanity of Winter Park-Maitland, which in subsequent years has built more than 60 homes in partnership with deserving families.
Polly’s greatest impact, however, was at the Winter Park Library. She served as president of its board of trustees and chair of its annual book sale. From the sale, Polly conceptualized the volunteer-run and community-supported New Leaf Bookstore, which opened in 1995.
Since then, the much-cherished bastion for bibliophiles—which was renamed the Polly Seymour New Leaf Bookstore in honor of its originator’s 90th birthday in 2019—has raised more than $1.3 million to support the library.
In 1997, the Seymours were named Citizens of the Year by the Winter Park Chamber of Commerce. And in 2017, Polly was honored by the Florida Library Association with its Outstanding Member Award. That same year, she was named among Winter Park Magazine’s Most Influential People and dubbed “The Literacy Leader.”
Polly was born to artists Jon Gnagy—the first nationally televised art instructor—and Mary Jo Hinton Gnagy, from whom she inherited both a beautiful sense of color and design, and a lifelong love of books and words.
In its Fall 2022 issue, Winter Park Magazine wrote about Polly and her efforts throughout the 1980s to keep her father’s name and work alive in pop-culture consciousness. The story is available to read in full on our website, winterparkmag.com.
Celebrations of Polly’s life were held in Greensboro, North Carolina, and another will be held in Winter Park on Tuesday, February 18. Memorial gifts can be sent to the Winter Park Library, 1052 West Morse Boulevard, Winter Park, 32789.