One of St. Augustine’s longest-running cultural entities, the St. Augustine Orchestra (SAO) is a foundation of cultural, artistic, and historic legacy in St. Augustine and St. Johns County.

With over 50 volunteer members whose motivation for participation is a love of music and the joy of sharing that love with the public. Through the years, the orchestra has given the community its best musical efforts. The result is the continuing of a fine tradition and an increasingly sophisticated level of performance. Guided by the mission to expand awareness and music appreciation, the SAO approach is to provide quality live performances at an affordable cost to the community, to provide outreach programs to seniors and youths, as well as to offer educational opportunities to budding and prospective musicians.

Each SAO program carries a theme that aims to inform, enlighten, and entertain audiences. With the many nearby notable institutions such as Jacksonville University, the University of North Florida, and Jacksonville University each offering advanced music education, SAO is privileged to have a pool of young talented soloists participating in the orchestra, furthering its mission to inspire and challenge local youth in music careers.

SAO invites local musicians meeting minimum capability standards willing to devote time for weekly rehearsals to join. Members range from 13 to 80 years of age including professionals, music teachers, business leaders, retirees, music amateurs, and accomplished students. SAO also encourages other musicians to play with the orchestra as they have sponsored soloist vocalists and musicians, groups of single instruments, choruses, and small instrument groups to participate in our programs. SAO relies on sponsorship and program advertising support to offset musical production costs in addition to funding music education programs. Corporate and individual sponsors can take pride in supporting local musicians providing a valued program of performing arts and supplementing youth instrumental instructions at no cost to students.