Jeffrey Kahane’s cross-genre, cross-disciplinary talents are on full display as he both performs and conducts Ravel’s playful, virtuosic Piano Concerto. On a quest to write enjoyable music, Ravel combines his enthusiasm for jazz with a slow movement so exquisite that it led him to exclaim, “That flowing phrase! How I worked over it, bar by bar! It nearly killed me!” Tolstoy’s comment, “Music is the shorthand of emotion,” sparked Anna Clyne’s miniconcerto for cello. Having given the world premiere of Shorthand in 2022, Festival alumna Karen Ouzounian presides over the Sarasota premiere of this elegiac, mercurial work. The Festival concludes with Brahms’ magnificent Symphony No. 1, a perfect balance of passion and structure that took its composer decades to create.

EPSG:4326

Passion And Pride

Sarasota Opera House

Romantic Reveries

Rising Stars 3

Sarasota Orchestra

Lustrous Sounds

Robert Levin discusses the art of improvisation. Come prepared with a list of tunes, as Levin will improvise upon melodies the audience suggests.

Levin Lecture

Rising Stars 2

This one-night-only musical event sums up the spirit of the 2024 Festival—unbound, uninhibited, and genuinely transformative. Hailstork’s beautifully evocative Sonata da Chiesa—“church sonata” in the Baroque era—reflects his personal fascination with cathedrals. Written for Benny Goodman, Copland’s dynamic Clarinet Concerto is the only conductor-led piece on the program. Tessa Lark, Mike Block, and Jeffrey Kahane improvise on beloved American songs, while Lark and Block duet with traditional fiddle tunes. The perfumed world of 18th-century France collides with 21st-century jazz in Block’s arrangement of Dieupart’s Sarabande, then Block leads Festival fellows in an exhilarating, spur-of-the-moment jam. Lark puts her distinctive stamp on bluegrass legend Bill Monroe’s “Blue Moon of Kentucky,” and the experience culminates with Iniche Cosebe, Block’s quasi-improvised work inspired by “thank you very much” in the language of the Mandinka people.

American Soundscapes

Tales and tributes come to life in vibrant musical colors. The teenage Richard Strauss pays homage to Mozart and Mendelssohn in his strikingly original E-flat Serenade for Winds. Subtitled “A Romance,” Ralph Vaughan Williams’s bittersweet The Lark Ascending brings pastoral innocence to life through rhapsodic solos that sound deceptively simple. Jeff Scott’s Trail of Tears tells the story of his great-great-grandfather, of Cherokee descent, who was among the 60,000 Native Americans forcibly ejected from their homes in the 19th century. Written in 1876 and bearing the dedication “For My Nation,” Antonín Dvořák’s Quintet in G Major adds double bass to the traditional string quartet, opening leagues of musical depth to the work that helped launch his international career.

Tales And Tributes

Treasured masterpieces and novel experiences highlight the unique talents of this year’s Festival artists. The consummate perfectionist, Maurice Duruflé allowed only a few of his compositions—like his famous Requiem—to be published. Written for the unusual combination of flute, violin, and piano, his breathtaking Trio is among the few chamber works he composed. Modeled after Mozart and written early in his career, Ludwig van Beethoven’s Quintet in E-flat Major is almost symphonic in scope. Harnessing the magic of spontaneous live performance, two exciting young Festival faculty—Tessa Lark and Mike Block—join Jeffrey Kahane for an impromptu take on the famous theme from Dvořák’s “New World” Symphony. Dvořák’s emotionally charged Piano Trio No. 4 unfolds in a series of vividly colorful dumka, or poetic elegies.

Something Old, Something New

Rising Stars 1

Beethoven and Mendelssohn are icons of classical music. Don’t miss the chance to hear two of the most popular composers of all time. The not-to-be missed concert also features the Festival debut of two spectacular artists. Conductor Stephanie Childress makes her Festival debut with the music of Indian-American composer Reena Esmail, who weaves Hindustani ragas and Western classical techniques in the captivating, tuneful 11-minute Teen Murti ( Three Statues ). SMF Alumna Rachel Breen takes time out from her thriving European career to make her Festival solo debut with Ludwig van Beethoven’s bold Piano Concerto No. 1. The program concludes with a final first—Felix Mendelssohn’s Symphony No. 1, composed when he was just 15 and bursting with youthful vigor.

Beethoven And Mendelssohn

Festival faculty, fellows, and the Borromeo String Quartet join forces for music separated by time yet linked by raw emotion, startling innovation, and inspiring creativity. Festival faculty Jeff Scott’s Passion for Bach and Coltrane proceeds from the opening of Johann Sebastian Bach’s Goldberg Variations and ventures boldly down unexpected avenues. Jeffrey Kahane plays the role of keyboard maverick in Bach’s thrilling Brandenburg Concerto No. 5.

Bach And Beyond

Combine these 20th-century works for two, three, and four musicians, and the result is an intriguing concert that expands horizons. Written in 1994, Jean Françaix’s lighthearted Trio for Oboe, Bassoon, and Piano is charming and witty. Folk and classical idioms intertwine in Erwin Schulhoff’s 1925 Duo for Violin and Cello, while Maurice Ravel’s revolutionary encounter with jazz reverberates throughout his electrifying second Sonata for Violin and Piano. The Borromeo String Quartet, heralded for their “edge-of-the-seat performances” (Boston Globe), takes on the intelligent intensity of the String Quartet No. 6 by Polish composer Grażyna Bacewicz.

Two, Three, Four

The 60th Anniversary Festival begins with a program that unites the past, present, and future. With Music Director Jeffrey Kahane on harpsichord, SMF alum Marianne Gedigian shimmers in a work from the archives—Francois Couperin’s elegant Le Rossignol en amour (The Nightingale in Love). Bohuslav Martinů’s mid-20th-century Sonata, written on Cape Cod, offers a thought-provoking contrast with its jazz infused rhythms.

60th Anniversary Concert

Festival Music Director Jeffrey Kahane leads the Festival Orchestra from the keyboard as the soloist in Beethoven’s Fourth Piano Concerto, which has long been associated with the legend of Orpheus’ descent to the underworld. Famous for its dialogue between soloist and orchestra, the concerto combines the spirit of chamber music with symphonic majesty. Emily Cooley’s Argo offers a lush, colorful meditation on the meaning of identity—is the great ship still the same if all its parts are replaced over time? The Festival concludes as it began—with the music of Robert Schumann. Exploring the different aspects of spring’s beauty, Schumann’s joyous “Spring” Symphony brings the 2023 Sarasota Music Festival to an ecstatic, rousing close.

Kahane Plays Beethoven

New friends and old favorites sit side by side in a program of masterpieces from three centuries, performed by SMF faculty and fellows. Flutist Jasmine Choi weaves a magical web of sound in Claude Debussy’s mesmerizing Syrinx, the myth of a water nymph pursued by the Greek god Pan. Hungarian composer György Ligeti’s 1953 work, Six Bagatelles for Wind Quintet, is fiendishly difficult for the players and hugely enjoyable for the audience. New SMF faculty cellist Gabriel Cabezas joins pianist Robert Levin in Beethoven’s Cello Sonata No. 2, in which the visionary young Beethoven juxtaposes intense drama with jovial humor. SMF faculty and fellows join together for Mendelssohn’s magnificent Octet for Strings, a musical miracle written when the composer was only 16.

Traditions and Transformations

Beatrice Friedman Symphony Center

The final Artist Showcase of the 2023 Festival features an all-star roster of musicians. Hai-Ye Ni, Principal Cellist of the Philadelphia Orchestra, is the protagonist of Janáček’s Pohádka (Fairy Tale), which tells the story of a prince who faces a series of tests put to him by the ruler of the underworld. David Halen, Concertmaster of the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra, shares two favorites by Fritz Kreisler—one of the greatest violinists of all time. Henri Dutilleux’s sparkling Sonatine features Jasmine Choi, the “goddess of the flute” according to The Korea Times. Along with Ni, faculty artists Jennifer Frautschi, Teng Li, Timothy Cobb, and Robert Levin form a supergroup for Schubert’s joyous and supremely melodic “Trout” Quintet.

Fairy Tale

Both illuminating and engaging, the beloved SMF tradition continues with the intellect and humor of past Festival Music Director Robert Levin, the eminent pianist and musicologist.

Past and present intertwine as Kazem Abdullah, one of the most exciting American conductors on the scene today, makes his SMF conducting debut with a program filled with brilliant orchestral color. Art and music meld in Ottorino Respighi’s enchanting Botticelli Triptych, a marvelous musical rendering of three iconic paintings by the Renaissance artist. Longtime SMF faculty cellist Desmond Hoebig is featured in Tchaikovsky’s elegant “Rococo” Variations, the Russian composer’s loving homage to Mozart. The concert concludes with Mozart’s final symphony, “Jupiter”, a masterpiece of impeccable clarity and compositional virtuosity.

Sound Stories

Aaron Copland’s heartfelt portrayal of a day in the life of a newly married pioneer couple lies at the heart of a program bursting with lush lyricism. The Pulitzer Prize-winning score to Martha Graham’s ballet Appalachian Spring will be heard in its original 13-instrument version. New SMF faculty oboist Marion Kuszyk, Associate Principal Oboe of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, joins faculty hornist Michelle Reed Baker and six fellows in Mozart’s delightfully contrasting serenade for wind octet. The program concludes with one of the crown jewels of the chamber music repertoire—Brahms’ Piano Quintet in F Minor. The Attacca Quartet and SMF Music Director Jeffrey Kahane collaborate on this passionate work.

Appalachian Spring

Stories of dedication and perseverance set a “gold standard” in this chamber showcase. Sato Matsui’s Goldenrod pays tribute to beloved SMF flutist Carol Wincenc’s “Golden Jubilee,” celebrating the anniversary of her remarkable 50-year career. Written in 1946, Polish composer Mieczysław Weinberg’s Sonatina for Violin and Piano possesses a tenderness that belies the adversity he faced during his life. The GRAMMY Award-winning Attacca Quartet makes its Festival debut with two acclaimed works. Composer Caroline Shaw, the youngest recipient of the Pulitzer Prize for Music, drew creative sparks for her First Essay (Nimrod) from human language, in particular, the lilting rhythms of Marilynne Robinson’s prose. Maurice Ravel’s ravishing String Quartet ends the program on a brilliant and lyrical note.

Gold Standard

Tales of the verdant countryside unfold under the baton of Yaniv Dinur in the first orchestral program of the 2023 Festival. Exuberant and joyful, Felix Mendelssohn’s incidental music to A Midsummer Night’s Dream depicts the magical forest world of elves and fairies and the raptures of young love. Festival faculty pianist Anne-Marie McDermott will dazzle in Robert Schumann’s Piano Concerto, which his wife Clara described as “fresh and beautiful.” The program concludes with Beethoven’s “Pastorale” Symphony. From bird calls to burbling streams to the terrifying power of an afternoon thunderstorm, Beethoven’s Sixth Symphony is a timeless expression of his reverence for the natural world.

Pastorale

Music’s evocative storytelling powers take center stage in a program of intimate works with big impact. Stunningly gifted violinist Melissa White evokes the cuckoo’s voice, a sleeping goatherd, and the roaring and thundering of hail in “Summer” from Vivaldi’s beloved Four Seasons. Czech composer Leoš Janáček’s sextet Mládí (Youth), written late in his life, offers a nostalgic reimagining of themes from his past. Gabriela Lena Frank pays a vicarious visit to her mother’s native Peru in her picturesque Four Folk Songs. Antonín Dvořák, influenced by his encounters with Native American and Black musical traditions, poured out his affection for America in his enchanting and richly melodious Viola Quintet (American).

Scenes and Seasons

The opening concert of the 2023 Sarasota Music Festival showcases the Romantic era’s rich lyricism. Inspired by Robert Schumann’s love of fairy tales, his wonderous Märchenbilder features new faculty violist Paul Neubauer. Manhattan’s sights and sounds travel to Florida in GRAMMY-nominated flutist and composer Valerie Coleman’s jazz-inspired Rubispheres. The Harlem Quartet’s Melissa White brings her “tightly focused vibrato and soaring phrases” (Chicago Tribune) to Amy Beach’s rapturous Romance for Violin and Piano. Brahms’ expansive Piano Trio No. 1 provides a dramatic close.

Sarasota Music Festival

Jun 22, 2024

Passion And Pride

Jun 21, 2024

Romantic Reveries

Sarasota Music Festival