Sarasota Music Festival Announces Week Three Highlights

A program of the Sarasota Orchestra, student participants in the three week long Sarasota Music Festival (SMF) attend master classes and coaching sessions, participate in the SMF orchestra, create outreach concerts for the local community and perform chamber music.

The listing below details the Sarasota Music Festival's Week Three concert highlights.

Sarasota Music Festival Week Three (June 19 - 24, 2017) Highlights:

Artist Showcase 3: Special Gems

Thursday, June 22, 4:30 pm - Holley Hall, Tickets from $27

The third artist showcase of the Festival will feature works by two French masters and a rarely performed masterpiece by a 19th century female composer.

Program highlights include Ravel's Sonata and Poulenc's Sextet.

The concert also presents a Sarasota Premiere of Röntgen-Maier's Violin Sonata in B Minor featuring new SMF Faculty Frank Almond and Music Director Jeffrey Kahane on piano. Violinist Frank Almond holds the Charles and Marie Caestecker Concertmaster Chair at the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra. Now celebrating his 21st season with the MSO, he has also held positions as Concertmaster of the Rotterdam Philharmonic with Valery Gergiev, and Guest Concertmaster of the London Philharmonic with Kurt Masur. Other Guest Concertmaster appearances have included the Seattle Symphony, the Montreal Symphony, the Dallas Symphony, the Grand Tetons Music Festival, and the San Diego Symphony.

Rising Stars 3

Friday, June 23, 3:00 pm - Holley Hall, Tickets from $10

Festival students perform Chamber works of their choice; repertoire and students to be announced.

Festival Concert 3: yMusic

Friday, June 23, 8:00 pm - Sarasota Opera House, Tickets from $27

The third mixed student/ faculty chamber concert of the Festival features classical music performed alongside contemporary works.

Program highlights include Haas' Wind Quintet, and Schumann's Piano Quartet in E-Flat Major.

The concert also features New York based ensemble, yMusic. Hailed by Performance Today's Fred Child as "one of the groups that has really helped to shape the future of classical music," yMusic is a group of six New York City instrumentalists in the overlap between the pop and classical worlds. yMusic will perform six new works composed for them.

Saturday Symphony 3: Adagio and Rhapsody

Saturday, June 24, 8:00 pm - Sarasota Opera House, Tickets from $32

The Sarasota Music Festival concludes with a symphony program including two American classics, Barber's Adagio for Strings and Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue.

Highlighting the concert and closing the program is Music Director Jeffrey Kahane conducting from the piano in Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue.

Jeffrey Kahane has established an international reputation as a truly versatile artist, recognized by audiences around the world for his mastery of a diverse repertoire ranging from Bach, Mozart and Beethoven to Gershwin, Golijov and John Adams. Since making his Carnegie Hall debut in 1983, Mr. Kahane has given recitals in many of the nation's major music centers including New York, Chicago, Boston, San Francisco, Los Angeles and Atlanta.

He has appeared as soloist with major orchestras such as the New York Philharmonic, Cleveland Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Philadelphia Orchestra and the San Francisco Symphony and is also a popular figure at all of the major US summer festivals.

About the Sarasota Music Festival:

For three weeks each June, guest artists and student musicians come together in Sarasota to study and perform chamber music. Nearly 500 students worldwide audition to participate in the Sarasota Music Festival each year, but only 60 are accepted. These students work side-by-side with a group of 45 master faculty musicians.

Co-founded by Paul Wolfe, the Sarasota Music Festival began in 1965 as a one-week event with seven guest mentors. In just two years, the Festival grew to three weeks and was drawing students from across the United States. In 1984 it was designated by the

Florida State Legislature as the "Official Teaching and Performing Festival of the State of Florida."

Now in its first season under Artistic Director Jeffrey Kahane, there are more than 45 guest artists, including many of the festival's own alumni. These masters represent nearly all major American orchestras and a cross-section of renowned music schools, conservatories and institutes of music.

Tickets and Additional Information: about the Sarasota Music Festival is available online at: http://www.sarasotaorchestra.org/festival or by phone (941) 953-3434.

About the Sarasota Orchestra:

For more than 65 years, the Sarasota Orchestra has been engaging music lovers from around the region, and visitors from around the world. The Orchestra performs more than 125 classical, Pops, education and community engagement concerts each year, and thrives as the oldest continuing orchestra in the state of Florida. Youth programs provide concert experiences for about 10,000 students per year, and includes an extensive youth orchestra program of seven ensembles and about 350 students. The Sarasota Music Festival is a world-renowned performance and teaching festival that attractive young musicians and faculty from across the globe each June.

Sarasota Awards - Live Stats

Best Musical - Top 3

1. CABARET (The Sarasota Players)

23.3% of votes

2. SYNCOPATED AVENUE (Westcoast Black Theatre Troupe)

21.6% of votes

3. CHORUS LINE (Ovation Theatre Inc.)

11.9% of votes

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