The Sarasota Music Festival or SMF is back June 1, with the opportunity for musicians to exchange ideas, learn and perform as faculty and fellows, playing side-by-side. Audiences can attend chamber and orchestral concerts.
Festival Artistic Operations Manager Olivia Steinman Deems said audiences can gain access to chamber music rehearsals through the festival pass.
Conductor Nicholas McGegan is back this year. He first started working with the festival in the 2010s.
He said there are a lot of good things about participating.
“It’s meeting all the people I know, the faculty, also being inspired by the students, who are a wonderful group. I looked through the list, I know a couple of them from various other places that I've been, so it's lovely to see them and to pick up on…their extraordinary enthusiasm and talent. It's lovely to be back in Sarasota, even if it will be 300 degrees."
This year, the festival is pared down to two weeks. And there are other changes, too. They were made based on feedback from previous SMF faculty, fellows and audience members.
Both fellows and faculty will be staying at Art Ovation.
Deems said, “this close proximity is central to the festival experience, fostering meaningful artistic exchange and professional connections beyond the rehearsal and concert halls.”
The Sarasota Music Festival is without a permanent leader with the departure of Jeffrey Kahane last August.
ALSO READ: Jeffrey Kahane is leaving his role as Sarasota Music Festival's artistic director
Deems said this year’s programs were curated by “a core group of faculty artists with a dedicated task force helping to guide this important transition.”
According to Deems, this festival offers enhanced features such as:
o Studio Sessions: An alternative to standard coaching in formats chosen by the faculty themselves—from intensive masterclasses to specialized lectures and conversational discussion groups—to focus on areas the faculty artists love to teach the most.
o Table Talks: Informal conversations between fellows and faculty focused on professional development, including preparing for auditions, time management, mental health, portfolio careers, negotiation skills, and more.
o Lessons: Each fellow is guaranteed at least one 45-minute lesson with a festival faculty member on their instrument.
o Outreach & Community Engagement: Fellows will have the opportunity to perform throughout Sarasota while also learning how to design and present impactful community performances.
o Musician Wellness: Fellows and faculty will have daily opportunities to participate in workshops and wellness experiences.
There will be 40 (student) fellows and nearly two dozen faculty members and guest artists. With a focus on musician wellness.
This year, Deems said, had the highest number of fellow applications since 2009.
Three fellows are returning for this year’s SMF, including Cellist Lazar Kaminsky, who will be attending the Juilliard School in the fall. He’s excited to get to work with the festival’s cello faculty artists, Brinton Smith and Alan Stepansky.
“That's the most important part of basically any festival, is who you get to work with, who you get to connect with, and learn from, the faculty is probably the biggest plus of any festival, and I think SMF this year kind of hit it right on the nail with cello faculty,” he said.
ALSO READ: Remembering maestro Paul Wolfe, Sarasota Music Festival co-founder
Kaminsky will be performing in the Chamber Showcase which features the Beethoven “Septet.”
McGegan will be conducting the final concert of this year’s SMF season and the lone orchestral concert.
It will feature Schubert’s “Overture in the Italian Style,”
And Flutist Jasmine Choi will be the soloist for the Mozart "Flute Concerto No. 2."
“I grew up playing in orchestras as a flute player," said McGegan.
"And I have played this concerto not nearly as well as Jasmine will, and so it isn't as if I'm conducting a tuba concerto or something when I don't know the instrument or the repertoire, so that's going to be fun,” he said.
Beethoven’s “Symphony No. 7” rounds out the program.
“The seventh just really got people, and people got it, this enormous energy, this fantastic jeu d'esprit, and it's a remarkable piece that just blew everybody away back then, and it still has that power today. It's great, doing it with students because they have more energy than they know what to do with, and that is exactly what Beethoven “Seventh Symphony” requires, Conductor Nicholas McGegan said.
On Friday, the SMF sent a release saying faculty members, Pianist Robert Levin and Oboist Toyin Spellman-Diaz, would not be able to participate in the festival due to unforeseen circumstances.
As a result, composer and pianist Michael Stephen Brown will now join the SMF faculty to perform and work with piano fellows.
Andreas Oeste, a 2011 Sarasota Music Festival alum teaching at Penn State, will join the festival in the first week as oboe faculty and returning SMF faculty member and SMF 2006 alum Jung Choi will join for the second week.
As part of the Festival Pass, the Piano Performance Class originally scheduled for June first, will be led the following day, by Michael Stephen Brown. That's Tuesday, June 2 from 6:00 pm – 9:00 pm in Holley Hall.
And instead of the Levin Lecture, the Sarasota Music Festival has added a new program called the "Musician’s Table."
Musician’s Table - Pathways to Becoming a World-Class Musician
Accomplished faculty artists share perspectives and explore pathways to becoming a world-class musician within today’s rapidly evolving classical music landscape. The moderated conversation and audience Q&A led by RoseAnne McCabe, senior vice president of artistic operations for Sarasota Orchestra, will feature festival faculty artists Michael Stephen Brown, piano; Julie Landsman, horn; and Alan Stepansky, cello. The public is invited to join.
Performances will continue to take place in Holley Hall and at the Sarasota Opera House throughout the festival.
You can find out more about the upcoming Sarasota Music Festival concerts and get tickets by clicking here.
