SMF starts summer on a high note

Most Sarasota Orchestra musicians are off for the summer season, but Sarasota Orchestra is still buzzing with summer symphonies. In fact, the orchestra’s website has a countdown to the second of the June 3 start of the 2013 Sarasota Music Festival.

This Sarasota Orchestra event has brought up-and-coming, college-aged musicians to the area to perform chamber music for three weeks since 1965. It includes nine concerts as well as lectures and student recitals.

Sixty students were selected from a group of nearly 500 who auditioned to participate in the intensive learning experience, in which they work alongside and perform with more than 40 professionals. It’s such a rewarding experience that students make a musical exodus to Sarasota from as far as Taiwan, South Korea, China and Australia.

But just because they’re students doesn’t make them amateurs — these 60 musicians come from the best conservatories in the country: Oberlin College and Conservatory, Yale School of Music, Rice University, New England Conservatory, Curtis Institute of Music and The Juilliard School.

This means these students are on their way to being tomorrow’s professionals, and Sarasota receives the chance to see them on their way. For instance, former SMF student David Coucheron is now the concertmaster of the Atlanta Symphony.

Coucheron will return Saturday, June 8, to Sarasota to perform the Bruch Violin Concerto. Two other festival alumnae are returning as faculty — flautist Christina Jennings and violinist Noah Bendix-Balgley.

And, in case you already miss the Sarasota Orchestra musicians, this year violinist Daniel Jordan and pianist Jonathan Spivey have joined the music festival staff.

+ Music Festival spotlights artist
Sarasota Music Festival has featured a local artist each year since 1987. The artwork is used on all the festival marketing material — for instance, you can see it on this year’s program. Local artist Julia Gorbaty’s painting, “Music,” which has semblances of the bayfront and Ringling Bridge, is this year’s featured piece. It’s available for purchase by calling 487-2730.

IF YOU GO
Artist Showcases
When: “Brilliance and Beauty” Thursday, June 6; “Songs of Amour”
Thursday, June 13; and “The Power of Music” Thursday, June 20. All concerts are at 4:30 p.m.
Where: Holley Hall, 709 N. Tamiami Trail
Cost: Tickets $20 to $25
Info: Call 953-3434

Festival Concerts
When: “Move to the Music” Friday, June 7; “A Musical Melange” Friday, June 14; “Fall in Love” Friday, June 21. All concerts are at 8 p.m.
Where: Sarasota Opera House, 61 N. Pineapple Ave.
Cost: Tickets $25 to $40
Info: Call 953-3434

Saturday Symphonies
When: “Dramatic Flair” Saturday, June 8; “Walk in Nature” Saturday, June 15; “A Celebratory Finale” Saturday, June 22. All concerts are at 8 p.m.
Where: Sarasota Opera House, 61 N. Pineapple Ave.
Cost: Tickets $29 to $55
Info: Call 953-3434