Scene & Heard Thursday, Jan. 17

Strumming for longer

Florida Studio Theatre has a long history of extending its original revues due to popular demand, and it looks like 2019 will be no exception. The theater announced in a Jan. 7 release that “Guitar Girls” will now run through April 7. The show, which honors iconic female singer/songwriters such as Dolly Parton and Joni Mitchell, was written by Richard Hopkins, Rebecca Hopkins, and Catherine Randazzo with arrangements by Jim Prosser. Tickets can be purchased at floridastudiotheatre.org, or at 366-9000.

Hip-hop meets country

A new kind of music event is coming to Sarasota. From 7 p.m. to 2 a.m. Friday, Jan. 18, White Buffalo Saloon will be transformed into a hip-hop nightclub for The Party, which will feature dancers, strobe lights, VIP sections and a showcase of more than 50 local hip-hop artists (one of which is Sarasota native and now acclaimed Atlanta-based rapper Swag Hollywood). Organizer and performer Shahid Avraham is also dropping his new album, “Some Real Quality,” at the event, which serves as his first Sarasota performance in several years.

“We’re giving the opportunity to perform to so many artists who might not have the opportunity otherwise,” he says of the event, which will be the first large-scale hip-hop concert to be held at White Buffalo. “Sarasota is a town of artists and local talent just sitting here … Instead of sending them to Atlanta or Los Angeles, we’ve built a platform for them right here.”

Tickets for The Party start at $10 and can be purchased here.

Change in command

John Fischer, managing director of Artist Series Concerts of Sarasota, announced at the end of 2018 that he plans to retire at the close of the 2018-2019 season in June. After what will have been 17 years of Fischer at its helm, Artist Series will soon begin interviewing for his replacement with a new mission statement that Fischer and his team created to lead the organization into 2019: “Artist Series Concerts of Sarasota promotes excellence in live musical performances by presenting acknowledged stars of the next generation to audiences of Florida’s Gulf Coast.”