Music Director Jeffrey Kahane has woven together a very special theme for this year’s Sarasota Music Festival: the power of storytelling through music. "One of the most fascinating aspects of music history is that music eventually developed into a language with the capacity to tell stories and evoke images without using words," Jeffrey explains. What types of stories can you expect to encounter this June? The following is an enticing glance at the marvels to come, curated by our innovative Music Director: Centuries before stories and poems were first set down in writing, the sister arts of music and storytelling were inextricably linked, filling a deep human need for words to be illuminated, enriched and enhanced by musical sounds; During our opening week, Vivaldi’s Summer (from The Four Seasons) and Beethoven’s Pastoral Symphony will vividly depict country life, the beauty and terror of nature, and humanity’s interaction with it. Valerie Coleman’s Rubispheres, by way of contrast, will take you into the heart of urban life with its vibrant portrayal of Manhattan’s cityscape; Respighi’s enchanting Botticelli Triptych brings to life three iconic paintings by one of the greatest painters of the Renaissance. The gifted young American composer Emily Cooley’s Argo evokes the mythical ship of the Argonauts in a gloriously lush orchestral tapestry; Among the greatest of all instances of a literary masterpiece inspiring a musical one is Mendelssohn’s sublime incidental music for Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, which depicts the enchanted forest world of the fairies and the humans whose lives become intertwined with them. Explore these and other wonders of the chamber and orchestral repertoire at the Sarasota Music Festival from June 5-24.

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