The Sarasota Music Festival returns this summer, as does Music Director Jeffrey Kahane, who took the reins last year and wowed audiences by kicking off the festivities leading a performance of all six of Bach’s Brandenburg concertos. This year promises more Baroque delights, as well as a newly commissioned work from American composer Robert Sirota, new faculty artists and guest performances from two rising stars, in addition to the rest of the more than 40 guest artists. The three-week festival runs from June 4–23. Shostakovich, Schubert, Beethoven, Mozart—all get their due.

The Friday Festivals commence on June 8 with “Brilliantly Baroque,” featuring work from two Baroque masters, Bach and Vivaldi. Bach’s Concerto for Oboe and Violin will showcase the power and pairing of the two (giving a rare spotlight for the former), and Kahane himself will conduct Bach’s Keyboard Concerto from the harpsichord. Following Bach, Vivaldi gets his due in a concerto for two cellos, followed by a finale in “Summer” from Four Seasons.

Amongst Artist Showcases in the intimate Holley Hall, the aforementioned Friday Festivals' chamber music productions and Saturday Symphonies bringing full concert performances that unite the student orchestra with concertos from faculty and SMF alumni, classical music lovers will find plenty to love. Special guests will include new faculty artists, soloist and pianist Jon Kimora Parker and Zachery DePue, concertmaster for the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra. Acclaimed pianist and SMF alum Vijay Venkatesh also returns to the festival, along with violinist Angelo Xiang Yu, winner of the Yehudi Menuhin International Violin Competition. Each will be performing concertos accompanied by the student orchestra.

Saturday Symphonies conclude with the world premiere of Sirota’s “Lumious Bodies,” presented between Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 27 in B Flat and Schumann’s Symphony No. 3 in E Flat Major. “The work is a tribute to five great musical geniuses who inspired Dr. Sirota,” says Kahane, “George Gershwin, Lili Boulanger, Aaron Copland, Mendelssohn’s sister Fanny Hensel and Leonard Bernstein.” The piece will be performed by the chamber ensemble yMusic, a New York-based company of six.

With several more concerts and performances, in addition to open rehearsals so fans can watch the students progress as the festival plays out, audiences will have plenty to choose from, with full listings available on the Sarasota Orchestra website.

The Sarasota Music Festival begins June 4, but tickets are on sale now. 

Sarasota Music Festival

Yesterday marked National Teachers Day—an event held annually in the U.S. to give extra credit to the mighty individuals educating and inspiring students daily. In case you forgot to extend gratitude to your child’s teacher or an old professor who had a deep impact on you, don’t fret—this entire week is celebrated as Teacher Appreciation Week. It marks a well-deserved time of year to honor and recognize teachers' lasting contributions to the community, society and the lives of our children. Students often prepare personal gifts and thank you cards, and events are held in many schools to mark the occasion.

Local philanthropic leaders, such as the Community Foundation of Sarasota County and The Patterson Foundation, have long supported the Sarasota County School District—investing in its teachers to ensure that Sarasota attracts and retains some of the best educators across the state. Collaborative initiatives have helped spawn leadership academies, incentive programs, conferences and workshops, all to ensure that local teachers have the tools they need to be successful. Most notably, the recent efforts with the Suncoast Campaign for Grade-Level Reading—a community-wide effort in Manatee and Sarasota counties to help all children, especially those from low-income families, succeed in school—has done considerably well in leveraging efforts to celebrate, train and reward teachers in our community. 

“This week reminds us of the critical role of our teachers,” says Kirsten Russell, Director of Community Investment at the Community Foundation of Sarasota County. “They are dedicated and generous with their time—they show up every day, all day. They humbly turn non-readers into readers, creating a love of learning and instilling the belief that every child is a learner. Teaching is the profession that creates all other professions. The Community Foundation of Sarasota County and our other generous foundations support our schools and teachers because they are on the front lines daily—fighting for our children.”

The Community Foundation of Sarasota County is proud to partner with SRQ Media Group to highlight stories about community impact powered by philanthropy in our region, thanks to the support of donors and our local nonprofit partners. The Community Foundation is a public charity founded in 1979 by the Southwest Florida Estate Planning Council as a resource for caring individuals and the causes they support, enabling them to make a charitable impact on the community. 

Community Foundation of Sarasota County

Florida red tide algae toxins can stress and even kill sublegal stone crabs—young adults whose claws are growing toward legal harvest size—according to newly published, preliminary research indicating a strong need for continued studies. Mote Marine Laboratory led the project in collaboration with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission’s Fish and Wildlife Research Institute (FWRI).

Study partners exposed 12 sublegal stone crabs to high concentrations of toxic Florida red tide algae, Karenia brevis, 12 to a less-toxic variety of K. brevis, and 12 to seawater only. Then they used the “reflex action mortality predictor” (RAMP) tool to examine stone crabs’ reflexes—such as retracting a certain body part when it’s touched, somewhat similar to humans’ knee jerk reflex. RAMP gives crabs a number score for reflex impairment, indicating decreased chances of survival.

Over nine days, crabs in toxic red tide conditions showed a 52-percent decrease in reflex scores and a 67-percent decrease in feeding, and they were four times likelier to die than crabs in seawater alone. Crabs in lower-toxin red tide conditions showed less stress and mortality, and crabs in seawater alone showed the least.

The study’s first author, Mote Postdoctoral Research Fellow Dr. Phil Gravinese, said: “This small-scale study is just a first step, but it suggests that these sublegal crabs may have a relatively short window of tolerance for high levels of red tide, and we need to investigate this further.” 

Full Story

Sarasota County Schools is seeking volunteers interested in helping shape and promote positive social and emotional learning and academic success for the third-grade and middle-school students for the summer and upcoming 2018-19 school year. The responsibilities of a volunteer may vary and may range from one-on-one tutoring and interactions with students to assisting in classrooms at district schools. There are currently two programs in which Sarasota County Schools can use volunteer assistance. The first program is the Third-Grade Summer Reading Camp. This camp is for third-graders who have not reached grade-level reading proficiency and is being held at Lamarque Elementary in North Port, Gocio Elementary in North Sarasota and Gulf Gate Elementary in Central Sarasota. Tutors will work one-on-one with the same two students each week; a commitment of at least an hour a week is preferred. No experience is necessary; free training is provided. The second program is Summer Middle School at Heron Creek Middle in North Port and Brookside Middle in Sarasota. Summer Middle School is for middle-school students who failed a class or classes during the previous school year. Volunteers will work with multiple students to motivate and support them as they work to pass the class; a commitment of at least two hours per week is preferred. No experience or training is required. Both programs start in early June and end in mid-July. Volunteer programs for the 2018-19 school year begin in August and take place at all schools across the district. 

Sarasota County Schools

A new single-lane roundabout at the intersection of Orange Avenue and Ringling Boulevard is expected to be open to traffic early next week. While the bulk of the construction was completed about a week ago, final improvements being completed this week include the installation of signage, landscaping and a foundation for the public artwork that is to be displayed in the center of the roundabout. Crews plan to install local artist Jorge Blanco’s aluminum sculpture, BRAVO! later this summer. The installation will be coordinated to occur during off-peak hours to minimize traffic disruptions. The project also allowed for infrastructure upgrades including a new water line, additional lighting for the road and sidewalk and landscaping improvements. Since 2010, several one-lane roundabouts have been constructed downtown, including at Five Points, along Ringling Boulevard and at Orange Avenue and Main Street, hoping to promote a safer, more efficient and environmentally friendly mobility structure. 

City of Sarasota

Sarasota Memorial Hospital has cleared a major hurdle in its efforts to build a new hospital in the Venice community (Sarasota Memorial Hospital – Laurel Road).  Yesterday, an administrative law judge recommended that Florida’s Agency for Health Care Administration give final approval to the plan to open the new facility with 90 acute-care beds on Laurel Road. The ruling in SMH’s favor affirms AHCA’s preliminary decision to approve the new hospital and rejects challenges from local for-profit hospitals. AHCA and the judge agreed that SMH’s new facility not only will greatly improve south county residents’ access to high-quality, affordable care, but that it also will ease congestion and capacity challenges at its main hospital campus in Sarasota. SMH has seen unprecedented growth in patient volumes in recent years. AHCA is expected to give final approval to the new hospital in the coming weeks. While it awaits this last step, SMH is proceeding with initial site plans so it can meet its goal to open the new hospital in approximately three years. 

Sarasota Memorial Health Care System