The City of Sarasota Parks and Recreation District is offering an American Red Cross Lifeguarding blended learning course. The course is taught by our Head Lifeguard and Recreation Leader. Together they will teach you to help others stay safe in, on, and around the water, and help you learn the latest safety and rescue techniques, and how to deliver critical care, like CPR, first aid, and AED administration, when it is needed most. Every class will cover important skill that will not only help you stay safe while helping others enjoy the water safely, but can help you begin, or advance, your career in aquatics. The course will take place on March 15, 16 and 17 over Sarasota County Spring Break from 10am to 2:30pm. Participants must attend all classes to receive certificate. Fee of $225 per participant, all of whom must be at least 15-years-old by the last day of class and pass a pre-course swimming skills test prior to taking lifeguarding courses. Register by calling Arlington Park & Aquatic Complex at 941-263-6732 by Friday, March 5.

Join Strings Con Brio and Conductor Kenneth Bowermeister for “A Little Night Music.” Featured soloists will be the dazzling duo guitarists Joseph Shields and Dr. Zachary Johnson performing the effervescent Concerto for Two Guitars and Orchestra by Antonio Vivaldi on April 7 from 6pm to 8pm at Historic Spanish Point Campus. Also on the program will be “Eine Kleine Nachtmusik,” the original A Little Night Music, by Mozart. The concert will include the stunning “Intermezzo” from Cavalleria Rusticana, Andrew Lloyd-Webber’s haunting “Music of the Night” from Phantom of the Opera, and selections from the great Walt Disney musical “Beauty and the Beast”. Come and enjoy the music and celebrate this nocturnal serenade with the award-winning community-based orchestra, Strings Con Brio. In-Person Tickets are sold out but Virtual Live Stream are available.

Sweeping views of Sarasota Bay provide the perfect backdrop for honoring mothers at Selby Gardens on May 9 at 10:30am, noon, and 1:30pm. With a scrumptious buffet, mothers and their families are sure to have a delightful day. Three seatings are available. Fun games, children’s activities, and family photos are included in the event. A trolley will be available from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. from the Sarasota Senior Friendship Center (1888 Brother Geenen Way). Members are $70, Non-members are $80, Children ages 5-17 are $30, and Children 4 and under are free.

Join the award-winning musicians of Palm Street Quartet for an evening under the stars in Roy Lichtenstein: Monet’s Garden Goes Pop on March 10 from 6pm to 8pm at the Downtown Sarasota Campus. The concert will feature selections that span and borrow from impressionistic to jazz genres which are sure to engage all the five senses for the ultimate concert experience. The program will highlight pieces by Debussy, including the popular “Clair De Lune” the sensual String Quartet in G Minor, and the evocative “American in Paris” by Gershwin. The quartet will perform the American standard “Star Dust” by Henry Carmichael and the beloved French single “La Vie en Rose”. Patrons will hear Satie’s atmospheric Gymnopédies, and “Oblivion”, one of the loveliest melodies of all time by Piazzolla. We look forward to sharing this tantalizing and memorable nocturnal serenade with you. In-person and Virtual Live Stream Tickets Available.

This lunch, on April 28 from 11:30am to 1pm will feature Eddie Zaratsian. When Hollywood stars and international clientele hire Eddie Zaratsian, they know this renowned botanical artist and event designer with his generous, magnetic personality will create a powerful reflection of his clients’ personal style and preferences. Eddie is one of the most internationally sought after event and floral designers working today. He was one of the youngest inductees into the American Institute of Floral Designers, in addition to being selected as one of the youngest judges for the Tournament of Roses Parade. Named one of the top five international florists by the London Financial Times, Zaratsian has built a reputation as a visionary artist. With his global perspective and attention to detail, Eddie Zaratsian has built an A-list portfolio through collaborations with Hermes, Christian Louboutin, Chanel, Neiman Marcus, Kate Spade, Valentino, Oprah Winfrey and the OWN: Oprah Winfrey Network, Martha Stewart as well as a long list of celebrity clientele. As the Founder and Creative Director of Eddie Zaratsian Lifestyle and Design, Eddie’s innovative, refined aesthetic results in florals, installations and products that are natural, architecturally interesting, and truly beyond compare.

Between the Sky and the Water is a mid-career retrospective of Janaina Tschäpe (b. Munich, Germany 1973) that will run from December 14 through May 2. Tschäpe’s wide-ranging oeuvre is visually connected by a lexicon of forms that array across a variety of media—painting, drawing, installation, sculpture, photography, video, and performance. These varied articulations of her core concepts comprise a holistic cosmology, a gesamtkunstwerk (a total work of art), a grand evolutionary opera where each piece plays a supporting role, subsumed by the totality of the body. Recurring themes persist—Kafkaesque metamorphosis and transformation, a feminist resistance to the perpetual policing of the female body, a collapsing of scale undifferentiating the grand cosmos from the infinitesimal cellular, an excavation of the nature of landscape—but always, most importantly, is an exploration of painting as a way of understanding the world. Travelling from deep sea to land to space, the terrain is constantly shifting and yet the same, like a creature tropically and symbiotically adapting to whatever environment they find themselves inhabiting. Atmospherically sliding between the figurative and the abstract, the work invites your eye to travel, free of regard for chronology, or need of narrative.

The exhibition features over a dozen projects that exemplify Abbott’s unique climate and site-based perspective on living in harmony with one’s environment and will run from November 8, 2020 through April 25. Using his Bayou Studio as the epicenter of Abbott’s creative inquiry, the exhibition shows how key concepts developed in the experimental atelier space find physical form in his built projects, whether commissioned or conceived with a prescribed program. Nature is at the heart of Carl Abbott’s creative practice. All of his gestures — however small or grand — exemplify Abbott’s committed ethic and aesthetics, his site-based perspective on living in harmony with one’s environment. While some belief systems posit a “man” v. “nature” sensibility, Abbott’s cosmology understands human beings to be of nature. He thus shapes space, physically and conceptually, to serve nature’s—our—needs, in terms of comfort and shelter, but most importantly, in terms of one’s enrichment and enhancement of life. This exhibition aims to elucidate the art of architecture, examining origin stories, early influences and how the visual environment shaped Abbott’s “ways of seeing”. We hope to bring alive the practice of architecture as an artistic pursuit, a humanistic discipline, and a way to reunite with nature. The exhibition arrays over three areas on the Museum Campus: La Musa Azul – a site-responsive meditation grove located in the Marcy & Michael Klein Plaza, Exant/Extinct – a spotlight exhibition in the historic portion of the Wendy G. Surkis & Peppi Elona Lobby, and The Bayou Studio – a mini-retrospective in the Claire H. Rusen Gallery.

Latin American composers have served as a rich source of compelling music for centuries.  This program, from April 25 until April 28, 2021, features extraordinary compositions by three of the most celebrated 20thand 21st century Latin voices. Cuban-born composer Tania León has been a fearless voice for cultural diversity since arriving in the United States in 1967. Her 2012 string trio À Tres Voces is an evocative exploration of unique sounds and complex rhythms. Grammy Award winning Argentinian composer Oswaldo Golijov is known for his mesmerizing and deeply moving compositions. Mariel for cello and marimba was written in memory of a dear friend.  Fellow Argentinian Astor Piazzolla is universally recognized as the foremost composer of tango music. His Histoire du Tango, performed in a setting for violin and marimba, takes the listener to the night clubs and cafes of early 20th century Buenos Aires. 2021 marks the 100th anniversary of the late composer’s birth. $10 Streaming Access from March 4 through 9.

Holley Hall, 709 North Tamiami Trail

The Sarasota Concert Association (SCA) today announced “Musically Speaking,” a free, three-concert virtual series featuring preeminent classical musicians in unique performances, highlighted by informal conversations with the artists. World-acclaimed pianists Garrick Ohlsson and Kirill Gerstein launch the series with a duo piano performance and conversation on Thursday, February 25, at 7pm. Violinist Samantha Bennett and percussionist George Nickson will share their unique artistry on Thursday, March 11, at 7pm. The world-renowned chamber orchestra, Academy of St. Martin in the Fields, concludes the series on Thursday, March 25, at 7pm. Conducting the conversations with the artists is Charles Turon, a musician, educator, and SCA board member. The series is free, but registration is required. Each link will be viewable for seven days.

Sarasota Orchestra's next Classics concert program continues with the foundational work by Osvaldo Golijov, Mariel. The cello-marimba duet is a poignant example of the mesmerizing, deeply moving compositions for which the Argentinian composer won the Grammy Award. The revised program, now featuring three living composers, has been retitled "Bridges" to celebrate music as a connector between people from diverse backgrounds. The program opens with two string quartets by African-American composer Jessie Montgomery, who is quickly gaining recognition as a uniquely brilliant voice in classical music today. Cuban-born composer Tania León rounds out the electrifying concert experience with De Color, a virtuosic exploration of what León calls "the color of sound, and the sound of color." Sign up for the opportunity to purchase live performance tickets or purchase a $10 streaming pass. Live in Holley Hall from February 25 to 28 and streaming from March 4 to 9.