Sarasota Music Festival Announces 2023 Highlights

May 3, 2023 – Sarasota

Sarasota Music Festival announced its concert programs for the 2023 Festival season. This year’s Festival centers around a special theme that ties together the 12 concerts: 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,” says Music Director Jeffrey Kahane. 

The Festival’s student fellows, who come from many of the nation’s top conservatories and music schools, are afforded the opportunity to perform alongside world-renowned faculty artists on Friday and Saturday evening concert programs. 

The three-week Festival runs from June 5 – 24 and features a schedule of 12 different concerts, as well as a wide range of masterclasses, coaching sessions, and rehearsals.

Sarasota Music Festival Highlights Include:

• Tales of the verdant countryside unfold under the baton of Yaniv Dinur in the first orchestral program of the 2023 Festival, “Pastorale.” Felix Mendelssohn’s incidental music to A Midsummer Night’s Dreamdepicts the magical forest world of elves and fairies and the raptures of young love. Festival faculty pianist Anne-Marie McDermott, a Festival alumna, will perform Robert Schumann’s Piano Concerto. The program concludes with Beethoven’s “Pastorale” Symphony. From bird calls to burbling streams to the terrifying power of an afternoon thunderstorm, Beethoven’s Sixth Symphony is a timeless expression of his reverence for the natural world.
• Aaron Copland’s portrayal of a day in the life of a newly married pioneer couple lies at the heart of a program entitled “Appalachian Spring.” The Pulitzer Prize-winning score to Martha Graham’s ballet will be heard in its original 13-instrument version. New SMF faculty oboist Marion Kuszyk, Associate Principal Oboe of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, joins faculty hornist Michelle Reed Baker and six fellows in Mozart’s serenade for wind octet. The program concludes with one of the crown jewels of the chamber music repertoire—Brahms’ Piano Quintet in F Minor—performed by the Grammy-winning Attacca Quartet and SMF Music Director Jeffrey Kahane.
• Past and present intertwine in “Sound Stories” as Kazem Abdullah, who attended SMF as a clarinet fellow, makes his conducting debut at the Festival. Art and music meld in Ottorino Respighi’s Botticelli Triptych, a musical rendering of three iconic paintings by the Renaissance artist. Longtime faculty cellist Desmond Hoebig is featured in Tchaikovsky’s “Rococo” Variations, the Russian composer’s homage to Mozart. The concert concludes with Mozart’s final symphony, “Jupiter.”
• The final Artist Showcase of the 2023 Festival, “Fairy Tale,” features an all-star roster of musicians. Hai-Ye Ni, Principal Cellist of the Philadelphia Orchestra, is the protagonist of Janáček’s Pohádka (Fairy Tale), which tells the story of a prince who faces a series of tests put to him by the ruler of the underworld. David Halen, Concertmaster of the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra, shares two favorites by Fritz Kreisler—one of the greatest violinists of all time. Henri Dutilleux’s Sonatine features Jasmine Choi, the “goddess of the flute” according to The Korea Times. Along with Ni, faculty artists Jennifer Frautschi, Teng Li, Timothy Cobb, and Robert Levin will perform Schubert’s iconic “Trout” Quintet. 
• Festival Music Director Jeffrey Kahane leads the Festival Orchestra from the keyboard as the soloist in Beethoven’s Fourth Piano Concerto, which has long been associated with the legend of Orpheus’ descent to the underworld. Exploring the different aspects of spring’s beauty, Schumann’s joyous “Spring” Symphony brings the 2023 Sarasota Music Festival to a rousing close. 
• 14 new faculty members join the illustrious roster, representing several of the nation’s major performing organizations, including the Los Angeles Philharmonic, The Philadelphia Orchestra, Dallas Symphony, yMusic and Harlem String Quartet, as well as leading conservatories and music schools including the USC Thornton School of Music, University of Michigan and The Juilliard School, among others.