Sarasota Music Festival Announces New Conductor and Soloist

Sarasota Orchestra has announced a change of conductor and soloist for the closing concert of the 2023 Sarasota Music Festival this Saturday, June 24. Due to illness, Jeffrey Kahane will be replaced by conductor Nicholas McGegan and piano soloist Robert Levin, for the concert formerly titled “Kahane Plays Beethoven.” 

The concert will retain the same program and is now entitled “Beethoven and Schumann.”

Conductor Nicholas McGegan—long hailed as “one of the finest baroque conductors of his generation” (The Independent) and “an expert in 18th-century style” (The New Yorker)—leads the final Festival orchestra performance of the season. The orchestra is joined by Robert Levin as the soloist in Beethoven's Fourth Piano Concerto. Levin has been a SMF faculty artist since 1979, Festival Director from 2006-2017, and is an internationally celebrated pianist and scholar.

The unchanged program features Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 4, Emily Cooley's Argo and concludes with Schumann's joyous “Spring” Symphony.   

Other changes include pianists for the Thursday, June 22 “Fairy Tale” Artist Series concert.  Festival Associate Faculty Artist Jean Schneider will replace Levin on the Schubert Trout piano quintet.  Associate Faculty Artist Michael Adcock will replace Kahane on the scheduled performances of Falla's Spanish Dance No. 1 and Kreisler's Liebesleid. 

Tickets are available for both concerts at www.SarasotaOrchestra.org/Festival or by calling the Box Office at (941) 953-3434.

For three weeks each June, internationally recognized guest artists and musicians come together in Florida to study and perform chamber music. Nearly 500 students worldwide audition to participate in the Sarasota Music Festival each year, but only 60 are accepted for the prestigious Festival, a program of Sarasota Orchestra.

Founded by Paul Wolfe, the Sarasota Music Festival began in 1965 as a one-week event with seven guest mentors. Wolfe was its director for 42 years as the Festival garnered international acclaim. Pianist and scholar Robert Levin served as director of the Festival from 2007 to 2016.

In its seventh year under Music Director Jeffrey Kahane, the 2023 Festival welcomes more than 40 guest artists on its faculty, including many of the Festival's own alumni.

Additional Information about the Sarasota Music Festival is available at http://www.sarasotaorchestra.org/festival. Patrons may reach the Box Office at (941) 953-3434.

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