Sarasota Orchestra Returns To The Stage With Four Exciting Programs In October 2021

Sarasota Orchestra presents four programs in the month of October, including full orchestra performances for the first time since March 2020.

Discover Mozart 1: Rebirth

Sarasota Orchestra winds, brass, percussion and strings unite onstage together for the first time since March 2020. Guest conductor Kensho Watanabe leads the program with a theme of spiritual and emotional renewal with pianist Dominic Cheli starring in a performance of Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 20.

Emerging onto the international stage over the past two years, Kensho Watanabe is fast becoming one of the most exciting and versatile young conductors to come out of the United States. Most recently, Kensho was recognized as a recipient of a Career Assistance Award by the Solti Foundation U.S. He held the position of Assistant Conductor of The Philadelphia Orchestra from 2016 to 2019, and during this time, made his critically acclaimed subscription debut with the Orchestra and pianist Daniil Trifonov, taking over from his mentor Yannick Nézet-Séguin.

Dominic Cheli's playing has been described as "spontaneous yet perfect, the best of how a young person can play." (Symphony Magazine) His rapidly advancing career included his Walt Disney Concert Hall Debut with legendary conductor Valery Gergiev where Dominic was described as "mesmerizing, (he) transfixed the audience...his fingers were one with each key." (LA Times) He gave his Carnegie Hall Recital Debut in 2019, and recently recorded his second CD on the Naxos label of the music of Liszt/Schubert. In 2017, Dominic was named first prize winner of the Concert Artists Guild Competition in New York City.

The program opens with composer and Imani Winds flutist Valerie Coleman's jubilant Seven O'Clock Shout and concludes with Schumann's Symphony No. 1, "Spring."

Chamber Soirée 2: Shall We Dance?

Members of Sarasota Orchestra present a chamber recital of dance-inspired works from ballet to the ballroom. This season, each program is inspired by a poem and will feature a recitation by a company member from the Florida Studio Theatre.

The program opens with Quinn Mason's 2013 String Quartet No. 2, a rhythmically complex work that bursts with joyous energy. The Danza de Mediodía for winds by Mexico's Arturo Márquez and Astor Piazzolla's L'Histoire du Tango for violin and marimba add Latin flair to the program. "Slow Dancing on the Highway: The Trip North" by Elizabeth Hobbs provides the inspiration for a concert that invites listeners to channel their inner Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers.

Great Escapes 1: The Roaring 20s

Sarasota Orchestra's Great Escapes series returns, offering a mix of light classics and popular favorites in themed programs. Enjoy classic ragtime and blues tunes of the 1920s arranged for orchestra alongside music from our current Roaring '20s, led by audience favorite Steven Jarvi. The program includes songs by Irving Berlin, highlights from Gershwin's An American in Paris, and "Sweet Georgia Brown."

Praised for his "uncommonly expressive and detailed" performances by the Miami Herald and described as an "eloquent and decisive" conductor by The Wall Street Journal, Jarvi recently completed his tenure as the Resident Conductor of the St. Louis Symphony. He won the Bruno Walter Memorial Foundation Award while the Associate Conductor of the Kansas City Symphony, and previously served as the Conducting Fellow with Michael Tilson Thomas and the New World Symphony in Miami Beach.

Tovey: The Adventure Begins

Maestro Bramwell Tovey conducts his inaugural concert as Sarasota Orchestra's Music Director Designate. In a program designed to celebrate their exciting new partnership, Tovey leads the Orchestra in Beethoven's iconic Symphony No. 7 and Verdi's Overture to La Forza del destino (The Force of Destiny). Violinist James Ehnes performs Saint-Saëns' Introduction and Rondo Capriccioso and Sarasate's showpiece Zigeunerweisen.

Tovey served as Music Director of the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra (VSO) for 18 years and is now the VSO's Music Director Emeritus. He is in demand as a conductor with some of the most prestigious orchestras in the world, including the New York Philharmonic, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Boston Symphony Orchestra and orchestras across Europe and Asia. Tovey is widely known for elevating the profile and advancing the orchestras he leads. His vision and institutional leadership resulted in the creation of the VSO School of Music, housed within the Tovey Centre for Music in Vancouver. The state-of-the-art music center, named in his honor, opened in 2011 with a strong emphasis on community and education.

Multiple Grammy Award-winning violinist James Ehnes is a Sarasota-Manatee resident and familiar guest artist with Sarasota Orchestra. A frequent collaborator with Bramwell Tovey, they first performed together when Ehnes was an emerging artist in Canada. The pair won a Grammy Award for their 2007 recording of Barber, Korngold, and Walton concerti with the VSO.

For further information, please visit www.SarasotaOrchestra.org.

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