Hermitage Artist Retreat Announces New April Program

Award-winning vocalist, composer, and educator Kavita Shah will present a free Hermitage community program, "Music Around the World," at The John & Mable Ringling Museum of Art on Thursday, April 21 at 6pm. Shah will share stripped-down selections from her beautiful and transporting works set against the beautiful banyan trees on The Ringling's magnificent grounds.

A lifelong New Yorker of Indian origin hailed for possessing an "amazing dexterity for musical languages" (NPR), Shah incorporates her ethnographic research on Brazilian, West African, and Indian traditions into her original music. Notable projects include "Visions" (2014, co-produced by Lionel Loueke), "Folk Songs of Naboréa" (2017, premiered at the Park Avenue Armory), and "Interplay" (2018, in duo with François Moutin), which was nominated for France's Victoires de la Musique for "Jazz Album of the Year."

"We are thrilled to welcome Kavita Shah to the Hermitage and to continue our longstanding partnership with The Ringling Museum," said Hermitage Artistic Director and CEO Andy Sandberg. "Kavita is a brilliant composer, musician, and performer, and this promises to be an exciting opportunity for the members of our Sarasota community to explore music's cultural reach in an inspiring outdoor setting."

This event follows on the heels of a conversation with Hermitage Fellow and Tony Award-winning musical theater trailblazer Jeanine Tesori on March 25, as well as multiple events surrounding the Hermitage Greenfield Prize (HGP) Weekend, including free community programs with 2021 HGP Winner Aleshea Harris, 2022 HGP Winner Angélica Negrón, WQXR Radio Evening Host Terrance McKnight, and more.

Hermitage outdoor programs like these are free and open to the public with a $5/person registration fee. Due to capacity limitations and social distancing, registration is required at HermitageArtistRetreat.org.

The program description:

• "Music Around the World" with Hermitage Fellow Kavita Shah, Thursday, April 21, 6pm: Hermitage Fellow Kavita Shah's music "reflects the insatiably curious mind of an ethnographer, the soul of a poet, and the eye of a painter" (Owen McNally, NPR). Having traveled the world and performed throughout six continents, Shah's music reflects each journey as it continuously explores new possibilities in music and sound. Shah shares stripped-down selections from her beautiful and transporting works on the magnificent grounds of the Ringling Museum, "under the banyans." This event is presented in partnership with The John & Mable Ringling Museum of Art. Registration is required at HermitageArtistRetreat.org ($5/person registration fee). The John & Mable Ringling Museum of Art, 5401 Bay Shore Rd, Sarasota, FL 34243.

The Hermitage is a non-profit artist retreat located in Manasota Key, Florida, inviting accomplished artists across multiple disciplines for residencies on its beachfront campus, which is on the National Register of Historic Places. Hermitage artists are invited to interact with the local community, reaching thousands of Gulf Coast residents and visitors each year with unique and inspiring programs. Hermitage Fellows have included 14 Pulitzer Prize winners, Poets Laureate, MacArthur 'Genius' Fellows, and multiple Tony, Emmy, Grammy, Oscar winners and nominees. Works created at this beachside retreat by a diverse group of Hermitage alumni have gone on to renowned theaters, concert halls, and galleries throughout the world. Each year, the Hermitage awards the $30,000 Hermitage Greenfield Prize for a new work of art, the newly announced $35,000 Hermitage Major Theater Award for an original theater commission, and the Aspen Music Festival's Hermitage Prize in Composition.

For more information, visit HermitageArtistRetreat.org.

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