Artist Series Concerts of Sarasota Celebrates 30 Years with Gala Event in February

Artist Series Concerts of Sarasota presents two concerts in February in addition to its 30th anniversary gala celebration. Follow the Lieder, a soirée concert featuring violinist Blake Pouliot and pianist Henry Kramer, is February 1 and 2. James Ehnes and Friends – eight friends to be exact – is February 10 at First Congregational Church. Artist Series Concerts’ 30th anniversary gala celebration, The Golden Age of Broadway and Operetta, is February 24 at Marie Selby Botanical Gardens. For more information and to purchase tickets, visit ArtistSeriesConcerts.org or call (941) 306-1202.

Violinist Blake Pouliot and pianist Henry Kramer will fill the music room of the Fischer/Weisenborne Residence with a program devoted to the influence of art song on instrumental music. Grand Prize Winner at the 2016 Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal Manulife Competition, Pouliot has performed with orchestras throughout North and South America and Europe. Kramer, his decade-long collaborator, was awarded an Avery Fisher Career Grant (2019) and Second Prize at the Queen Elisabeth Competition (2016). Their program includes selections by Schumann and Chausson, Pouliot’s own arrangement of Dvořák’s Zigeunerlieder, and music from the opera Carmen. Follow the Lieder– part of the Soirée series – is February 1 at 4:00 p.m. and February 2 at 4:00 p.m. Tickets are $70.

James Ehnes and Friends, on February 10, 7:30 p.m. at First Congregational United Church of Christ, continues the Top Shelf Tuesdays series. Ehnes, one of the world’s preeminent violin soloists, accompanied by his long-time recital partner pianist Andrew Armstrong, will play Elgar’s Violin Sonata and a variety of violin showpieces. After intermission, Ehnes will be joined by violinists Daniel Jordan, Philip Payton, and Shawn Weil; violists Stephanie Block and Nathan Frantz; and cellists Natalie Helm and Bjorn Ranheim for Mendelssohn’s Octet. Tickets are $50.

The Golden Age of Broadway and Operetta, February 24, 5:00 p.m. at Marie Selby Botanical Gardens, celebrates the 30th anniversary of Artist Series Concerts of Sarasota, with co-founders Jerry and Lee Dougherty Ross serving as honorary chairs. On October 31, 1996, Lee Dougherty Ross, accompanied by pianist Anne Chamberlain, performed the very first concert. For the first few years it was a hobby, but in 2002 Jerry Ross created the 501(c)(3) tax-exempt organization. The celebration begins with a concert in the garden of popular operetta selections performed by singers Michaela Ristaino, Adelaide Boedecker, Amy Connours, Justin Gomlak, and Jesse Martin, with Dr. Joseph Holt at the piano. The evening includes cocktails during and following the performance, dinner in the ballroom, a live auction, a wall of wine, and more music by Suncoast Music Scholarship competition winners Colin Leonard and Matrick Thorpe. Tickets are $225.

For more information and to purchase tickets, visit ArtistSeriesConcerts.org or call (941) 306-1202.