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Sanibel Music Festival to return with globally praised performers

By TIFFANY REPECKI / trepecki@breezenewspapers.com - | Feb 26, 2024

The 37th annual Sanibel Music Festival will take place from March 5-23 on select Tuesdays and Saturdays at 7:30 p.m. at Peace Lutheran Church in Fort Myers and will feature six programs.

“We begin the season with the return of two festival favorites who earned rave reviews in our 2020 season,” event Co-Presidents Deborah Larson and Shirley Witte shared. “The season continues featuring globally praised performers.”

The schedule for the festival is as follows:

– MARCH 5: MANHATTAN CHAMBER PLAYERS

The New York-based collective is known for its contagious joy of performance. It features founding artistic director and violist Luke Fleming, violinists Francesca DePasquale and Katie Hyan, cellist Michael Katz, pianist Adam Golka and clarinetist Mark Dover. All acclaimed award-winning musicians in the United States and abroad, they are former students of the Juilliard School, New England Conservatory, Yale School of Music, Manhattan School of Music, Royal Academy of Music in London and Peabody Institute. The program will include: Antonín Dvořák (1841-1904); Piano Quintet in A major, Op. 81 (1887); Johannes Brahms (1833-97); and Piano Quintet in F minor, Op. 34 (1864).

SANIBEL MUSIC FESTIVAL The Manhattan Chamber Players will perform on March 5 at the Sanibel Music Festival.

– MARCH 9: AVERY GAGLIANO

Gagliano is the 2020 National Chopin Piano Competition winner, whose all-Chopin concert earned her a standing ovation and multiple curtain calls. She prevailed over 25 competitors to rise to international acclaim as the first prize and best concerto prize winner at the competition. Gagliano went on to be the only American semifinalist at the 18th International Chopin Competition in 2021 and made her debut at Carnegie Hall in 2020.

– MARCH 12: BOSTON TRIO

The trio features pianist Heng-Jin Park, violinist Irina Muresanu and cellist Jonah Ellsworth. Park made her solo debut with the Boston Pops at the age of 15 and is renowned globally as a soloist, chamber musician, pedagogue and music director. A founding member of the trio, she is also the artistic director of the Halcyon Music Festival. Muresanu is a top prize and award winner, including the Montreal International, Queen Elisabeth International, UNISA International String, Washington International, Schadt String Competition, University of Maryland Creative and Performing Arts Award, Pro Musicis International Award, Presser Music Award and Arthur Foote Award from the Harvard Musical Association. Ellsworth has won acclaim for his solo performances with the Boston Symphony, Akron Symphony, Boston Philharmonic, Jacksonville Symphony, New Bedford Symphony and others. The program will include: Mozart C-major Trio #5, K.548; Schumann D-minor Trio #1, Op. 63; and Ravel Trio.

– MARCH 16: VIANO STRING QUARTET

SANIBEL MUSIC FESTIVAL Avery Gagliano will perform on March 9 at the Sanibel Music Festival.

One of the most sought-after performing young ensembles today, the quartet will be in residence at the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center Bowers Program until 2027. Since winning first prize at the 2019 Banff International String Quartet Competition, it has traveled to nearly every major city globally, including New York, London, Berlin, Vancouver, Paris, Beijing, Toronto, Lucerne and Los Angeles. The quartet was named the inaugural June Goldsmith Quartet-in-Residence for the Music in the Morning series in Vancouver until 2025. It has also held residencies at the Curtis Institute, Colburn Conservatory, Northern Michigan University and Meadows School of the Arts at Southern Methodist University.

– MARCH 19: DAVID FINCKEL AND WU HAN

Preeminent chamber musicians and Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center artistic directors, both Finckel and Han are recipients of Musical America’s Musicians of the Year Award. Their activities have taken them from New York’s stages to important concert halls in the United States, Europe and Asia. Finckel was the first American student of Mstislav Rostropovich and went on to become the cellist of the Emerson String Quartet, which garnered nine Grammy Awards and the Avery Fisher Prize during his 34-season tenure. He is a professor at both the Juilliard School and Stony Brook University. Han also serves as artistic advisor for Wolf Trap’s Chamber Music at the Barns series and for Palm Beach’s Society of the Four Arts. In 2022, she was named artistic director of La Musica in Sarasota. The program will include: Saint-Saens Sonata #1 in C-major, Op. 32; Mendelssohn Sonata #2 in D-major, Op. 58; and Grieg Sonata for Cello and Piano in A-minor, Op. 36.

– MARCH 23: OPERA THEATER OF CONNECTICUT

Singing the hits of dramatist William Schwenck Gilbert and composer Arthur Seymour Sullivan, it will present “Gilbert & Sullivan’s Memorable Music, Madness, and Mayhem.” Punctuated by Artistic Director Alan Mann’s commentary, the concert will feature hits from well-known comic operas, such as “The Mikado,” “H.M.S Pinafore” and “The Pirates of Penzance.”

SANIBEL MUSIC FESTIVAL The Boston Trio will perform on March 12 at the Sanibel Music Festival.

“Peace Lutheran offers easy and accessible parking, expansive seating in the sanctuary and superb acoustics,” Larson and Witte noted.

Ticket are $50 for adults and $25 for students; discounted packages are also available.

“We invite you to consider joining our new Encore Club with the opportunity to meet the artists at receptions following the concerts,” they added.

For more information or tickets, visit www.sanibelmusicfestival.org.

Peace Lutheran Church is 15840 McGregor Blvd., Fort Myers.

SANIBEL MUSIC FESTIVAL The Viano String Quartet will perform on March 16 at the Sanibel Music Festival.

SANIBEL MUSIC FESTIVAL David Finckel and Wu Han will perform on March 19 at the Sanibel Music Festival.

SANIBEL MUSIC FESTIVAL The Opera Theater of Connecticut will perform on March 23 at the Sanibel Music Festival.