Sarasota Orchestra Approved For Grant From The National Endowment For The Arts

Sarasota Orchestra has been approved for a $15,000 Grants for Arts Projects award to support the 2022 Sarasota Music Festival. Grant funds will support the 2022 Sarasota Music Festival taking place from June 6-25.

The three-week Festival runs from June 6 - 25 and features a lively schedule full of concerts, master classes, coaching sessions, and open rehearsals. The internationally-renowned program brings 60 fellows and 40 esteemed faculty artists from top conservatories and music schools to Sarasota to study and perform.

Sarasota Orchestra's project is among 1,125 projects across America totaling more than $26.6 million that were selected during this second round of Grants for Arts Projects fiscal year 2022 funding.

"The National Endowment for the Arts is proud to support arts and cultural organizations throughout the nation with these grants, including Sarasota Orchestra, providing opportunities for all of us to live artful lives," said NEA Chair Maria Rosario Jackson, PhD. "The arts contribute to our individual well-being, the well-being of our communities, and to our local economies. The arts are also crucial to helping us make sense of our circumstances from different perspectives as we emerge from the pandemic and plan for a shared new normal informed by our examined experience."

"We are grateful for the tremendous support from the National Endowment for the Arts, which ensures a bright future for the return of the full Sarasota Music Festival this summer. The arts are needed more than ever in this increasingly complex world," said Sarasota Orchestra President and CEO Joseph McKenna.

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 sixth year under Music Director Jeffrey Kahane, the 2022 Festival welcomes more than 40 guest artists on its faculty, including many of the Festival's own alumni.

Kahane is a renowned conductor and pianist who has performed with many of the world's great orchestras. In May 2017 he completed his 20th season as Music Director of The Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, where he is now Conductor Laureate. He is the Professor of Keyboard Studies at USC Thornton School of Music.

Additional Information about the Sarasota Music Festival is available at http://www.sarasotaorchestra.org/festival.

For more information on other projects included in the Arts Endowment grant announcement, visit https://www.arts.gov/news.