Suncoast Music Scholarship 2020 auditions for graduating seniors that had been rescheduled for July 25 are now canceled, due to ongoing health safety concerns.

Suncoast Music Scholarships partners, Sarasota Music Club and Artist Series Concerts of Sarasota, have had to revise plans for 2020 scholarships, due to a recently developed funding shortage related to concert cancellations. The fifth annual scholarship program was planned to offer “up to $20,000 in music scholarships,” but only half that amount is now available for scholarship awards.

Normally at this time I would be talking about the (Choose one: Delightful, Dull, Daunting, Drab) program presented by Jane Hoffman, Flutist, and Don Bryn, Pianist, at the Sarasota Music Club. These are not normal times, however, with Covid-19 on the loose. So, I suggest washing your hands for 20 seconds (as long as singing “Supercalifragilisticexpealidocious” twice. Actually, it took me 20 seconds just to type it, once) before reading this, and since you are reading on your screen, it wouldn’t hurt to disinfect the screen, as well.*

Every once in a while, you hear someone early in their career, and you know, you just know, they have the stuff for a great future. That was the experience last Friday for the lucky people who heard Monica Conesa, Soprano. Her collaborator at the piano was Lee Dougherty Ross.

Well, here we are, “Celebrating 90 Years.” That’s what the Sarasota Music Club’s this year’s motto says. At the beginning, 90 years ago, we performed for each other, brought in professionals from The Outside to perform for us when we could, and always tried to encourage our young-uns to ‘do music.’ We weren’t much more than a fishing village back then, but we had pride.

With Brian Gurl, you spell Entertainer with an E. Capitol, bold, and larger than life! He is the complete package: a singer with a pleasant baritone who accompanies himself with brilliant piano-playing. The piano came first. He was one of those rare, precocious talents who started piano lessons at age 6 in a small town in New Hampshire, and quickly surpassed his teacher. He studied classical technique at first, then added jazz, and now can play anything. (A lot of the best performers of “popular music” today followed that same path...classical piano training, which builds a solid foundation, then branching into various styles of jazz, rock, country, or what-have-you.)

Manatee Arts Education Council, a group co-sponsored by the Manatee Arts Council and the School Board of Manatee County, honored Dale Jensen by giving his name to the newly created award honoring lifetime work in music education. Annually, from 2020 and beyond, the Manatee Arts Education Council will give the Dale Jensen Music Education Award to those who have contributed in a meaningful way to enhancing music education in the community.

Sarasota Music Club’s change of schedule from their usual third Friday, due to Eicher Auditorium availability, may have contributed to a smaller crowd for the November program. The little pecan Danishes and sesame muffins were good, as usual. The program, not as usual, was less than wonderful.

The Sarasota Music Club started its 90^th Year off with a bang on October 11. Ninety years of sponsoring concerts, giving scholarships to deserving young musicians, and helping to shape the Sarasota area into the musical Mecca that it has become!

Sarasota Music Club’s 90^th Anniversary season begins on October 11, 2019.

In its fourth annual competition, Suncoast Music Scholarships awarded $20,000 to eight talented young musicians from Sarasota and Manatee counties to be used for music education expenses. The scholarship program is funded and organized through a partnership between Sarasota Music Club and Artist Series Concerts of Sarasota.