Katherine Siochi, new harpist with the Sarasota Orchestra, looks youthful enough to still be in high school, but she plays like the seasoned pro she is. With two degrees from Juilliard and experience playing on a fill-in basis with major US orchestras, she can definitely be called seasoned. In February, she brought her beautiful Lyon and Healy concert harp to the very appreciative full house in Eicher Auditorium.

He was supposed to sing for us a year ago, but came down with the Skrog and could not even croak on pitch, so instead we got a lovely last-minute program from Amy Connours and Lee Dougherty Ross. This season, he came, in good voice, and it was well worth the wait.

One advantage of being a long-time member of the Sarasota Music Club is that it allows for a long view of the club and its activities. The membership of the SMC is about the same in number, from year to year, as new members come in, replacing those who have gone on to sing in the Heavenly Choir. Due to a healthy bequest quite a while ago coupled with their annual dues, the SMC has been able to provide concerts every third Friday in ‘the season’ for our members and any others who wish to come, and to give many scholarships to help young musicians continue their education at colleges and music schools across the country.  These activities are exactly what the Music Club founders intended.

Mike Markaverich shared his considerable musical talent at Sarasota Music Club's November meeting. 

Sarasota Music Club’s delightful season opening concert by Dale and Barbara Jensen was made even more interesting by Dale’s sharing his knowledgeable (and of course, witty) explanations and demonstrations of the various instruments in the flute family.

So, there we were – the culmination of the season’s activities, the Scholarship Awards Luncheon of 2018. The Sarasota Music Club has been doing this since its founding in 1930, and the Artist Series Concerts of Sarasota since its founding in 1996. This is the third year of the two organizations’ partnership, and they -we- combined organizational and financial resources to award $20,000 in scholarships to eight very talented young area musicians. They, their parents, teachers, accompanists, and many members of the two sponsoring organizations were gathered to celebrate. As a bonus to us, the four 12th grade winners performed at the luncheon.

The small-ish crowd at Sarasota Music Club’s March meeting/program was treated to a cabaret show given by a lady who really knows how to give a cabaret show. Seventeen of her favorite songs, strung together by a script that gave brief introductions to the songs by telling us a little bit about the origin of the song, or its writers/composers, or the whys behind its inclusion in this group. Plus occasional bits about her life...yes, her husband of 26 years was, in fact, in a hospital in Cleveland at that moment, and she did, in fact, leave his bedside to fly back to Sarasota for this show. Such is the dedication, the Credo of a committed professional...‘I said I’d be there, and dammit, the show will go on!’

What a pair! The Ridenours, Rich and Stacy, graced Eicher Auditorium with their enormous skills last Friday, at the Sarasota Music Club’s February meeting. He of the outgoing and enthusiastic stage presence and she of the self-effacing, introverted mien, both pianists of great ability, kept the full house totally engaged and wanting more. The program consisted of standard works (for band, orchestra or soloist) that Rich has arranged for piano, four hands, inelegantly known in music circles as ‘four buns on a bench.’