Your Top 8 Things to Do: March 1-7
Houston Person, appearing in the 38th Annual Sarasota Jazz Festival.
Image: Gene Martin
38th Sarasota Jazz Festival: A World of Jazz
March 7-10
The 38th annual Sarasota Jazz Festival opens Wednesday night, March 7, with a Jazz Trolley and Pub Crawl featuring over a dozen musicians performing at various downtown Sarasota nightspots. Four concerts starring jazz masters from around the world follow next weekend at the Riverview High Performing Arts Center. Plan your festival here.
Andrew "Jr. Boy" Jones performs at the Suncoast Blues Festival March 3.
Image: Courtesy Photo
Suncoast Blues Festival
March 3
Singing the blues all day long Saturday at the Sarasota Fairgrounds are Monster Mike Welch and the Mike Ledbetter Band, Chicago guitarist Lurrie Bell, Detroit singer Thornetta Davis, Blues Music Award winner Doug MacLeod, Texas guitarist Andrew “Jr. Boy” Jones and guitarist-singer James Armstrong. All that great music for just $30 in advance, $45 day of; check here for details.
Stuttgart Ballet principal dancer Friedemann Vogel
Image: Youn Sik Kim
The Sarasota Ballet presents “Dreams of Nature”
March 2-3
Stuttgart Ballet principal dancer Friedemann Vogel brings his star power to the Sarasota Ballet as Oberon for the company premiere of Sir Frederick Ashton’s The Dream Friday and Saturday at the Van Wezel. Also on the program is another company premiere, David Bintley’s “Still Life” at the Penguin Café.
Melba Moore
Melba Moore stars in Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar and Grill
Through April 8
Westcoast Black Theatre Troupe has a sell-out on its hands with its run of Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar and Grill, starring Tony Award-winning actress Melba Moore. But you’re in luck if you don’t mind really getting into the action—a limited number of onstage café seats are available for purchase. Lady Day is a musical bio of the great chanteuse Billie Holiday as she performs one of her last concerts in a small Philadelphia bar.
ArtSlam 2017
Image: Courtesy Realize Bradenton
ArtSlam
March 3
All kinds of interactive arts experiences are yours for the making when 28 teams of students and professional artists take over downtown Bradenton for this annual celebration. Presented by Realize Bradenton.
Chucho Valdes
Image: Francis Vernhet
Chucho Valdes
March 2-3
The five-time Grammy-winning Cuban pianist, composer, arranger and bandleader presents his brand of Afro-Cuban jazz at the Historic Asolo Theater as part of The Ringling’s New Stages series.
Soprano Jennifer Black sings Adalgisa in the Sarasota Opera premiere production of Norma.
Image: Rod Millington
Sarasota Opera presents Norma
Opening March 3
Passion, defiance, vengeance among a Druid priest, a Roman official and a temple virgin. What can we say—this is opera, after all, and it’s all there in the Sarasota Opera production of Bellini’s Norma. Opening March 3 with additional performances March 6, 8, 11, 14, 17, 20 and 24 at the Sarasota Opera House.
New Music New College “It’s Alive: A Monstrous Circus on Frankenstein”
March 4
In honor of the 200th anniversary of the publication of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, the contemporary music series uses elements from composer John Cage’s Circus On to bring together students, faculty, staff and ensemblenewSRQ to create a multimedia presentation across New College’s Koski Plaza and academic center building.
