Your Top 8 Things to Do: Feb. 22-28
Ed Smith Stadium
Image: Robert Pope Photography
Spring Training Baseball Begins
Feb. 23 Orioles vs. Rays at Ed Smith Stadium
Feb. 24 Pirates against the Yankees at LECOM Park
It’s the hap, happiest time of the year—no, not Christmas, the start of Major League Baseball spring training. Friday afternoon, the Orioles open it up against the Tampa Bay Rays; you can get the entire O’s spring training schedule here. (We hear the ceremonial first pitch ball will be delivered via parachute by the U.S. Special Operations Command Parachute Team -- pretty impressive.) And the Pirates’ Saturday afternoon home opener at LECOM Park is against the Yankees. Click here for the schedule, Pirates fans. And here's a fun look at what it's like to attend Orioles fantasy camp - think you have it in you?
Midori
Image: Timothy Greenfield-Sanders
Midori and the Sarasota Orchestra
Feb. 22-25
The Sarasota Orchestra makes a very big splash as it commemorates composer Leonard Bernstein’s 100th birthday by inviting the internationally acclaimed violinist Midori to perform Bernstein’s Serenade after Plato’s Symposium. Also on the program are Beethoven’s Symphony No. 6 (Pastorale) and Rossini’s Overture to The Barber of Seville. The Thursday evening concert is at Neel Performing Arts Center in Bradenton; the Friday-Sunday concerts are at the Van Wezel.
Toni Dove: Embodied Machines
Image: Courtesy The Ringling
Toni Dove: Embodied Machines at The Ringling
Opening Feb. 25
Big coup for The Ringling: the first survey exhibition of pioneering experimental artist Toni Dove. “Embodied Machines” will include early installations, interactive cinema and stage performances, including the debut of her interactive installation, The Dress That Eats Souls. A lot to digest, but totally worth it; exhibit curator Matthew McLendon talks about the four-year journey to bring Dove to The Ringling here; and our own Kay Kipling talks with Dove here .
Chuchito Valdes
Image: Courtesy Selby Gardens
Chuchito Valdes Trio at Selby Gardens
Feb. 25
The monthly Garden Music Series under the banyan trees at Selby Gardens returns with two-time Latin Grammy nominee Chuchito Valdes and his trio. Sublime. (You can catch his father, Chucho Valdes, at the Historic Asolo Theater March 2 and 3, appearing in The Ringling’s New Stages series, “A World of Music.”)
Ballet Hispanico in Annabelle Lopez Ochoa’s Linea Recta.
Image: Paula Lobo
Ballet Hispánico
Feb. 23-25
A treat for contemporary dance fans, when the Sarasota Ballet welcomes America’s premier Latino dance troupe to the FSU Center for five performances. The high-energy Ballet Hispánico is long acclaimed for its fusion of classical, contemporary and Latin dance.
Crowley Museum & Nature Center
Southwest Florida Heritage Festival
Feb. 24-25
Crowley Museum and Nature Center, which just reopened after repairing the damage done to it by Hurricane Irma, is the site of this annual celebration of all things Florida Cracker—pioneer cooking beekeeping, spinning, whip making, sugar cane processing and lots more, plus live music and artisan vendors, nature walks, pony rides and a petting zoo for the young ‘uns.
Kirill Karabits
Image: Sasha Gusov
Staatskapelle Weimar
Feb. 26
The State Orchestra of Weimer, Germany—founded in 1491, it’s one of the world’s oldest—visits the Van Wezel as part of Sarasota Concert Association’s Great Performers Series. Kirill Karabits conducts Wagner’s Overture to The Flying Dutchman and works by Beethoven and Strauss. Catherine Foster, soprano.
Sarasota Visual Artists
Sarasota Visual Artists Studios Pop Up Show
Feb. 21-25
Thirteen diverse area visual artists—Andrea Dasha Reich, Barbara Banks, Bill Buchman, Duncan Chamberlain, Elena De La Ville, Gay Germain, Grace Howl, Jack Dowd, Joseph Melancon,Larry Forgard, Tim Jaeger, Tom Stephens and Vicky Randall—have banded together for a pop-up exhibition of their at 1508 Main St. Meet the artists at an opening reception from 5-8 p.m. Thursday.
