Right about now, the strains of classical music should be filling the air as the faculty and students of the Sarasota Music Festival assemble to prepare for three weeks of concertizing. Since that can’t happen in person due to COVID-19, the festival’s leadership is doing the next best thing, collaborating with Sarasota Orchestra’s Music Moves Us initiative for a special “SMF Edition” sharing video messages and performances.

The special edition launches Tuesday, June 2, and will share “postcards” from this year’s faculty and fellows. It will expand with regular updates of new content and includes weekly broadcasts of Sarasota Music Festival concert recordings at 7 p.m. each Tuesday on Classical WSMR 89.1 FM.

You can experience the SMF Edition on the Sarasota Orchestra website and its Facebook and Instagram pages, as well as through free email subscriptions.

The first week of musical postcards will welcome faculty member and bassoonist Frank Morelli, Tuesday, June 2; cellist and fellow Tsung Yu-Tsai, June 3; faculty and flutist Carol Wincenc, June 4; fellow and pianist Athena Tsianos, June 5; fellow and pianist Cameron Akioka, June 6; and faculty and violinist Frank Almond, June 7. (Interesting side note: pianist Tsianos will be playing an 1813 Briarwood fortepiano from the same period in which Beethoven composed—the exact instrument his works would be performed on.)

Starting Friday, June 5, Music Moves Us will also feature Rising Stars concerts from the 2019 festival, in which festival fellows performed chamber works of their choosing, and a Levin Lecture—an informative and entertaining talk by music scholar, pianist and educator Robert Levin.