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Reviews: Sarasota Music Festival PAGES 4 and 5

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Friends of the Sarasota Ballet Luncheon PAGE 7 by Mallory Gnaegy | A&E Editor Photo by Chris Dunlop

“I’m looking forward to it, and I have very good feelings about Sarasota Orchestra,” Anu Tali says. “I really enjoyed very much the community there; the people are so keen on music; and I loved working with them.”

Anu Director Estonian Anu Tali, who co-founded the Nordic Symphony Orchestra, will become the music director of Sarasota Orchestra for at least three seasons. ARTS&ENTERTAINMENT COVER STORY CONTINUED ON PAGE 2

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YourObserver.com

THURSDAY, JUNE 20, 2013

// Arts&Entertainment: fan favorite

by Mallory Gnaegy | A&E Editor (continued from page 1)

Sarasota Orchestra has Anu director Estonian Anu Tali, who co-founded the Nordic Symphony Orchestra, will become the music director of Sarasota Orchestra for at least three seasons.

Lilian Merila

Anu Tali is excited for life in Florida, regardless of the heat or humidity. “I love it! I had a big stupid smile on my face when I was there, and I felt genuinely happy,” Tali says. “It’s not about the cold, it’s about the darkness — the window of daylight is very narrow starting around November (in Estonia).”

nu Tali has just poured herself an afternoon pick-meup cup of coffee, and sits down just as her phone rings. She picks it up before the first ring finishes: “Hello!” she cheerfully answers. It’s 4:30 p.m. in Estonia and 9:30 a.m. in Sarasota — but Tali says, if someone needs to speak to her regarding her appointment as music director of Sarasota Orchestra, that she’d gladly talk to that person in the middle of the night. Following an 18-month search, the orchestra announced Tuesday, June 11, that Anu Tali will fill the vacancy left by Leif Bjaland, who was the director for 15 years. She signed a three-year contract, which is effective Aug. 1. Tali received rave reviews when she guest conducted in 2011. Unbeknownst to the Sarasota audience, the search committee had asked her if she’d be interested in the position when they contracted her return for a second appearance in winter 2013. “I didn’t want to give them a clear ‘yes’ until I had met the orchestra one more time — it was important for both me and them that it would be a good match,” she says. “I like to be sure.” When she directed the third Masterworks program this past

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THURSDAY, JUNE 20, 2013

// Arts&Entertainment

1. People — My sister is even better than me at that. I partly love music because it has people in it. I get a lot of energy and ideas from them. That’s why my instrument is human beings. 2. Nature — If you look up Estonia, you look up a lot of nature and not so much people (you have a population of only around 1.4 million). You get lost in the forest here; there’s lots of wild forest and moss that no one has stepped a foot on. I have total respect and I can be endless there — I can get lost for a whole summer season on the island. And it calms me down. 3. Languages — I speak Estonian, Russian, Finish, Swedish, German and English. I love listening to people speaking their mother tongue. If you doubt what you mean when they say it in their mother tongue, even when you don’t speak the language, you get their subconscious meaning. 4. Human voice and singing — I work a lot with sounds. In every orchestra, in every country you can perform a lot with sound with warmness or richness. 5. History — I think you have to know where you’re going. I think you have to know why things are and when things are … in the right place — you have to know the context. The most interesting thing is to make yourself small and learn the local way — so I’m a fan of traditions and history of places. Music clicked for them. The sisters attended specialized music schools starting as pre-teens. “I realized there were more people like me,” she says. “I was a normal child, but with extra musical interest.” She says that Soviet Estonia was always a little different, but that it was interesting to know the cultures around her and to

learn to speak their languages. She lived 80 kilometers from Finland, close enough to pick up one Finnish channel the Soviets had no way to prohibit the Estonians from watching. She says she also benefited greatly from the Russian culture — she loves Tchaikovsky. And the occupation helped make her fluent in six languages. During the occupation, Estonians could take part in cultural exchanges, and German and Finnish choirs could come visit. Tali made a Finnish best friend, to whom she would wave goodbye at the ports. But there was a rope Tali couldn’t go past. “My best friend started crying because it was so unfair that there was a rope I couldn’t step over, just because I was me and I was born in the wrong country,” she says. “I don’t want to be behind the rope ever again.” The occupation had a profound effect on Tali, and it’s apparent in how she performs musically. “I think everybody in Sarasota noticed it when I performed Overture No. 2,” she says. “It’s this held-back energy or scared feelings.” The occupation gave her a depth of emotion and empathy. “That’s partly why Estonians are good conductors,” she says. “We’re resilient and patient.” And Sarasota will have to take a lesson in Estonian patience. She’ll conduct two Masterworks programs in the upcoming season, but her first full season won’t take place until 2014-2015. “I’m really excited, happy and I’m not nervous at all,” she says. “That’s surprising because I’m actually a very cautious person — I like to be sure.”

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Five things that inspire Anu Tali:

Riikoja

ebrate Finland’s Independence Day. But the concert was a hit; and it was popular enough that when it came time to raise funds for the group, it was done so privately. It’s rare to have a patronfunded orchestra in Estonia, where most groups are statefunded. Kadri Tali manages the business side of the group, while Anu Tali manages the musical side. Tali will continue her work with the NSO throughout her duration with Sarasota Orchestra. She might invite a few Sarasota Orchestra musicians to join her when the top musicians from around the world meet. “I had wicked ideas when I was there,” she says with a laugh. “But I had to behave, since talks about being the orchestra’s director had happened. I didn’t want to steal all the best musicians right away ... ” And her sister is already planning to come visit Sarasota — they don’t typically go for more than a monthand-a-half without seeing each other. “They (her parents) could tell us to read books and take us out, but we had the most fun with each other,” Tali says. “My mother was afraid we’d never be interested in other things.” So to fix this isolation, Tali’s mother gave the twins a piano when they were 6-years-old — this was when Estonia was under Soviet occupation.

Photo by Erik

season, Tali found the musicians were more active, less timid and exhibited more artistry. She found that they could take risks together and take the music further. Following the performance, the audience gave her a standing ovation and yelled, “We love you.” Tali replied in kind: “I love you, too!” That kind of vocal reaction is rare in Europe, but Tali says that it was lovely and emotional for her. Following the last matinee concert in the program, Tali went to the airport to head back to Estonia, and found her flight had taken off two hours early. Sarasota Orchestra President and CEO Joseph McKenna and Vice President of Operations and Artistic Planning Pat Joslyn changed her ticket for the next possible flight the following day. Joslyn took her to dinner that night. Tali calls it “our own little story,” and says it drew them closer as a team. “They are extremely beside and behind me, and that is almost as important as the orchestra — having a good team,” she says. This kind of relationship is important for Tali, whose twin sister, Kadri Tali, is her familial and professional teammate. In 1997, when they were just 25-yearsold, they founded the Nordic Symphony Orchestra (NSO). It’s a festival orchestra, consisting of musicians from all over the world, which meets twice a year and has a few hit recordings. “We started it off accidentally,” she says with a chuckle. Originally it was going to be one concert organized to cel-

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THURSDAY, JUNE 20, 2013

// Arts&Entertainment: REVIEWS

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Kim Kashkashian “Amor;” and Poulenc’s sensuous and gorgeous “Les Chemins de l’amour”) are more for a full-throated mezzo than a lyric soprano, the important lyrics and depth of color were lost. The fourth song, Flanders’ and Swann’s hilarious “A Word on My Ear,” about a tone-deaf singer, was more successful, but the entire group would have been better served by a singer with the timbre of a Stephanie Blythe or someone more conversant in the necessary speaking, rather than singing vocalism. Still, it was great to have the variety and color of vocal chamber music on the program. Friday evening’s program had its own brand of color and variety starting with the first movement of Brahms’ G Major Quintet, Opus 111, performed with energy and beauty by violinists Philip Martin (Rice) and Caeli Smith (Juilliard), violist Dan Stone (Indiana), the ubiquitous Stephanie Block and cellist Ben Manis (Colburn). They were followed by an absolutely stunning performance of the Shostakovich Piano Quintet, Opus 57, which made its way to the festival for the first time in the phenomenal

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There was a lot of high-quality chambermusic making at the Sarasota Music Festival this past weekend — Thursday in Holley Hall and Friday at the Opera House. It was everything a great teaching festival should be: varied, innovative, exciting and colorful. Joan Tower’s “Rising,” based on scales that seem to go up without ever needing to descend, had its festival premiere in the very masterful hands of flutist Carol Wincenc, violinists Alexander Kerr and Daniel Jordan, Stephanie Block (an exceptionally talented violist currently attending Juilliard) and cellist Desmond Hoebig. Modal more than tonal, it’s an attention-grabbing, appealing work that has stimulating rhythmic patterns along with some positively glorious obbligato passages for cello and fascinating descants for flute. Three sections from Max Bruch’s Eight Studies for Clarinet (Eli Eban), Viola (Kim Kashkashian) and Piano (Robert Levin) also appeared on this festival’s program for the first time. Sounding like a cross between Brahms and Grieg, its colors range from rich and warm (especially with Eban on the colorful “A” clarinet) to the fun, sprightly, Mendelssohnian scherzo-like finale (really the seventh study in the collection). The trio had a wondrous blend that gave the work a charm and luster that lived up to Levin’s description of it as “hot schlag with chocolate sauce.” If you read this column with any regularity, you know I’m a great proponent of vocal chamber music, so the festival’s addition of four “Masterpieces of Cabaret,” featuring soprano Susan Lorette Dunn and the excellent pianist Jean Schneider, made my heart flip-flop with joy. The songs — all colorful personality pieces — are charming, as was Dunn’s performance of them, but, because three of the four (Weill’s tango, “Youkali;” Bolcom’s delectably witty

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THURSDAY, JUNE 20, 2013

// Arts&Entertainment

“Don’t Pitch the Pruners” Last week I ran into a homeowner who regretted getting rid of his gardening tools. He had pitched his pruners and trashed his trowels because he was moving into a maintenance-free community. “I figured I wouldn’t need them anymore since a landscape company would be doing all that stuff,” he explained, looking longingly at the straight rows our mow crews were cutting. It wasn’t that this man missed maintaining his yard per se. He missed maintaining his weight. Pinching his midsection, he told me he had gained 12 pounds since his move because of inactivity. He wasn’t a gym type, he said. He was a Yard Guy. I didn’t doubt him a bit. I could tell he was going through some serious withdrawal by the way he was eyeing our blowers.

hands of pianist Susan Starr, violinist Charles Wetherbee, violist Kashkashian and a pair of students: violinist Luke Witchger (Juilliard) and cellist Erik Wheeler (a prodigious talent from Rice). Together, they presented one of the most cohesive performances of this work imaginable, making me want to run to my computer to download the music for home listening. A quintet of students — Vladislav Boguinia, a pianist from Mannes; violinist Rebecca Reale and violist Jarita Ng (both from Rice), cellist Aaron Wolff (Oberlin) and bassist Nina DeCesare (more Rice) — gave a reading of the famous Theme and Variations from Schubert’s “Trout” that was somewhat over-enthusiastic and misguided in that each of the talented musicians seemed to have a different idea of how to play it, rather than the unified sound that will come with aging. Poulenc’s gorgeous Sextet for Flute (Wincenc), Oboe (Allan Vogel), Clarinet (Eban), Bassoon (Frank Morelli), Horn (William Purvis) and Piano (Levin) positively levitated from its big-bang opening to its

sprightly and masterful conclusion, making this one of the high points of the weekend. It showed what virtuosity and enthusiasm, combined with musical taste and talent, can do to make sparks fly. Verdi’s String Quartet in E Minor is heard often on radio but is a rarity in person. The composer, known primarily for his operas, wrote little in the way of chamber music, especially for instruments. The story of this piece is that he composed it at the age of 60 in his spare time while in Naples for a production of “Aida.” It has lots of those soaring Verdian melodies and a few oomp-pah pahs in the harmonic structure but, when played with the dramatic flair and blended vocalism of violinists James Buswell and Daniel Jordan, violist Barbara Westphal and cellist Desmond Hoebig, it has more color and dash than I remember from the myriad recorded performances I heard at WQXR. In this beautifully vocal performance by those string players, it was like an aria without words and made for an excellent first hearing at the Sarasota Music Festival. — June LeBell

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YourObserver.com

THURSDAY, JUNE 20, 2013

// Arts&Entertainment: Backstage Pass

by Mallory Gnaegy | A&E Editor

Meet Gloria Musicae’s new ‘business-side guy’ Gloria Musicae’s new executive director, Steven Klindt, has never seen the professional choral group perform in concert. Coincidentally, though, when he was attending the University of Iowa four decades ago, he sang in the Iowa Oratorio Chorus under the direction of the late Daniel T. Moe, former artistic director of Gloria Musicae. Klindt was appointed because he not only has more than 30 years of nonprofit experience, but because he “just clicked” with Gloria Musicae’s executive committee and the board. Likewise, Klindt had to make sure he liked Gloria Musicae’s people as much as they liked him. “You don’t work for an organization, you work for people,” Klindt says. And luckily for both parties, that’s clearly the case. Klindt explains his new appointment is “a boring story.” He has served as director of development of the Roskamp Institute since 2011, when he moved to Sarasota from New Jersey; it was also the same time Roskamp became a nonprofit. This spring, Klindt was looking for an interesting part-time position when he noticed a listing for the job, and it piqued his interest. His other interesting part-time position has been persuading people to adopt rescued corgis — he has two. Since the 65-year-old Klindt graduated from college, he has been working with nonprofits.

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“I like people,” Steven Klindt says. “You have to — this job is all about people.” His most recent positions, other than The Roskamp Institute, have been in the visual arts — executive director of The Coral Gables Museum, director of development and public affairs for the Tampa Museum of Art, and he’s even taught a variety of classes at New York University, for which he was an adjunct professor. The title of executive director isn’t a new one for Klindt — he

held that position for more than seven years at The Morris Museum of Art in Augusta, Ga. He also served for three years as the executive director at the Queens Museum of Art. Knowing his background in art museums, it’s not surprising to find that some of Klindt’s hobbies are collecting art and taking photos. One of the biggest career projects under his leadership was

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raising $32 million to build a new facility for Tampa Museum of Art. In addition to that undertaking, he has been in plenty of positions where his job required him to ask people for donations — and he says it doesn’t get any easier or more natural. He says, you can’t just ask people for money — it’s about building relationships. “People have to have someone there to trust, believe and sup-

port,” he says. “You’ve got (Artistic Director) Joe Holt and what he does for the organization; you’ve got people who have supported it over the years, like June LeBell, Ed Alley and founder Arden Fowler.” But for Klindt, it’s more than just garnering support for the group’s financial future. He also hopes to gain audience and fan support, so Gloria Musicae is around for an additional 35 years, at least. He’s already a big fan. He sat in on a rehearsal for the July Fourth concert to learn the nuts and bolts of the group. He was impressed with the singers’ professionalism and how they speak the music language — something Klindt says he can speak, but nowhere near as fluently. That’s why he says he’s the “business-side guy.” “I will determine how well we are doing things, how we can do them better, and what opportunities there are for funders to participate,” he says.

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YourObserver.com

THURSDAY, JUNE 20, 2013

// BLACK TIE: Camera ready

Sarasota Ballet’s new development director, Brenda Terris, Director Iain Webb and Managing Director Mary Anne Servian

Photos by Mallory Gnaegy

Barbara Epperson and Pat Fennessey

// Annual Meeting and Volunteer Appreciation Luncheon // Benefiting Friends of the Sarasota Ballet Monday, June 17, at Michael’s On East

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