Our goal for SILL’s Music Mondays is to entertain while we educate. There’s no script, no written dialogue, and you never know what’s going to happen! Our Musical Conversations will make you feel as if you’re in our living room, eavesdropping on spontaneous discussions with live and recorded musical performances.

Sherrill Milnes, one of the greatest Verdi baritones of our time, is opening our season and he always has insightful, interesting things to say about the state of the arts. Carol Wincenc, the wonderfully ebullient flutist, is returning to SILL, this time with Tali Roth, a young virtuoso classical guitarist. Victor deRenzi and Stephanie Sundine will be with us to talk about Sarasota Opera and this season’s line up of performances. We’re also thrilled to bring two important and fun composers from New York. You know Bruce Adolphe from his hilarious Piano Puzzlers heard weekly on WSMR. The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center has used him for years because when he talks about music, everyone listens, learns and laughs. And you’ll really get a kick out of Ricky Ian Gordon, one of our country’s leading composers of songs and operas. Singers as diverse as Renee Fleming and Kristen Chenowith love his songs and program them as often as possible.

Then there are the young superstars of tomorrow coming to us from the illustrious Young Concert Artists, the non-profit management that gave starts to the careers of Emanuel Ax, Ruth Laredo, the Tokyo String Quartet and Dawn Upshaw. This year, they’ve recommended the award-winning young pianist, Ran Dank and, the following week, we’ll hear from Jennifer Johnson Cano, the brilliant young mezzo who’s making such a splash at the Metropolitan Opera.

We also have two incredibly gifted violinists: Glenn Dicterow, the Concertmaster of the New York Philharmonic, and Chee-Yun, the young soloist who’s performing with every major orchestra in the world and who took Sarasota by storm just recently when she was presented at the Van Wezel by the Sarasota Concert Association. And, for the first time, Robert Sherman, the popular WQXR radio host and producer, will take the microphone in March for Musical Conversations with all of our guests that month, including Jim Colias, an expert on Victor Borge, and me. (You asked for it…)

June LeBell