Gulf Coast Life Arts Edition

Multi-instrumentalist, singer, dancer, band leader, and composer Gunhild Carling will perform Friday, Feb. 24 in the Grand Atrium of the Sidney & Berne Davis Art Center as part of the center’s “Jazzy Nights” music series. We talk with Carling about her remarkable musical upbringing, her affinity for American jazz music from the 1920s and 30s, and her approach to performing and composing new music.

A conversation with Southwest Florida Symphony Maestro Radu Paponiu and Outreach Ambassador Robert Van Winkle about the orchestra’s upcoming concert featuring world-renown violinist Gil Shaham performing Samuel Coleridge-Taylor’s Violin Concerto in G Minor. The Masterworks series concert, Saturday, Jan. 28, also includes the overture to Mozart’s “The Magic Flute,” and Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 4. We’ll take a deeper dive into the music and the historical context behind each piece.

Theatre Conspiracy at the Alliance for the Arts in Fort Myers is mounting the Florida premiere production of the courtroom drama “Faceless.” The play, based on true events, concerns the trial of a young white American woman radicalized into Islamic extremism online and charged with conspiring to commit acts of terrorism and the Muslim attorney chosen to prosecute the case. We hear from two actors in the show: Sharon Isern and Matt Flynn.

A retrospective exhibition of works by Naples-based artist Carmelo Blandino comes to the Wasmer Art Gallery at Florida Gulf Coast University Jan. 17 – March 2. We talk with the artist himself along with co-curators of the exhibition, FGCU Art Gallery Director John Loscuito and founding Director of “Method and Concept” Chad Jensen.

Encore broadcast of blues, roots, and folk singer/songwriter and guitarist Jon Shain performing live in studio.

A conversation about the Laboratory Theater of Florida’s regional premiere production of “SISTAS! The Musical” with the show’s director Sonya McCarter and cast members Makayla Davis and Julissa Jean-Bart.

A conversation with Southwest Florida Music Education Center Executive Director Jennifer Clark and the organization’s mission to provide comprehensive post-secondary music certificate programs for neurodivergent students, with a goal of preparing students for careers in the music industry.

Southwest Florida’s new, first, and only professional ballet company Florida Gulfshore Ballet is holding a fundraising performance event at Artis-Naples, Nov. 18 to benefit local arts organizations impacted by Hurricane Ian. We talk with Florida Gulfshore Ballet artistic directors Iliana Lopez and Franklin Gamero about the event, their vision for the new ballet company, and their own impressive careers as professional ballet dancers.

The Southwest Florida Symphony begins its performance season with a new artistic and music director, Maestro Radu Paponiu. We’ll explore the new symphony conductor’s background in music and explore performance offerings in the 2022-23 season in a conversation with Paponiu and the organization’s Community Outreach Ambassador Robert Van Winkle.

Players Circle Theater is currently presenting the suspense murder comedy “Murder at the Howard Johnson’s.” The plot follows a series of hilarious murder plots and a messy love triangle between a dentist (played by Steve Coe), his lover (played by Angela Watson), and her husband (played by actor/comedian RC Smith). We’ll learn all about the show and hear from the actors bringing this production to life as well as the show’s director and Players Circle Theater founding Artistic Director Bob Cacioppo.