music education

The Southwest Florida Symphony’s final performance of the season, May 18, titled “70s, 80s & 90s Unplugged” features music inspired by the popular MTV Unplugged concert series. Ahead of the show, we will hear from composer, producer, arranger, conductor, vocalist, multi-instrumentalist and music educator Andrew Lipke, who created the symphonic arrangements and who will serve as maestro and featured performer.

The Southwest Florida Symphony’s final Masterworks concert of the season features guest cellist Sterling Elliot performing Tchaikovsky’s “Variations on a Rococo Theme,” a new work by Taiwanese composer Ke-chia Chen titled “Ebbs and Flows,” and Shostakovich’s beloved Symphony No. 5 in De minor, which is steeped in the turbulent history of the Soviet Union.We take a deeper dive into the program with Southwest Florida Symphony Maestro Radu Paponiu.

The Southwest Florida Symphony showcases the orchestra’s concertmaster Orin Laursen in a March 16 performance of Beethoven’s Violin Concerto in D major. Ahead of the performance Laursen joins us to talk about the piece and his musical background. Maestro Radu Paponiu also joins the program to explore other works in the upcoming Masterworks concert.

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.

Music executives with the Fort Myers-based independent record label Creative Minds Records are accepting submissions for a talent search event at the…