Feb
20
Thu
WAITLIST: Ruby E. Crosby Alumni Music Series “Piano in the Key of Vijay” @ Marie Selby Botanical Gardens (Downtown Campus)
Feb 20 @ 7:00 pm – 8:00 pm
WAITLIST: Ruby E. Crosby Alumni Music Series “Piano in the Key of Vijay” @ Marie Selby Botanical Gardens (Downtown Campus)

Ruby E. Crosby Alumni Music Series “Piano in the Key of Vijay”
with Hermitage Greenfield Prize Winner Vijay Iyer

Presented in partnership with Marie Selby Botanical Gardens

Vijay Iyer’s concert and Hermitage residency are made possible through the Ruby E. Crosby Alumni Music Series at the Hermitage.

Thursday, February 20 at 7pm

Selby Gardens Event Center (entrance at 1534 Mound Street Sarasota, FL 34236)

Register for the waitlist here.
Registration is required. $5 per person.

There isn’t much Hermitage Greenfield Prize winner Vijay Iyer hasn’t done in the world of music. A Grammy Award-nominated artist, he has performed at the world’s most iconic venues, composed works premiered by leading institutions such as the London Philharmonic, and collaborated with other musicians and ensembles similarly admired for their innovative approach, like Hermitage Fellow Claire Chase and the International Contemporary Ensemble. It is no surprise that The New York Times described him as a “social conscience, multimedia collaborator, system builder, rhapsodist, historical thinker, and multicultural gateway.” This prolific composer and performer continues to inspire musicians and audiences alike with daring fusions of musical styles from across the world and his virtuosic skills at the piano. Hear selections of Vijay’s vast catalogue of work — performed on the piano by the artist himself — and gain new insights into his creative process as he returns to the Hermitage through the Ruby E. Crosby Alumni Music Initiative.

Described by The New York Times as a “social conscience, multimedia collaborator, system builder, rhapsodist, historical thinker and multicultural gateway,” Hermitage Fellow and composer-pianist Vijay Iyer has earned a place as one of the leading music-makers of his generation. Beyond his recognition as a Hermitage Greenfield Prize winner in the discipline of music, his honors include a MacArthur Fellowship, a Doris Duke Performing Artist Award, a United States Artist Fellowship, three Grammy Award nominations, and the Alpert Award in the Arts. His newest albums are Defiant Life (ECM, 2025), his second suite of duets with visionary composer-trumpeter Wadada Leo Smith; Compassion (ECM, 2024), featuring his acclaimed trio with drummer Tyshawn Sorey and bassist Linda May Han Oh; Trouble (BMOP/sound, 2024), a composer portrait album comprising three of his orchestral works, including the titular violin concerto performed by Jennifer Koh; and Love in Exile (Verve, 2023), his Grammy Award-nominated collaboration with Arooj Aftab and Shahzad Ismaily. He teaches at Harvard University. The original composition resulting from Vijay’s Hermitage Greenfield Prize, Bruits, was nominated for a Grammy Award in 2022, performed by the critically acclaimed ensemble Imani Winds.

Artist Photo Credit: Ebru Yildiz

Mar
3
Mon
“SILL – Schlefer on Shakuhachi: Ancient Flute in Modern Times” @ Church of the Palms
Mar 3 @ 10:30 am – 11:30 am
“SILL - Schlefer on Shakuhachi: Ancient Flute in Modern Times” @ Church of the Palms

Please note this program is not part of the Hermitage’s traditional free programming. This event is hosted by the Sarasota Institute of Lifetime Learning as part of the “Music Mondays” series.

“Music Mondays: Schlefer on Shakuhachi: Ancient Flute in Modern Times”
with Hermitage Fellow James Schlefer

Presented in partnership with Sarasota Institute of Lifetime Learning

Monday, March 3 at 10:30am and 3pm

Church of the Palms (entrance at 3224 Bee Ridge Rd, Sarasota, FL 34239)
Venice Presbyterian Church (entrance at 825 The Rialto, Venice, FL 34285)

$15 single tickets are available at the door for this special event with Doug Wright: 10:30am at Church of the Palms (Sarasota) and 3pm  at Venice Presbyterian Church (Venice).

Revered for its sonic as well as its spiritual resonance, the simple bamboo flute known as the shakuhachi has been an iconic part of Eastern culture since at least the 8th century. Returning Hermitage Fellow James Nyoraku Schlefer is one of the few non-Japanese practitioners who has achieved the rank of Grand Master, blending the instrument’s essential traditions with contemporary Western instrumentation while still honoring what many consider its meditative properties. A scholar as well as a performer, join this uniquely gifted Hermitage Fellow as part of SILL’s Music Mondays to learn more about the history of the shakuhachi, and hear this magical instrument played by one of its greatest living practitioners.

Hermitage Fellow James Nyoraku Schlefer is a Grand Master of the shakuhachi and one of only a handful of non-Japanese artists to have achieved this rank. He received the Dai-Shi-Han (Grand Master) certificate in 2001, and his second Shi-Han certificate in 2008, from the Mujuan Dojo in Kyoto. Schlefer first encountered the shakuhachi in 1979, while working towards a career as a flute player and pursuing an advanced degree in musicology. Today, he is considered by his colleagues to be one of most influential Western practitioners of this distinctive art form. Known to his students as Nyoraku sensei, Schlefer established his own dojo in NYC in 1996. He also taught shakuhachi at Columbia University for ten years, is a professor of world music courses at New York City College of Technology (CUNY) and performs and lectures at colleges and universities throughout the United States. As a composer, Schlefer has written multiple chamber and orchestral works combining Japanese and Western instruments, as well as numerous pieces solely for traditional Japanese instruments. His programming for Kyo-Shin-An Arts has also been recognized with two CMA/ASCAP Awards for Adventurous Programming. He is a returning Hermitage alumnus, and he was recognized by Musical America Worldwide as one of their “30 Top Professionals and Key Influencers.”

“Schlefer on Shakuhachi: Ancient Flute in Modern Times” @ Gasparilla Island State Park - Range Lighthouse
Mar 3 @ 6:00 pm – 7:00 pm
“Schlefer on Shakuhachi: Ancient Flute in Modern Times” @ Gasparilla Island State Park - Range Lighthouse

“Schlefer on Shakuhachi: Ancient Flute in Modern Times”
with Hermitage Fellow James Schlefer

James Schlefer’s Hermitage Residency generously sponsored by Alice and David Court.

Monday, March 3 at 6pm

Gasparilla Island State Park Range Lighthouse (entrance at 184 Gulf Boulevard Boca Grande, FL 33921)

Register here.
Registration is required. $5 per person.

Revered for its sonic as well as its spiritual resonance, the simple bamboo flute known as the shakuhachi has been an iconic part of Eastern culture since at least the 8th century. Returning Hermitage Fellow James Nyoraku Schlefer is one of the few non-Japanese practitioners who has achieved the rank of Grand Master, blending the instrument’s essential traditions with contemporary Western instrumentation while still honoring what many consider its meditative properties. A scholar as well as a performer, join this uniquely gifted Hermitage Fellow as part of SILL’s Music Mondays to learn more about the history of the shakuhachi, and hear this magical instrument played by one of its greatest living practitioners.

Hermitage Fellow James Nyoraku Schlefer is a Grand Master of the shakuhachi and one of only a handful of non-Japanese artists to have achieved this rank. He received the Dai-Shi-Han (Grand Master) certificate in 2001, and his second Shi-Han certificate in 2008, from the Mujuan Dojo in Kyoto. Schlefer first encountered the shakuhachi in 1979, while working towards a career as a flute player and pursuing an advanced degree in musicology. Today, he is considered by his colleagues to be one of most influential Western practitioners of this distinctive art form. Known to his students as Nyoraku sensei, Schlefer established his own dojo in NYC in 1996. He also taught shakuhachi at Columbia University for ten years, is a professor of world music courses at New York City College of Technology (CUNY) and performs and lectures at colleges and universities throughout the United States. As a composer, Schlefer has written multiple chamber and orchestral works combining Japanese and Western instruments, as well as numerous pieces solely for traditional Japanese instruments. His programming for Kyo-Shin-An Arts has also been recognized with two CMA/ASCAP Awards for Adventurous Programming. He is a returning Hermitage alumnus, and he was recognized by Musical America Worldwide as one of their “30 Top Professionals and Key Influencers.”

Mar
10
Mon
“Songs from the Sand: An Evening of Hermitage Music” @ Manatee Performing Arts Center
Mar 10 @ 6:30 pm – 7:30 pm
“Songs from the Sand: An Evening of Hermitage Music” @ Manatee Performing Arts Center

“Songs from the Sand: An Evening of Hermitage Music”
Featuring songs by Hermitage Artists performed by the Gulf Coasts Finest Talents

Presented in partnership with Manatee Performing Arts Center

Monday, March 10 at 6:30pm

Manatee Performing Arts Center (entrance at 502 3rd Ave. West, Bradenton, Florida 34205)

Register here.
Registration is required. $5 per person.

From Tony Award winners like Jeanine Tesori, Michael R. Jackson, and Doug Wright, to generative artists and composers revolutionizing the form like Adam Gwon, Zoe Sarnak, Rona Siddiqui, and more, the Hermitage provides space and time to some of the most exciting musical theater writers working today. Hear selections from some of these acclaimed composers, librettists, and lyricists, performed by the Gulf Coast’s finest talents for the first time at the Manatee Performing Arts Center. In addition to the works themselves, hear little-known stories about the creation of some of New York theater’s recent success stories and insights into the creative process.

 

Mar
13
Thu
“Moonrise Over New Work” @ Bookstore1
Mar 13 @ 6:00 pm – 7:00 pm
“Moonrise Over New Work” @ Bookstore1

“Moonrise Over New Work”
with Hermitage Fellow Jamila Minnicks

Presented in partnership with Bookstore1

Jamila Minnicks’ Hermitage Residency generously sponsored by Georgia Court and Robin Radin.

Thursday, March 13 at 6pm

Bookstore1 (entrance at 117 South Pineapple Ave., Sarasota, Florida 34236)

Register here.
Registration is required. $5 per person.

Hermitage Fellow Jamila Minnicks’ debut novel Moonrise Over New Jessup won the 2021 PEN/Bellwether Prize for Socially Engaged Fiction, the 2024 Black Caucus for the American Library Association First Novelist Award, and the 2023 Southern Literary Review Book of the Year. The novel boldly questions the value of integration and acceptance if it means losing the comfort that separation has created. Hear selections from this incredible story, read by the author, and get a taste of where this gifted writer will take you in her next work as she works to complete it in residence.

Hermitage Fellow Jamila Minnicks‘ debut novel Moonrise Over New Jessup won the 2021 PEN/Bellwether Prize for Socially Engaged Fiction and the 2024 BCALA First Novelist Award, and was a finalist for the 2023 Center for Fiction First Novel Prize. Jamila’s short fiction and essays are published in Ploughshares, The Sun, and elsewhere, and beyond the Hermitage Artist Retreat, her work has been supported by the Sewanee Writers’ Conference and the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts. Jamila is a graduate of the University of Michigan, the Howard University School of Law, and the Georgetown University Law Center.

 

Apr
4
Fri
Hermitage Greenfield Prize Premiere “Losing My Religion” @ The Ringling Museum of Art, Historic Asolo Theater
Apr 4 – Apr 5 all-day
Hermitage Greenfield Prize Premiere “Losing My Religion” @ The Ringling Museum of Art, Historic Asolo Theater

“Losing My Religion”
by Hermitage Greenfield Prize Winner Rennie Harris

Presented in partnership with The Ringling Museum of Art

Made possible with generous support from the Greenfield Foundation.

Community Foundation of Sarasota County, Lead Community Sponsor.

Friday, April 4 @ 7:30pm
Saturday, April 5 @ 7:30pm

The Ringling Museum of Art (entrance at 5401 Bay Shore Rd, Sarasota, FL 34243)

Click here for more information.
Please note this performance is not part of the Hermitage’s traditional free programming. This ticketed event ($30-$40/person) is hosted by The Ringling in the Historic Asolo Theater as a part of the ‘Art of Performance’ subscription series.

Losing My Religion is a new dance creation from Rennie Harris, resulting from his 2023 Hermitage Greenfield Prize commission. The performance is a retrospective inspired by Harris’s life journey, the human experience, and today’s current political and socioeconomic theater. Through this original piece and his remarkable body of work, Harris challenges both what has come to be expected of street dance and hip-hop culture and degenerative social normatives/beliefs with his reconstructionist philosophy and approach to artmaking. As a part of this work, Harris will incorporate a reimagining of his renowned solo Endangered Species. The piece’s inclusion tells a story of systemic racism and revolt and offers a shift away from what was, to what is, and what can be. Losing My Religion examines languages of protest, resilience, and power, while the choreography and forms invite audiences to imagine the ways in which they can use their bodies as resistance.

Lorenzo ‘Rennie’ Harris, winner of the 2023 Hermitage Greenfield Prize in Dance and Choreography, was born and raised in an African American community in North Philadelphia. In 1992, Harris founded Rennie Harris Puremovement, a street dance theater company dedicated to preserving and disseminating hip-hop culture through workshops, classes, hip-hop history lecture demonstrations, long-term residencies, mentoring programs, and public performances. Harris founded his company based on the belief that hip-hop is the most important original expression of a new generation. With its roots in the inner-city African American and Latino communities, hip-hop can be characterized as a contemporary indigenous form, one that expresses universal themes that extend beyond racial, religious, and economic boundaries, and one that can help bridge these divisions. Harris’ work encompasses the diverse and rich African American traditions of the past, while simultaneously presenting the voice of a new generation through its ever-evolving interpretations of dance. Harris is committed to providing audiences with a sincere view of the essence and spirit of hip-hop. Harris was voted one of the most influential people in the last one hundred years of Philadelphia history. Among his awards are honorary doctorates from Bates College and Columbia College. The London Times wrote of Mr. Harris that he is “the Basquiat of the U.S. contemporary dance scene.”

Apr
5
Sat
Hermitage Greenfield Prize Exhibition “Currents of Resistance” @ The Ringling Museum of Art
Apr 5 @ 10:00 am – Aug 10 @ 5:00 pm
Hermitage Greenfield Prize Exhibition “Currents of Resistance” @ The Ringling Museum of Art

“Currents of Resistance”
by Hermitage Greenfield Prize Winner Sandy Rodriguez

Presented in partnership with The Ringling Museum of Art

Made possible with generous support from the Greenfield Foundation.

Community Foundation of Sarasota County, Lead Community Sponsor.

Friday, April 5 – Sunday, August 10th, 2025

The Ringling Museum of Art (entrance at 5401 Bay Shore Rd, Sarasota, FL 34243)

Click here for more information.
Please note this program is not part of the Hermitage’s traditional free programming. This exhibition is part of The Ringling’s admission fees ($30/person).

Sandy Rodriguez, a first-generation Chicana who grew up along the US-Mexico border, is an artist who engages with the colonial histories of the Americas, Indigenous knowledge systems, memory, and issues surrounding migration, both past and present, all grounded in the specificity of land. One of the unique aspects of her practice is her engagement with and research into the material aspects of indigenous artistic traditions for the Americas. She is using hand processed pigments derived from earth, plants, and insects, sourced from specimens collected during her fieldwork and residency at the Hermitage for her watercolors. This Hermitage Greenfield Prize commission is a further exploration of a series of exhibitions for which she has been celebrated, which maps the ongoing cycles of violence on communities of color by blending historical and recent events; this will be her first in this region.

Sandy Rodriguez (b. 1975, National City, CA) is the recipient of the 2023 Hermitage Greenfield Prize in Visual Art. She is a Los Angeles-based artist and researcher, and first-generation Chicana raised on the US-Mexico border. Her Codex Rodriguez-Mondragón is made up of a collection of maps and paintings about the intersections of history, social memory, contemporary politics, and cultural production. Rodriguez earned her BFA from California Institute of Arts. She has exhibited her works at the Denver Art Museum, The Huntington Library, Art Museum and Botanical Garden, The Amon Carter Museum of American Art and Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Museum of Contemporary Art, Busan, South Korea. Her work is in the permanent collections of Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, CA; Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville, AR; Amon Carter Museum, Fort Worth, TX, The Huntington Library, Art Museum and Botanical Garden. San Marino, CA and others.  She was awarded the Caltech-Huntington Art+Research Residency, Creative Capital Award and Migrations initiative from Mellon Foundation Just Futures Initiative and Global Cornell. Rodriguez and her work have been featured in BBC News: In the Studio, Hyperallergic, LA Weekly, Los Angeles Times, New York Times, Spectrum News/NY1, and on several radio programs and podcasts.

Apr
6
Sun
2025 Hermitage Greenfield Prize Dinner @ Michael's On East
Apr 6 @ 6:00 pm – 8:30 pm
2025 Hermitage Greenfield Prize Dinner @ Michael's On East

Anchoring a series of events celebrating the prestigious Hermitage Greenfield Prize, this elegant dinner heralds the jury-selected prize recipient. The $35,000 Hermitage Greenfield Prize commission is awarded annually by the Hermitage Artist Retreat in partnership with the Greenfield Foundation, and rotates among music, theater, and visual art.

The 2025 Hermitage Greenfield Prize will be awarded in the discipline of music, and the newly commissioned work will premiere in Sarasota in the spring of 2027.

Click here for more information.