Your weekend arts forecast
Stick Figure
Vinoy Park will rocking with good vibrations, mon, as the annual Reggae Rise-up Music Festival takes over the weekend (Friday through Sunday, March 15-17).
Nothing like a little Caribbean tuneage to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day, eh?
Stick Figure headlines today, with Slightly Stoopid in the driver’s seat Saturday, and Rebelution closing things out Sunday. The plenty-full lineup also includes Ziggy Marley, Steel Pulse, Method Man & Redman, Tribal Seeds and a dozen other bands.
See the full schedule, and purchase tickets, here.
Say hey Willy
I first encountered Willy Porter as the opening act for Jethro Tull on a 2002 tour (I saw six or seven shows, and he was the support act on all of them; “Thank goodness he doesn’t play the flute,” Ian Anderson famously said). A versatile acoustic guitarist, with the dexterity of Leo Kottke, the no-limits creativity of the late Michael Hedges and the deep soulfulness of Richard Thompson, Porter is an amazing and superbly enjoyable performer.
He plays the Hideaway Café Saturday (March 16) at 8 p.m. Tickets for the 8 p.m. show are here. Highly recommended.
Music, arts and events
Mark Sforzini, artistic director of the St. Petersburg Opera Company, will be at the Museum of Fine Arts today (Friday, March 15) for one of his periodic Mornings With the Maestro happenings. The 11 a.m. event is a combination of conversations (much of it humorous) about opera, along with live performances from a trio of professional singers with music from Bellini’s Norma, Bizet’s Carmen and Puccini’s Tosca. The theme is “Opera Therapy – The Final Meltdown.” It’s repeated Thursday, March 21 (at 6 p.m.) in the downstairs listening room at the Iberian Rooster.
Onstage Friday, Saturday and Sunday at thestudio@620, Bloom and Residue is an immersive experience that marries dance with visual art; conceived by artist Rebekah Lazaridis, it’s a 30-minute performance that asks the audience to stand and move through the pieces.
Now that the race cars have all gone home, the Florida Orchestra is back in Saturday night residence at the Mahaffey Theater. This week’s performance, at 8 p.m., is “Broadway Tonight,” conducted by William Waldrop. It is, as you might expect, a program of show tunes from the likes of Les Miserables, The Lion King, Phantom of the Opera, Evita et cetera (Sondheim, Rodgers and/or Hammerstein are bound to make appearances, too). With guest vocalists. It’s repeated at 7:30 p.m. at Ruth Eckerd Hall in Clearwater. Michael Francis and Masterworks return next weekend.
The Historic Kenwood Artist Studio Tour, Saturday and Sunday, is self-guided through the work of 12 artists in 12 stops (sort of a neighborhood-specific edition of the Second Saturday ArtWalk). It’s 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Saturday, 12-5 p.m. Sunday, and you can find all the info you need (including the names of all the participating artists) here.
