Your weekend arts forecast: Ana Popovic blues, Creative Pinellas dance
Sometimes the coolest shows fly under the radar, and you don’t hear about them until they’ve already happened.
Let’s fix one right now: The incredible blues guitarist and singer Ana Popovic performs two concerts Saturday (5 and 8 p.m.) at the Safety Harbor Art and Music Center.
Popovic, from Serbia, has gigged and recorded with the best in the business; her most recent studio album, Like it On Top, explores more R&B grooves and was produced by Keb’ Mo’; she has a new live one out, Live For Live, celebrating her 20 years as a touring musician.
Sometimes flying under the radar means word barely squeaks out in advance – be forewarned, both shows were very nearly sold out at press time.
Tickets are here.
Rachel Lambright in the Creative Pinellas gallery. Photo by Tom Kramer.
Choreographer Paula Kramer has collaborated with dancers Helen Hanson French, Rachel Lambright and Sea Lee for a collaborative performance, Breathe, Friday and Saturday at the Creative Pinellas gallery on Walsingham Road. It’s a celebration of the current Carol Mickett/Robert Stackhouse installation Expanding Waters, and will in fact be performed in the very midst of the work.
“Within my choreography and design,” Kramer told the Creative Pinellas Arts Coast Journal, “sancers French, Lee and Lambright have created stunning solos that reflect the Moon, the Earth, fire, ever-changing water patterns – and the dangerous and constant warming of our native waters.”
Admission to each 5 p.m. performance is free. Here are the details.
Natasha Paremski
The wonderful piano artist Natasha Paremski is back onstage with The Florida Orchestra this weekend for the last concert in the socially-distanced 2020-2021 season (you know, playing to a 25-percent capacity Mahaffey Theater). The centerpiece of the Saturday and Sunday program is Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 5, a.k.a. the Emperor Concerto. Mendelssohn’s Symphony No. 3 wraps things up (“imbued with the Spirit of Scotland,” says the TFO press). Tickets are here.
Here’s a Catalyst interview with Paremski from January.
Come September, the orchestra will resume a normal concert schedule, with no capacity restrictions, at the Mahaffey, the Straz Center and Ruth Eckerd Hall.
And another thing
Raymond James Stadium plays host to the annual Sunset Music Festival Saturday and Sunday (3 p.m. until midnight each day). This is a celebration of electronica and dance music, with an impressive lineup of DJs and performers. The website has a whole list of do-brings, don’t-brings and such, along with the full lineup of music. Organizers say they’re expecting around 50,000 over the two-day event.
