Sounds of Jazz & Blues

The Resort at MarinaVillage and The City of Cape Coral present The Sounds of Jazz & Blues, Saturday March 24, from 4-10pm. Enjoy the sounds of Deb & The Dynamics as they open up for front-liner Steve Oliver! Advance tickets are $10 and $15 at the gate. VIP tickets are available for $25. Call 239-573-3123 for ticket information or visit CapeConcerts.com.

Complimentary parking will be available throughout the property with a shuttle available to take you to concert site. Limited Valet parking will be available in the Resort garage for $5, first come first served.

Dance at

The Shell Factory

The Shell Factory in North Fort Myers on Saturday evening March 24th and dance the night away to the music of the 50s & 60s performed by “The Del Prados” from 6:30 p.m.-9:30 p.m. Tickets now on sale for just $8 Make your reservations now by calling 239-995-3999

Concert at New Hope Presbyterian Church

New Hope Presbyterian Church will welcome pianist and multimedia musician Julian Toha on Saturday, March 24, at 7:30 p.m. in the sanctuary.

A recipient of numerous awards and scholarships, Toha’s most prestigious was earning the title of 2009 National Presser Scholar.

In May 2010, he graduated with a Bachelors of Music in Piano Performance from Florida State University. Known for his passionate performances, poetic imagination, and technical command, he has acquired a reputation as being an exciting young artist of the 21st century.

In 2009, he established a performing arts company called Hidden Reflections, which aims to revolutionize the performance tradition of classical music through artistic collaboration.

He currently resides in London and is pursuing his studies in piano with Ian Jones, Professor of Piano at the Royal College of Music.

This concert is free and open to the public. For more information, call the church office at 239-274-1230 or visit www.newhopefortmyers.org. New Hope Presbyterian Church is located at 3825 McGregor Blvd., just one block south of the Fort Myers Country Club.

Easter Egg Hunt

An Easter Egg Hunt will be held Saturday, March 31, from 10 a.m.-noon at Wa-Ke Hatchee Park, 16760 Bass Rd., Fort Myers

Admission is $5 per child ages 0-11.

For more information about this event, call Wa-Ke Hatchee Recreation Center at 432-2154 or go online to leeparks.org.

Erie Days Dinner

and Dance

Calling all former Erie-ites!! Mark your calendars for the annual dinner and dance being held at Capt. Fishbones located at the Shell Factory!!

The event will be held: Sunday, March 25, from 3 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. at the Shell Factory on U.S. 41 North in North Fort. Myers.

The event will feature a delicious buffet. The music will be It Takes Two-50’s & 60’s (50’s attire optional!)

Dress is casual

Tickets are $25 per person and guests welcome. Make checks payable to: Marilyn Woznicki and mail to her at 157 Suncrest Lane, N. Ft. Myers, FL 33903

This is a really fun time and a chance to get together with old friends and neighbors from Erie!!

For more information call: Marilyn Woznicki at 814-873-8205 or Nancy Harrell Goodwin at 239-283-5651

Symphonic Mastersingers

Spring Concert

Four fine voices whose work has been critically hailed not only across the United States but internationally will perform with the Fort Myers Symphonic Mastersingers in concert on March 24 and 25.

The Mastersingers are presenting their annual spring concert in Fort Myers and Naples featuring the music of George Frideric Handel, Gabriel Faure and Franz Joseph Haydn.

Guest soloists are Candice Hoyes, soprano; Abigail E. Wright, mezzo-Soprano; James Patterson, bass, and Nicholas Houhoulis, tenor.

Mastersingers Artistic Director Jeff Faux announced their appearances by saying, “They are superb singers. Two have just finished engagements with the Metropolitan Opera. Our bass, James Patterson, is a local talent who has sung with the San Francisco Opera and many other opera houses around the country.

“They have all electrified theater and opera goers and we’re very anxious to bring them to Southwest Florida audiences.”

Hoyes will be singing the lovely Pie Jesu from Faure’s Requiem. That movement is the most famous of the composer’s large works and cited by some as the ultimate Pie Jesu.

Her smooth soprano has been recognized in competitions on the east and west coasts and has taken her to Carnegie Hall and the Amadeus Open Ensemble in Salzburg, Austria.

Wright’s credits range from the popular Nellie in South Pacific to the challenging mezzo-soprano part in Verdi’s Requiem and performances with the Metropolitan Opera.

The Washington Post lauded her portrayal of Mary Boleyn in Anne of the Thousand Days. Wright also received critical acclaim for performing with “delicious flair” and “in impressively good voice” as Concepcion.

Patterson makes his home in Naples and performs with major operas and symphonies throughout the United States and Canada. Internationally, he has sung in France, Spain and with the Netherlands Opera.

He has been praised by some of the most respected critics in the country, including Andrew Porter of the New Yorker who called called him “a bass to watch-sonorous and beautiful in timbre.”

Houhoulis is currently singing in Gotterdammerung with the Metropolitan Opera and has also appeared in Met productions of Aida, Boris Gudonov and Khovanshchina.

He is respected as an excellent interpreter of romantic and character repertoire.

The Fort Myers concert schedule is 7 p.m. on Saturday, March 24, in Faith United Methodist Church.

The Naples concert is at 4:00 pm on Sunday, March 25, in Moorings Presbyterian Church.

Tickets are $20, $15 for students. To purchase call 275-5557 day or evening or 936-4129 evenings only.

‘Cupcake Concerts’

continues

The Southwest Florida Symphony is continuing its new family series. The “Cupcake Concerts,” is intended to be educational and engaging, sparking the imagination of the whole family.Additional programs in the series are Sunday, April 15, and Saturday, May 19. The programs are free with a suggested $5 family donation.

The Alliance for the Arts is at 10091 McGregor Boulevard just south of Colonial Boulevard in Fort Myers.

New musical comedy organization forming

A group of area opera singers is looking to the local community to help them lighten up the stage in more ways than one. During a series of conversations held backstage between acts in local operas, these singers discovered they had a mutual interest in the works of Victorian composers Gilbert and Sullivan, who were the Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice of their day. Most Broadway composers of the twentieth century will freely admit that the works of Gilbert and Sullivan paved the way and set the model for the modern Broadway show.

Musical comedies such as The Mikado and Pirates of Penzance seem to be timeless and are still madly popular around the world today more than a century later. We would like to involve the community in reconstructing these classic works for everyone to enjoy and we want to hear from anyone who has an interest in this endeavor. It is not necessary to be a singer or musician to get involved.

If you simply have an interest, then that is all you need. We want to hear from people who would like to see musical comedy of this genre become a part of the southwest Florida music scene. The first step will be a general meeting to discuss the possibilities and feasibility and submit ideas.

So please send an email including your contact information to Patrick Shepherd, with G&S in the subject line at ptck.shepherd@gmail.com or call for more details 267-218-0174.

Film Festival

On Saturday, March 24, from 2-3 p.m. the Fort Myers Film Festival will screen independent short films at the Alliance for the Arts, including the documentary “Kaziah the Goat Woman.”

After the screening, Fort Myers Film Festival founder Eric Raddatz will present one of Kaziah’s portraits to the family of 2nd Lt. Michael McGahan of Orlando. The University of Florida graduate was killed in 2010 while leading a platoon in Afghanistan .He is buried in Arlington National Cemetery.

The event is free, with a $5 suggested donation, a portion of which will go to Project Compassion.

The Fort Myers Film Festival runs March 21 through March 25 with screenings at the Sidney & Berne Davis Art Center and the Barbara B. Mann Performing Arts Hall.

More information is available at www.artinlee.org or www.fortmyersfilmfestival.com.

Concert venue

change announced

The March 24 concert by the Symphonic Chorale of Southwest Florida and the Ave Maria University choirs to benefit the Coalition of Immokalee Workers has had a change of venue. Previously scheduled at Gulf Coast High School, the concert will now be held at Moorings Presbyterian Church, 791 Harbor Drove, Naples, at 8 p.m.

Back to Beethoven: An Epic Journey repeats at 4 p.m. on March 25 at South Fort Myers High School, 14020 Plantation Road, Fort Myers.

Under the direction of Timothy McDonnell, Chair of the Music Department of Ave Maria and Artistic Director of the Symphonic Chorale, the concert includes Dvorak’s Mass in D Major and Brahms’s Shicksalslied. The evening concludes with The Fantasy in C Minor (“Choral Fantasy”) by Beethoven featuring international concertizing pianist John Robilette. Tickets at $18 or $22 for either performance may be reserved by calling the Symphonic Chorale at 239.560.5695 or by calling the Ave Maria University Bookstore at 239.304.7032 or 1.877.283.8648.

Alliance Calls

for 2D/3D artwork

The Alliance for the Arts is calling for entries for its 26th Annual All Florida Juried Exhibition, to be displayed June 1 through Aug. 4. Deadline for artist submissions is April 15. More information about the exhibition and the Artist Prospectus are available at the Alliance or at artinlee.org.

Artists must reside in Florida to be eligible. Only original artwork will be accepted. Categories include sculpture, painting (including oil, acrylic, collage, watercolor & mixed media), photography, prints and drawings. Prizes will be awarded, including $1000 for Best in Show. Winners will be announced during the opening reception on June 1. This year’s juror, David Fithian, has been the Exhibition Coordinator at the Museum of Florida Art since 2001 and has judged many shows, won numerous awards, taught countless classes and workshops and exhibited his own work around the country for more than 40 years.

Entries must be submitted digitally to exhibitions@artinlee.org or delivered to the Alliance on CD by 5 p.m. on Friday, April 15. Pick up a copy of the 2012 Prospectus at the Alliance, download it online at artinlee.org or request one by mail by calling 239- 939-2787.

The Photographic Journal

of Clyde Butcher

Native son and world-renowned black-and-white fine arts photographer Clyde Butcher returns to the Southwest Florida Museum of History to celebrate the museum’s 30th anniversary with a specially designed exhibition through May 26.

Along with his original black and white photographs taken with a large format view camera, The Photographic Journal of Clyde Butcher will detail the story of the photograph: the negative, technical details, darkroom information, images of him photographing the scene and the story of the pursuit of the photograph.

Call 239-321-7430 or visit: www.swflmuseumofhistory.com

Free entertainment

“The Mangrove Gathering,” the eco cafe, will feature the live music on the third Friday of every month from 7:30 p.m.. and 10 p.m.

The cafe is at 6490 South Pointe Blvd., Fort Myers, at the Eco Living Center at Rutenberg Park.

Admission is free. Bring a reusable mug for free refreshments and a dessert/snack to share with the community “potlatch.”

The entertainment is sponsored by Audubon of Southwest Florida. Call 432-2163.