Sanderling to conduct his family
By JOHN FLEMING
Published March 4, 2005
It's a Sanderling family affair at this weekend's Florida Orchestra concerts. Music director Stefan Sanderling will be on the podium, and his younger brother, cellist Michael Sanderling, will be the soloist in the Shostakovich Cello Concerto No. 2.
But that's not all. Barbara Sanderling, the conductor's mother, will play in the double bass section. And his wife, Isabelle, will be in the cello section. Along with the Shostakovich, the program includes Beethoven's Coriolan Overture and Dvorak's Symphony No. 7.
Michael and Barbara came last week from Berlin for the concerts here and in Toledo, Ohio, where Stefan is principal conductor. The family patriarch, renowned conductor Kurt Sanderling, 92, doesn't travel anymore and remains at home in Berlin.
Michael, 38, is a widely traveled soloist who has played with the Boston, Los Angeles and Minnesota orchestras, among many others. He is principal cellist in the Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra and also conducts.
Barbara Sanderling played double bass in the Berlin Symphony Orchestra when her husband was music director. She now teaches in Berlin.
Isabelle Sanderling, who is French, met her husband when she was a musician in the Orchestre de Bretagne and he was music director. She has been in the Florida West Coast Symphony in Sarasota the past two seasons and has played with the Florida Orchestra.
Stefan has conducted his brother in concertos in the past, but this is his first experience with his mother in an orchestra. Barbara said that she saw some things in her son's conducting that reminded her of his father on the podium.
How does it affect Sanderling to have his mother in the double bass section?
"No difference," he said. "I'm busy with so many things while conducting, I don't really notice. It is nice to have another good player."
Concerts are Saturday at the Mahaffey Theater in St. Petersburg, Sunday at Ruth Eckerd Hall in Clearwater and Monday at the Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center in Tampa, all at 7:30 p.m. $15.50 to $50.50. 813 286-2403, toll-free 1-800-662-7286 or www.floridaorchestra.org
USF professor to lead Polish choirRichard Zielinski, artistic director of the Master Chorale of Tampa Bay and professor of chorus at the University of South Florida, has another position, as conductor of one of Poland's top choirs, the Chor Akademicki Politechniki Szczecinskiej, or CHAPS. Zielinski, of Polish descent, is leading the chorus on a U.S. tour that includes three concerts with the USF Chamber Singers in the Tampa Bay area. Naturally, the program includes plenty of Polish works, such as Penderecki's Agnus Dei.
CHAPS sings at 8 p.m. today at Theatre 1 on USF's Tampa campus; $6, $12; (813) 974-2323; at 7 p.m. Saturday at the Polish Cultural Center of Pope John II, Clearwater; $10, $12; (727) 298-8609; and at 7:30 p.m. Monday at the Palladium Theater, St. Petersburg; $6, $12; (727) 822-3590.
Student vocal winnerJenna Siladie, a sophomore at Northside Christian School, won the first prize of $300 at Saturday's 35th annual vocal competition sponsored by the Florida Suncoast Opera Guild. Siladie and third-place winner Sadie Frazier, a senior at Northside, are alternating as Eliza Doolittle in the school's production of My Fair Lady. The second-place winner, Philip Dvoracsek, is a senior at Pinellas County Center for the Arts at Gibbs High School.
Solo lute concertUSF professor John Robison gives a solo concert of Renaissance lute music by French-born Nicholas Vallet (1583-1642) at 8 p.m. Monday in the recital hall on the Tampa campus. Robison will play a rare type of lute with 19 strings instead of the conventional 11 or 13. $3, $6. (813) 974-2323.
John Fleming can be reached at 727 893-8716 or fleming@sptimes.com