The entrance to VillageWalk in South Sarasota is marked by palms, a guardhouse and the kind of manicured stillness that suggests firm adherence to quiet hours. The streets curve past identical roofs and clipped hedges. It doesn’t hint at the possibility that, on the first Sunday of each month, at 3 p.m., a cello will begin to warm up inside one of the houses.
Yet that’s what happens once a month, when the Music Salon of Sarasota convenes in the VillageWalk living room of cellist Steve Kramer. Folding chairs are arranged in rows. The lanai doors open. At 2:45 p.m., guests begin to arrive with wine, fruit or something homemade to snack on at intermission. Then the music begins.
The salon launched on April 7, 2024. Its first “Artist of Honor” was the legendary jazz pianist Dick Hyman, who attended in person with his wife, the sculptor Julia Hyman. Kramer spoke about Hyman’s life and work; Hyman sat among the audience. The scale was domestic. The distance between artist and listener, close to none…