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The Perlman Music Program (PMP) Suncoast’s Winter Residency will kick off its 22nd year of operation on December 30. PMP itself began in 1994, the brainchild of violinist Toby Perlman, designed to serve as a holistic learning environment for some of the world’s top young string instruments. Led by Toby and her husband Itzhak Perlman, the program hosts a highly competitive seven-week long music summer camp on New York’s Shelter Island for students aged 12-18—after participating in the summer program, students will migrate to Sarasota to take part in the Winter Residency from December 30 to January 10.

This year, the Winter Residency has moved from the USF-Manatee Sarasota Campus to various locations in downtown Sarasota. During the residency, students will engage in individual and group lessons, orchestra rehearsals, chorus rehearsals and debut works in progress, all in preparation for the PMP Celebration Concert, held at the Sarasota Opera on January 9. The Winter Residency’s community programs are free and open to the public to enjoy, gaining an inside eye into the artistic process of these young musicians.

“The orchestra rehearsals are conducted by Mr. Perlman, who wears a microphone, so you get to hear what he’s saying to the kids and he addresses the audience as well. The WIPS or works in progress are solo recitals—a student string instrumentalist is accompanied by a pianist and they get to try out whatever it is they are working on, be it an audition for a college or a competition, in front of a live audience,” says Lisa Berger, executive director of PMP Suncoast. “Audiences get to know a lot of the students because they come back year after year, which is even more exciting because then they see them grow up and become professional musicians.”

The environment at PMP is a holistic one, meant to nurture and develop the students not just as musicians, but also as people. Although acceptance into the program is extremely competitive, the actual environment is not. There is no jostling for a better seat in the orchestra, no predetermined hierarchy based on experience. “What's important in any musical education environment is to build a support system where you prop up the talent and then you build the skills. Prop up the talent and build the skills that support the talent, because talent isn’t what’s going to develop the voice, but it is connected to what they have to say in the music,” says instructor Catherine Cho, an acclaimed violinist in her own right and a faculty member at Juilliard. “That’s innate, that comes from the heart, from the soul, but then we need the language to be able to advocate for your voice and that’s where the skill building comes in.”

PMP Winter Residency, Downtown Sarasota, December 30, 2025-January 10, 2026

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