This weekend, Renee Fleming will come to Sarasota. The soprano, actress and arts advocate is a five-time Grammy winner, a National Medal of the Arts recipient and one of the most celebrated artists of her generation—on January 9, Fleming will present her acclaimed concert program, Voice of Nature: the Anthropocene at the Van Wezel Performing Arts Hall. The concert, based upon Fleming’s 2023 Grammy-winning album of the same name with Yannick Nezet-Seguin, began as a project Fleming started during the Covid-19 pandemic.

“I was supposed to record with Nezet-Seguin, and I found out that we were all out of work for a long time and that being outside was the best medicine for me,” says Fleming. “I had just moved to Virginia in January of 2020 and I discovered this incredible, lush area that was a special joy for me. I thought it was interesting that the music that I sang throughout my career, particularly in recital, stems from the late 19th to early 20th centuries and the poetry the composers set looks at almost every human experience from the lens of nature.”

With new commissions from Nico Muhly, Caroline Shaw and Kevin Puts, Voice of Nature juxtaposes Romantic-era works with contemporary pieces. The concert experience—which includes works not exclusively from the album—is backed by a National Geographic-produced film reflecting the beauty of the natural world.

Fleming’s weekend in Sarasota, however, does not end with Friday’s concert. On January 10, the Sarasota Performing Arts Foundation, in collaboration with University of South Florida Sarasota-Manatee, will present Music and Mind: A Conversation on the Healing Power of the Arts, a paneled discussion on the connections between music, brain health and cognitive development. The panelists include Fleming—editor of the 2024 book Music and Mind: Harnessing the Arts for Health and Wellness—Dr. Jim Schumacher, neurosurgeon, magician and research associate at Harvard Medical School; Dr. Jennifer Bugos, professor of Education at USF and Dr. Kevin Spencer, an award-winning performing artist and researcher.

“These conversations are fascinating to me, because every single one of them is different,” says Fleming. “In Sarasota, we’ll have a magician, a neurosurgeon and musician and a National Institutes of Health-funded lab at USF presenting their work. Each of these presenters will have completely different thoughts on how the arts are essential to us in terms of well being and overall health.”

Renee Fleming will be performing at the Van Wezel Performing Arts Hall on January 9 and hosting a paneled discussion at USF Sarasota-Manatee on January 10.