Music Salon of Sarasota by Steve and Anna Kramer was launched April 7th of 2024 together with daughter Emilia, and sons Victor and Samuel in their home once belonging to Bogoljub Ronac, a survivor of the Holocaust. Steve Kramer presented ‘Artists of Honor’, the legendary jazz pianist Dick Hyman and his late wife Sculptor Julia Hyman.
The sought-after and immensely popular Music Salon of Sarasota is uniquely the only music salon nationwide conducted all year round, and every first Sunday of the month. Steve Kramer brings together an international community of musicians, artists, authors, poets, painters, sculptors, and photographers–many of whom are both friends, colleagues, and neighbors—-to play all periods of music, genres, and styles, and exhibiting their artwork. The programs often improvised also combines the musical sharings with historical context, spoken commentary, and anecdotes. Steve and Anna Kramer cultivate the intimate and conversational environment, which is the very heart of the tradition, music salon.
The Salon requires a donation which is given as an honorarium to guest musicians, and all other performers. Additional donations are welcomed and support the performing musicians and artists. Each guest is also invited to bring an hors d’oeuvre, desert, or wine for an intermission buffet. Steve, Anna, Emilia, Victor and Samuel will welcome you with open arms and share a most unique, fun, and fiery musical experience, accompanied by musical anecdotes. Welcome to the most intimate “LIVE” feel.
Music Salon of Sarasota starts at 3 PM., and doors open 2:45 PM., and parking is free. Children have free access and the premises are protected 24/7 by live security guards and surveillance cameras all around the property.
All entry on the property is at own risk.
Please RSVP to stevekramermusic@gmail.com if you are planning on attending the Music Salon of Sarasota. All musicians and artists interested in performing can contact Steve Kramer or submit a letter of interest, a biography, professional photo with instrument(s), and ensemble info.
The earliest (documented) music salons are believed to have sprung out of Italy, soon populating France during the 17th and 18th centuries. During the Age of Enlightenment and the French Revolution, the music salon became a seat for lively political debate, and functioned as the most intimate spaces of artistic refuge, cultural dialogues, and the utmost desirable preservation of human connection during historical pockets of upheavel. Austria and Germany were also on the forefront of embracing the music salon. The musical events shaped a platform for women dominating numerous art forms and enjoying principal positions. Performers and composers would play instrumental music that often was sentimental, beautiful, fun, and suitable for a chamber room setting rather than the concert hall. Composers associated with the music salon include, Frantz Josef Haydn, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Ludwig van Beethoven, Frederic Chopin, Carl Maria von Weber, Franz Liszt, and the greatest performers of all times such as Fritz Kreisler, Jascha Heifetz, Emanuel Feuerman, Anton Rubinstein, Gregor Piatigorsky, Jacque Thibaud, Pablo Sarasate, Pau Casals, Svitoslav Richter, Sergei Rachmaninoff, and many many more. The music salon also helped change the ways money was allocated for the arts and public institutions, and by creating social awareness. The music salon was once upon a time a small gathering of specific people—of elite people. It was held in a designated room in the house used for the reception of visitors. During the 19th century, composers, musicians, and very fine people from the family-aristocracy would meet in Music Salons and enjoy listening to great music, among the prominent Mendelssohn family, the Itzig and von Arnstein families, and the families of Lobkowitz, Schwarzenberg, Lichnowsky.