MUSIC

FESTIVAL FINALE

The 42nd season of the Sarasota Music Festival, running through June 17, may be longtime artistic director Paul Wolfe's last, but staffers say Wolfe doesn't want them-or audiences-to get too sentimental about it. He'd rather they focus on the future of the festival (which starting next year will be led by veteran festival faculty member Robert Levin).

Still, it wouldn't be right to mark Wolfe's departure without some fanfare. So he will conduct the festival's last concert of the summer on June 17, leading his musicians in Weber's Clarinet Concerto No. 2 in E-flat Major, Shostakovich's Violin Concerto in A Minor, Op. 77, and Beethoven's Concerto in C Major, Op. 56-no doubt to thunderous applause and a few tears from festival fans.

Another festival highlight should be the June 3 orchestra concert conducted by Joseph Silverstein, featuring Claude Frank on Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 17 and Ani Kavafian on Bruch's Violin Concerto No. 1. These two concerts, along with performances June 2, 9, 10 and 16, take place at the Sarasota Opera House. There are also Artist Showcase concerts at Holley Hall (June 1, 8 and 15) and of course free concerts presented by the festival's talented students, June 4, 8, 10, 15 and 16, along with the popular Student Postlude Performances following the concerts on June 2, 9 and 16.

A variety of ticket packages for the festival exist, and other composers spotlighted include Mendelssohn, Vivaldi, Smetana, Britten and Brahms. For complete information, call the ticket hotline, 953-3434.

On Exhibit

TOUCHDOWN ON MAIN STREET

Robert Chambers has created an engaging seven-part sculpture, Ellipsota, for the new Herald-Tribune building on Main Street. Inside the building are three identical forms; outside are three horizontal, one vertical. The individual shapes are slick, smooth, shiny and seductive, with their ovoid outlines shadowed in the flat surface of contrasting concrete aggregate on the exterior and a contrasting terrazzo on the interior. The plaza and lobby where they are sited are awash in bright sunlight during the day; at night the reflections in the glass give the impression of an infinite number of these intriguing shapes.

Chambers' solid glossy white pods are a brilliant foil to all the blue-green glass of the building's hard-edge surfaces. Their bright titanium white skin gleams like the plastic Herman Miller furniture of the '50s, while his forms, resembling river rocks, also recall the monolithic slabs at Stonehenge. Looking at them, we wonder, where did they come from? What do they signify? Chambers created these mysterious shapes using a high-tech AutoCAD program. He then had them milled from computer specs and realized by Zed Bennett in West Palm Beach, whose plant also makes submarines. Someone said at the unveiling, "They look like they came from another planet." Contemporary sculpture has indeed landed on Main Street. -Mark Ormond

ART

Selby Gallery. The gallery's annual community exhibitions-one featuring work by members of Women Contemporary Artists, the other paying tribute to the late artist Leona Sherwood-close on June 2. 359-7563.

South Florida Museum. The New World in the Eyes of Explorers, an exhibit including etchings, engravings and lithographs from the 17th through the 19th century, ends its run here June 4. 746-4131.

Art Center Sarasota. The Annual Florida Photography Show and works by Joseph Melancon continue on view here through June 10. Opening June 27 (reception at 5 p.m. June 29) to run through Aug. 5 is an open, themed juried show titled Dreams. 365-2032.

Museum of Fine Arts. Continuing on view through June 11 at the St. Petersburg museum is Picasso: Passionate Printmaker. Also on view: Keris Invincible: Sword Handles from Indonesia, through Sept. 10, and A Complex Eden: Photographs of the American West by such artists as Ansel Adams, Lewis Baltz and Brett Weston, through Aug. 6. And Archipenko 2D/3D: Prints and Sculpture, a tribute to the work of Alexander Archipenko, continues through July 23. (727) 896-2667.

Tampa Museum of Art. Ending its run here June 11 is the exhibit Keith Haring: Art & Commerce (A Tribute to the Pop Shop), which takes a look at the late artist's works and Pop Shop products. Also on view, through June 9, underCURRENT/overview, a biennial contemporary exhibition. (813) 274-8130.

State of the Arts Gallery. White Hot, a show illustrating the power of white in art and its contrast, continues through mid-month. 955-2787.

Venice Art Center. The Art of the Word exhibition ends June 15; it's followed by a Glass Invitational, running June 23 through Aug. 18. 485-7136.

Ringling Museum of Art. Encore: The Art of the Asolo Theater, accompanying the return of the late 18th-century Asolo Theater building to the museum, continues through June 18. 359-5700.

Apple & Carpenter Galleries. Continuing through June 30: Distinguished Art Resurfaced, featuring American and European paintings dating from 1850 to 1950. 951-2314.

Salvador Dali Museum. The St. Petersburg museum presents Salvador Dali and a Century of Art from Spain, which will also exhibit works by Picasso, Miró and modern sculptor Jaume Plensa, through July 30. (727) 823-3767.

Palm Avenue Gallery. Works by painter Kurt Larisch are on view here June 2 through July 6. 953-5757.

Women's Resource Center. The center presents the sculpture and paintings of Gwendolyn Fryer in a show titled Fragments of My Heart, starting June 8 with a reception at 5 p.m. and running through Aug. 30. 366-1700.

St. Armands Craft Festival. More than 175 artisans and craft persons are slated to participate in this yearly event, from 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. June 10 and 11 at St. Armands Circle Park. (813) 962-0388.

BENEFITS

School Daze. Every Child Inc., which aims to guarantee that every child can enter school with the backpacks, lunchboxes and supplies they need, offers its "Junior Year" event at 7 p.m. June 2 at Payne Park Auditorium, a chance to relive those teen years with a buffet, dance, fashion show and voting for the prom king and queen. Tickets $75; 955-5507.

Starry, Starry Night Prom. Yep, another prom night, this one presented by Community Youth Development at 7 p.m. June 3 at the Bari Brooks Teen Center at Sarasota Family YMCA (Euclid branch). To benefit CYD's STAR Leadership Training. Tickets $75; 922-5126.

Bachelor Ball and Auction. UCP's annual attempt to raise funds and bring gentlemen and ladies together for a good cause, from 7 p.m. to midnight June 10 at Michael's On East Ballroom. Seventeen brave bachelors will entertain as the women ponder this year's theme, "Remember the Romance." Tickets $75. 957-3599.

COMEDY

Florida Studio Theatre Improv. See what's making FST audiences laugh this month, at 8:30 p.m. June 3, 10, 17 and 24 on the cabaret stage. 366-9000.

MUSIC

Sarasota Music Festival. The 42nd annual summer chamberfest continues through June 17. 953-3434.

Friday Fest on the Bay. The outdoor summer concerts along the Van Wezel's bayfront commence June 9, with a band TBA. 953-3368.

Cocktails at the Cà d'Zan. Enjoy music from Vertigo along with food and drink, from 6 to 9 p.m. June 15 around the Ringling mansion terrace. 359-5700.

SPORTS

Sarasota Reds. Minor league baseball continues at Ed Smith Stadium this month, with the Reds taking on teams from Jupiter (June 1-4), Dunedin (June 5 and 28-30), Clearwater (June 9, 10 and 19), Fort Myers (June 14-15), Tampa (June 22-24) and Lakeland (June 27). For tickets, call 954-4464.

Suncoast Offshore Grand Prix Festival. Yep, it's time for the roar of the powerboats again, but the festival really kicks off with a charity golf tournament at Stoneybrook Golf Club at Heritage Harbour and a party at Robarts Arena, June 24; the World's Largest Offshore Party, June 29 at the Hyatt; and the Festival Parade of Boats down Main Street, June 30. (The big race itself is set for July 2.) There's lots more on the schedule, and it all benefits the Florida Center for Child and Family Development. 371-8820 ext. 1800.

THEATER

Around the World in 80 Days. Playwright Ron Brown's take on the Jules Verne adventure classic continues through June 10 at Florida Studio Theatre. 366-9000.

The Flip Side. Get a comedic look at the genius of Monty Python, Barry Manilow, Shel Silverstein and others in this musical revue onstage at Florida Studio Theatre's Goldstein Cabaret, through June 10. 366-9000.

Jukebox Sweethearts. A Stage II cabaret show in Venice Little Theatre's Pinkerton Theatre, continuing through June 16. 488-1115.

Rounding Third. Richard Dresser's comedy about two Little League fathers/coaches, continuing through June 17 in an Asolo Theatre production in the Cook Theatre. 351-8000.

String of Pearls. The Asolo's production of this Michele Lowe piece about 27 women whose lives are connected by one string of pearls continues through June 18 in the Cook Theatre. 351-8000.

Crowns. The musical about African-American church women, their hats and their lives continues through June 18 at the Asolo Theatre. 351-8000.

Big. Adolescent Josh Baskin goes to bed a boy and wakes up a man-well, at least on the outside-in this Shire-Maltby musical adaptation of the Tom Hanks movie hit, onstage through July 23 at the Golden Apple Dinner Theatre. 366-5454.

TBA. Florida Studio Theatre kicks off its summer season with a work not yet announced at press time, running June 14 through July 1. The second show of the season opens June 28 and runs through July 15, in FST's Gompertz Theatre. 366-9000.

Mrs. Warren's Profession. One of Shaw's early works, dealing with a mother, a daughter, and the problematic path to affluence (read: the world's oldest profession) taken by the mother opens the Banyan Theater Company summer season June 29 through July 16. Performances are in the Cook Theatre at the FSU Center for the Performing Arts. 358-5330.