Artis—Naples Enters the Home Stretch

As the 2025-26 season enters its latter stretch in April, Artis—Naples is giving arts-loving patrons plenty to enjoy, with two Masterworks programs, a special Naples Philharmonic performance pairing the orchestra and Artistic and Music Director Alexander Shelley with world-class violinist and Artistic Partner James Ehnes, a Pops program celebrating the life and music of a country icon and more.

Virtuoso violinist Joshua Bell brings his 300-year-old Stradivarius to Hayes Hall April 2-4 to perform The Elements, a five-movement contemporary work inspired by Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons and the natural world. The program also includes Stravinsky’s provocative The Rite of Spring and Wynton Marsalis’ vibrant Herald, Holler and Hallelujah.

On April 23 and 25, Shelley and the orchestra are joined by Grammy Award-winning pianist Emanuel Ax for a program of instantly recognizable works, including Barber’s Adagio for Strings, Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 22 and Strauss’ Also sprach Zarathustra—epic orchestral works further popularized through film.

Meanwhile, April 7-11, the final Pops program of the season features a trio of guest vocalists joining Principal Pops conductor Jack Everly and the orchestra for an innovative multimedia symphonic experience celebrating the life and songs of country music icon Dolly Parton in Dolly Parton’s Threads: My Songs in Symphony.

In the month’s final week, Shelley and the orchestra return April 28, this time alongside Ehnes for a program of five film-related works by Dukas, Korngold, Mahler, Gershwin and James Newton Howard.

For fans of chamber music, celebrated American pianist Evren Ozel joins musicians of the Naples Philharmonic for a Sypert Salon program featuring Mozart’s bold and emotionally charged Piano Quartet in G Minor on April 7 and 12. Ozel is also spotlighted in a Grand Piano Series recital of works by Beethoven, Bartók, Schumann and Fauré. Grand Piano Series then closes the month with an April 30 performance by the ATOS Trio, featuring violinist Annette von Hehn, cellist Stefan Heinemeyer and pianist Thomas Hoppe.

In The Baker Museum, exhibitions like Florida Contemporary 2025-26, sonia louise davis: to reverberate tenderly, There & Here: New Perspectives of the Permanent Collection, The Passion of Collecting: Stories in Glass and Ceramics from the Sibrack Collection and the newest exhibition, Discovering Ansel Adams, which opened last month, continue.

On April 24, Rebecca Senf, chief curator of the Center for Creative Photography, delivers a lecture offering insight into the celebrated landscape photographer’s work.

April also includes the season’s final Broadway touring production as Hayes Hall welcomes traveling con man Harold Hill and the people of River City April 14-19 for Meredith Willson’s six-time Tony-winning musical The Music Man.

Other highlights include vocalist Cynthia Scott appearing with the Naples Philharmonic Jazz Orchestra in Daniels Pavilion April 8 and, on April 22, National Geographic Explorer Heather Lynch takes audiences to Antarctica in a lively multimedia exploration of the ice continent’s favorite feathered friends: penguins.