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Opera at USCEllen Schlaefer, director of Opera Studies at the University of South Carolina School of Music, shares insights into Gian Carlo Menotti's Pulitzer Prize-winning opera ahead of three performances Nov. 7-9. -
Mary Altaffer/AP/APJazz helped reshape the visual arts. Artists like Romare Bearden and Jackson Pollock translated jazz's energy, rhythm, and improvisation onto canvas.
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By the 1950s and ’60s, jazz had become a global art form. American musicians toured widely, sometimes as part of U.S. State Department “jazz ambassador” programs. -
In the late 1950s, a new approach to improvisation began to take shape—modal jazz. -
In his recent album Chopin: The Complete Nocturnes, Tom Hicks brings historic insights and artistic intuition to a cherished part of the piano repertoire. -
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The Great Depression of the 1930s was a time of hardship, but it was also the era when jazz became America’s popular music.
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When Prohibition went into effect in 1920, it was meant to end the nation’s drinking habits. Instead, it created a whole new social scene—and jazz was right at the center.
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Fred Wesley is a key figure in funk and jazz history. As music director and arranger for James Brown, he helped shape the explosive horn sound that defined Brown’s band in the late 1960s and early '70s. -
Pee Wee Ellis, born Alfred Ellis in Bradenton, Florida, was a saxophonist and composer who significantly influenced James Brown's sound. -
In 1962, James Brown made the leap from rising star to musical icon with a single performance at midnight in the Apollo Theater.
