Sonatas and Soundscapes

Spoleto Chamber Music Series Director Geoff Nuttall's eclectic approach to programming concerts at the festival has its roots in a record collection he started in his youth. Nuttall says that, while eclecticism is important to him, the quality of a program should never suffer "just for the sake of eclecticism."

In "Haydn Dialogues," pianist Pedja Muzijevic creates a "conversation" among four Haydn sonatas four 20th century works. Muzijevic's recital is part of the Music in Time series at Spoleto Festival USA.

It may go without saying that Ken Lam, music director of the Charleston Symphony Orchestra, is well-versed in matters relating to the study and performance of some of the world's greatest works of music--several conducting awards and time spent learning from maestros like Leonard Slatkin are proof enough of that. What might be more surprising is that his resume also includes an economics degree from Cambridge and a decade of experience in law.

As Observatory Manager at the South Carolina State Museum, Dr. Matthew Whitehouse is keeping busy with a few preparations for the upcoming solar eclipse on August 21st—he has even written a piece of music inspired by the event. The astronomy educator is also an organist and composer, and doesn’t mind taking an interdisciplinary approach when it comes to celestial phenomena. In fact, merging seemingly separate fields is one of his major interests.

Alfred Turner had a chance to talk with musician and composer Béla Fleck a few days before his visit to Columbia, SC, to perform his new banjo concerto, the Juno Concerto. Beck was scheduled to perform the work on November 13, at the Koger Center, with the South Carolina Philharmonic, under music director Morihiko Nakahara. Just in case you aren't familiar with Béla Fleck, there are some who say he's the world’s premier banjo player. 

On October 15th, Maestro Sarah Ioannides led the Spartanburg Philharmonic Orchestra in works by Kenneth Fuchs, Copland and Brahms. The SPO celebrates Sarah's 12th and final year with the ensemble with the "One Legacy" season. In this segment, SCPR's Kate McKinney shares highlights from an interview with Sarah which aired on Wednesday, October 12th. 

The iconic opera of the Jazz Age, Porgy and Bess, by George and Ira Gershwin with DuBose Heyward, returns to Charleston, its city of origin, in a Spoleto Festival USA production. David Herskovits, whose 1998 production of Mamba’s Daughters by DuBose and Dorothy Heyward won an OBIE award and sold out at Spoleto Festival USA in 1999, returns to direct. Celebrated Lowcountry artist Jonathan Green is Visual Designer, creating the fictional "Catfish Row," based on the actual "Cabbage Row."

  Manual Cinema’s Drew Dir joins SCPRS’s Kate McKinney for a conversation about Ada/Ava, a multimedia work that combines Dir’s shadow puppetry with an original score. Live actors and musicians share the stage with shadow puppets to tell the story of sisters Ada and Ava while exploring the human struggles of loss and self-discovery. Ada/Ava marks performance collective Manual Cinema’s Spoleto Festival USA debut. 

Steven Sloane is a former music director of Spoleto Festival USA. He returns to the festival this year to conduct over 140 musicians for the 40th-Season Celebration Concert. The concert involves performers from all areas of Spoleto Festival USA including the Spoleto Festival USA Orchestra, the Westminster Choir, and musicians from the Wells Fargo Jazz series and the Bank of America Chamber Music series. Steven joins South Carolina Public Radio’s Kate McKinney to discuss the event and its program, which features music of historic significance for the festival.

  After seven years as director of the wildly popular Bank of America Chamber Music series, violinist Geoff Nuttall has no plans to tinker with his formula for success. The series, which spans the length of the festival, treats audiences to both staples of chamber music repertoire—like Haydn’s “The Joke” quartet—and new works. This year, Osvaldo Golijov returns as composer-in-residence for the series. Geoff Nuttall joins SCPR’s Kate McKinney to talk about his work and the many parts that make the series a success.