How do you get to Carnegie Hall? Practice, practice, practice.
It’s a joke that rings true for Charleston Symphony Youth Orchestra Conductor Ryo Hasegawa and the young musicians he leads.
“Yeah, I mean they are beyond thrilled, as I am, from the very beginning of this season,” Hasegawa said prior to the big performance. “We’ve been talking about this. We’ve been building our stamina. Excitement. Yeah, they are ready. They are ready to go.”
The Charleston Symphony Youth Orchestra, the Charleston Symphony itself, and the College of Charleston Orchestra were ready to go for their Carnegie Hall debuts on February 26—some 250 musicians traveling from the South Carolina Lowcountry to New York City for a concert dubbed “A Charleston Celebration.”
They had made it to Carnegie. But then, the next question: how would they draw an audience and their devoted fans from hundreds of miles away? For these musical Charlestonians, the answer lay in a generous serving of hometown culture and neighborly spirit.
Violinist Yuriy Bekker, who is Artistic Director of the Charleston Symphony and Music Director of the CofC Orchestra, stopped for a chat outside of Carnegie to share about what motivated him to plan “A Charleston Celebration.”
“We are so fortunate to live in Charleston,” Bekker said, “and have such incredible culture and vibrant culture, whether its cuisine and the history—but also the music. And that’s what this is all about—to bring our music and bring our music to New York. And I strongly believe Charleston has something to say about music.”
The three orchestras gave Charleston its say through an energetic program of works familiar and fresh. The Youth Orchestra started the celebration with the world premiere of Charleston Mix by Thomas Cabaniss, an upbeat tribute to Charleston’s Jenkins Orphanage Band. Edmund Thornton Jenkins, who once led that legendary band, was the next featured composer, with the Youth Orchestra offering a spirited account of his 1920s tone poem Charlestonia.
The CofC Orchestra, joined by eight Citadel cadets, poured its energy into works by current and former professors at their school: the cinematic, pirate-inspired Corsaro by Yiorgos Vassilandonakis, as well as Trevor Weston’s Subwaves—a piece NYC native and current CofC percussionist Chris Badran found strikingly suggestive of his home city’s metro.
“You have to be there to hear it,” Badran says. “It even has, like, a train sound on the mallet that one of the other percussionists is playing. So it sums up New York in one piece.”
And as for summing up Charleston, the Charleston Symphony Orchestra and Harlem Quartet performed Edward Hart’s A Charleston Concerto—a dynamic evocation of the highs and lows of the Holy City’s human story, ending on a strongly optimistic note.
There were orchestral standards on the program, too: Sibelius’ Finlandia, the finale of Dvorak’s New World Symphony, and Gershwin’s An American in Paris—very different pieces, but all linked to themes of finding one’s voice and the importance of home in making us who we are.
Appreciation from back home was strong in the audience of over 1,500, with half of those present from the Palmetto State. Peggy Oldham, along with her husband Frank, was there to hear her daughter Emily in the CofC Orchestra. Oldham found the dedication of the student performers particularly inspiring.
“I think it’s amazing that they get to play on this wonderful world stage along with professional musicians,” Oldham said. “We’re just delighted to be here.”
Such delight was apparent in standing ovations for each orchestra and enthusiastic applause at the end of the 2-hour, 45-minute concert.
That applause resonated with pre-concert remarks by Charleston Symphony CEO Michael Smith. “It might be our first trip to Carnegie Hall,” he promised those present, “but it will not be our last.”
