2010 Piccolo Spoleto Festival Announces 32nd Season Highlights

CHARLESTON, SC – May 28 to June 13, 2010 – The 32nd annual Piccolo SpoletoFestival, the official outreach arm of Spoleto Festival USA, will runMay 28 to June 13, 2010.  This year’s festival program offers a varietyof arts and cultural programs including theatre, blues, jazz, chambermusic, early music, dance, literary, visual arts and many free andfamily-friendly events.

New for the 2010 season, Piccolo Spoleto is launching a new box officesystem, with the official box office location at the Charleston VisitorCenter, 375 Meeting St., and on May 22, a second location will open atthe City of Charleston Office of Cultural Affairs, 180 Meeting St.  Tickets are available for purchase at these two locations, or by calling (843) 724-7295, or online at www.piccolospoleto.com. 

“The 2010 Piccolo Spoleto Festival presents a wonderful opportunity forresidents and visitors to transcend the frantic pace and experience thewonder and the magic of the arts,” says Mayor Joseph P. Riley, Jr.  “Charleston is so fortunate to be the center of the international artsworld for 17 days between the exciting programs offered through theinternationally famous Spoleto Festival USA and its companion festival,Piccolo Spoleto.”

The 2010 official Piccolo Spoleto poster image, selected from astatewide competition based on its design qualities and representationof the festival, is Connections, by Charleston resident, Tate Nation.The Spotlight Concert Series poster is Front Door of City Hall byCharlestonian, Sandy Logan.

“Nation’s Connections truly represents the excitement, enthusiasm andcelebration that Piccolo Spoleto brings to Charleston for 17 days.  From every street corner to narrow walkways, to balconies, to thestorefronts, to churches and to public spaces, the city truly comesalive during the festival, bursting with energy exalted from the artists and audiences. Connections also symbolizes how people connect duringthe festival, recognizing each other not by their differences, but bytheir common human qualities,” says Ellen Dressler Moryl, director ofthe City of Charleston Office of Cultural Affairs and founding directorof Piccolo Spoleto.
 

Spotlight Concert Series and Mepkin Abbey Concerts

A centerpiece of the 2010 Festival is the Spotlight Concert Series madepossible by the National Endowment for the Arts as part of AmericanMasterpieces: Three Centuries of Artistic Genius. Presenting chambermusicians from the Southeast, the 2010 Spotlight Concert Series features innovative chamber music concerts, including musical masterpieces byAmerican composers. Concerts include:

Maestro Donald Portnoy conducts a patriotic pops concert featuring thePiccolo Spoleto Festival Orchestra against the backdrop of the U.S.Yorktown and Charleston Harbor. On Sunday, May 30 at 6

p.m. at the Charleston Harbor Resort and Marina.  This unforgettable and stirring program features favorites such as U.S. Armed Forces Medley,Stars and Stripes Forever and more. The Piccolo Spoleto Festival Orchestra, Donald Portnoy conducts, celebrates the 150thanniversary of the birthday of Gustav Mahler with Music in the Time ofMahler; June 1 at 6 p.m. Soloists include Jill Terhaar Lewis, sopranoand Jennifer Luiken, mezzo soprano.

Former longtime leading classical musicians in Charleston, cellist James Holland and his wife Megan, violin, present A Musical Homecoming at the City Gallery at Waterfront Park on June 2 with world-class violinistYuriy Bekker and violist Jill King as they present music for stringquartet by composers Richard Moryl and Edward Hart. World-renownedpianist Andrew Armstrong joins the quartet for a performance of thebeautiful Piano Quintet by Amy Beach. Music from Around the Globefeatures the Charleston Woodwind Quintet performing works by Mozart,Françaix, Piazzolla, Jeff Scott and Soong Fu-Yuan. On June 5, DezCordas, a classical guitar and bass duo play an interesting and highlyevocative mix of music styles ranging from classical to tango to jazz.USC music professor Craig Butterfield, bass, and Mansfield andBloomsburg University guitar program director Matt Slotkin, guitar, are a virtuosic duo performing works by Piazzolla, Villa Lobos, de Falla andmore. Flutist Regina Helcher Yost’s program entices the listener into aworld of tonal palettes and colors in Picturesque Melodies from the 20th Century. Ghadi Shayban, piano and Timothy O’Malley, cello, join Ms.Yost in performing works by Copland, Bartók, Rachmaninoff and more.Clarinetist Nikolasa Tejero and pianist Tim Hinck explore musical vistas of the Americas in The Clarinet in the New World featuring works byCuban, Puerto Rican, Mexican, Brazilian, Argentinean and Americancomposers. Chamber Music Charleston presents Dvorak’s American StringQuartet paired with their original adaptation of Margot Theis Raven’sCircle Unbroken set to the music of William Grant Still. Double bassists Ed Allman and Tom Bresnick open the program with a unique duo by DaveAnderson. Celebrate two important birthdays with N.C.-based DegasQuartet. Samuel Barber, born 100 years ago, is known for his hauntinglybeautiful Adagio for Strings, which Degas plays to perfection. RobertSchumann, born 200 years ago, wrote three string quartets, the third ofwhich rounds out this program.

Special events of the series include: Chopin, Champagne and Candlelighton June 10 at 8 p.m. at the picturesque City Gallery at Waterfront Park, with the world-class pianist Volodymyr Vynnitsky performing three ofChopin’s most beloved works. A champagne reception (French, of course!)will follow the concert. Beethoven: His Women and His Music, a uniquecollaboration between Actors’ Theatre of South Carolina and ChamberMusic Charleston captures the maestro in a new light, revealing secretsfrom his journals. Charleston Chamber Opera presents Amore!, a programfeaturing some of the world’s most romantic operatic melodies in asemi-staged format, including La Bohème, L’elisir d’amore, La Traviata, I Pagliacci, Samson & Delilah and Carmen, on May 29 at 6 p.m. and May 30 at 4 p.m.

The very special Mepkin Abbey concerts include a concert in the abbeychurch with its perfect, clarifying acoustics, followed by a receptionunder the shady oaks. The Ensemble of St. Clare at Mepkin Abbey performs May 31 at 4 p.m., William Billings’ When Jesus Wept; George FridericHandel’s Concerto Grosso Op. 6, #1; Fantasia on Greensleeves by RalphVaughn Williams; Mozart’s Clarinet Quintet; Bach Concerto for Oboe andViolin and Vaughn Williams’ The Lark Ascending, performed by YuriyBekker. Featured soloists are Yuriy Bekker, violin; Mark Gainer, oboeand Gretchen Schneider Roper, clarinet, Alex Agrest conducts. TheEnsemble of St. Clare is comprised of some of the Lowcountry’s leadingChamber musicians.

Cause and Effect: Music in Response to the Holocaust is June 10 at 4p.m. The beautiful “Silent Devotion” from Ernest Bloch’s Sacred Service(composed between 1930 and 1933 in Switzerland), arranged for violin,cello, clarinet and piano, opens the program, followed by OlivierMessiaen’s ravishing Quartet for the End of Time, written and premieredin a German concentration camp in 1941. Performers are Nicole Benton,violin; Bryon Hogan, cello; Gretchen Schneider Roper, clarinet and Ghadi Shayban, piano. A free lecture about the program and rescued Torahscroll will be before the concert in the Abbey library at 2 p.m.

Spotlight on the Art of Choral Music includes concerts by renownednational choirs, including Antioch Chamber Ensemble performing EricWhitacre’s The City and the Sea;  Renaissance from Charlotte, N.C.,performing Reincarnations, Op. 16 by Barber, Howard Hanson’s Song ofDemocracy; and the Taylor Festival Choir performing Maurice Duruflé’sbeloved Requiem, and the Celtic Mass by Michael McGlynn.  The St.Gregory Choir of Grace Episcopal Church will join forces with thePiccolo Spoleto Festival Orchestra to perform Johannes Brahms’ famousEin Deutsches Requiem (German Requiem) on June 4 at 6 p.m. and June 5 at 2 p.m.

Free Events

Piccolo Spoleto’s mission, since its founding in 1979, is to provideaccess to the Spoleto Festival USA experience for everyone, regardlessof their economic, social or physical circumstances.  As a result, manyof Piccolo Spoleto’s offerings are free or have minimal ticket prices.  These free events are offered as a public service to provide access tothe festival programs to everyone in the community.

A tradition of turning Charleston into a stage for 17 days, PiccoloSpoleto’s Sunset Serenade, a free outdoor pops concert overlooking theCharleston Harbor at the U.S. Custom House, opens Piccolo Spoleto,Friday, May 28 from 8 to 9:30 p.m.  This year, the concert features thePiccolo Spoleto Festival

Orchestra conducted by Donald Portnoy with soloist Nancy Lefter, mezzosoprano. The orchestra is comprised of graduating music majors from area universities, their college music professors along with some ofCharleston’s finest professional, classical musicians. Program includesfavorite works by American Composers, including Aaron Copland, JohnWilliams, William Schumann and Duke Ellington.

Also offering many family-friendly activities, Piccolo Spoleto hosts aChildren’s Festival in Marion Square on Saturday, May 29 from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. “Carnival of the Animals” is the theme, engaging children of all ages with live entertainment: face painting, storytelling, arts andcrafts, Carnival of the Animals performed by Chamber Music Charleston, a parade of Ashley Hall’s animal masks, The Giving Tree performed byRobert Ivey Ballet, the zany Seed and Feed Marching Abominable, andending the day is the hilarious, high energy Electric Company!

Planned by the Piccolo Spoleto college interns, Piccolo Spoleto BeachMusic Bash, a block party Friday, June 4 from 7 to 11 p.m. at the U.S.Custom House, featuring beach music bands that bring beach musicfavorites, including This Magic Moment and others to life, evoking thesounds and flavors of the 60’s and 70’s in the S.C. Lowcountry.  Opening the party is the Explorer’s Club, a local band that will play originals as well as favorite beach music hits from the 50’s and 60’s.  The night ends with Palmetto Soul on stage providing the best of beach music forshaggers.

Charleston residents and visitors will all find something of interest at the Piccolo Spoleto Finale: “Unity Day,” an exciting celebration ofCharleston’s cultural diversity.  The day starts at 9 a.m. at HarmonPark with free recreation activities sponsored by the City of Charleston Recreation Department, including  tennis and swimming lessons until 1p.m.  At noon, Brittlebank Park comes alive with Irish Fiddling, theHoly Trinity Hellenic Dance Troupe, Suzuki Violins from Ashley Hall, and much more!  The park is also host to more information about City ofCharleston services, including health and wellness resources,sustainability and recycling, safety and crime prevention, homeownership and debt prevention seminars.  There will also be an exciting cook-offbetween the Charleston Police Department and the Charleston FireDepartment using ingredients from the Charleston Farmers Market.  At3:30 p.m. Bluegrass will be presented on stage, and at 5 p.m. Reggaesounds take over the park until 7 p.m.  At 8 p.m. the entertainmentmoves to the Joe Riley Stadium with African drumming and MotownMadnesswith orchestral accompaniment!  The evening is capped off with fireworks around 10 p.m.

Theatre

The popular Always…Patsy Cline returns to Piccolo Spoleto at theCharleston Music Hall from Midtown/Sheri Grace Productions as well asRock ‘N’ Roll Heaven. Also in the Charleston Music Hall is ForbiddenBroadway: Greatest Hits Vol. 1 and Buckets and Tap Shoes who returns toPiccolo Spoleto from a run on Broadway and a national tour.

The Footlight Players Theatre presents the musical revue Oh George! OnStage with George Gershwin and Devil Boys from Beyond, a wickedly campysend-up of 1950’s sci-fi movies.  In addition, the Footlight PlayersTheatre will host the musical, Mahalia: A Gospel Musical produced by Art Forms & Theatre Concepts, as well as the uplifting comedy, My Nameis Ruth.  The theatre also hosts the musical magic show AndersonIllusions—“A World Beyond Reality.”

The story of Stede Bonnet, a gentleman pirate, and his encounters withheartache, fame and ultimate infamy will be told through The GentlemanPirate, presented by PURE Theatre at the Powder Magazine.  Alsopresented by PURE Theatre are Speech and Debate and Year of MagicalThinking at Lance Hall in Circular Congregational Church.  Also hostedin Lance Hall are Revolutionary! Isadora Duncan of Word Dance Theater of Washington, D.C., Deuce Theatre’s Treeligion and Main Street Theatre of Rock Hill, S.C.’s Discretion.

The College of Charleston Department of Theatre presents the Stelle DiDomani series featuring David Lee Nelson: Status Update, the hilariousstand-up comedy of David Lee Nelson.  Also featured is Moments of Joy,the funny, moving cabaret starring College of Charleston’s own JoyVandervort-Cobb.  Bunker 13, Lone Star, A Shaker’s Path: A TheatricalExploration Based on the Life of Mother Ann Lee, Thom Pain (Based onNothing), Reasons to be Pretty and Under the Lights are also presented.  In addition, there will be two admission-free staged readings: Advanced Women and The Willow Grove.

The Village Playhouse Theatre presents Shipwrecked-An Entertainment,(title of show) and Souvienir-A Fantasia on the Life of Florence FosterJenkins.  The theatre is also hosting the cabaret A Little Bit in Love.

The Have Nots! celebrate their 10th year in Piccolo Spoleto and bringback by popular demand:
The Have Nots! Comedy Improv Company; One Man Star Wars; Frankenmatt;Upright Citizens Brigade Touring Company; Man 1, Bank 0; The Cody Rivers Show; The Reckoning; The Complete History of

Charleston for Morons; Mary Kay Has a Posse; and many others will bepresented. Shows will be held at Theatre 99 (280 Meeting Street) and The American Theater (446 King Street).

Dance

The Charleston Ballet Theatre presents the perfect lunchtime diversionwith Brown Bag and Ballet as well as Motown Mania, Decadent Divas,Little Mermaid and Cat in the Hat.  Many local and regional dancecompanies will also perform at Footlight Players in the Dance at Noonseries. 

Visual Arts

The City Gallery at Waterfront Park offers viewers a rich union of twoseparate and distinct artistic disciplines as 10 local visual artistsdraw inspiration from 10 local poets’ words to create new works inContemporary Charleston 2010: Influence. Curated by Erin Glaze and MaxMiller, the exhibit is open May 20 to July 3, Monday through Sunday: 10a.m. to 6 p.m.

Located at 180 Meeting Street, the New Perspectives Gallery will hostPetal to the Metal. This exhibit features mixed media paintings byMcLean Sheperd, celebrating flowers, using bouquets from the localCharleston Farmers as inspiration. Charleston Wide features largephotographs by Robert Epps about interiors, volume, the wearing away ofsurfaces and the broad nature of iconic Charleston architecture. Theexhibit is open May 22 to June 13, Monday through Friday, 8:30 a.m. to 8 p.m.; Saturday and Sunday, 10 a.m. to 8 p.m.

The Tate Nation Invitational Exhibition features recent acrylic oncanvas paintings by Piccolo Spoleto’s official 2010 poster artist and is open May 22 to June 13, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the Art Institute ofCharleston, located at 24 North Market St.  Also at the Art Institute of Charleston during this time is The Sandy Logan Invitation Exhibitionfeatures the most recent photographs of the official poster artist forthis year’s Spotlight concert series.

Another unique visual arts exhibition in the 2010 Piccolo SpoletoFestival is The Grid Turns the Corner, a traveling mid-careerretrospective of drawings and prints by Dr. Terry K. Hunter. Theexhibition focuses on the three states in which he receivededucation/training and has been professionally active: Florida, Ohio and South Carolina. The exhibit is open May 24 to June 11; Monday throughFriday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. in the U.S. Custom House, 200 East Bay St.
 

Literary

In its second year, the Southern Artists Celebratory Series (SACS)highlights one Southern artist each year.  All profits from SACS benefit the Charleston Clemente Course, a free college-level course in thehumanities, offered to expand the intellectual horizons of homeless anddisadvantaged Charlestonians. For 2010, SACS presents A Celebration ofJonathan Green, including a preview of a new documentary; a question and answer session with the artist; the TTC Gospel Choir; jazz renderingsby the MKM trio; and the interactive Gullah storytelling of SharonMurray, all on May 30 at 4pm, Avery Research Center, 125 Bull St.Tickets are $21 and refreshments provided by Gullah Cuisine.

Other literary series include the Sundown Poetry Series, The PiccoloSpoleto Literary Festival and The Piccolo Spoleto Fiction Open.
 
Traditional Music of the Old South

A Red Clay Sunset: An Evening of Old Time (Fiddle) Music is presented by The S.C. Old-Time Music Association and Ashley Hall, featuring old-time Appalachian and Cajun string band concert featuring The Roan MountainHilltoppers, La Bande Pain Perdu and The South Carolina Broadcasters onSunday, June 6 at 6 p.m. on the beautiful Ashley Hall Lawn. Just thenight before, Saturday, June 5 at 10 p.m., Pain Perdu from Eunice,Louisiana throws an old-timey Cajun dance party at Southend Brewery,complete with an authentic dance instruction.

Jazz

The Jazz Artists of Charleston present divers jazz sylings peformed byCharleston’s finest jazz musicians, featuring regional and nationalguests in the Upstairs at McCrady’s Series.  Alsoreturning to Gallery Chuma is John Street Jazz on May30 and June 6.

New in the Jazz Series this year is the Charleston Jazz InitiativeLegend’s Festival with events such as South Carolina’s Jazz Legend:Houston Person Live; Nothin’ Could be Finer: CJI’s Legends Festival Gala and Joseph “Fud” Livingston, a cabaret affair that celebrates theCharleston songwriter/arranger, Fud Livingston. 

 

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Tickets may be purchased by calling the Piccolo Spoleto tickethotline at (843) 724-7295 from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday throughFriday; by fax at (843) 720-3967; or online at www.piccolospoleto.com.  The official Piccolo Spoleto box office at the Charleston VisitorCenter, 375 Meeting St., Charleston, SC 29403, is open 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., daily.  Tickets can also be purchased in person at the City ofCharleston Office of Cultural Affairs, 180 Meeting St., Charleston, SC29401, from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday through Friday; beginning May22, hours of operation are extended to 8:30 a.m. to 8 p.m., Mondaythrough Friday and 10 a.m. to 8 p.m., Saturday and Sunday.  For a ticket brochure and information on Piccolo Spoleto, call the Office ofCultural Affairs at (843) 724-7305 or visit www.piccolospoleto.com.

Produced and directed by the City of Charleston Office of CulturalAffairs since 1979, Piccolo Spoleto is the official outreach program ofSpoleto Festival USA.  Piccolo’s mission is to provide access to theSpoleto Festival USA experience for everyone, regardless of theireconomic, social or physical circumstances and to provide theopportunity for excellent local and regional artists, writers andperformers to be showcased in the Piccolo Spoleto Festival venues.

2010 Piccolo Spoleto Title Sponsors are Publix and Publix Super Market Charities.

Additional Major Grants Were Received Fromthe City of Charleston, Charleston County, National Endowment for theArts and the South Carolina Arts Commission.
 
Series Sponsors are All That’s Good, Comcast,Dewberry Capital Co., Henry & Sylvia Yaschik Foundation, SCANA, BMWManufacturing Co., Charleston.com, Hendrick BMW, Knology andSouthCarolina.com.

Event Sponsors are Barbara M. LindstedtCharitable Trust in memory of Nancy D. Hawk, BlueCross BlueShield ofSouth Carolina, Charleston Harbor Resort & Marina, Market andMeeting Street Associates: Nella G. Barkley, Charles S. Way, Jr. andFrank W. Brumley, Only.sc, Roper St. Francis Healthcare, Town of KiawahIsland Arts Council, Verizon Wireless and Weight Watchers.

Benefactors are The Art Institute ofCharleston, Charleston Chapter of the American Guild of Organists,Charleston RiverDogs, Fork, Herzman-Fishman Foundation, On The AvenueMarketing (The New York Times), Seltzer, Norton & Mindelle, SocialWine Bar, Total Wine & More, Washington Park Art Show and ZuckerFamily Fund of CCF.

Media Sponsors are APEX Broadcasting, Carolina MediaServices, Charleston City Paper, CharlestonArts.sc, Charleston.com,Citadel Broadcasting, Clear Channel Communications, Comcast, Knology,Lowcountry CW, Magazines.sc, MyTV Charleston, Only.sc, The Post andCourier, Radio.sc, SC Educational Radio, SouthCarolina.com,SpoletoToday.com, WCBD-TV2, WCIV-TV4, WCSC-TV5, and WTAT-FOX24.

Donors are Barbara & John DinkelspielBurgess, Loren & Lynn Carlson, John & Meredith Dunnan, JoannaFoundation, Ted & Tricia Legasey, Charles & Celeste Patrick andthe Post and Courier Foundation.

Government Support comes from the City ofCharleston, Charleston County, Charleston Police Department, Weed andSeed Program, South Carolina Arts Commission, and this project has beenmade possible by the National Endowment for the Arts as part of American Masterpieces: Three Centuries of Artistic Genius.

Poster Sponsors are The Art Institute ofCharleston and The Family of Nancy Dinwiddie Hawk.