Decoda Cello Quartet with special guest Winifred Goodwin to perform at the Fine Arts Center of Kershaw County
January 18, 2017
The first and only Affiliate Ensemble of Carnegie Hall, Decoda, returns to Camden for a community residency and chamber music performance at the Fine Arts Center of Kershaw County’s (FAC) Wood Auditorium, located at 810 Lyttleton Street in Camden. The second installment of the Fine Arts Center’s Chamber Music Series will be held Wednesday, January 25 at 7:00 p.m. There is a cocktail hour with light hors d’oeuvres starting at 6:00 p.m. Ticket prices are $30 in advance, $35 day of and $15 for students. Catering is provided by The Decadent Dish. The Chamber Music Series is sponsored by The Frederick S. Upton Foundation, BlueCross BlueShield of South Carolina, Tom & Virginia Ann Mullikin and Van Horn Insurance Agency.
About the Decoda Cello Quartet
The Decoda Cello Quartet includes Hamilton Berry, Claire Bryant, Caitlin Sullivan & Yves Dharamraj. They will spotlight the unique instrumentation of four cellos, which lends itself to an innovative program from J.S. Bach to Ravel’s Bolero, dances such as the tango and balajo, and stunningly beautiful new music written by living composers from the United Kingdom, Sweden, and Denmark. Camden native, now New York City-based cellist Claire Bryant enjoys an active and diverse career as a leading performer of chamber music, contemporary music, and the solo cello repertoire in premiere venues such as Carnegie Hall, Southbank Centre, Suntory Hall, Lincoln Center, and the Barbican Centre. She is a founding member of the acclaimed chamber music collective, Decoda – the Affiliate Ensemble of Carnegie Hall. Claire is also equally engaged as an educator and advocate for inclusive arts in our society.
A special treat on the program will be two movements of Gian Carlo Menotti’s Suite for two cellos and piano, as the quartet is joined by pianist Winifred (Winkie) Goodwin, from Columbia, SC. Menotti, the founder of Spoleto Festival, USA, and friend of Charles Wadsworth and the late Sibby Wood, was well acquainted with Camden and the Fine Arts Center of Kershaw County when he attended a production of his opera Amahl and the Night Visitors in the 1980’s.
Special Guest Winifred Goodwin
Winifred Goodwin is in demand as a chamber musician, orchestral player, and collaborative pianist. She has been the principle keyboardist with the South Carolina Philharmonic Orchestra since 1982, performing on piano, celesta, harpsichord, and synthesizer. She has been a featured soloist on a number of programs, including nearly 200 performances of Saint-Saens’ Carnival of the Animals. She has toured for the Southern Arts Federation and has conducted a number of workshops for the United States Information Service in Latin America.
In addition to the standard repertory, Mrs. Goodwin specializes in new music and has premiered many works including several by composer/husband Gordon (Dick) Goodwin. Mrs. Goodwin holds two degrees in piano performance from the University of South Carolina where she serves as staff pianist in the School of Music. She has given recitals and recorded with a number of USC faculty members and has collaborated with numerous guest artists from major orchestras, universities, and the NY Metropolitan Opera Orchestra. She is also the pianist for Virginia Wingard Memorial United Methodist Church in Columbia.
* Special Note
Members of the historic South Carolina State Guard will be attending the Decoda Cello Quartet concert. The South Carolina State Guard has served South Carolina since 1670 and is one of the oldest military organizations in the country. “Our members are proud to serve in South Carolina. We stand on the shoulders of tremendous state leaders who have answered the call of our state for more than 300 years,” said MG Thomas S. Mullikin. “Wonderful assets like the Fine Arts Center of Kershaw County make our state the greatest in our nation and we are honored to be included in such a wonderful concert,” he concluded.
About the Residency
Four cellists from Decoda, including Camden’s own Claire Bryant, will bring an engaging interactive performance called Four Crayons to Kershaw County elementary schools.
Decoda’s interactive performances in schools are celebrated around the country and the world. These 45-minute concerts are tailor made for specific age groups and explore one point of entry into the music using fun and creative methods of engagement and interaction. January’s program Four Crayons explores how four cellos work together to create one of the most important elements of storytelling — the setting — and fully examine a composer’s musical tool kit. Students will get to know many different functions of sound-making and extended technique on the cello, the basics of working together in an ensemble, and the creative possibilities of painting a picture through music. Through graphic notation and guided questions, students will also direct the cello quartet and create their own new musical pieces based on a specific setting.
Now in its fifth season, Decoda’s projects and performances have taken place in the United Kingdom, Germany, Abu Dhabi, Iceland, Japan, Hong Kong, India, Mexico, and across the United States. Decoda is committed to supporting the international community of artists who wish to deepen their community involvement and understanding of high-level interactive performance. In order to effectively serve this community of burgeoning teaching artists, Decoda has established annual chamber music and leadership institutes at Skidmore College and in South Africa, as well as annual residencies in Merida, Mexico and as the Resident Ensemble in Creative Performance at the Guildhall School of Music in London, UK.
Music for Transformation, Decoda’s social justice initiative, brings creative songwriting projects to help empower vulnerable and disenfranchised voices. Decoda’s exemplary work in maximum-security prisons and in the juvenile justice system has been recognized by CNN, Huffington Post, the Associated Press, the Washington Post, and Billboard magazine. Decoda has on three separate occasions been invited by President Obama’s administration to the White House to perform and advocate for arts programming as a tool for criminal justice reform. For more information on Decoda please visit www.decodamusic.org.
For tickets or for more information call 803-425-7676 extension 300 or visit the FAC website at www.fineartscenter.org. The Fine Arts Center of Kershaw County is located at 810 Lyttleton Street in Camden. Box office hours are Monday through Wednesday and Friday, 10:00 a.m.-5:00 p.m. and Thursday 10:00 a.m.-6:00 p.m.
The Fine Arts Center is funded in part by the Frederick S. Upton Foundation and the South Carolina Arts Commission, which receives support from the National Endowment for the Arts. Additional funding is provided by the City of Camden, Kershaw County, and BlueCross BlueShield of South Carolina along with donations from businesses and individuals.
