SC Philharmonic – March to go out lion-like for SCP
March 10, 2009
COLUMBIA, SC – March 10, 2009 – The South Carolina Philharmonic paints vivid pictures with the help of an accomplished clarinetist and a visiting composer during Portraits, 7:30 p.m. on Saturday, March 28 at the Koger Center.
Music Director Morihiko Nakahara presents a Master Series concert boasting the presence of the Chicago Symphony’s assistant principal clarinet player, John Bruce Yeh, and award-winning composer Missy Mazzoli. The concert also marks the SCP’s lead participation in an unprecedented national food drive collaboration, “Orchestras Feeding America.”
The main work on the evening’s program is Elgar’s Enigma Variations. The work is a musical photo album of sorts, a series of portraits with which Elgar depicted the personalities of 14 of his closest friends.
John Bruce Yeh, who is to perform the Copland Clarinet Concerto, joined the Chicago Symphony in 1977 at age 19 upon an appointment from Sir George Solti. He was named assistant principal two years later. Yeh is the director of Chicago Pro Musica, which won a Grammy Award for best new classical artist in 1986, and was a prize winner at the 1982 Munich International Music Competition.
Missy Mazzoli, composer of These Worlds In Us, visits the SCP for the evening as well for the South Carolina debut of the work. Mazzoli is the accomplished winner of the ASCAP Young Composer Award in 2007 and 2008. Active in the arts, she performs, educates and composes, having recently been commissioned to write a work for the Kronos Quartet and others. She is also executive director at the MATA Festival of New Music.
Suite No. 1 of Norwegian composer Edvard Grieg’s incidental music to the play Peer Gynt rounds out the concert program.
Also, the SCP is encouraging its guests to participate in “Orchestras Feeding America,” a national food drive held locally during Portraits, by bringing non-perishable, unopened food items to donate to Harvest Hope, which is setting up a collection site in the Koger Center lobby before and during the concert. Donations from all are welcome, and ticketholders to the concert who donate will receive an appreciation voucher good for half-price admission to a future SCP concert.
Suggested items for donation are canned fruits, vegetables or meats; peanut butter; macaroni and cheese; tuna; beans; canned soups; pastas or cereals.
Items in glass jars or bottles, dented items, perishable or homemade foods and non-food items will not be accepted.
Inspired by the upcoming film The Soloist, the League of American Orchestras; Feeding America, the nation’s largest hunger relief organization; and Participant Media have joined forces for “Orchestras Feeding America.”
The SCP was one of the first of more than 218 orchestras in all 50 states and Canada currently participating in this unprecedented coordinated effort by collecting and donating food to their local food assistance agency or food bank within Feeding America’s network of more than 200 food banks and 63,000 agencies.
Nakahara presents the popular pre-concert lecture Classical Conversations at 6:30 and 6:50 p.m. in the Koger Center Large Rehearsal Room, offering ticket holders his unique insight into the evening’s program.
Available online at www.capitoltickets.com or by phone at 803.251.2222, tickets are $42, $34, $24, $16 and $12. Student and military discounts available. Southern Valet provides valet parking for just $6.
