The churches of Charleston
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Chamber Music Chas
Nurturing the Arts
SHE KEEPS DOING IT. She keeps encouraging kids to enjoy and appreciate classical music. And they love it. They also packed the Dock Street Theatre a few days before Christmas to hear it. Selections, that is, of Christmas favorites performed by the Chamber Music Charleston trio of Nonoko Okada (violin), Regina Helcher Yost (flute),... Read »
Real Musical Theatre
SILENCE, tears, integrity, and music. These are what remain vivid in my mind nearly two weeks after seeing The Gift of the Magi at the Dock Street Theatre. Ostensibly, it was a co-production of the American author O. Henry’s play put on by Actors’ Theatre of South Carolina and Chamber Music Charleston. But at... Read »
The Art of Giving
IMAGINE SEEING O. Henry, the twentieth-century raconteur and humorist, live on stage in Charleston. Well, it’s happening December 22 and 23 at the Dock Street Theatre where O. Henry himself will recount The Gift of The Magi, his touching Christmas story about the true nature of love and giving. On one end of the... Read »
A Delicious Interlude
AN INTERMEZZO is a musical interlude, which is what we got last Saturday afternoon during 45 precious minutes of string music (as a taste of the Intermezzo Concert Series by Chamber Music Charleston). Violist Jill King set the tone for this free performance with her heartfelt opening to Jay Unger’s “Ashokan Farewell”—the music that... Read »
Finale on the Lawn
SUNDAY’S THREAT OF RAIN never materialized—at least not at the idyllic grounds of Middleton Place. So the Mozart in the South Festival went ahead with its planned open-air grand finale concert as the evening sun slowly sank behind the western tree line into dusk and darkness, taking some of the afternoon’s oppressive heat with... Read »
More Mesmerizing Music
THE CATHEDRAL CHURCH of St. Luke & St. Paul was well-nigh packed for Friday evening’s second concert of the Mozart in the South Festival. We heard a rewarding program under the deft baton of conductor Peter Shannon, Music Director of the Savannah Philharmonic Orchestra. The program kicked off with a scintillating go at W.... Read »
A Smashing Start
THE SECOND ANNUAL Mozart in the South (MITS) Festival, organized and staged by Chamber Music Charleston, got off to a smashing start Thursday evening with an ambitious and varied chamber program at St. Matthew’s Lutheran Church. With its blend of chamber and orchestral music, MITS is an important feature of musical life in the... Read »
Beethoven Alive
THEY SAY THE BEST acting—like the best music, best dancing, and best art—is done from the inside. You can learn technique—the outside part—but it doesn’t become ‘art’ until you tap an inner source from whence flows an indescribable something that renders technique secondary: as a tool to be employed. That’s what Clarence Felder did... Read »
The Inner Fabric of Beethoven
IT IS ONE THING to hear his music. It is another to see Beethoven himself on stage with the musicians as he divulges his inner struggles—in particular, his plight with women. In a unique musical-theatre presentation, this is exactly what Clarence Felder does to perfection in the Piccolo Spoleto production of Beethoven, His Women,... Read »
Landscapes for Music
THIS IS JUST ONE of the stunning photos by Michael Kahn (it’s huge) at Martin Gallery on Broad Street. And the serenity of his work could hardly have been better complemented than by a recent performance in the gallery by Chamber Music Charleston. I had heard four of the five musicians before, so I... Read »
