Reprinted from an article by Yiorgos Vassilandonakis TUESDAY NIGHT’S Showcase Concert by the Charleston Academy of Music (CAM) was a celebration of the wonders of musical education done right, the kind of education that used to be in school curricula and played an active role in shaping young minds and building character. It also... Read »

WHEN I GOT TO the Sottile Theatre last Tuesday evening for Sean Kennard’s recital in the College of Charleston’s International Piano Series, I already knew something of what to expect. For starters, I’ve been thrilling to his frequent performances in Charleston surrounding his years of study with series director and C of C Artist-in-Residence... Read »

RELATIVE NEWCOMERS to the Charleston theater scene, Threshold Repertory Theatre opened its second season last week with an American classic, a play of historical significance full of technical and dramatic challenges. Another company may have quailed at the prospect of casting, staging, lighting and costuming Arthur Miller’s “The Crucible,” requiring a cast of 19,... Read »

THE UNITARIAN CHURCH in Charleston presented this year’s first in what has been a distinguished series of candlelight concerts, this time featuring a string quartet drawn from the Charleston Symphony Orchestra. The quality of music-making for a three-quarters full sanctuary remained on a high plane Thursday evening, October 27. The quartet comprised violinist Yuriy... Read »

THE CHARLESTON ACADEMY OF MUSIC (CAM) will officially open the 2011-2012 season with a Tuesday, November 8 Showcase Concert featuring academy program ensembles, the Kidzymphony Orchestra, and solo performances by honors-program students  Nick Bentz, Shannon Fitzhenry, and Micah McLaurin. Hosted by Ann Caldwell and Chee-Hang See, the evening will include music ranging from Twinkle Twinkle... Read »

FRESH FROM THEIR PERFORMANCE in St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands, the Actors’ Theatre of South Carolina and Chamber Music Charleston will present “Beethoven: His Women and His Music” at the Charleston Library Society, Thursday November 3 at 7:00 P.M. This innovative musical drama combines the live classical music of Beethoven’s Archduke Piano Trio with... Read »

PIANIST SEAN KENNARD’s new CD, released under the College of Charleston’s Cougar Classics label, showcases a combination of remarkable technical skills and refreshing interpretive style. The recording was done on a restored 1940 Steinway-D over three days at the College of Charleston Simons Center Recital Hall—a venue not intended as a sound studio, but... Read »

THREE SONATAS by Domenico Scarlatti, 24 preludes by Frederic Chopin, three etudes by Claude Debussy, and Samuel Barber’s Sonata for Piano—all played by the sterling young pianist, Sean Kennard. That’s what’s on the slate next Tuesday night at the Sottile in the second concert of this year’s International Piano Series, and I assure you:... Read »

WHY DIDN’T ANYONE think of this before? After all, Charleston is a Southern social town. It only makes sense that one of the best ways to present classical music is in a social context—with bistro tables wrapping around the stage, wine served beforehand, and the crowd mingling in a cheerful, festive ambiance for 45... Read »

CLASSICAL GUITARIST Eduardo Fernandez, a native of Uruguay, performed about an hour’s worth of rarely heard compositions by 20th century composers from South and Central America and Russia. Last Tuesday, the College of Charleston‘s Department of Music and the International Piano Series co-sponsored this internationally known artist whose repertory ranges from J.S. Bach to... Read »

A TIGHT SCHEDULE very nearly forced me to pass on last Saturday’s recital by Diego Suárez—but I simply couldn’t resist the prospect of hearing—for the first time in my life—all twelve of Franz Liszt’s daunting and magical Transcendental Etudes in a single recital! Although somebody must’ve done it before, I know of no established... Read »