Once again, we find ourselves in beautiful Charleston for the last of the 1981 series, Spoleto Sampler. This program was written by Benjamin Dunlap and Tom Fowler, and we catch glimpses of the performance and visual art offerings of Gian Carlo Menotti's seasonal triumph! To learn more about the Spoleto Festivals and the talented artists who participated in the program, see Side Notes.
Host Bob Edwards introduces us to the shimmering music of the Madison Trio, and we talk to John Hamilton about painter Elizabeth O'Neill Verner. The Spoleto Brass Quartet holds forth in front of one of Charleston's great houses, while at Gibbes Museum, Bill Hart and Willy Eisenhart discuss an exhibition of fine watercolors by Donald Evans who made a career out of painting beautiful postage stamps from faraway, and likely made up places, such as the Republic di Banana. Meanwhile, the dance performing arts were showcased by The Frank Holder Dance Company with one their stunning ballets.
Piccolo Spoleto was well represented in this segment and we listened to Baroque music performed by Andrew Waldo on recorder, Jane Hershey on viola de gamba, and James Wright on harpsicord playing for an appreciative audience from within one of Charleston's magnificent churches. Later we heard Spencer Burleson performing a selection for classical guitar. Jazz enthusiasts will love selections by the then up and coming Pieces of a Dream ensemble. For the younger members of the audience, the Hallmark Kaleidoscope project presented an opportunity to dabble in both the creative and musical arts.
As this ETV Classic comes to close, Bob Edwards spoke about the ongoing nighttime activities that included the old-time music of Dillon Buston and Fred Park's Medicinal Music Series.
We hope that you enjoyed this joyful blast from Spoleto past as much as we did!
Side Notes
- Gian Carlo Menotti (1911 – 2007) was an Italian composer, librettist, director, and playwright who is primarily known for his output of 25 operas. Spoleto Festival USA in Charleston, South Carolina, is one of America's major performing arts festivals. It was founded in 1977 by Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Gian Carlo Menotti, who sought to establish a counterpart to the Festival dei Due Mondi (The Festival of Two Worlds) in Spoleto, Italy.
- Spoleto Festival U.S.A. Program History. 2013 - 1977.
- Spencer Burleson - North Carolina State University musician-in-residence for 1979-1980. From Caucasus' Musical Melting Pot to Tribeca (New York Times), Spencer Burleson, a guitarist from California, who specializes in contemporary music, will also play some of his own compositions.
- The Fringe Theatre - The Footlight Players Workshop. College of Charleston, 20 Queen Street, Charleston, SC.
- Hallmark Kaleidoscope. Kaleidoscope is a place where children and their families are invited to be creative, have fun and feel good about their own special ideas. Provided by Hallmark, Kaleidoscope is free.
- Frank Hunter Dance Company.
- Dillon Buston Official - YouTube. Dillon Bustin is a folklorist, singer, songwriter, filmmaker, and playwright. Some of his songs from those times became widely sung classics—you’ve probably heard “More Wood” or “Shawneetown.“ Dillon moved east to Massachusetts and over the years started to write music for song cycles and plays based on local historical characters—folks like Joshua Slocum of Martha’s Vineyard or Ralph Waldo Emerson.
- Fred Park - Appalachian Set Dances - Flurry 2012. Fred Park--dance caller, musician, raconteur, MC, photographer, ink maker, and river enthusiast--exited stage left on July 31, not so long after discovering that he had stage IV lung cancer.
- Pieces of a Dream is the debut studio album of jazz fusion group Pieces of a Dream released in 1981 by Elektra Records. The album rose to No. 37 upon the Billboard Top R&B Albums chart. Featuring Curtis Harmon, drums. James K. Lloyd on piano and Cedric A. Napoleon - bass, vocals.
- Cedric A. Napoleon, electric and upright bass player dies at 61. Cedric A. Napoleon, a legendary jazz bassist and co-founding member of the Philadelphia-based rhythm-and-blues and jazz fusion band Pieces of a Dream, died on Sunday, June 16, 2024.
- James Lloyd Musician - All About Jazz. For over three decades, keyboardist, composer and arranger James K. Lloyd has been the aural architect of Pieces of a Dream. As a co-founder of the group, Lloyd composed and co-wrote over 100 compositions, from the '80's summer anthem "Mount Airy Groove" to "Love's Silhouette."
- Elizabeth Pettigrew Verner (1908 - 2001). Matriarch of the Charleston Renaissance.
- Jane Hershey | Department of Music at Tufts University. Instructor viola de gamba. After studying at the Longy School of Music and The Royal Conservatory in The Hague, Jane Hershey has spent her professional life in New England, first touring and recording in the US and Europe with the Boston Camerata, and later as a guest performer in many ensembles and festivals such as Emmanuel Music, Boston Baroque, the Aston Magna Festival, Monadnock Music, and Amherst Early Music Festival. She has performed with the Smithsonian Chamber Orchestra, toured and recorded with Hesperus, and performed on both viola da gamba and violone with Arcadia Players for many seasons. As a member of the Carthage Consort, she performed for the Cambridge Society for Early Music, Harvard's A.R.T., and in many other venues. She has recorded, with Frances Fitch, works of Elisabeth Jacquet de la Guerre, and recently, with the viol consort Long & Away, cantatas of Samuel Capricornus. With Arcadia Viols, she has performed at the Folger Shakespeare Library, 'Music before 1800' in NYC and at Tufts, Clark University, and Smith Colleges.
- Andrew Waldo - Recorder. (PDF)
- Donald Evans was an American artist (1945–1977), who was known for creating hand-painted postage stamps (artistamps) of fictional countries. Evans died in a fire in the Netherlands in 1977. He graduated from Cornell University and became an architectural designer for Richard Meier and Associates in New York. Evans traveled extensively from 1971 to 1977, most often to Japan and Europe. He easily funded his studio practice by lodging with friends or by renting small flats. He worked until his untimely death by fire in his Amsterdam apartment in 1977. Donald Evans enjoyed considerable success and recognition for his work while alive, and posthumously with solo exhibitions in Amsterdam, Japan, London, Paris, New York and Washington D.C. He has a cult following amongst sophisticated artists and collectors.
- Benjamin Dunlap. 10th President of Wofford College, was born in Columbia, S.C. After graduating summa cum laude from Sewanee: The University of the South in 1959, he attended Oxford University as a Rhodes Scholar and Harvard University as a graduate student, receiving his Ph.D. in English Language and Literature in 1967. From that year until 1993, he held academic appointments at Harvard and the University of South Carolina, where he was awarded both the USC Teacher of the Year Award and the university’s Russell Award for Distinguished Scholarship.
