arts and culture
Beethoven's First Piano Concerto with Phillip Bush
Not long after his arrival in Vienna in late 1792, a young Ludwig van Beethoven was beginning to make an impression in the musical city. The Austrian capital had only a year prior lost one of its other famous residents—Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart—and Beethoven showed promising...
South Carolina Between World Wars: The Charleston Renaissance
In the years after WWI, art, poetry, historic preservation, and literature flourished in Charleston, SC, and the Lowcountry during what has been called the Charleston Renaissance. Angela Mack, Executive Director & Chief Curator of the Gibbes Museum of Art in Charleston...
Of Red Eyes and Blue Skies: Thomas Palmer's Wind Chamber Works
Late nights are a frustrating fact of life for many musicians. Too often, the time after sundown is all that remains for performing, practicing, working against an upcoming deadline, or agonizing over an artistic quandary. But for composer Thomas Palmer, a senior studying...
Charleston Artist Honors Our Nation's Veterans
Charleston artist Mary Whyte secretly scoured the country painting portraits for seven years as part of her latest project, "We the People". Her ambition is as extraordinary as her subjects; our nation's veterans. "I really believe our truest Americans really are our...
Made Here | Hand-made Quilts
The Quilted Rose Co. is a company that specializes in the creation of hand-made quilts. Business owner Ruth Hong began quilting when she was thirteen years old, and opened her quilt shop shortly after graduating from high school. One of her customers, Shelley Boomhower,...
Casual Classical: SC Philharmonic’s "Beethoven & Blue Jeans" Concert Wearing Well after Twenty Years
Traditionally, a night at the symphony has entailed dressing up. For performers and audience members alike, the sight of a sharply-dressed crowd is nearly as much of a given as the sound of orchestral music. But the move toward a more casual concert experience is becoming a...
Made Here | Haute and Baubled
Melissa Turner's jewelry business Haute and Baubled is a play on the popular phrase "Hot and Bothered." When discussing how she makes her jewelry, Melissa says, "When I'm picking out gemstones, I like to say that they speak to me when I pick them out...I've got to be able...
Narrative: Turning Up All the Stones
This edition of Narrative features an interview from StoryCorps, an oral history project where friends and loved ones interview each other. At the StoryCorps mobile booth in Columbia in 2016, Barbara Howard spoke with her daughter, Brooke Howard, about her late husband,...
Columbia-Area Conductor Highlights Local Talent, Artistic Diversity in Two Ensembles
For conductor Suzanna Pavlovsky, keeping younger audiences engaged in the world of classical music doesn’t require a complete overhaul so much as a repackaging. “We don’t need to change the repertoire. We don’t need to change the music itself,” Suzanna says. “But we need to...
Grammy Award-Winning Mark O'Connor Band Plays in Southern Sound Series
The Grammy Award-winning Mark O’Connor band was featured in the 2018 Southern Sound Series . This series is an annual event hosted by the Culture & Heritage Museums at McCelvey Center’s Lowry Family Theatre in York, South Carolina. The Mark O’Connor Band consists of 6...
Winthrop Student Creates Hip Hop Foundation in Honor of Her Father
Lover of Hip Hop, Alisha Sweatt , uses her personal experiences to make new connections within herself and with others. Sweatt developed a strong, deep passion for Hip Hop when her father, DJ and producer, passed away in 2005 at a young age. To cope with his death, she made...
Violinist Brings Sound of Seventeenth-Century Stradivarius to Charleston
When the celebrated maker of string instruments Antonio Stradivari put the finishing touches on the violin now known as the Ex-Nachez, Bach and Handel were barely into their toddler years and the invention of the piano was still more than a decade away. The rare violin has...
Narrative: "Oh, Those Were Yummy Days!"
This edition of Narrative features an interview from StoryCorps, an oral history project that collects the voices of our times. At the StoryCorps mobile booth in Columbia in 2016, Thomas and Ann Edwards sat down to talk about their marriage and the family they made together...
Narrative: "It Was Like We Hit Lightning in a Bottle"
This edition of Narrative features an interview with Columbia resident Hippie Torrales , who came of age in New Jersey with the dream of becoming a professional DJ. By age 20 he was mainstay of the New Jersey club scene, opening one of the biggest clubs of the era, Zanzibar...
Gil Goldstein on Piano Jazz
Composer and arranger Gil Goldstein came to the piano by way of the accordion, which he has rediscovered and added to the jazz lexicon. Collaborations with Jaco Pistorius and Bill Evans fostered his career and led to work with David Sanborn, Michael Franks, and Al Jarreau,...