The opening concert with guest artist Zuill Bailey takes place September 28
The University of South Carolina Symphony Orchestra’s opening concert takes place September 28 at 7:30 p.m. with Zuill Bailey performing on Michael Daugherty’s Tales of Hemingway, for which he won a 2017 Grammy for Best Solo Classical Performance.
Michael Daugherty, a composer frequently inspired by American themes, characters, and history, writes pieces on cultural and historical icons such as Rosa Parks, Jackie Onassis and the Brooklyn Bridge. Captivated by Ernest Hemingway’s real-life adventures and fictional characters, Daugherty creates four scenes with the cello soloist as protagonist which honors Hemingway’s life and work.
Also on the September concert is Dimitri Shostakovich’s Fifth Symphony. Eighty years ago on November 21, 1937, Shostakovich nervously attended the premiere of his Symphony No. 5 in D minor in Leningrad. The composer had recently been denounced by the Soviet state newspaper for composing cacophonous formalist music, but the premiere of the fifth symphony was a huge success, and the Soviet state praised his triumphant musical statement.
Conductor Scott Weiss said, “The musicians of the USC Symphony Orchestra and I are very excited to present our 2017-18 season in the Koger Center for the Arts. Featuring repertoire spanning four centuries, our season showcases the amazing talent we have in our world-class School of Music. Highlights include beloved symphonies by Beethoven, Tchaikovsky, Mahler and Shostakovich, as well as terrific concerti featuring several of USC’s outstanding faculty soloists. And, of course, we eagerly anticipate the return to USC of cellist Zuill Bailey, winner of the 2017 Grammy Award.”
Season tickets: General Public - $150 each; Senior Citizen/USC Faculty and Staff - $110 each; Children
under 18 - $45 each
Single concert tickets: General Public - $30; Senior Citizen/USC Faculty and Staff - $25; Children under
18 and non-USC students with ID - $8
Call 803-251-2222 or Koger Box Office, corner of Greene and Park Streets (M-F 9 a.m.
to 5 p.m.) or online at kogercenterforthearts.com
NEW THIS YEAR! USC Students – Free with Student ID:
Students must pick up their free ticket at the Koger Box before 5:00 p.m. on the day of the concert. (Bernstein MASS is excluded from free tickets)
See the 2017-2018 USC Symphony Orchestra Season
All performances take place in the Koger Center for the Arts at 7:30 p.m. Join us for our pre-concert talks at 6:45 p.m. on the Koger stage prior to each performance.
About the Conductor
Scott Weiss is beginning his eighth year as the Sarah Bolick Smith Distinguished Professor of Music at the University of South Carolina where he conducts the USC Symphony Orchestra and the USC Wind Ensemble and teaches conducting. Equally at home leading symphony orchestras and wind ensembles, Dr. Weiss maintains an active international guest conducting schedule, including recent concerts in China with the Shenzhen Symphony Orchestra, the Hunan Symphony Orchestra, the Nanchang Philharmonic, the Shandong Symphony Orchestra, and the Inner Mongolia Symphony Orchestra; and his 2017-18 schedule includes return engagements with the Inner-Mongolia and Hunan Symphony Orchestras, as well as his debut with the Sichuan Symphony Orchestra. A champion of contemporary music, his performances have been praised by such notable composers as Joseph Schwantner, Karel Husa, Samuel Adler, and Jennifer Higdon; and he has a series of critically-acclaimed recordings on the Naxos label as well as a new disc on Summit Records that was released worldwide in April 2017.