A multimedia piece for mezzo-soprano, wind ensemble, archival sound and film by composer David Kirkland Garner premieres March 31

The UofSC School of Music premieres the performance of Red hot sun turning over: on Southern myths, monuments, and histories, an 80-minute, monumental new composition for wind ensemble, mezzo-soprano, wind quintet, electronics and archival film. UofSC faculty composer David Kirkland Garner uses a critical sense to explore the current debates around Confederate monuments in the South. The piece assembles many elements from American and Southern history including archival recordings from the Library of Congress, archival film from UofSC’s Moving Image Research Collection, Civil War-era band music, music composed with statistical data on Confederate monuments, and a diverse range of quotations and references including Anton Bruckner, Charles Ives, Aaron Copland, Stephen Foster, Ralph Stanley and more. The piece features university faculty mezzo-soprano Rachel Calloway and conductor Scott Weiss in his final concert as director of the UofSC Wind Ensemble.

The free event takes place at the Koger Center for the Arts on Sunday, March 31 at 4:00 p.m.

Red hot sun turning over explores Southern monuments, myths and histories. Using music, sounds, and images from the civil war era and the early 20th century, the music erects monuments and tears them down, writes and re-writes histories, exposes the complex web of southern myths, and confronts the nostalgia and pain surrounding Confederate monuments in the South. Garner’s approach is informed by research into Civil war history, the history of the South, African-American history, and through an exploration of the history of racism and whiteness, which are inextricably linked.

Reception and panel discussion on confederate monuments with UofSC professors Thomas Brown and Scott Trafton immediately following the concert.