On October 17, I attended the Charleston Symphony Orchestra at the Sottile Theater in downtown Charleston. The Orchestra featured the music of Dvorak’s seventh symphony.  Miss Maude Winthrop Gibbon and Mrs. Martha Laurens Patterson founded the Charleston Symphony Orchestra in 1936.  The Charleston Symphony Orchestra’s mission is “to enrich the cultural life of South Carolina’s Lowcountry with high-quality performances of symphonic and chamber music, and unique and engaging music education opportunities throughout the region.” The conductor, Perry So, is very young and has collected many awards throughout his career.

I had a really good time at the Orchestra.  The music was very beautiful and moving.   The Orchestra very accurately brought the spirit of Dvorak’s music to life.  The theme of the music changed a lot, and occasionally the audience would get a sense of darkness in the outer lying layer of the music.  Dvorak’s music is very classical, and I think that the Charleston Symphony Orchestra brought the spirit of classical music to the table. I really enjoyed the Charleston Symphony Orchestra and I believe that they very successfully captured the spirit of Dvorak’s music while at the same time personalizing it with their diverse talented musicians. I was very reluctant to attend the concert because I am not big on classical music, but I recommend that everyone attend at least once, because it is worth your time.  Even if you are not into classical music, the Charleston Symphony Orchestra will not disappoint.

On November 11th, 2013 at 8pm I attended the Monday Night Concert Series of the College of Charleston’s Chamber Orchestra. It was held at the Sottile Theatre located on 44 George Street, which was interesting considering most Monday Night Concert Series are held in the Recital Hall in the Simons Center for the Arts. After going into the Sottile Theatre and seeing the orchestra set up on the stage, I then realized why they were in the Sottile Theatre and not the Recital Hall. I have never been to see live orchestra play and let me tell you, from now on I will go to see live orchestra as much as I can! I absolutely loved it, I completely fell in love with all the songs they played. The theme of the concert was dances from around the world, so they played different types of orchestral dances from different parts of the world. My favorite they played was Danzon No. 2 composed by Arturo Marquez.

Recently in class we have been discussing about marketing and how it is a very important part to the four P’s that are a part of the organization’s overall strategy. The promotional aspect of the marketing mix is usually divided into a mix of types of advertising. I knew about this concert because it is published in the CofC’s Fall 2013 Events Calendar. I also discovered that there is a post about the concert on the CofC’s School of the Arts blog, which I hyperlinked to earlier. As I was doing some research about the orchestra I came across the online website for the Charleston City Paper that advertised the concert. They also have a facebook page where they post their upcoming concerts and news. This is a great variety of marketing because they are not only getting the word out to college students, but also to anyone who picks up a fall calendar, anyone who reads the newspaper, and anyone who gets on social media. I would definitely recommend seeing the College of Charleston ‘s Chamber Orchestra because they are truly talented and give you chills once they fill the air with sweet music! If you like listening to live music, then you should definitely go, its very nice to hear them play.

On Sunday evening of November 17^th, 2013 I was fortunate to see the Chucktown Trippintones Fall Concert at the Sottile Theatre in Charleston. The a cappella group features twenty talented students from the College of Charleston. The Trippintones are known for their great singers and go through selective auditions each semester to keep a balanced tone quality within the singing group.

I absolutely loved their concert! They had such strong fun energy that the crowd responded very well too. The group sung mostly popular songs such as: “Home”, by Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros, “Royals”, by Lorde, and “I Knew You Were Trouble”, by Taylor Swift. I think they choose a great song selection that geared towards the younger college students in the audience and also showcased their talents nicely. I would have like them to have started the concert with a stronger upbeat piece of music to set the atmosphere. One of my favorite parts of the concert was their reference to the film Pitch Perfect. The group divided into boys vs. girls and had a sing off or rift. I personally fell in love with the girls singing Bottom of the River by Delta Rae. Their choreography of stomps and claps to the rhythm was really neat and I wished they did that more in some of their other songs. I think what made the difference from one of their good songs to great songs not only was the strength in vocals but also the movement and choreography of the piece, it is much more interesting to watch and listen to a singing group that has movement versus them standing still.

The Trippintones did an excellent job promoting their concert via Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, and it greatly showed in their large turnout. A large portion o the audience was college students and the rest seemed to be family members of the singers. I think they choose a convenient location for the concert and was smart to make the even free with a suggestion donation considering many college students may not have come if they had to pay.

I highly recommend anyone to see the Trippintones perform next semester.