Please join us on Monday, October 29 for a double-header of beautiful music. We have your whole night planned, leaving you enough time for a dinner break between two exciting concerts. In fact, Caviar & Bananas is offering 10% off your purchase, when you present a special Monday Night Coupon that you’ll receive when purchasing your ticket (for either concert). Both performances will take place in the Recital Hall of the Simons Center for the Arts. Admission is $10 at the door for each concert and free for College of Charleston students.
From 5 to 6:30 p.m., the Department of Music will host a performance of the contemporary classical composition “Pierrot Lunaire” by Arnold Schoenberg.
Yiorgos Vassilandonakis, Professor of Music Theory/Composition at the College of Charleston, is excited to bring this production to Charleston to further expose audiences to 20th century composers. Schoenberg’s colorful, controversial melodrama “Moonstruck Pierrot” is one of contemporary music’s most influential masterpieces. Igor Stravinsky called it “the solar plexus as well as the mind of early 20th century music.” This special Southern Exposure/Chamber Innovista concert, featuring members of the University of South Carolina’s (USC) world-class music faculty and conducted by the S.C. Philharmonic’s Morihiko Nakahara, celebrates the 100th anniversary of the work’s premiere, in October of 1912. The performance will star Metropolitan opera mezzo-soprano Janet Hopkins, delivering what Schoenberg called Sprechstimme, a hybrid of speech and song. USC music theory professor Daniel Jenkins, a Schoenberg scholar, starts the show with an engaging multi-media presentation about Pierrot and its fascinating history.
In an ongoing collaboration between Southern Exposure and Pocket Productions, “Artist Exposure,” Columbia artist Lyon Hill, a noted illustrator, puppet designer, and animator, has created a painting for the occasion, and will display a collection of never-before-seen illustrations.
Performers include: Janet Hopkins, Sprechstimme; Jennifer Parker-Harley, flute and piccolo; Joseph Eller, clarinet and bass clarinet; William Terwilliger, violin and viola; Robert Jesselson, cello; and Joseph Rackers, piano.
______________________________________________________________________________________
At 8 p.m., mezzo-soprano Helen Tintes-Schuermann and soprano Deanna McBroom will delight you with Gypsy Songs, including works by Antonin Dvoråk, Franz Liszt, Johannes Brahms, George Bizet, José Serrano and Manuel de Falla. Accompanied by pianist Robin Zemp, this trio will round out your Monday night music experience.
Versatile Mezzo-soprano Helen Tintes-Schuermann performs throughout the USA and Europe in operatic roles including Carmen, Azucena, the Zia Principessa, the Medium and Elizabeth Proctor and appears frequently as a concert soloist and recitalist. The mezzo-soprano has sung with numerous theaters and festivals, including Barcelona’s Teatro del Gran Liceu (with Dame Gwyneth Jones), the Alte Oper in Frankfurt, the Festival du Printemps in Monte Carlo and with Theater an der Wien/Raimund Theater in Vienna, Austria. Outstanding performances throughout the Southeastern United States include Verdi’s Requiem, Bernstein’s Jeremiah Symphony, the Mother in Menotti’s Amahl and the Night Visitors (‘Magic of Christmas’ with the Charlotte Symphony), works of Bach and Handel with the Naples Bach Ensemble, the role of Baba in Menotti’s The Medium and Mme. Armfeldt in Sondheim’s A Little Night Music. Recent performances include the role of Mrs. Peachum in Weill’s Three Penny Opera with Southern Exposure, the Witch in Hansel and Gretel with Columbia College, J.S. Bach’s St. John Passion, Bruckner’s Te Deum, Brahms’ Alto Rhapsody, the role of Suzuki in Puccini’s Madame Butterfly with Battle Creek Symphony (MI) and Into the Woods with St. Petersburg Opera (Fl), as well as concerts and master classes in the USA, Austria and Spain.
Soprano Deanna McBroom is known for her “genuinely beautiful and exciting voice” and “brilliant musicianship.” Appearances include symphonic works, opera, recital, and chamber music: solo and oratorio performances with symphonies in Charlotte, Columbia, Charleston, Augusta, Greenville, Savannah, and the Louisville Bach Society; performances with Spoleto Festival U.S.A. and Piccolo Spoleto, Kentucky Opera Association, Pennsylvania Opera Festival, University of Wisconsin Alumni Opera; and recitals throughout the Southeast and Midwest from Atlanta to Washington, D.C. to Illinois, plus a concert at Dalkeith Palace during the Edinburgh International Festival in Edinburgh, Scotland. She has been featured in over 40 solo and oratorio roles and has performed leading roles in over 30 operas and musicals, and has worked with conductors such as Richard Woitach and Christian Badea and stage directors Gian Carlo Menotti and Richard Perlman. She was recently a featured soloist with singers from the Swedish National Opera for the Jussi Björling Society-USA. With a keen interest in art and folk song literature, she has championed and premiered numerous solo, chamber, and orchestral works by contemporary composers and will be a featured soloist next weekend with the Charleston Symphony Orchestra’s Magnetic South Series on Nov. 2.
Robin Zemp, pianist, made his New York debut at Carnegie Recital Hall in 1984 to both public and critical acclaim. The New York Times praised his “intriguing coloristic effects” and “strong, firm, and secure” playing. In constant demand as both soloist and ensemble player, he performs over 30 different programs each season. The late Robert Jones wrote in the Charleston Post and Courier, the “pianist was the familiar Robin Zemp, who played beautifully as he always does.” On the faculty of the College of Charleston School of the Arts where he teaches piano and vocal coaching, he also maintains a private studio. He has served in many capacities with the South Carolina Music Teachers Association including President and Vice-President for Conferences. In 2006, he received the Association’s Distinguished Service Award. In March 2011, he was honored by the Music Teachers National Association as an MTNA Foundation Fellow. Director of Music/Organist at Westminster Presbyterian Church, he is a graduate of the Peabody Conservatory of Music in Baltimore.