CofC Composers Nathan Michel, Edward Hart, Yiorgos Vassilandonakis
Magnetic South, a collaborative project between the College of Charleston Department of Music and the Charleston Symphony Orchestra (CSO) will present its second contemporary classical music concert to Charleston audiences during the 2017-2018 season.
The spring concert will focus on new music from College of Charleston faculty composers: Edward Hart’s song cycle The Caged Bird Sings based on poetry by Paul Laurence Dunbar, and featuring tenor Rodrick Dixon (recent performer for Charleston’s Colour of Music Festival); a new chamber orchestra work, …thought I was awake, by Yiorgos Vassilandonakis that explores the sonification of fluid dream states; and a sextet titled Shelter by Nathan Michel, who is a composer, producer and multi-instrumentalist making all kinds of acoustic and electronic music, from pop to experimental and classical. The program will also include a performance of a composition by Kirsten Volness, the winner of the annual Call for Scores administered by the College of Charleston’s Music Department.
Vassilandonakis and CSO Music Director, Ken Lam, will conduct the Charleston Symphony Orchestra.
Hart expresses, “It is very rewarding to feature our own compositions as part of Magnetic South after seven seasons. Of course, having your music performed by friends is always the best. I am particularly excited to have acclaimed tenor Rodrick Dixon return to Charleston to sing my music. He is rapidly becoming a well-known star in our music scene.”
The concert on Friday, Feb. 9, 2018 will take place at 7:30 p.m. in the Recital Hall at the Simons Center for the Arts, 54 Saint Philip St., Charleston, SC 29401. Tickets are $10 and can be purchased at the door, by calling (843) 723-7528, ext. 110, or online at charlestonsymphony.org.
Magnetic South is an innovative partnership between the College of Charleston Department of Music and the Charleston Symphony Orchestra. It combines the resources of the two institutions to present contemporary classical music in Charleston in an informative context. The goal of the Magnetic South partnership is to bring to the audiences of the Lowcountry, including students at the College, masterworks of the 20th and 21st centuries along with important new works by living composers. The concerts, performed by CSO musicians and conducted by College of Charleston faculty member Yiorgos Vassilandonakis and CSO Music Director Ken Lam, feature carefully selected works from a variety of aesthetic directions and styles to represent the panorama of the music of our time. Magnetic South was co-founded in 2012 by Vassilandonakis; fellow faculty member Edward Hart; and CSO concertmaster and Principal Pops conductor, Yuriy Bekker.