A little Taste of Music from Charleston’s Piccolo Spoleto this weekend in Beaufort!

A little Taste of Music from Charleston’s Piccolo Spoleto this weekend in Beaufort!

Join music lovers and friends for a series of FREE musical performances this weekend! Blues, Jazz and Chamber music will all be featured in A Little Taste of Music, a new free series highlighting some of Piccolo Spoleto festival artists. 

Friday, May 3 from 11:30 to 1 pm, the College of Charleston Jazz Trio will perform contemporary and traditional jazz favorites on the steps of USCB Beaufort College Building. Music lovers of all kinds will appreciate the diversity and talent of these artists! Bring your lunch and enjoy a beautiful spring day in Beaufort.  For inclement weather, the concert will be moved into the CFA auditorium.

The College of Charleston Jazz Program provides students with outstanding skills in jazz performance, a strong background in jazz improvisation, theory, arranging and composition, as well as practical performance opportunities, in an experiential learning environment.

On Saturday, May 4 at 2:30 pm, as part of the Taste of Beaufort mainstage performances, The Robert Lewis Trio will take the to stage. The trio is under the director of Robert Lewis. Lewis is the Director of Jazz Studies at the College Of Charleston, a featured reed soloist with the Charleston Jazz Orchestra, and the band’s Music Director starting in 2019. He is an exceptionally adept improviser on tenor and alto sax and flute. He is also one of the most in-demand jazz musicians on the vibrant Charleston jazz scene. Charleston Blues legend Roger Bellows will be on stage with Beaufort’s Beek Webb playing blues and old-time country music starting at 4:30 pm.

Both performances will be held in Beaufort’s beautiful waterfront park. 

First Presbyterian Church, located 1201 North Street,  will open their doors at 3 pm for performances of The In-Between and Charleston Music Fest Chamber Trio. Charleston, SC-based trio, The In-Between features classical soprano Jill Terhaar Lewis with jazz musicians Robert Lewis (saxophone) and Gerald Gregory (piano).  The ensemble performs new compositions and arrangements by members of the ensemble.

In the spirit of recent collaborations between classical singers such as Renée Fleming and Anne Sofie von Otter with jazz musician/composers like Fred Hersch, André Previn, and Brad Mehldau, this group explores repertoire that lies both in and in between classical and jazz genres.  Through open communication between the two art worlds of classical and jazz music, the program highlights the shared qualities and explores the differences while allowing the listener to enjoy these styles together in the same concert and even within the same piece. 

The Charleston Music Fest Chamber Trio performers are Lydia Chernicoff, violin; Natalia Khoma, cello; Volydymyr Vynnytsky, piano. Esteemed faculty College of Charleston faculty duo Khoma and Vynnytsky will be joined by Lydia Chernicoffon violin, for an afternoon of intimate chamber music.  Steve Rosenburg,  retired chair of the College of Charleston Music Department will introduce each group and give the audience a sneak peek at some of the 2018 Piccolo Festival music series.