Thomas Joiner, conductor
Seth Russell, cello
Gabriel Fauré: Pelléas et Mélisande suite for orchestra
Fauré: Elégie
Aaron Copland: Appalachian Spring
Mark O’Connor: Appalachia Waltz

When you hear Gabriel Fauré’s haunting Élégie as performed by Principal Cello Seth Russell, you will feel something. We don’t presume to tell you what, but sensitive artistry is required, and Seth has it in spades. The last movement from the Pelléas et Mélisande suite was played at the composer’s own funeral is beautiful enough to make the rest of us cry too.
Speaking of feelings, your patriotism will surge as you hear the sweeping sounds of Aaron Copland’s Appalachian Spring. How could one person so perfectly encapsulate what America sounds like? The richness and pain and expansiveness and playfulness you hear in this piece composed for chamber orchestra in 1944 is Copland’s calling card. Fiddler Mark O’Connor and Bassist Edgar Meyer collaborated to create Appalachia Waltz in 1993 as a poignant expression of longing for home.
This concert experience might remind you of what it feels like to be on the top of a mountain watching the sunrise.

Thomas Joiner, Conductor

Thomas Joiner has appeared as a conductor, violinist, chamber player, and teacher throughout the United States and eleven foreign countries. As Professor Emeritus of Violin and Orchestral Activities at Furman University, he conducted the Furman Symphony Orchestra in orchestral, operatic, and oratorio performances. As Music Director of the Hendersonville Symphony Orchestra for 21 years, Joiner’s creative programming led to growth, community support, sold-out performances, and annual curriculum-based concerts for 3rd and 6th graders.
As a guest conductor, Joiner led the Orquestra da Camera Theatre Sao Pedro during two residencies in Porto Alegre, Brazil, the Greenville Symphony Chamber Orchestra, the Asheville Lyric Opera, the Philharmonic Orchestra of the Masterworks Music Festival, and All-State Orchestras in Alabama, Georgia, and South Carolina.
As an orchestral violinist Joiner has shared the stage with conductors Robert Shaw, Jorge Mester, John Nelson, and Keith Lockhart and soloists Renee Fleming, Frederica von Stade, Peter Serkin, Itzhak Perlman, Yo-Yo Ma, Gil Shaham and Joshua Bell. As an Artistic Ambassador for the United States Information Agency, he presented seventeen violin recitals with pianist Douglas Weeks during a five-week tour of western Africa and the Middle East. During a sabbatical Joiner studied in Paris with eminent maestro John Nelson. He has twice served as visiting professor at the Academia dell’Arte in Arezzo, Italy.
For many years Joiner held the Dr. & Mrs. William J. Pendergrast, Sr. Artist Chair at the Brevard Music Festival where he served on the conducting staff and as a concertmaster of the Festival Orchestra. He was honored with his wife, violist Anna Barbrey Joiner, with the Distinguished Alumni Award. Previous positions include Professor of Violin and Orchestral Activities at the University of Georgia School of Music, Associate Principal Second Violin of the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra, first violinist with the Louisville Orchestra, SC president of the American String Teachers Association, and a national board member of the Conductors Guild.
Joiner earned the DMA in Violin Performance from Florida State University, the MM in Church Music and Musicology from Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, and the BM in Violin Performance from Furman University. He is a native of Rock Hill, SC where he was drum major of the Rock Hill High School Bearcat Band!

Guest Artist: Seth Russell, Cellist

Dr. Seth Russell performs internationally as a chamber musician, soloist, and orchestral player. Audiences have praised his technical wizardry, adventurous programming, and inspiring musicianship. He has performed solo and chamber music recitals in venues such as Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall, Boston’s Jordan Hall, Eastman’s Kodak Hall, and Taipei’s Elite Performance Hall. In 2017 and 2019 he was awarded a top prize in the New York International Artists Competition. He is currently in his second season as Principal Cellist of the Greenville Symphony Orchestra in South Carolina.
Seth is passionate about creating new ways to connect with audiences. He recently formed the Parrish Cello Trio with cellists Jamie Clark and Kenny Lee in Spring of 2022. In October 2022 the trio had their inaugural residency in Greenville, SC. The trio led a masterclass with local students and performed a featured concert of diverse genres and arrangements at the Fine Arts Center. In 2014, Seth formed the Oceanus Quartet with colleagues in Boston, which received a New England Conservatory Entrepreneurial grant for a tour of Taiwan in May-June, 2015. The quartet performed and coached students at universities, schools, and concert halls throughout Taiwan. Seth was also a founding member of Phoenix, an innovative chamber orchestra in Boston that creates unique concert experiences through programming, venue, and audience engagement. Now in its ninth season, Phoenix has won the Improper Bostonian’s “Boston’s Best Classical Ensemble,” and was reviewed by the Boston Globe as “eminently worthy of your attention.”
Dedicated to pedagogy and music education, Seth has worked with students of diverse levels and backgrounds. In 2015-16 he served as the Visiting Assistant Professor of Cello and cellist of the Ceruti Quartet at University of Memphis in Tennessee. His private students have been accepted into the “Rising Stars” Piccolo Spoleto Festival, the University of North Dakota, and Oberlin Conservatory. He has served on the faculty of several summer music festivals, including the Longhorn Music Camp, Furman Orchestra Camp, and MasterWorks Festival.
Seth holds a Bachelor’s degree in Cello Performance and a Performer’s Certificate from the Eastman School of Music where he studied with David Ying. He received a Master’s degree in Cello Performance from New England Conservatory where he studied with Paul Katz. He studied with Bion Tsang at the University of Texas at Austin where he received his Doctorate of Musical Arts degree in 2019. His Doctorate research document, “House Concerts: Classical Music at the Heart of Community,” highlights the crucial role of house concerts in the history of classical music as well as the modern music scene. Seth has also studied with Lluis Claret, Gary Hoffman, Ralph Kirshbaum, and Pieter Wispelwey, and worked with the Ying, Borromeo, Brentano, Shanghai, and Miro Quartets. Seth and his wife Chelsea are natives of Greenville, SC.

Sigal Music Museum’s current special exhibition, Worlds Apart: Musical Instruments from Secular to Sacred, highlights items from the JoAnn and Frank Edwinn Collection, which hails from all over the world. Showing November 2023 – May 2024, Worlds Apart uses a diverse range of historical instruments, objects, and visuals to bring together musical narratives from seemingly disparate parts of the globe.

 

Worlds Apart: Musical Instruments from Secular to Sacred aims to increase public access to historical instruments from around the world and improve visitors’ understanding of musical traditions at the global level. Expanding beyond the typical parameters of the Western musical canon, Worlds Apart seeks to expose audiences to musical instruments and customs that are often overlooked or exotified. The instruments and other exhibit materials will offer visitors new perspectives on global music and a chance to consider how music is used for prayer and leisure in cultures around the world. By celebrating these stories, the museum intends to further its mission to collect and preserve historical musical instruments, objects, and information, which engage and enrich people of all ages through exhibits, performances, and experiential programs.

 

Displaying various objects from the JoAnn and Frank Edwinn Collection, Worlds Apart: Musical Instruments from Secular to Sacred focuses on international musical instruments and cultures, celebrating rites and traditions with ancient histories and contemporary legacies. Frank Edwinn, a successful basso in the mid-20th century, studied and toured internationally, eventually settling in North Carolina, where he taught music at the University of North Carolina Asheville. Throughout his life, he purchased various objects from around the world, aiming to expose students, and himself, to the wide and wonderful world of musical instruments. This impressive collection occupies a unique position for educating audiences unfamiliar with the vast scope of global music.

And, UNCA’s Ramsey Library Special Collections is now processing the Edwinn’s papers and a few recordings that will be accessible next semester!

The 42nd Annual Spring Sing, sponsored by The Rotary Club of Pleasantburg and Greenville County Schools, showcases the talents of over 500 elementary and middle school singers in a professionally directed performance in the Concert Hall of the Peace Center. This unique youth music program is more than a grand performance – it is the culmination of months of focused music education, rehearsal, and professional development in music education by Greenville County Schools students and educators.

Join us for this celebration of the performing arts in our community; experience the joy our students and teachers find in their explorations of the world of music.

Sigal Music Museum’s current special exhibition, Worlds Apart: Musical Instruments from Secular to Sacred, highlights items from the JoAnn and Frank Edwinn Collection, which hails from all over the world. Showing November 2023 – May 2024, Worlds Apart uses a diverse range of historical instruments, objects, and visuals to bring together musical narratives from seemingly disparate parts of the globe.

 

Worlds Apart: Musical Instruments from Secular to Sacred aims to increase public access to historical instruments from around the world and improve visitors’ understanding of musical traditions at the global level. Expanding beyond the typical parameters of the Western musical canon, Worlds Apart seeks to expose audiences to musical instruments and customs that are often overlooked or exotified. The instruments and other exhibit materials will offer visitors new perspectives on global music and a chance to consider how music is used for prayer and leisure in cultures around the world. By celebrating these stories, the museum intends to further its mission to collect and preserve historical musical instruments, objects, and information, which engage and enrich people of all ages through exhibits, performances, and experiential programs.

 

Displaying various objects from the JoAnn and Frank Edwinn Collection, Worlds Apart: Musical Instruments from Secular to Sacred focuses on international musical instruments and cultures, celebrating rites and traditions with ancient histories and contemporary legacies. Frank Edwinn, a successful basso in the mid-20th century, studied and toured internationally, eventually settling in North Carolina, where he taught music at the University of North Carolina Asheville. Throughout his life, he purchased various objects from around the world, aiming to expose students, and himself, to the wide and wonderful world of musical instruments. This impressive collection occupies a unique position for educating audiences unfamiliar with the vast scope of global music.

And, UNCA’s Ramsey Library Special Collections is now processing the Edwinn’s papers and a few recordings that will be accessible next semester!

Sigal Music Museum’s current special exhibition, Worlds Apart: Musical Instruments from Secular to Sacred, highlights items from the JoAnn and Frank Edwinn Collection, which hails from all over the world. Showing November 2023 – May 2024, Worlds Apart uses a diverse range of historical instruments, objects, and visuals to bring together musical narratives from seemingly disparate parts of the globe.

 

Worlds Apart: Musical Instruments from Secular to Sacred aims to increase public access to historical instruments from around the world and improve visitors’ understanding of musical traditions at the global level. Expanding beyond the typical parameters of the Western musical canon, Worlds Apart seeks to expose audiences to musical instruments and customs that are often overlooked or exotified. The instruments and other exhibit materials will offer visitors new perspectives on global music and a chance to consider how music is used for prayer and leisure in cultures around the world. By celebrating these stories, the museum intends to further its mission to collect and preserve historical musical instruments, objects, and information, which engage and enrich people of all ages through exhibits, performances, and experiential programs.

 

Displaying various objects from the JoAnn and Frank Edwinn Collection, Worlds Apart: Musical Instruments from Secular to Sacred focuses on international musical instruments and cultures, celebrating rites and traditions with ancient histories and contemporary legacies. Frank Edwinn, a successful basso in the mid-20th century, studied and toured internationally, eventually settling in North Carolina, where he taught music at the University of North Carolina Asheville. Throughout his life, he purchased various objects from around the world, aiming to expose students, and himself, to the wide and wonderful world of musical instruments. This impressive collection occupies a unique position for educating audiences unfamiliar with the vast scope of global music.

And, UNCA’s Ramsey Library Special Collections is now processing the Edwinn’s papers and a few recordings that will be accessible next semester!

Outdoor concerts bringing live music to downtown Greenville kick off this week.

Piedmont Natural Gas Downtown Alive and Greenville Heritage Main Street Fridays will return to NOMA Square for the 2024 season with a lineup of new and returning artists.

Downtown Alive starts Thursday, March 14 with performances by Linda Faye’s Sound. Benefiting the Metropolitan Arts Council, the weekly music series runs from 5:30 to 8:30 p.m. every Thursday until late August.

April 4, Darby Wilcox & The Peep Show

April 11, The Well Drinkers

April 18, Cash Machine

April 25, Gold Road

May 2, DJ Tambition

May 9, Mark Webb Jr.

May 16, Nathan Angelo

May 23, Bucko with Sunhouse

May 30, Threesound

June 6, Tuba Gin

June 13, Funcle

June 20, Randomonium

June 27, Juno Dunes

July 11, Andrew Scotchie

July 18, The Wobblers

July 25, Kendall Lanford

August 1, The Shady Recruits

August 8, BR385

August 15, Run Katie Run

August 22, Wilder Things Than Us

Acclaimed as an “outstanding ensemble…cohesive yet full of temperament” (The New York Times), the Verona Quartet has firmly established itself amongst the most distinguished ensembles on the chamber music scene today. The group’s singular sense of purpose most recently earned them Chamber Music America’s coveted 2020 Cleveland Quartet Award, and a reputation for its “bold interpretive strength, robust characterization and commanding resonance” (Calgary Herald). The Quartet serves on the faculty of the Oberlin College and Conservatory as the Quartet-in-Residence. In addition to its position at Oberlin, the Quartet holds residencies at Nova Scotia’s Lunenburg Academy of Music Performance and North Carolina’s Chamber Orchestra of the Triangle. As committed advocates of diverse programming, the Verona Quartet curates the UpClose Chamber Music Series on behalf of the COT, electrifying audiences from concert halls to craft breweries with their “sensational, powerhouse performance[s]” (Classical Voice America).

The Verona Quartet has appeared across four continents, captivating audiences at venues such as Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center (New York City), Kennedy Center, Library of Congress (Washington, D.C.), Jordan Hall (Boston), Wigmore Hall (U.K.) and Melbourne Recital Hall (Australia), and has performed at festivals including La Jolla Summerfest, Chamber Music Northwest, Caramoor, Alpenglow, and Bravo! Vail, and with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center.

The 2022-23 season will see the Verona Quartet return to Carnegie Hall and Buffalo Chamber Music Society as well as debut at esteemed series including the Chamber Music Societies of Utica and Williamsburg, Clemson University’s Utsey Chamber Music Series, Feldman Chamber Music Music Society, Friends of Chamber Music Kansas City, and Howland Chamber Music Circle. The Quartet will also participate in guest artist residencies at the Yong Siew Toh Conservatory in Singapore, Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the University of Texas at Austin.

ARTISTS

Jonathan Ong, Violin
Dorothy Ro, Violin
Abigail Rojansky, Viola
Jonathan Dormand, Cello

PROGRAM

Felix Mendelssohn (1809-1847)
String Quartet No. 1, Op. 12

William Walton (1902-1983)
String Quartet No. 2 in A minor

— Intermission —

Antonín Dvořák (1841-1904)
String Quartet No. 14 in A flat major, Op.105

Auditorium seating is reserved.

Sigal Music Museum’s current special exhibition, Worlds Apart: Musical Instruments from Secular to Sacred, highlights items from the JoAnn and Frank Edwinn Collection, which hails from all over the world. Showing November 2023 – May 2024, Worlds Apart uses a diverse range of historical instruments, objects, and visuals to bring together musical narratives from seemingly disparate parts of the globe.

 

Worlds Apart: Musical Instruments from Secular to Sacred aims to increase public access to historical instruments from around the world and improve visitors’ understanding of musical traditions at the global level. Expanding beyond the typical parameters of the Western musical canon, Worlds Apart seeks to expose audiences to musical instruments and customs that are often overlooked or exotified. The instruments and other exhibit materials will offer visitors new perspectives on global music and a chance to consider how music is used for prayer and leisure in cultures around the world. By celebrating these stories, the museum intends to further its mission to collect and preserve historical musical instruments, objects, and information, which engage and enrich people of all ages through exhibits, performances, and experiential programs.

 

Displaying various objects from the JoAnn and Frank Edwinn Collection, Worlds Apart: Musical Instruments from Secular to Sacred focuses on international musical instruments and cultures, celebrating rites and traditions with ancient histories and contemporary legacies. Frank Edwinn, a successful basso in the mid-20th century, studied and toured internationally, eventually settling in North Carolina, where he taught music at the University of North Carolina Asheville. Throughout his life, he purchased various objects from around the world, aiming to expose students, and himself, to the wide and wonderful world of musical instruments. This impressive collection occupies a unique position for educating audiences unfamiliar with the vast scope of global music.

And, UNCA’s Ramsey Library Special Collections is now processing the Edwinn’s papers and a few recordings that will be accessible next semester!

Wind up the work week at Greenville Heritage Main Street Fridays presented by Pepsi, listening and dancing to the best in musical entertainment.

FREE ADMISSION

This weekly music series on Main Street at NOMA Square opens at 5:30 p.m. and closes at 9:30 p.m., with bands playing two sets at 5:50 p.m. and 7:40 p.m. NOMA Square chairs go fast, so bring a tailgating chair if you are not arriving early.

Wind up the work week at Greenville Heritage Main Street Fridays presented by Pepsi, listening and dancing to the best in musical entertainment.

FREE ADMISSION

This weekly music series on Main Street at NOMA Square opens at 5:30 p.m. and closes at 9:30 p.m., with bands playing two sets at 5:50 p.m. and 7:40 p.m. NOMA Square chairs go fast, so bring a tailgating chair if you are not arriving early.

April 5, Iliana Rose Cuban Jazz Band

April 12, Encore

April 19, Hwy 25 Band

April 26, Alice’s Marmalade Cat

May 3, Mac Arnold & Plate Full O’ Blues

May 17, Upstate of Mind

May 24, Eric Weiler Group

May 31, Eclectic Band

June 7, Sweet Soul

June 14, Kami Ocean & The Rhythm

June 21, Xperience Soul

June 28, Carolina Coast Band

July 5, Jazzy Trinity – A Stevie Wonder Tribute

July 12, Infinity Remix

July 19, Marvin King Revue

July 26, Beth Inabinett & For the Funk of It

August 2, David Rodriguez & The Latin Hustle

August 9, Rock N Roll Reunion

August 16, Soulfield 7

August 23, Hot As A Pepper

August 30, Shades of Brown

September 6, Tuxedo Junction

September 13, Whitney Bradley & Groove Planet

September 20, Split Shot

September 27, True Blues

New Groove Artisan Brewery in Boiling Springs, SC is hosting LIVE MUSIC in our taproom with Janeen Scott!

Music 7-10pm – Food Specials – Cold Beer

Come on out and get your Groove on with Janeen Scott!

Texas Female Artist of the Decade and reigning Female Vocalist of the Year, Bri Bagwell, is a force to be reckoned with from her rousingly fun live performances to trailblazing recordings garnering her twelve #1 singles on Texas Country Radio and counting. People Magazine raves, “Bagwell increasingly finds her name being mentioned amongst country music truth-tellers such as Ashley McBryde and Morgan Wade.” Her latest album, Corazón y Cabeza (Heart and Head), has already spawned three #1 singles, “Trenches,” “Free Man,” and “Hello Highway. ” The video for “Trenches” was awarded Music Video of The Year in the Texas Regional Radio Music Awards. Performing 100 shows a year, Bri has shared the stage with a long list of esteemed artists, including Willie Nelson, Miranda Lambert, Robert Earl Keen, Kacey Musgraves, Reckless Kelly, and Dwight Yoakam. Catch Bri Bagwell live on tour or listen to her podcast, ONLY VANS, at www.bribagwell.com