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“Vanessa,” opera with historic Spoleto connection, gets dramatic update

Forty-five years after its triumphant production at Spoleto Festival USA in 1978, Samuel Barber’s Vanessa returns to Charleston. (Twenty years prior, its premiere in New York won Barber a Pulitzer Prize in 1958.) There is a strong Spoleto connection: Barber’s partner Gian Carlo Menotti—Spoleto’s founder—wrote […]

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2023 Spoleto Sips Guide

Spoleto Sips is back for the 2023 Festival season! The town is in the spirit! Spoleto-inspired beverages hit Charleston menus this week. During the Festival season, find these sips at the town’s hop haunts to keep you refreshed the entire 17 days. Whether you’re enjoying […]

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Hidden Secrets of The Gaillard Center

Home to many Spoleto Festival USA performances, the Gaillard Center is close to our hearts—figuratively and literally, as it stands just a few steps from the Festival headquarters at 14 George. This Festival season, the Gaillard Center features several fabulous performances: a tribute to Spoleto’s […]

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From Mena Mark Hanna: Music Moves Us

Two things happened in Berlin on March 16, 2020:  our first child, Hugo, was born, and  the city went into full lockdown due to the Coronavirus pandemic. This may sound glib, but at first the lockdown felt like a bit of a reprieve for a […]

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The countdown to Spoleto Festival USA 2023 begins January 27

As I reflect on some of the challenges of the past few years and even the first weeks of 2023, I am immeasurably grateful to serve an organization that has brought decades of wonder to audiences and spurred positive growth for its community. Spoleto Festival […]

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Essential Kishi Bashi from Spoleto Superfan Anna Brown

Spoleto staffer Anna Brown remembers doing a happy dance when she heard Kishi Bashi would be part of the 2023 season lineup. (An impeccable one, surely—she was a classically trained dancer, after all.) As it turns out, Brown has long been a superfan of the […]

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Essential Barber from Vanessa conductor Timothy Myers

This season, Spoleto Festival USA presents Vanessa, Samuel Barber’s Pulitzer Prize-winning opera about love, loss, and longing. With one of the most exquisite and sweepingly beautiful scores of the 20th century, the work—which The Washington Post once called “the finest American opera”—also has a unique […]

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Larry’s Listens: 2023 Jazz Series Essentials

Ella Fitzgerald. Ray Charles. Buddy Rich. Sarah Vaughan. Betty Carter. B.B. King. Dave Brubeck. McCoy Tyner. Dizzy Gillespie. Wynton Marsalis. These towering giants of jazz have counted Spoleto amongst their list of performances, taking center stage at our venues like the Cistern Yard and the […]

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Rachel Coker joins Spoleto Festival USA as Chief Advancement Officer

Today, Spoleto Festival USA’s General Director and CEO Mena Mark Hanna announced the appointment of Rachel Coker as Chief Advancement Officer. Coker joins the team following a months-long search conducted by Isaacson, Miller, with support from Festival Board members and senior staff.  A talented and […]

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“Omar” wins 2023 Pulitzer Prize in Music

Omar, the transformative opera by Rhiannon Giddens and Michael Abels centering the story of an enslaved Muslim scholar, received the 2023 Pulitzer Prize in Music, Columbia University announced today. The work was recognized for its expansion of the traditional opera canon, challenging its standard practice […]

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Remembering Geoff Nuttall, by Mena Mark Hanna

Geoff Nuttall, co-founder and first violinist of the St. Lawrence String Quartet and Spoleto’s Charles E. and Andrea L. Director of Chamber Music, passed away last week after undergoing treatment for pancreatic cancer. Like many Charlestonians and Spoleto supporters, I shared a deep, abiding friendship […]

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