Blog

Mother’s Day is the perfect time to reflect on the special role that mothers play in our lives and all they teach us. Many of us experience our first arts performance with our moms who are eager to expose their children to creativity, music, and […]

This March, acclaimed chef and industry leader Mike Lata received Spoleto’s 2023 Mary Ramsay Civic Award, which recognizes extraordinary contributions of civic and charitable leadership within the Charleston community. As the co-owner and chef of FIG and The Ordinary, Lata has shaped Charleston’s culinary landscape, […]

For every professional artist, there are, of course, countless mentors behind the scenes. It’s no surprise that some of the best award-acceptance speeches include mention of childhood teachers setting the recipients on a path of greatness or awakening a self discovery. In reality, artists never […]

In-person Spoleto ticket sales began Monday, May 1, at the Charleston Visitor Center, 375 Meeting Street. This highly visible, central location provides audience members and potential audience members with easy access to trained Spoleto ticket agents as well as delegates from Explore Charleston. From May […]

Before he was a familiar face in numerous films and TV shows (American Horror Story, The Good Wife, Charlie Wilson’s War, The Proposal), Denis O’Hare was a venerable stage actor with scores of credits across Broadway, Off-Broadway, and the West End. Returning to his tour-de-force […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

Few people today know the history of Spoleto Festival USA’s founding as intimately as David Rawle. In fact, Rawle was instrumental in the Festival’s founder’s decision to select Charleston as a home for the American counterpart to the Festival of Two Worlds. In all these […]

On Monday, Spoleto Festival USA General Director & CEO Mena Mark Hanna unveiled Spoleto’s 2023 season poster, featuring commissioned photography by artist Elizabeth Bick, an artist and professor of photography at the College of Charleston. “I was drawn to Elizabeth’s work through an exhibit at […]

Each year Spoleto Festival USA comes to Charleston for 17 days to showcase international performing arts. Founded in 1977 by Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Gian Carlo Menotti, the festival has become a world-renowned event, attracting artists, performers, and attendees from across the globe. From Jazz at […]

Just announced! Charleston-based band 2 Slices joins the 2023 season of Spoleto Festival USA. The band will play during the Wells Fargo Festival Finale on June 11 at Firefly Distillery. An indie group combining catchy dance beats with soaring synth-pop melodies and psychedelic guitar, 2 […]

What could Spoleto Festival USA, America’s premier performing arts festival, have to say about football? For one, our CEO is very invested in the Philadelphia Eagles’ performance during Super Bowl LVII. Yet on this high-holiday of pigskin, we—arts administrators and football watchers—want to take a […]

Each year, Spoleto Festival USA brings an array of productions from all over the world to Charleston, South Carolina. Want to familiarize yourself ahead of the festival? Continue reading for our 2023 Spoleto Festival Reading List to deepen yourself with this years themes and performances. […]

Behind a shimmering King Street marquee is the historic Sottile Theatre, a now College of Charleston theater that has become a staple venue for the Festival. After a many rounds of renovations, this vintage movie house is now a roomy 900-seat house with an extended […]

Spoleto Festival USA, the annual 17-day celebration of international arts and culture, returns May 26 to June 11, 2023, with a programming lineup for its 47th season that features more than 100 events in venues throughout Charleston, South Carolina. Tickets, starting at $25, are available […]

Spoleto’s Bank of America Chamber Music series is unlike any other in the country. Forget the staid, buttoned-up atmosphere. Instead, imagine 33 rollicking, immersive concert experiences, full of laughter, jokes, and esteemed musicians just generally rocking out. This is chamber music at Spoleto, an environment […]

This Spoleto debut has been long in the making. As a kid growing up in West Ashley, Micah McLaurin remembers his dad’s stories about Spoleto’s Bank of America Chamber Music series, for which he volunteered. Micah started playing piano at age 8, about the same […]

No doubt one of Spoleto Festival USA’s most cherished venues, the College of Charleston Cistern Yard hosts a range of evening performances in 2023, from a disco-meets-punk spectacle to a serene night of jazz piano, progressive bluegrass to powerful folk and electronic classical-pop. And with […]

On May 29, 1913, Igor Stravinsky’s Le Sacre du printemps, or The Rite of Spring, premiered in Paris, commissioned by Sergei Diaghilev for his Ballets Russes and choreographed by Vaslav Nijinsky. Based on Russian folklore, the avant-garde ballet’s storyline, complex musicality, and ritualistic, modern movement […]

Festival Hall on Beaufain Street plays home to a variety of productions at Spoleto Festival USA, a tribute to its versatility as a venue. Essentially a 10,000+ sq. ft. black box theater, it’s the only Festival venue operated by Spoleto Festival USA and it offers […]

A Spoleto regular since 2008, pianist Pedja Muzijevic has consistently captivated Festival audiences from the Dock Street Theatre stage. He is a fixture of the Bank of America Chamber Music series, known for his technical virtuosity and rich artistry, at home in compositions by Haydn, […]

June 1 to 3, Scottish Ballet presents The Crucible, an award-winning reimagining of Arthur Miller’s seminal play. This chilling account of the 1692 Salem witch trials recalls a community destroyed by hostility and hysteria—an allegory to the McCarthy hearings of the 1950s. As a ballet, […]

Praised by The New York Times for her “radiant” and “handsomely resonant voice,” soprano Nicole Heaston has appeared with opera companies throughout the world, including The Metropolitan Opera, Houston Grand Opera, San Francisco Opera, LA Opera, Semperoper Dresden, and the Glyndebourne Festival in England. At […]

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 […]

At Spoleto, we tend to do things a bit differently—inviting opera stars to produce (and sing and play) new variations of historic pieces, setting classic plays en pointe, presenting artists who occupy multiple corners of the music industry. Yet one of the most surprising aspects […]

On May 26, Spoleto Festival USA presents visionary artist and producer Ebony Bones, a creator who defies genres, to say the least. She’ll be backed by a 14-piece Bones Orchestra, augmenting her signature disco-meets-punk-meets-Afrobeat-meets-classical sound. Originally from Brixton, London, Bones hasn’t appeared in the United […]

As perhaps the most beloved venue at Spoleto, the Dock Street Theatre will continue to charm this year with an exciting lineup for the 2023 Festival. Situated in the heart of historic downtown Charleston, this stunning theater accommodates a range of programming, with a performance […]

As a nonprofit, Spoleto Festival USA is guided legally, financially, and ethically by a group of individuals who steer Spoleto to a sustainable future and ensure the organization has the resources to advance its mission. Meet: The Spoleto Festival USA Board of Directors. Comprising 48 […]

Fleeing winter weather? The TODAY Show named Charleston a top ‘winter destination’ in a segment on Feb. 16. Joining live from Waterfront Park, Mayor John Tecklenburg made the case for a visit to Charleston, now and during the Festival season. Watch: Here’s what the Mayor […]

In 1978, Spoleto Festival USA’s founder, Gian Carlo Menotti, revived Vanessa, one the most acclaimed American operas, for Spoleto’s 2nd season. Menotti, who had written the libretto, directed the production—a psychological drama set to a sweepingly lyrical score that earned composer Samuel Barber the Pulitzer […]

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 […]

Queen Street Playhouse will be added to festival goers routes about town this season as Spoleto adds a new venue to its stable of performance spaces. Located in the heart of Charleston’s historic district, this cozy brick venue boasts the rustic charm and warm acoustics […]

Artists from across the spectrum of Spoleto Festival USA 2023 pepper the nominees list of the 2023 GRAMMY Awards, airing on CBS Sunday, Feb. 5. When you settle in to watch Sunday night, keep your fingers crossed for these nominees: Tank and the Bangas’ Red Balloon […]

Spoleto Festival USA announced programming for its 47th season on January 27, 2023, drawing cross-country chatter about the lineup. Take a look at what the press had to say: In Charleston Charleston’s The Post and Courier focused on Spoleto’s multidisciplinary approach to programming, and asked […]

This season, Spoleto Festival USA presents the powerful US premiere of The Book of Life: a remarkable play about finding hope in the aftermath of tragedy, and finding a path forward after the unthinkable. Written and performed by Odile Gakire Katese, the work is based […]

Here are our best tips on how to decide what to see at Spoleto Festival USA 2023. It can feel near impossible to see it all (it’s not…). After all, Spoleto is 17 days. 9 venues. 100+ performances—there’s a lot to see this season…  Mena […]

So is Spoleto worth a visit? Consistently named one of the best travel destinations, Charleston, South Carolina, is on the must-list for visits. In May, as temperatures warm, the scent of blooming jasmine wafts through the air and the city comes alive with activity. Outdoor […]

Spoleto Festival USA 2023 runs Friday, May 25-Sunday, June 11. Spoleto Festival USA is America’s premier international performing arts festival, held annually in Charleston, South Carolina. In venues throughout the charming harbor city’s historic downtown, Spoleto presents a rollicking 17 days of music, opera, theater, […]