Join the USC Symphony for a night of romance

Immerse yourself completely in the most romantic day of the year with some of the most romantic music ever created at a concert by the University of South Symphony Orchestra. “Amore,” taking place Feb. 14, will fill the Koger Center for the Arts with songs of love from the operas “Carmen” and “La Boheme,” the musicals “My Fair Lady” and “Phantom of the Opera” and a concert version of “Porgy and Bess.” The concert will feature four guest soloists and the Benedict College Concert Choir.

“This concert will bring the best of songs from opera and Broadway together,” said Donald Portnoy, music director of the orchestra. “This is a very special day for everyone and this is a way to explore themes of love in music.”

The concert opens with the beloved “Carmen Suite No. 1” by George Bizet. The opera about the beautiful gypsy girl was roundly denounced when it premiered in 1875 and the composer died a few months later, never being able to experience the huge success the opera would become.

Singers Diana Amos and Daniel Cole join the orchestra for a medley from “My Fair Lady,” including “I Could Have Danced All Night,” “On the Street Where You Live” and “Wouldn't It Be Loverly?”

Amos, who sang with the orchestra last fall in “The Telephone,” has long experience on the European opera stage with major roles in “The Magic Flute,” “The Tales of Hoffman”  and “Ariadne auf Naxos.” A doctoral candidate in vocal performance at USC, she has appeared in several Opera at USC productions and is a faculty member at Columbia College.

Cole has performed at theaters from Lisbon to Taiwan and at many regional companies including Opera Theatre of St. Louis and Opera Boston. He provided the voice of God on the 2010 recording of Dominick Argento’s “Jonah and the Whale” by the Boston Modern Orchestra Project. Cole holds a doctorate of music degree in choral conducting from Indiana University. While a student there he directed, sang and recorded with the Concord Ensemble with which he reunited in 2007 to perform with Sting in Los Angeles. Cole is the Director of Music at First Presbyterian Church in Columbia.

Amos will also sing “Musetta’s Waltz” from “La Boheme” by Giacomo Puccini, while Cole will sing the serenade from “Faust” by Charles Gounod. The first half of the concert closes with the orchestra performing music from the smash hit “Phantom of the Opera.”

“Porgy and Bess” broke down the walls between opera and musical theater when it appeared 1935. George Gershwin collaborated with Charleston writer Dubose Heyward to adapt Heyward’s novel “Porgy” which was set among the African American community of Charleston. This concert version will include the opera’s popular songs  “My Man's Gone Now," “I Got Plenty of Nothing’,” “It Ain't Necessarily So,” and of course “Summertime.”

“Porgy and Bess” features soloists Lori Celeste Hicks and Tommy Watson along with the Benedict College Concert Choir, directed by Linda Kershaw, chair of the Benedict department of fine arts.

Hicks performed the role of Bess at Opera Theater of Pittsburgh in 2010. She was recently featured with the Brevard Philharmonic in North Carolina and has appeared in “Don Giovanni,” “La Boheme,” “Così fan tutte” and “Die Fledermaus” and performed Verdi’s “Requiem,” Saint-Saëns’ “Oratorio de Noël” and Bach’s “Magnificat.” She made her Carnegie Hall debut in the fall. Hicks is a music faculty member at Claflin University in Orangeburg.

Watson made his operatic debut in Cortona, Italy and has appeared in Nigeria, Ghana, Spain, and Canada and has performed a large portion of the standard requiem, oratorio and cantata repertoire. A native of Leesville, S.C., he holds a doctorate in music from USC and teaches at Anderson University.

The 7:30 p.m. concert is at the Koger Center for the Arts. Tickets are $25; $20 for USC faculty and staff and seniors, $8 for students. Call  (803) 251-2222 or go to capitoltickets.com