USC Announces the Maestro’s Farewell Season

Donald Portnoy retires after the USC Symphony Orchestra’s 2016-2017 Season

The USC Symphony Orchestra’s upcoming season celebrates Maestro Donald Portnoy’s 31 years leading Carolina’s premier orchestra. His music leadership has drawn out the very best in thousands of young musicians. The Ira McKissick Koger Professor of Fine Arts retires as director of the USC Symphony Orchestra and Orchestral Studies after the 2016-2017 academic year.

Portnoy has received countless accolades throughout his years conducting the university’s orchestra – one of the top university orchestras in the region. He will continue to teach conducting and violin and direct the Conductors Institute of South Carolina at USC.

Photo Credit:  Keith Trammel

Join us for our monumental season opener with Marina Lomazov

The Russian Romantics Thur., Sept. 13, 2016
Marina Lomazov, piano

The first concert of the new season includes Maestro Donald Portnoy conducting Tchaikovsky's powerful Symphony No. 4 in F minor.  Our guest artist Marina Lomazov will be performing  Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 2 in C minor. Praised by critics as “a diva of the piano” (The Salt Lake City Tribune), “a mesmerizing risk-taker” (The Plain Dealer, Cleveland), and “simply spectacular” (Chicago International Music Foundation), Ukrainian-American pianist Marina Lomazov has established herself as one of the most passionate and charismatic performers on the concert scene today. Following prizes in the Cleveland International Piano Competition, William Kapell International Piano Competition, Gina Bachauer International Piano Competition, and Hilton Head International Piano Competition, Lomazov has given performances worldwide. She is the Ira McKissick Koger Professor of Fine Arts at USC and a Steinway Artist.  

All concerts take place at the Koger Center for the Arts (1051 Greene St., Columbia, SC) at 7:30 p.m.

A pre-concert Prelude Talk with Maestro Portnoy takes place at 6:45 p.m. prior to each performance.

Season subscriptions: Save with a season subscription (7 concerts) and enjoy the best seats in the house: $150

Discounts: $110 seniors, USC faculty and staff; $45 students.


Single concert tickets:  $30 general public; Discounts: $25 seniors, USC faculty and staff; $8 students.

Call 803-251-2222 or Koger Box Office, corner of Greene and Park Streets (M-F 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.) or online at kogercenterforthearts.com.

The USC Symphony Orchestra presents Poems and Songs on March 22

Mezzo-soprano Janet Hopkins and USC Concerto-Aria winners take the stage

The Washington Post called 16-year veteran of the New York Metropolitan Opera, Janet Hopkins, “angel-voiced.” Hopkins, associate professor of voice at USC, will sing Vaughan Williams’ "Four Last Songs" and Gustav Mahler’s "Rückert-Lieder."

Poems and Songs takes place at the Koger Center for the Arts on Tuesday, March 22 at 7:30 p.m.

Gustav Mahler brings Friedrich Rückert’s poems to life with his luxuriant melodic setting for "Rückert-Lieder." Rückert wrote beautiful examples of German lyric romantic poems that Mahler collected for this set of songs. Ralph Vaughn Williams sets the texts of "Four Last Songs" – poems written by his wife Ursula who penned several books of poetry throughout her lifetime as well as a biography of her late husband. "Procris" and "Menelaus" deal with figures from ancient Greek and Roman mythology and epic poetry while "Tired" and "Hands, Eyes, and Heart" depict images of love between a husband and wife.

Janet Hopkins, associate professor of voice at the University of South Carolina, debuted as a soprano at The Metropolitan Opera during the 1991-1992 season in The Ghost of Versailles, returning during the next seasons for Siegrune in Die Walküre, Parsifal and The Overseer in Elektra. While on tour with The Met in Japan, she sang a series of solo recitals in Tokyo, garnering extensive critical acclaim.

As a mezzo-soprano, Hopkins sang Così fan Tutte with the Eugene Opera and served apprenticeships with the Michigan Opera Theatre and Des Moines Metro Opera. While making her vocal change, Hopkins was awarded grants and prizes from The Luciano Pavarotti International Voice Competition, the American Opera Auditions and the Wagner Society Grant along with a study grant from the Singers Development Fund of The Metropolitan Opera. In addition to touring extensively with The Met, she has performed in Japan, throughout Europe and the U.S. and has appeared at Carnegie Hall and at the opening ceremonies of the 1980 Winter Olympics in Lake Placid, NY.

Winners of the University of South Carolina Concerto–Aria Competition also perform on this concert and USC students pursuing their doctorate in conducting take the stage.

The Program

Franz Schubert- Overture to Rosamunde, Erik Garriott conductor

Claude Debussy- Première rapsodie, Concerto-Aria winner Jake Mann, clarinet; Inmo Kang conductor

Jean Sibelius- Violin Concerto in D minor, op. 47, Concerto-Aria winner Liangjun Zhou, violin; Eunseok Seo, conductor

Gustav Mahler- Rückert-Lieder, Janet Hopkins, mezzo-soprano

Ralph Vaughan Williams- Four Last Songs, Janet Hopkins, mezzo-soprano

Tickets are $30 general public; $25 senior citizens, USC faculty and staff; $8 students. Call 803-251-2222 or Koger Box Office, corner of Greene and Park Streets (M-F 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.) or online at kogercenterforthearts.com [http://www.kogercenterforthearts.com/event.php?id=73]