Spoleto Announces the Bank of America Chamber Music Series Programming

A linchpin of Spoleto Festival USA since its inaugural season, the Bank of America Chamber Music series continues to be one of the most beloved artistic elements of the Festival. “So much of what makes this series universally renowned is due to Geoff Nuttall’s careful curation of each of the 11 programs,” says Spoleto Festival USA General Director Mena Mark Hanna. “He’s ambitious and wild—pairing Mozart with Caroline Shaw or Heinrich Biber with Paul Wiancko, for instance—drawing connections between such seemingly disparate works that can wow established musicologists and entice and engage more novice listeners at the same time.”

Following a season cancellation in 2020 and a drastically scaled-down 2021 season, this year promises a return to full capacity, with audiences brimming with enthusiasm for Nuttall and his merry band of top international talent. “There are few theaters worldwide in which I feel as supported and energized as I do in Dock Street and at Spoleto” says Nuttall, whose jovial and captivating emceeing of the concerts is a large reason for the routinely full audiences. “On top of that, I’m playing alongside my friends and exceptional musicians who inspire me most—those who are creating incredible new works and playing older masterpieces extraordinarily.”

Audiences will be surprised to see a new scenic backdrop onstage. The Festival commissioned Charleston-based artist Fletcher Williams III to create a work of art. His piece, titled Dusk, a 50- x 38-inch acrylic on paper, will be transferred to the fabric and revealed on May 27. This is the first time since Christian Thee’s 35- by 20-foot proscenium, created in 1983, that musicians will be framed by a new curtain. The work, notes Williams, takes inspiration from the South, which he describes as a “labyrinth. It’s whimsical, sacred, and spirited; the ground hallow and air heavy with salt. When peering into its dense canopies of Spanish moss or tunnels of azaleas, I sense something elusive and wild, indescribable. Dusk is a memory of this place, which floats above the ground and reflects below the water’s surface.”

On the 2022 program, more than 340 years span between the earliest Renaissance piece and most contemporary composition—a world premiere from Mark Applebaum, a 2015 Bank of America Chamber Music composer in residence. The season also features its signature mix of returning and new artists. Among the series’ first timers are pianist Julia Hamos, Adam Cockerham on theorbo, violinist Alexi Kenney, recorder virtuoso Tabea Debus and the series’ first-ever saxophonist, composer Steven Banks. Two of Banks’s new works, Cries, Sighs, and Dreams and As I Am, can be heard on Program II and III.

In addition to Nuttall’s St. Lawrence String Quartet, the Castalian String Quartet—which was set to appear during the 2020 season before cancellation—will perform throughout the series. The Castalian Quartet, formed in 2011 and named the inaugural Hans Keller String Quartet in Residence at Oxford University in 2021, is garnering recognition as a dynamic ensemble, having made critically acclaimed debuts at Lincoln Center, Banff International String Quartet Festival, the Vancouver Recital Series, and The Philips Collection in Washington, DC.

Also joining the group for the first time is Grammy Award winning tenor Karim Sulayman, whose world premiere opera Unholy Wars premieres this season, also at Dock Street Theatre (May 29, June 1, June 3, June 6). On program VI, Sulayman performs “Where’er you walk” from George Frideric Handel’s Semele.

Returning musicians include oboist James Austin Smith, violinist Livia Sohn, violist Ayane Kozasa, cellists Paul Wiancko and Nina Lee, bassist Anthony Manzo, pianists Pedja Muzijevic and Inon Barnatan, and tenor Paul Groves. Clarinetist Todd Palmer, who first performed at the Festival in 1994, premieres a new arrangement of the Overture from Mozart’s Le Nozze di Figaro, performed for 10 instrumentalists on program XI. On program VIII, pianist Stephen Prutsman debuts a selection of five Stevie Wonder songs, performed by tenor Paul Groves and accompanied by Prutsman himself on piano.

Again in 2022, South Carolina Public Radio will record and broadcast each of the series’ concerts on the program “Sonatas and Soundscapes,” weekdays at 11:00am. Hosted by Bradley Fuller, the concerts—released in full—are interspersed with Festival artists interviews, providing illuminating peeks into the performers’ practices and approach to the music. Those outside of South Carolina can stream the program live at scpublicradio.org.

The full program, with all concert details, is attached. Tickets to the Bank of America Chamber series can be purchased online at spoletousa.org or by calling the Spoleto box office at 843.579.3100. In-person box office sales begin Monday, May 2, at the Charleston Gaillard Center (Monday through Friday, 11:00am to 5:00pm; beginning May 27, hours are Monday through Sunday 11:00am to 5:00pm.)