Gaillard Center Announces 2021-2022 Series Subscription Performances

The Knights

The Gaillard Center on Monday announced their 2021-2022 Series Subscription performances. The subscription allows you to choose what you see, when you want to see it. You can choose the exact shows you want from ten performances and “Make Your Own Series” Subscription. Choose four, six, eight or more shows, and save up to 25% off of regular season, single ticket prices.

Series subscriptions go on sale to the public on Friday, July 9th at 11 am. Series subscriptions are available to Charleston Gaillard Center members beginning Tuesday, July 6th. To learn more about the Charleston Gaillard Center and to become a member, visit gaillardcenter.org.

The performances and their descriptions can be seen below:

EMERSON STRING QUARTET

OCTOBER 10, 2021 | 2PM

Eugene Drucker and Philip Setzer – Violins

Lawrence Dutton – Viola

Paul Watkins – Cello

Program

Hayden Seven Last Words

Beethoven String Quartet in A Minor, op. 132

Philip Setzer 1st Violin for Beethoven op. 132 and Hayden Seven Last Words (#s 2, 4, 6)

Eugene Drucker 1st Violin for Hayden Seven Last Words (Introduction, #s 1, 3, 5, 7, Earthquake)

The Emerson String Quartet has maintained its status as one of the world’s premier chamber music ensembles for more than four decades. “With musicians like this,” wrote a reviewer for The Times (London), “there must be some hope for humanity.” The Quartet has made more than 30 acclaimed recordings, and has been honored with nine GRAMMYs® (including two for Best Classical Album), three Gramophone Awards, the Avery Fisher Prize, and Musical America’s “Ensemble of the Year” award. The Quartet collaborates with some of today’s most esteemed composers to premiere new works, keeping the string quartet form alive and relevant. The group has partnered in performance with such stellar soloists as Reneé Fleming, Barbara Hannigan, Evgeny Kissin, Emanuel Ax, and Yefim Bronfman, to name a few.

The Emerson String Quartet’s 2019-2020 season, which begins with a seven-city tour of Australia, includes a number of high-profile projects. Among the North American highlights is a three-concert stint at Lincoln Center’s Great Performers Series featuring Beethoven’s “Razumovsky” Quartets and the complete Bartok cycle. The Quartet performs in its 41st series at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, DC, and makes appearances at the Park Avenue Armory in New York, Friends of Chamber Music in Vancouver, Wharton Center for Performing Arts in East Lansing, MI, South Mountain Concerts, Wooster Chamber Music, Chamber Music Cincinnati, Chamber Music Louisville and Friends of Music Concerts in Millwood, NY. Overseas, the Quartet performs the complete Beethoven Cycle at the Seoul International Music Festival, and embarks on three European tours, with stops in Serbia, Austria, Switzerland, Italy, Germany, Denmark, Finland, Poland, and Spain.

The Quartet’s extensive discography includes the complete string quartets of Beethoven, Mendelssohn, Brahms, Bartok, Webern, and Shostakovich, as well as multi-CD sets of the major works of Haydn, Mozart, Schubert, and Dvorak. The ensemble also has recorded music by Tchaikovsky, Smetana, Debussy, Ravel, Barber, and Ives. In April of 2019, the Quartet joined forces with GRAMMY®-winning pianist Evgeny Kissin to release their debut collaborative album for Deutsche Grammophon, recorded live at a sold-out Carnegie Hall concert in 2018.

Formed in 1976 and based in New York City, the Emerson String Quartet was one of the first quartets to have its violinists alternate in the first chair position.  The Quartet, which takes its name from the American poet and philosopher Ralph Waldo Emerson, balances busy performing careers with a commitment to teaching, and serves as Quartet-in-Residence at Stony Brook University.  In 2013, cellist Paul Watkins—a distinguished soloist, award-wining conductor, and devoted chamber musician—joined the original members of the Quartet to form today’s group. In the spring of 2016, the State University of New York awarded full-time Stony Brook faculty members Philip Setzer and Lawrence Dutton the status of Distinguished Professor, and conferred the title of Honorary Distinguished Professor on part-time faculty members Eugene Drucker and Paul Watkins.  The Quartet’s members previously had received honorary doctorates from Middlebury College, the College of Wooster, Bard College, and the University of Hartford.  In January of 2015, the Quartet received the Richard J. Bogomolny National Service Award, Chamber Music America’s highest honor, in recognition of its significant and lasting contribution to the chamber music field.

The Emerson String Quartet enthusiastically endorses Thomastik strings.

AN EVENING WITH AUDRA MCDONALD

NOVEMBER 6, 2021 | 7:30PM

Audra McDonald performs her trademark mix of songs from Broadway, the Great American Songbook, and beyond.

Audra McDonald is unparalleled in the breadth and versatility of her artistry as both a singer and an actor. The winner of a record-breaking six Tony Awards, two Grammy Awards and an Emmy, in 2015 she was named one of Time magazine’s 100 most influential people and received a National Medal of Arts—America’s highest honor for achievement in the field—from President Barack Obama.

In addition to her Tony-winning performances in Carousel, Master Class, Ragtime, A Raisin in the Sun, The Gershwins’ Porgy and Bess and Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar & Grill—the role that also served as the vehicle for her Olivier Award-nominated 2017 debut in London’s West End—she has appeared on Broadway in The Secret Garden; Marie Christine (Tony nomination); Henry IV; 110 in the Shade (Tony nomination); Shuffle Along, or, The Making of the Musical Sensation of 1921 and All That Followed and Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune (Tony nomination). A Juilliard-trained soprano, her opera credits include La voix humaine and Send at Houston Grand Opera, and Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny at Los Angeles Opera, where the resulting recording earned her two Grammy Awards. On television, she was seen by millions as the Mother Abbess in NBC’s The Sound of Music Live! and played Dr. Naomi Bennett on ABC’s Private Practice. She won an Emmy Award for her role as host of PBS’s Live From Lincoln Center and has received nominations for Wit, A Raisin in the Sun and Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar & Grill. Having first appeared as Liz Lawrence on CBS’s The Good Wife, she can now be seen in The Good Fight on Paramount+ as well as in Spectrum’s pandemic-themed drama The Bite. On film, she has appeared in Seven Servants, The Object of My Affection, Cradle Will Rock, It Runs in the Family, The Best Thief in the World, She Got Problems, Rampart, Ricki and the Flash, Disney’s live-action Beauty and the Beast, the movie-musical Hello Again, and MGM’s Aretha Franklin biopic, Respect.

McDonald has released five solo albums on the Nonesuch label as well as Sing Happy, with the New York Philharmonic, on Decca Gold. She also maintains a major career as a concert artist, regularly appearing on the great stages of the world and with leading international orchestras. A founding member of Black Theatre United, board member of Covenant House International, and prominent advocate for LGBTQAI+ rights, her favorite roles are those performed offstage, as an activist, wife to actor Will Swenson, and mother.

AN OFFICER AND A GENTLEMAN

DECEMBER 14, 2021 | 7:30PM

AN OFFICER AND A GENTLEMAN, based on the Oscar-winning film starring Richard Gere, is a breathtaking production that celebrates triumph over adversity and includes one of the most iconic and romantic endings ever portrayed on screen. Featuring the Grammy Award winning, #1 hit single ‘Up Where We Belong’, and a score based on the 1980’s catalogue of music that gave voice to a generation, the live stage production is a new adaptation by multiple Tony Awards nominee Dick Scanlan (Thoroughly Modern Millie, Everyday Rapture), based on the original screenplay by Douglas Day Stewart. The musical is directed by Scanlan with choreography by Patricia Wilcox (Motown, A Night with Janis Joplin).

Zack Mayo’s got smarts and a body built for US Navy pilot boot camp, but he also has too much swagger… until he meets a drill sergeant who’s determined to drill his arrogance out of him. Zack finds comfort in the arms of a local factory girl. But it isn’t until tragedy befalls a fellow candidate that Zack learns the importance of love and friendship, and finds the courage to be his best self and win the heart of the woman he loves.

THE KNIGHTS WITH AARON DIEHL, PIANO

JANUARY 23, 2022 | 7PM

Exploring the Flow Between Jazz, Classicism, and European Modernism.

Colin Jacobsen & Eric Jacobsen, Co-Artistic Directors | Eric Jacobsen, Conductor

PROGRAM*

BACH Bradenburg Concerto No. 3

RAVEL Selections from Tombeau de Couperin

GERSHWIN Rhapsody in Blue

MARY LOU WILLIAMS Selections from Zodiac Suite

STRAVINSKY Firebird Suite

(*Program subject to change.)

The Knights are a collective of adventurous musicians, dedicated to transforming the orchestral experience and eliminating barriers between audiences and music. Driven by an open-minded spirit of camaraderie and exploration, they inspire listeners with vibrant programs that encompass their roots in the classical tradition and passion for artistic discovery. The orchestra has been proud to tour and record with renowned soloists including Yo-Yo Ma, Dawn Upshaw, Béla Fleck, and Gil Shaham, and has performed at such prestigious institutions as Carnegie Hall, Tanglewood, and the Vienna Musikverein. Through adventurous programming, unbridled energy, and a collaborative music-making process, The Knights bring classical music to life in a way that surprises and inspires both new and longtime listeners.

Since their inception in New York City in the early 2000s, The Knights have challenged assumptions about orchestral music. The ensemble grew out of informal chamber music readings at the home of brothers Eric and Colin Jacobsen — now the group’s Artistic Directors — and was incorporated as a non-profit organization in 2007. The 36 members of The Knights are graduates of the Juilliard School, the Curtis Institute of Music, and other leading music schools and conservatories. They are accomplished soloists, orchestral players, and chamber musicians as well as composers, singer-songwriters, and improvisers who bring a range of cultural influences to the group.

Pianist and composer Aaron Diehl transforms the piano into an orchestral vessel in the spirit of beloved predecessors Ahmad Jamal, Erroll Garner and Jelly Roll Morton. Following three critically-acclaimed leader albums on Mack Avenue Records — and appearances at such historic venues as Jazz at Lincoln Center, The Village Vanguard and New York Philharmonic — the American Pianist Association’s 2011 Cole Porter fellow now focuses his attention on his forthcoming solo album and ongoing curation of Black American composers programming with emphasis on William Grant Still. A Juilliard graduate, Aaron has performed with Wynton Marsalis, Benny Golson, Jimmy Heath, Branford Marsalis, Philip Glass and GRAMMY award-winning artist Cecile McLorin Salvant. He recently appeared with the New York Philharmonic and the Cleveland Orchestra as featured soloist.

RENT

JANUARY 27, 2022 | 7:30PM

The Farewell Season of Love

For a quarter of a century, Jonathan Larson’s Tony Award and Pulitzer Prize-winning masterpiece RENT has inspired us to choose love over fear and to live without regret. Its immeasurable emotional impact has forever changed the world of musical theatre.

RENT follows a year in the lives of a diverse group of artists and friends struggling to follow their dreams without selling out. This powerfully resonant phenomenon has become more than a musical – it’s a cultural touchstone, a rite of passage and a source of joy and strength for millions. The extraordinary RENT fan community spans every continent and every generation – including many born over a decade after the show opened on Broadway.

Whether you’ve never seen RENT or have completely lost count, you can’t miss it this time around – the 25th Anniversary “Farewell Season of Love” is your FINAL CHANCE to experience this illustrious touring production.

Come join us to celebrate 25 years of “La Vie Bohème.” 13,140,000 minutes of the one and only RENT.

SUMMER: THE DONNA SUMMER MUSICAL

FEBRUARY 7, 2022 | 7PM

She was a girl from Boston with a voice from heaven, who shot through the stars from gospel choir to dance floor diva. But what the world didn’t know was how Donna Summer risked it all to break through barriers, becoming the icon of an era and the inspiration for every music diva who followed.  With a score featuring more than 20 of Summer’s classic hits including “Love to Love You Baby,” “Bad Girls” and “Hot Stuff,” this electric experience is a moving tribute to the voice of a generation.

ALVIN AILEY AMERICAN DANCE THEATER

FEBRUARY 15 & 16, 2022 | 7:30PM

Truly great dance can be a window to the heart and soul, revealing our deepest selves. Let the dancers of Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater take you on a path of discovery. They’ll show you themselves through their movement and help you see yourself in their stories. Using the universal language of dance as a medium for honoring the past, celebrating the present and fearlessly reaching into the future, the Ailey company has performed for an estimated 25 million people around the world. This mixed repertory program will feature new and classic works, including the beloved Ailey masterpiece Revelations. Using African American spirituals, song-sermons, gospel songs and holy blues, Revelations fervently explores the places of deepest grief and holiest joy in the soul. Whether you’ve seen Ailey before or this is your first experience, you’re sure to discover something new.

Support for this program is made possible by generous donors who have committed time and resources to the Charleston Gaillard Center’s Dance Initiative.

HONG KONG BALLET’S ALICE (IN WONDERLAND)

MARCH 19 & 20, 2022 | 7:30PM

Artistic Director, Septime Webre

Won three awards at the Hong Kong Dance Awards 2019

Outstanding Costume Design

Outstanding Ensemble Performance

Outstanding Performance by a Female Dancer

Get ready for a wild, wild ride down the rabbit hole…

Bursting with energy and imagination, the encore of Septime Webre’s runaway smash ALICE (in wonderland) is back with the visually stunning and enormously entertaining world of the White Rabbit, Queen of Hearts and Mad Hatter. With captivating costumes by Cirque du Soleil designer Liz Vandal, outrageously flamboyant sets by James Kronzer and Matthew Pierce’s hypnotic original score performed live by City Chamber Orchestra of Hong Kong, ALICE showcases a dizzying array of dances that merge traditional ballet with contemporary energy, capturing the topsy-turvy magic of Wonderland and the bizarre characters that confront Alice on her incredible journey. A bold fusion of dance, theatre and puppetry, this giddy, over-the-top re-imagining of a familiar tale promises to be exhilarating fun for all ages!

One of Asia’s premier ballet companies, Hong Kong Ballet (HKB) is internationally recognised as a world-class institution which represents Hong Kong’s unique character. Since its inception in 1979, HKB has evolved into a vibrant performing arts organisation with a dynamic repertoire, forward-thinking community engagement initiatives and an emphasis on excellence. Septime Webre, former Artistic Director of The Washington Ballet, joined HKB as its Artistic Director in July 2017.

With nearly 50 dancers from all over the globe—Hong Kong, Mainland China and other parts of Asia, Australia and New Zealand, Europe and throughout North America—HKB has won recognition both regionally and internationally. HKB’s repertoire includes celebrated re-stagings of the classics by Nina Ananiashvili, Cynthia Harvey, AnnaMarie Holmes, John Meehan and many other notable artists, original full-lengths created for HKB and an award-winning series of ballets for young audiences. In addition, HKB performs works by some of today’s most sought-after choreographers, including Alexei Ratmansky, Christopher Wheeldon, Justin Peck, Jiří Kylian, Nacho Duato, Trey McIntyre, Annabelle Lopez Ochoa as well as dynamic new works by HKB’s Choreographer-in-Residence Hu Song Wei Ricky.

With almost 50 tours to 11 countries, HKB most recently toured throughout Europe in 2018, across Mainland China in 2019 and in recent seasons to the US, at Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival and in New York at the Joyce Theatre and the renowned Fall for Dance Festival. In addition to its performances on stage at home and abroad, HKB maintains a full schedule of community engagement initiatives throughout Hong Kong to ensure the art of ballet is accessible to all.

Support for this program is made possible by generous donors who have committed time and resources to the Charleston Gaillard Center’s Dance Initiative.

WAITRESS

APRIL 26, 2022 | 7:30PM

Meet Jenna, a waitress and expert pie-maker who dreams of a way out of her small town and rocky marriage. Pouring her heart into her pies, she crafts desserts that mirror her topsy-turvy life such as “The Key (Lime) to Happiness Pie” and “Betrayed By My Eggs Pie.” When a baking contest in a nearby county — and a satisfying encounter with someone new — show Jenna a chance at a fresh start, she must find the courage to seize it. Change is on the menu, as long as Jenna can write her own perfectly personal recipe for happiness.

Brought to life by a groundbreaking all-female creative team, this hilarious hit Broadway musical features original music and lyrics by Grammy® Award winner Sara Bareilles (“Brave,” “Love Song”), a book by acclaimed screenwriter Jessie Nelson (I Am Sam), original choreography by Lorin Latarro (Les Liaisons Dangereuses, Waiting For Godot), recreated by tour choreographer Abbey O’Brien and original direction by Tony Award® winner Diane Paulus (Hair, Pippin), recreated by tour director Susanna Wolk.

“WAITRESS is a little slice of heaven!” says Entertainment Weekly, and is “sweet, sassy and passionate,” according to New York Magazine.

“It’s an empowering musical of the highest order!” raves the Chicago Tribune. Don’t miss this uplifting and hilarious  musical celebrating friendship, motherhood, and the magic of a well-made pie.

BEAUTIFUL – THE CAROLE KING MUSICAL

MAY 10-11, 2022 | 7:30PM

Long before she was Carole King, chart-topping music legend, she was Carol Klein, Brooklyn girl with passion and chutzpah. She fought her way into the record business as a teenager and, by the time she reached her twenties, had the husband of her dreams and a flourishing career writing hits for the biggest acts in rock ‘n’ roll.  But it wasn’t until her personal life began to crack that she finally managed to find her true voice.

Beautiful – The Carole King Musical tells the inspiring true story of King’s remarkable rise to stardom, from being part of a hit songwriting team with her husband Gerry Goffin, to her relationship with fellow writers and best friends Cynthia Weil and Barry Mann, to becoming one of the most successful solo acts in popular music history. Along the way, she made more than beautiful music, she wrote the soundtrack to a generation.

Featuring a stunning array of beloved songs written by Gerry Goffin/Carole King and Barry Mann/Cynthia Weil, including “I Feel The Earth Move,” “One Fine Day,” “(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman,” “You’ve Got A Friend” and the title song, BEAUTIFUL has a book by Tony® Award-nominee and Academy® Award-nominated writer Douglas McGrath, direction by Marc Bruni, choreography by Josh Prince and took home two 2014 Tony® Awards and the 2015 Grammy® for Best Musical Theater Album.

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