FROM THE PODIUM

While most other orchestras begin their fall season, like football, the weekend after Labor Day, we here in the Lowcountry enjoy another six weeks of carefree summer before launching into the concert season.

But when we DO start, we do it BIG!

Things gear up the week of October 13^th with our first orchestral rehearsals and TWO different concert programs that put the “everyone” in “Music for Everyone.” The HHSO performs FREE concerts at Martin Family Park in Bluffton and Lowcountry Celebration Park at Coligny on HHI on October 16 and 17. These “Pops” concerts are a fun way to kick off the season and bring thousands of music lovers from across the Lowcountry to enjoy a spectacular program beneath the stars. Titled “Cabaret Café,” the concerts capture the intoxicating blend of decadence, rebellion, and raw emotion from the cabarets of 1930s Berlin, Paris, Harlem, and Buenos Aires. Sultry chanteuse Victoria Okafor will perform iconic songs of Kander and Ebb (Cabaret, Chicago), Kurt Weill (Threepenny Opera), Edith Piaf (“La Vie en Rose”), Bessie Smith (“Empress of the Blues”), and tango classics. It will be an evening of playful indulgence, and a great time to gather with friends and new acquaintances to celebrate Fall.

Just two days later, the HHSO shifts gears to begin the Orchestra Series at First Presbyterian Church with a symphonic one-two punch: the Haydn Symphony No. 102 and the Dvořák Cello Concerto. Cellist Christine Lamprea joins the orchestra in the Dvořák, that blends Czech musical traditions with the bold and diverse sound world of New York City, where he wrote the piece over 130 years ago. It’s got bits of jazz, ragtime, folk songs like “Turkey in the Straw” (yup, it’s in there) and a hefty dollop of melancholy for his homeland. Fun fact—Haydn was also “away” when he wrote his Symphony No. 102, in London. Like Dvořák, he really thrived as a composer when composing in a musical environment that was so diverse and dynamic.

Our “HHSO Opening Weekend” demonstrates what I LOVE about our musicians: they can play jazz, swing, tango, and Broadway one night, and the next play symphonic works with equal veracity. These two concerts are a wonderful opportunity to introduce folks who have not been to an HHSO performance to experience all our Orchestra has to offer.

In November, we welcome jazz piano legend Marcus Roberts and his trio to perform Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue, and Yamakraw by J. P. Johnson, inspired by the Savannah neighborhood of the same name. Both pieces are infused with improvised solos throughout. For real jazz buffs, you may want to attend BOTH Sunday and Monday performances, as Marcus REALLY mixes it up each concert—his solos are invariably fresh, creative and virtuosic. It’s NEVER the same way twice. Also on the program are two works by Carlos Simon inspired by Gullah and Gospel traditions that are unique to the Lowcountry. The Cincinnati Pops recorded its latest CD with Marcus last spring (it will be released in April, 2026), including a couple of the pieces we’ll be performing together on HHI—it is going to be a thrilling performance.

We finish the year with Holiday Pops, at the tail-end of Thanksgiving Weekend. Always festive, and the traditional start of the HHI holiday season, the Hilton Head Symphony Orchestra Chorus will be featured as well as Lowcountry favorite, baritone Michael Preacely. We’ll have plenty of beloved Christmas classics and spectacular new arrangements, as well as the orchestral debut of the brilliant, young violinist Brooklynn Thatcher, winner of the HHSO’s 2025 Youth Concerto Competition. Our Holiday Pops are wonderful concerts for the whole family, and are VERY popular, so make sure to get your tickets early. Later in the season we present a couple more family-friendly concerts including “An Evening at Hogwarts—the Music of Harry Potter” and “Ellis Island—The Dream Of America” with the Lean Ensemble Theatre company. Stay tuned for more details in the New Year!

See you soon.

JMR

From the SoundWaves Studio

SoundWaves Summer Dreaming … Assorted Journal Entries

Hello, journal. SoundWaves here, writing again. It’s been a few months. Summer between my walls tends to be a bit less active than the rest of the year, yet I still fall behind with journal entries. As with every year, back in June the vibrancy of youth that is always present when our Chamber Music Institute friends join us echoed once again through my walls. Ah, ten days of the music of Haydn and Price, Meyer and Beethoven, Mendelssohn and Ravel. The Institute musicians’ sounds soothed my humidity-swollen rafters.

Summer wasn’t completely without events, though. While orchestra staff members continued advancing exciting plans for the upcoming season, there were other concerts to hear. One outdoor jazz concert moved inside due to weather. I was glad to be here and available to help. Martin Lesch and his band were as gracious as one might imagine, performing exquisitely for over 130 patrons who, despite the rain, made their way to Lagoon Road for the festivities. Martin even invited surprise guest artists, making the night even more special.

And now as I recall, in late July many new audience members attended a formative partnership helping launch bilingual digital and print magazine, US Nosotros, with a curated cabaret event. The festive evening featured food and musics of Central and South America, from salsa to mariachi and from the Afro-Colombian rhythms of Cumbia to Chinelo’s, a Mexican dance. Restaurant partner Tio’s Latin American Kitchen prepared food for everyone.

In August, popular Hilton Head saxophonist Dean St. Hillaire and friends entertained a sold-out room with a musical revue tribute to legendary artist Stevie Wonder, which included among many other songs I recognized, top hits Superstition and Signed, Sealed, Delivered. Bluffton’s African Caribbean restaurant, Okan, fed everyone for this one. It was a standing-room only treat.

More about those Fall plans, though.

Coastal Home Supper Club, a wildly popular monthly cabaret series, returns in September to where it began five seasons ago, cruising into the new year on a revised and revamped Yacht Rock. Upcoming Supper Club programs scheduled include Women of Rock in October, pianist Aaron Lehrian’s jazz trio in November, and Gretchen Kristine Stelzer headlining An Acoustic Christmas in December.

Lavon Stevens and orchestra leaders spearhead artistic planning for the Gullah Geechee Cultural Series partnership with Gullah Museum of Hilton Head Island, Historic Mitchelville Freedom Park, and Native Island Business and Community Affairs Association, moving forward with a special season opener in October. There are rumors about a holiday-inspired chamber music concert, a Feliz Navidad cabaret, a visit by brilliant jazz pianist Marcus Roberts, and a pair of BravoPiano series concerts, all during the next few months.

My walls are already shaking with excitement.

As the orchestra program says, Music For Everyone. So, as they tune the piano, restock the wine, and prepare my room for the new season, I’m enthusiastic to hear a wide array of musical life again in this new season.

Visit me soon, and please tell your friends, “I’ll see you at SoundWaves.” — SoundWaves

— Mario Incorvaia, HHSO Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer

This is one of my favorite times of year, as summer morphs into fall, and we look forward to more comfortable weather and the beautiful colors of the changing leaves.  But even more importantly, we welcome the beginning of the new concert season, and we can’t wait to welcome you back as you arrive for the impactful performances we have in store for you!

Before previewing our exciting HHIPC fall events, I wanted to let everyone know about the exciting career developments of our wonderful 2025 First Prize winner, Jonathan Mamora.  Following his exciting June success advancing to the quarterfinals of the prestigious Cliburn competition, Jonathan had a busy summer with featured recitals at the Bachauer International Piano Festival (Salt Lake City) and the Chautauqua Institution Summer Festival (New york).  Then, to kick off the new season, he returns to Scotland in September for a five-city recital tour as the reigning First Prize winner of the Scottish IPC. 

Another big fall highlight—for Jonathan and for us—is our presentation of the Mona Huff Carnegie Hall recital at Weill Recital Hall on Saturday, Oct. 25 at 8:00pm.  Jonathan’s program features masterworks by Liszt, Mozart, Schubert, and Scriabin, along with the New York premiere of American composer Lowell Liebermann’s Moment Musical, Op. 144, which we commissioned for the March 2025 HHIPC.  I know that quite a few folks from our HHIPC/HHSO family already have plans to join us in NYC for this special event, but all are welcome and tickets are on sale now, so please contact me for more details (including the special rates we’ve arranged at a lovely hotel around the corner from Carnegie Hall).  This will indeed be a memorable event, so we hope you will consider attending!

Just prior to that, we will officially kick off the HHIPC season here at Sound Waves with our first BravoPiano! Recital on Saturday, October 11, 2025.  We are excited to open the series with the accomplished pianist Rachel Breen, who is an HHIPC 2013 alumna and a Laureate of the 2025 Queen Elisabeth Competition in Brussels!  Now based in Europe, this American born artist returns to share an impressive program with us, including music of Mozart, Rachmaninoff, Stravinsky and Beethoven.  It’s a 7:30 recital followed by a reception at which the entire audience is welcome, and tickets will be on sale soon, so please plan to join us to hear Rachel in this intimate setting.

Then looking ahead, I want to offer a quick “save the dates” note about two important events on the HHIPC horizon:

• Thursday, December 4 – We continue our recent tradition of presenting a Holiday Jazz Concert as part of our BravoPiano! Recital Series at SoundWaves!  At the moment, our guest artist is not yet confirmed, but he is someone who has performed for us before, so I am confident that our friends and fans will be excited to welcome him back to Hilton Head.

• Tuesday, January 20, 2026 – Our annual Musical Feast Gala fundraiser is back in mid-January this season, so please join us at the Hilton Resort & Spa Ballroom for a special evening celebrating 30 years since the HHIPC’s founding in 1996.  Our featured artist will be piano star George Li, whose 2010 recital here at the tender age of 14 dazzled our audiences and helped inspire our inaugural Young Artist Competition in 2011.

Thanks for reading, and I look forward to seeing you soon!

—Steven Shaiman, Director, Hilton Head International Piano Competition and Education and Community Engagement