All shows are free and take place at 7:30 p.m. in the USC School of Music Recital Hall, 813 Assembly St., Columbia SC, unless otherwise noted.

invoke: American Postcards

Friday, Oct. 13, 2017

Invoke, a bowed and fretted string quartet based in Austin, Texas, won USC’s 2016 Savvy Chamber Competition with a mesmerizing program inspired by roots music that combined instrumental music, poetry and song. Their Southern Exposure show highlights the group’s distinctive versatility – they augment the traditional string quartet with banjo, mandolin, and voice – with the world premiere of four new works written for the ensemble by some of America’s most exciting young composers: Ian Dicke, David Kirkland Garner, Takuma Itoh and Steven Snowden.  Each piece draws on a specific time and place in the USA for inspiration and includes visuals related to historical photographs.

• invoke on Youtube

Vicky Chow: Surface Image

Friday, Nov. 17, 2017

Pianist Vicky Chow, described as “brilliant” by The New York Times and a member of the legendary Bang on a Can All-Stars, performs Tristan Perich’s astounding Surface Image (2013) for piano and 40-channel 1-bit electronics. Surface Image has been called “the ultimate meeting of organic and electronic” and “a universe all its own.” USC’s Recital Hall stage will be covered with forty small loudspeakers, each wired to hand-built electronics, for this landmark duet between Ms. Chow and an ever-transforming flurry of simple electronic tones.  

• Vicky Chow on Youtube

Duo Cortona with the USC Percussion Studio: Duets and Concertos

Friday, January 26, 2018

USC faculty Rachel Calloway, mezzo-soprano, and Ari Streisfeld, violin, two of contemporary music’s most notable performers, comprise this unusual and surprisingly versatile duo. Calloway and Streisfeld will perform engaging works written for Duo Cortona. They will also be joined by members of the USC Percussion Ensemble in concertos by two of the 20th century’s most important composers:  György Ligeti’s folk- and avant-garde inspired song cycle Síppal, dobbal, nádihegedüvel (With Pipes, Drums, and Fiddles) and Lou Harrison’s Concerto for Violin and Percussion Orchestra, a colorful synthesis of Eastern and Western musical traditions.

• Duo Cortona on Youtube

Yarn/Wire: Re/actions

Friday, March 23, 2018

A force in the contemporary classical music scene since their founding in 2005, Yarn/Wire, a quartet of two percussionists and two pianists known for their adventurous repertoire and consummate artistry, cemented their stellar international reputation with a first-prize finish in the open division of the University of Michigan’s M Prize competition in 2016. Their Southern Exposure show is comprised of colorful works written expressly for Yarn/Wire by composers Alex Mincek, Michelle Lou and Enno Poppe.

• Yarn/Wire on Youtube