Fripp Friends Launch 40th Season

By Margit Resch

Help us celebrate the 40th anniversary of Fripp Island Friends of Music and enjoy our five concerts this season. Consider becoming a member of FIFOM.  It’s such a deal! The Basic Membership is only $100 (it saves you $50 over the cost of buying individual $30 tickets per concert). And you know, don’t you, that you are invited to a complimentary reception after each concert, where you can chat with the musicians and enjoy delicious hors d’oeuvres prepared by Harold’s Chef Services. To become a member or if you have any questions, call, text or email Membership Chair, Vanessa Peñaherrera, at (704) 807-0255, or vandy116@gmail.com. For additional information, see our website: www.frippfriendsofmusic.com

40th Season Lineup

 

October 20: Junwen Liang, classical pianist

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Junwen embarked on his piano career in his home town, Nanning, China, with a solo debut at age 13. Since then, he has been praised by audiences and critics all over the world for his captivating performances. Recent reviews called him “an extremely gifted and promising young artist” with an “engaging stage presence, helpful spoken introductions to the music, and confident programming skills.” 

​Junwen has not only made a name for himself as a solo artist, but he has also played with famous musicians of all kinds, with internationally known orchestras and in notable music festivals. In spring 2019, Junwen’s achievements were crowned with the exclusive Spencer Merit Award at the National Society of Arts & Letters in Bloomington, an honor given to only one pianist that year. 

​Come to Fripp and see for yourself, or better: hear for yourself, whether he is poised for a major career as a pianist. 

 

November 17: Zoë Lewis, singer/songwriter

​“A multitude of instruments, gypsy jazz, swing, world-beat grooves, original tunes, quirky storytelling, huge sense of humor.” This is how Zoë Lewis introduces herself in her internet bio. What more do you need to know to be tempted to come and experience Zoë? Originally from the UK, she’s lived in Provincetown, MA, for the last twenty-eight years. 

​“A band in a body,” she plays anything from the piano to the spoons, has toured with stars like Judy Collins and Richie Havens, produced nine CDs of original material, and she wrote two musicals, which were staged to packed houses in her adopted town. Zoé is admired as much for her storytelling as she is for her music. “Equal parts musician and story teller, this British transplant is blessed with the uncanny ability to uncover the extraordinary beauty in the seemingly ordinary.” So says the Boston Globe. A composer, a musician, and a story-teller. What a gifted lady.

January 12, 2025: South for Winter, 3 multi-instrumentalists and songwriters

​This eclectic trio has its roots on a Peruvian rooftop, where New Zealander Nick Stone and Coloradan Dani Cichon met while building greenhouses, and where they wrote their first of many songs together, “Fallen Seeds.” They established their duo in Christchurch, eventually moved to Nashville, and there teamed up with Michigander Alex Stradal. 

South for Winter combines elements of classically-trained cello, percussions, acoustic and electric guitar, mandolin, poetic lyricism, suitcase stomp, haunting melodies and lovely vocals into a genre-defying sound. The trio soon hit the road, selling out shows all over Europe, New Zealand, and the United States, and bringing audiences to their feet. Their blend of dreamy acoustic duets, foot-stomping folk and bluesy ballads, all ”laden with delicate harmonies, intricate guitar-work, and earthy vocals… impeccable sound,” has been praised by sites such as American Songwriter. From listening to South for Winter’s recordings, I am confident that they will bring even us Beaufortonians to our feet.

February 2, 2025: PROJECT Trio, flute, sax and bass

​Here is another trio that is going to bring us genre-defying music, that will change

our notion of chamber music. The PROJECT Trio is presented as a  chamber music ensemble comprised of three virtuosic composers and performers from Brooklyn, New York. However, the trio plays music ranging from baroque to nu-metal and adopting pretty much every style in between; so clearly a mixture of musical genres. 

​Reviewers like Gramophone Magazine praised the trio’s performances as being “packed with musicianship, joy and surprise” and “exciting a new generation of listeners about the joys of classical and jazz music.” The Wall Street Journal hailed the trio for their “wide appeal, subversive humor, and first-rate playing.” Wide appeal, indeed. PROJECT Trio has impressed audiences with their performances in twenty-five countries on four continents and in most of our United States. 

They will impress us, no doubt. 

 

March 16, 2025: Robert Gardiner Jazz Quartet

​Influenced by the great musicians from the 1940’s to today, this classic instrumental jazz quartet is led by saxophonist Robert Gardiner. 

As Professor of Music at Lander University, Dr. Gardiner offers music education courses, gives saxophone lessons, teaches brass and woodwind methods and jazz improvisation, and leads the Lander University Jazz Ensemble and Jazz Combos.

​Dr. Gardiner is also the founder of the South Carolina Jazz Foundation, Artistic Director of the South Carolina Jazz Masterworks Ensemble, Director of the 16-piece Columbia Jazz Orchestra, and Director of The Capital City Big Band, based in Columbia, SC—a 20-piece band playing jazz hits from the big-band era as well as contemporary jazz arrangements. Dr. Gardiner’s range of activities leaves me breathless. 

​Who are the other three musicians of the jazz quartet? That is a surprise. You know they will be mind-blowing.