Author: Margaret Evans

World-renowned violinist Frank Almond brings his famous centuries old Stradivarius to Beaufort to benefit the Boys and Girls Clubs. Interview by Mark Shaffer Frank Almond talks about the 300-year-old violin he plays as if it were a person. Although he considers the rare and valuable Lipinski Stradivarius to be a “super high-end tool” it is also the most intimate of partners, one who pushes his skill far beyond the limits of lesser instruments. So, when a stranger tasered him and took it in a Milwaukee parking lot on a subzero winter’s night in 2014 it felt more like a kidnapping than an armed robbery.  

By Margaret Evans, EditorIn April of 1742, George Frideric Handel’s Messiah ignited the stage of Dublin’s Musick Hall, where a record-breaking 700 people had turned out for the superstar composer. (The ladies had been asked by management to wear “dresses without hoops, to make room for more company.”) From the first strains of the tenor’s opening lines – Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God – the massive audience sat spellbound, completely enthralled. The following year, Messiah made its London debut, where legend has it the “Hallelujah” chorus moved King George II to his feet.

It’s becoming harder for us to keep our Lowcountry treasures to ourselves. One of those treasures is the diverse, dynamic performing arts climate that has developed here, along with our varied communities of discriminating residents who seek out a range of high-quality live entertainment close to home. Fripp Friends Of Music has been a force behind that vibrant Lowcountry entertainment atmosphere, making Fripp an “Island of Music,” fall, winter and spring, for over three decades!

This month, the Lowcountry Wind Symphony celebrates its first anniversary, under the baton of Music Director, Donald F. Jemella. This has been an exciting year, with the organization growing fast, and now numbering some fifty members.