CofC Holds Concert Celebrating Music Professor Emeritus
The College of Charleston Department of Music will hold a concert celebrating the 80th birthday of professor emeritus of music Steve Rosenberg, who will perform with Jose Lemos '01 as part of the Brio Ensemble.
Above: Steve Rosenberg
In celebration of Steve Rosenberg’s 80th birthday, the College of Charleston Department of Music will host a concert in the Simons Center Recital Hall at 7:30 p.m. on Monday, April 27. The concert, titled Sol y Sombra: Before Flamenco, will feature the College of Charleston’s own Rosenberg, professor emeritus and former chair of the music department, and vocalist José Lemos ’01, as part of the Brio Ensemble.
In addition to Rosenberg – who plays recorders, krummhorn (crumhorn), gemshorn and Renaissance and Baroque guitars – and accomplished Brazilian countertenor Lemos, who completed his Master of Music in voice at the New England Conservatory after graduating from the College, the ensemble includes Mary Anne Ballard, a member of the Baltimore Consort and a prominent figure in early music revival who plays rebec, viola da gamba and vielle, and international percussionist Danny Mallon, who rounds out the quartet with a smorgasbord of Mediterranean hand drums, tambourines, wood block, castanets and other exotic ideophones.
With the goal of exploring medieval and Renaissance repertoire, the Brio Ensemble was founded at the College in 2002 as an offshoot of the Charleston Pro Musica.
The music Brio performs features exquisite melodies from the Renaissance, medieval and Baroque eras to the Sephardic songs and dances from early Spain. One hears the influence of Moorish musical practice, which eventually evolved into flamenco. After 1492, this music traveled with the dispersed Jewish community throughout the Mediterranean basin.
“This fresh repertoire explores the exotic rhythms, modes and sounds that were lost during the centuries,” says Rosenberg. “It certainly has connected to our audiences.”
The Pied Piper of the Recorder World
After hearing ensembles play as a child, Rosenberg fell in love with the recorder. He later went on to study in Paris and tour five continents as a recorder soloist with chamber orchestra and as a member of the French ensemble Les Menestriers, as well as playing for the Comédie Française. His collections of recorder music have sold more than a half-million copies worldwide, and his solo children’s concerts have made him “the pied piper of the recorder world.”
Recipient of the 2011 Elizabeth O’Neil Verner Governor’s Award for Arts (now the South Carolina Governor’s Award for the Arts), Rosenberg is currently working on his 40th season as director of the Piccolo Spoleto Early Music Series.
Home Base: College of Charleston
Rosenberg began teaching at the College in 1986 and retired in 2016 as professor emeritus. During that time, he served as chair of the music department (1989–2012), directed the Monday Night Concert Series and organized a performance tour in Paris and Versailles with the College of Charleston Gospel Choir.
“We performed at the American Church of Paris, and the concert was advertised in the Parisian press. There must have been about 800 attendees,” recalls Rosenberg. “When I asked the music director at the church how they had confidence that the level of the performance merited such a high-profile PR campaign, the answer was something like, ‘We knew that a gospel choir with the name College of Charleston had to be fantastic.’ They were right.”
He also traveled with CofC students throughout the South of France for a French class team-taught with professor emeritus Abdellatif Attafi for seven years. In addition, he taught Music Appreciation in French (and in English) as part of a “Language Across the Curriculum” program in the mid-1990s and team-taught Shakespeare: Music and Theatre, with the late theatre professor Arthur McDonald.
Other classes he taught at CofC include the Spoleto Maymester class, The American Folk Music Revival and Early Music Consort, which grew into the Charleston Pro Musica ensemble.
Rosenberg also collaborated closely with choral conductors Bill Oplinger and Robert Taylor through performances and tours for close to 30 years.
One More Monday Night
The Sol y Sombra concert is part of the College’s 2nd Monday Series, which began under Rosenberg as the Monday Night Concert Series.
Rosenberg organized and directed the concerts every Monday night in the Simons Center for the Arts for roughly 30 years, presenting over 750 concerts in all.
“It’s really emotional for me to perform at the Recital Hall. For 30 years, that was my home every Monday,” says Rosenberg. “I believe that next year the Monday Night tradition will move to Sunday afternoons, so it’s possible that this performance will be the last in this series, which now has been going on for at least 40 years. That’s something.”
Concert Details
The Brio Ensemble will perform with harpsichordist Julia Harlow, who teaches music at the College, at 7:30 p.m. on Monday, April 27, at the Simons Center Recital Hall (54 Saint Philip St.). Tickets start at $26 for general admission, $14 for CofC faculty/staff and $9 for students. Tickets can be purchased online, by calling 843.953.4726, by emailing [email protected] or in person at the George Street Box Office (44 George St).
More information can be found on the College of Charleston Campus Calendar.
