There are so many people to thank for their extraordinary efforts to get us to this stage of return to normalcy. We couldn’t have done it without the leadership of our previous chair, Bob Cherichella, and the other members of the board, who worked tirelessly to provide a safe and financially secure environment in which to perform. It wasn’t easy and took many long hours and personal sacrifice on their parts, as we lived and learned how to cope in an environment that was anything but safe and secure. Not only is there light at the end of the tunnel, but we are beginning to see sunshine ahead!

Have I mentioned the staff? Under the strong leadership of Alan Jordan, they have performed herculean efforts with great panache to get the season planned and organized and our home at SoundWaves into a productive event venue format. We now have scheduled performances there that sometimes include dinner offerings from selected local restaurants.

We have ten of these events scheduled for this season, and the first two have been sold out!  Besides other musical events, such as those associated with the International Piano Competition led by Mona Huff and entering its 25th year of worldwide celebration, we have had the benefit of Mario Incorvaia’s contacts with the Savannah music industry to bring various other performances to HHI. Organized uses of our venue space also include meetings of local community groups who enjoy the opportunity to come together in a productive environment for their business and social gatherings.

Are we out from under the avalanche of risk and fear caused by our medical environment? Not totally. We continue to live within the protocols that have been developed for our safety, including vaccinations, masks, socially-distanced seating arrangements and the like, to allow us to properly enjoy our musicians and the delightful sounds they generate from their instruments. Whether you are looking forward to all the Symphony’s offerings or just a select few, we will continue to present you with a safe and memorable experience.

I started this little missive with the word “celebrate.” Let’s all make every effort to experience the joy of live music for this coming season. I look forward to seeing all of you at our homes at SoundWaves and in the First Presbyterian Church in the coming months.

—Mike Harter, Chair, Board of Directors

We open a celebratory, anniversary season with capacity restrictions, vaccination and mask requirements, and other limitations.  Some of our patrons welcome these policies as safety precautions, while others see them as freedom intrusions. No matter what we decide, and how we proceed, we will not please everyone. I think we mutually long for a return to live, exciting concerts, free of limitations and other distractions. How soon we get to that point is anyone’s guess.

In the past year-plus, the Hilton Head Symphony Orchestra has addressed the larger social issues of racial and economic inequality. (Please see our statement here.) We have begun a process for more inclusive programming, hiring, and welcoming. We have also worked toward greater fiscal stability and organizational transparency. But why does any of this matter?

Like many other performing arts organizations, the HHSO is coming to grips with issues surrounding its long-term viability. As a non-profit, the HHSO enjoys accommodations, such as relief from some business taxes and regulations, as well as access to public and private support. These benefits also mean that some who provide funds expect us to fulfill a role of service to the community—the entire community. But we do not pursue these efforts because of an obligation to receive funding; we do so because it is ingrained in the HHSO’s mission, and in our desire to be a resource and source of pride for everyone in the Lowcountry.

In addition to programming lesser-known works by overlooked composers—works that we hope will be added to the category of “masterworks,” simply through increased exposure—we continue to work to launch a monthly Gullah Cultural Series, featuring music, storytelling, visual art, and other traditions, with performances at SoundWaves and at Gullah community centers as well as in area elementary schools. Watch for this new series in 2022. Our new Supper Club (an idea Steve Steele from the series sponsor, Coastal Home, presented) has sold out its first two monthly offerings and we look forward to announcing future programs and restaurant partners.

We are teaming with the Sphinx organization to identify highly qualified musicians of color to be considered for open positions within our Orchestra. And we are working with several other organizations to promote administrative vacancies to a broader range of candidates.

Speaking of vacancies, several HHSO positions were vacated and left vacant during the pandemic. Now that we are returning to traditional programming, we need to find new people who can help us, specifically in development, marketing, and patron relations.  If you know someone who might be qualified and interested in joining the HHSO team, please encourage them to contact us.

It is our deepest hope that our patrons feel the rewards of the return to live, in-person orchestral performances will outweigh the added inconveniences we must all endure until we can view the pandemic in the rearview mirror (and watch it fade into history!). A previous orchestra with whom I was employed came up with the tagline, “let the music take you there.” That phrase seems very fitting these days, and our aspiration, as we enter the 2021-2022 season, is that the HHSO’s music will take you to a better place.

—Alan Jordan, HHSO President and CEO

The weather is starting to break, and the excitement in the air outside (and inside) SoundWaves couldn’t be more palpable. With the heightened anticipation of opening our 40th subscription and Maestro John Morris Russell’s 10th season with us, everyone is ready for the return to a modicum of normalcy.

Last month to great fanfare, we inaugurated to a sold-out room of patrons a new series at SoundWaves titled Coastal Home Supper Club. This dinner and cabaret evening series began with two of our favorite artists from the pre-pandemic Savannah Theatre Cabaret Series: multitalented vocalist, Gretchen Kristine Stelzer and pianist/singer, Kenny Munshaw. With their Yacht Rock themed program, they rocked the night away and reset expectations for future live music events at SoundWaves. Food provided by Coligny restaurant The SandBar Eats highlighted the evening of food, music, and fun. Announcing from the microphone the October Supper Club Motown theme, Gretchen invigorated patrons to call in for tickets so that the October event, too, sold out in short order. This one was catered by our good neighbors, RockFish Seafood and Steaks.

Looking ahead to the rest of the calendar year, Gretchen and Kenny have made plans for a November 21st Piano Icons program featuring dueling pianists Kenny Munshaw and Sterlin Colvin, and saxophonist Danielle Walker, covering music of Billy Joel, Ray Charles, Stevie Wonder, Lord Elton John and others. They’ll follow-up with a fun holiday feature on December 19th titled Santa Baby.

With special thanks to Steve and Heidi of series sponsor Coastal Home for the inspiration and support of this series, we are set for more and more exciting programs heading in 2022.

Other news from SoundWaves includes the return of guests from our community. The newest community partner to experience SoundWaves is Lifelong Learning of Hilton Head Island which is hosting five learning programs at SoundWaves during October and November. Our community space is indeed continuing to make an impact.

Of course, we are reviving several other series including International Piano Competition recitals, which started in October with Henry Kramer performing a complete program of American works and with competition winner Chang Yong Shin coming to SoundWaves November 1st. Be on the lookout for the return of our jazz series and other events that are in development, including several holiday programs.

After a long overdue layoff, I invite you to once again tell your friends about our cozy home.

I’ll see you at SoundWaves!

—Mario Incorvaia, HHSO Chief Operating Officer

When folks ask me what has been the biggest take away from the last season, it’s both how much I have missed performing for PEOPLE, and a renewed devotedness to the NOW. I’ve had the time to think long and hard about the role of our orchestra in the new “normal” where change is constant and human connection has become one of our greatest challenges. How do great masterworks of the past bring us relevancy today? Are we missing something in a sound world where many are comfortable, but miss important voices that speak to parts of our consciousness that have never been reached? Our HHSO programming intends to speak to these questions, as our society embraces equity in all walks of life and reveals ideas, passions, beauty, and music that have been obscured by “traditions” of the past. I believe this is a thrilling time for our orchestral world: an opportunity to discover extraordinary new music and reexamine classics that express fundamental truths we can all share together.

We begin the season with Beethoven, whose 250th birthday celebration the entire world had planned was all but quashed by the pandemic. Instead of pulling out a single magnum opus, I thought it would be interesting to begin with his very first symphony, with all the innocent and bright-eyed vigor that, looking back a couple years, we all possessed before COVID. This is in stark contrast with his Leonore Overture No. 3 that concludes the program—one of FOUR tries at an overture for his only opera, which had a dismal premiere in war-torn Vienna, composed when the full realization of his impending deafness had hit home. The opera itself is about darkness and light—captivity and freedom—concepts that have recently become exceedingly real to all of us.

The hammer-blow of the opening chord feels like the moment we all realized the world was shutting down; the two trumpet fanfares, like two vaccine shots. Surrounded by a whirlwind of both despair and hope, this overture expresses to me the emotions so many of us continue to experience together. And yet, the brilliantly ebullient conclusion of this overture belies the extraordinary struggles that surely consumed Beethoven when he wrote it. Can we learn from his example and find that same inner courage through his music?

The Black, American composer, Florence Price, also faced ridiculous challenges in her life, as she struggled just to share the music within her heart. And yet we listen to her music now, and all we hear is virtuosity, soulful beauty, and brilliance. How is it that her works could lie fallow for so long? We all know the answer—the performance canon of orchestral works has excluded too many voices because of race, gender, age, and nationality. Music is often described as the universal language—but language is a two-way street. We must rededicate ourselves to expressing voices that open doors, both physically and metaphorically, and bring pleasure to all. This includes composers who are creating music in the present tense. Our orchestral vocabulary has never been as broad and diverse as it is now, and artists are using it to bring fresh perspective to the world through their musical art. It’s what composers have ALWAYS done. The Mary Watkins work, Soul of Remembrance, is one of these pieces—its peaceful and reflective sonorities rest at the fulcrum of past and present, in the shadow of the headlines that perpetually shout at us. Likewise, on the same program is the “Reformation” Symphony, where Mendelssohn uses the hymn tune, “A Mighty Fortress Is Our God,” to express both the spiritual and humanitarian awakening of the Reformation three hundred years prior, and the power of faith, hope, and grace that gives us strength today.  I look forward to opening doors and conversations, and sharing meaningful musical experiences together, as I enter my next chapter with the HHSO and our beloved Lowcountry.

—John Morris Russell, HHSO Music Director

The HHSO affirms that all races are equal. We intentionally and systematically support HHSO policies and practices in our organization that promote opportunities for full advancement of African-Americans and other marginalized groups that have been denied equal access and opportunity. Our local situation gives good historical example of the possibility for transformative change. That example is Mitchelville, one of our Lowcountry’s treasures. It was a bold and brave experiment of 1861, before the Emancipation Proclamation, in which formerly enslaved people were granted land and provisions to build homes and to establish a working town that was self-governing. The HHSO recognizes that self-governance and mastery depend on equal opportunity.

So, we seize the current adverse racial situation as our opportunity to become a positive change agent that will actively pursue diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging in all of our policies, programs, staff, committees, and Board.

The HHSO recognizes that racial inequity is systemic throughout our society. The HHSO therefore will examine its operations to address any racial inequality in our organization. We will work to eradicate any such adverse influence and to ensure that racial equality is integral to our mission and to implementation of our administrative and programming activities. We commit to all processes that will help us achieve our racial equity goal. We are committed to a racially inclusive approach in all that we do because we respect and value diverse racial heritages and know that hearing diverse voices will enrich what we have to offer.

Programs and Musicians: We shall schedule more performances of orchestral music by composers of color. We will be conscientious in recruitment, hiring, and advancement of musicians of color for all standard programs and competitions.

Staff:We will be deliberate in our effort to attract racially diverse staff in our recruitment and hiring activities and commit to providing equitable advancement opportunities for them.

Board of Directors:The HHSO Board pledges to seek increased representation of racially diverse directors and actively encourage opportunity for their Board leadership.

We respect diverse life experiences and work to ensure that all voices are heard and valued, and commit to creating a more comprehensive action plan that addresses diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging for all marginalized groups.

Adopted August 12, 2020