As you know, if you have been reading my blog for a while, one of the perks of life on St Simons Island is the spring concerts. This year was no exception and we went to six different concerts in a six week period.
The first four spring concerts were part of the February Festival sponsored by the Island Concert Association. These concerts are held at the St Simons Presbyterian Church on Tuesday nights during February. As I mentioned in a previous post about this series, it is always packed. The concerts start at 7:30, but by 7:10 it is usually standing room only. We try to get there when the doors open at 6:45 because otherwise we can’t see the performers.
This year the spring concerts were wonderful, as always. We especially enjoyed the string quartet that started off the series. They were called “The Formosa Quartet” so I expected them to be from Taiwan. Although they met while artist faculty at the Formosa Chamber Music Festival in Taiwan, they are all from the United States. The quartet played “String Quartet in E-flat Major” by Joseph Haydn and it was spectacular! But they also played some modern music and some experimental music.
The other concerts in the series were good, but not as good as the first one. One concert was the Davin-Levin Duo of a harpist and guitarist. An interesting combination. You can hear some of their music here. Aimee Toner, a flutist, and Jung Hyun Kim, a pianist, gave a very good performance. I especially liked Aimee playing the Bass Flute. Not something you see every day. The last concert was a local soprano who was best because her songs were short.
Besides the February Festival, we also attended two spring concerts given by University Chorales. Not only is St Simons a great place to come for spring break, it is also a great place for University Choirs to tour for spring break. The first concert was by the University Chorale of Cornerstone University in Michigan. Their concert was excellent. They are an a capella choir and did a beautiful job of blending voices and styles of music.
The second choral group was from Carson Newman University and they sang before and during the noon Ash Wednesday Service at St Simons United Methodist Church. I especially liked their version of Chris Tomlin’s song, “Is He Worthy?” After the service, the choir joined the congregation for a soup and sandwich lunch. They sang a thank you song for lunch.
All the spring concerts on St Simons Island have been fun and very well attended. They were all high quality and entertaining. Best of all – they are free!