Experience the SC Philharmonic's "Andy & Friends!" on February 11, as pianist Andy Armstrong welcomes Orion Weiss (piano) and Grace Park (violin). Don't miss this captivating evening of world-class chamber music.
Ticket Price Information:
*Student, senior (over age 60), or military personnel will receive a $5 discount on signature series shows at check out.
Bundled discounts are available when you purchase tickets for three or more shows at a time. Please contact the Box Office at 803.407.5011 for more details.
About The Artists
Andy Armstrong
Praised by critics for his passionate expression and dazzling technique, pianist Andrew Armstrong has delighted audiences across Asia, Europe, Latin America, Canada, and the United States, including performances at Alice Tully Hall, Carnegie Hall, the Kennedy Center, London’s Wigmore Hall, the Grand Hall of the Moscow Conservatory, and Warsaw’s National Philharmonic.
Andrew’s orchestral engagements across the globe have encompassed a vast repertoire of more than 60 concertos with orchestra. He has performed with such conductors as Peter Oundjian, Itzhak Perlman, Günther Herbig, Stefan Sanderling, Jean-Marie Zeitouni, and Stanislaw Skrowaczewski, and has appeared in solo recitals and in chamber music concerts with the Ehnes, Elias, Alexander, American, and Manhattan String Quartets, and at chamber music festivals around the country.
This 2024-25 season, Andrew will perform Bach’s Brandenburg Concerto No. 5 with the Manitoba Chamber Orchestra in Winnipeg and Rachmaninov’s 2nd Piano Concerto with the Waterbury Symphony in Connecticut.
Andrew’s 2023-24 season included solo recitals in Glasgow, Scotland and in Norwich, England; concerts with the Barbican String Quartet in the UK & EU; violin recitals with James Ehnes at London’s Wigmore Hall and at Ann Arbor’s University of Michigan; Chamber Music in Halifax, NS & Portland, ME; Beethoven’s Emperor Concerto with the South Carolina Philharmonic; release of Andrew’s solo album featuring Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue, Julia Perry, William Grant Still, and Aaron Jay Kernis; and a new recording session for the album “Home-Away-Home.”
The last few seasons have taken Andy throughout Europe with performances in Glasgow at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, London at Wigmore Hall, Geneva at the Conservatoire de Musique de Geneve and at the Dresden Music Festival. He crisscrossed Canada with concerts in Halifax, Nova Scotia at the Scotia Fest, Montreal at the Festival Musique de Chambre and Vancouver at the Vancouver Chamber Music Society. And after joining James Ehnes to perform the complete Beethoven Violin Sonata cycle within Melbourne, Australia as well as a duo recital in Sydney, Andy stopped by Singapore for a solo recital.
In addition to his performance activities, Andrew serves as Artistic Director of two flourishing series in South Carolina—USC Beaufort’s Chamber Music Series and Columbia’s Andy & Friends, presented by the SC Philharmonic. In 2020, Andrew founded New Canaan Chamber Music in New Canaan, CT – he serves as Artistic Director of the thriving new series now entering its fourth season. And since 2023, he directs Fabbri Chamber Concerts in New York City at the Fabbri Mansion, a 1609 Italian Renaissance Library that seats 80, and was brought across the ocean and installed on the Upper East Side. In Wisconsin, from 2017 through 2021, Andrew was Director of the Chamber Music Institute at Wisconsin’s Green Lake Festival of Music.
Andrew’s debut solo CD featuring was released to great critical acclaim: “I have heard few pianists play [Rachmaninoff’s Second Piano Sonata], recorded or in concert, with such dazzling clarity and confidence” (American Record Guide). He followed that success with a disc on Cordelia Records of works by Chopin, Liszt, Debussy, and the world premiere recording of Bielawa’s Wait for piano & drone. He has released several award-winning recordings with his longtime recital partner James Ehnes—most recently Beethoven’s Sonatas Nos. 7 & 10, to stellar reviews.
In addition to his many concerts, his performances are heard regularly on National Public Radio, WQXR, New York City’s premier classical music station, and stations across the country.
Finally, Andrew launches two new chamber music series this 24-25 season. In Greenville, SC, Sigal Music Museum presents Andy & Friends will present evening performances as well as daytime workshops and masterclasses at the remarkable public arts high school, the Fine Arts Center. And the inaugural season of Andrew’s new chamber series, A Little Night Music at Tuckerman Hall in Worcester, MA is especially close to his heart, since this city is where Andrew Armstrong lives happily with his wife Esty, their three children Jack (18), Elise (13), and Gabriel (7), and their two dogs Comet and Dooker.
Orion Weiss
One of the most sought-after soloists and chamber music collaborators of his generation, Orion Weiss is widely regarded as a “brilliant pianist” (The New York Times) with “powerful technique and exceptional insight” (The Washington Post). With a warmth to his playing that outwardly reflects his engaging personality, Weiss has dazzled audiences with his passionate, lush sound and performed with dozens of orchestras in North America including the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Boston Symphony Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, and New York Philharmonic.
Highlights of Weiss’s 2023/2024 season include concerts with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, led by conductor Michael Tilson Thomas, and with the National Symphony Orchestra, led by Ken-David Masur – both featuring programs of Mozart and Brahms. In concerts at the Kennedy Center, as well as Toronto’s Royal Conservatory of Music and at Charlottesville, Virginia’s Cabell Hall, Weiss performs alongside violinist Augustin Hadelich. He also appears in a May 2024 performance at Carnegie Hall. Other appearances this season include engagements at the Schubert Club, the Chamber Music Society of Fort Worth, Hong Kong Premiere Performances, Seattle Chamber Music Festival, Northwestern University, Chamber Music in Oklahoma, a West Coast tour with violinist James Ehnes and numerous concerto appearances with orchestras across the country. He also mentors and performs with students during a weeklong residency at the Colburn School in Los Angeles.
Recent seasons have seen Weiss in performances for the Lucerne Festival, the Denver Friends of Chamber Music, the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, the Kennedy Center’s Fortas Series, and the 92nd Street Y, and at summer music festivals including Aspen, Bard, Ravinia, Seattle, and Grand Teton, among others. Highlights also include his third performance with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, a live-stream with the Minnesota Orchestra, a performance of Beethoven's Triple Concerto with the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, the release of his recording of Christopher Rouse’s Seeing, the first two installments of his critically acclaimed Arc recital trilogy, a recording of Korngold’s Left Hand concerto and other works with Leon Botstein and TON, and recordings of Gershwin’s complete works for piano and orchestra with the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra and JoAnn Falletta.
Known for his affinity for chamber music, Weiss performs regularly with Hadelich, as well as fellow violinists William Hagen and James Ehnes; pianists Michael Brown and Shai Wosner; cellist Julie Albers; and the Ariel, Parker, and Pacifica Quartets. As a recitalist and chamber musician, Weiss has appeared across the United States at venues and festivals including Sheldon Concert Hall, the Broad Stage, Seattle Chamber Music Festival, La Jolla Music Society SummerFest, the Schubert Club, Chamber Music Northwest, Bridgehampton Chamber Music Festival, Spivey Hall, and many more.
In the summer of 2011, Weiss made his debut with the Boston Symphony Orchestra at Tanglewood as a last-minute replacement for Leon Fleisher. In recent seasons, he has also performed with the San Francisco Primo Artists · 244 Fifth Avenue, Suite B222 · New York, NY 10001 · 212.804.8301 · www.primoartists.com Symphony, Philadelphia Orchestra, Pittsburgh Symphony, Toronto Symphony Orchestra, National Arts Centre Orchestra, and Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, and in duo summer concerts with the New York Philharmonic at both Lincoln Center and the Bravo! Vail Valley Festival. In 2005, he toured Israel with the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Itzhak Perlman.
Weiss can be heard on the Naxos, Telos, Bridge, First Hand, Yarlung, and Artek labels in recordings such as The Piano Protagonists with The Orchestra Now, led by Leon Botstein; Scarlatti’s Complete Keyboard Sonatas; a disc of Bartók, Dvorák, and Prokofiev; Brahms Sonatas with violinist Arnaud Sussmann; a solo album of J.S. Bach, Scriabin, Mozart, and Carter; and a recital disc of Rachmaninoff, Beethoven, Schumann, Massenet, and Piatigorsky with cellist Julie Albers. In March 2022, First Hand Records released the first album of Weiss’s Arc Trilogy – Arc I: Granados, Janáček, Scriabin – a recording exploring the omens and tension of the period preceding World War I. Gramophone Magazine praised the album as “expansive, colourful, and texturally varied.” Arc II, featuring the music of Ravel, Brahms, and Shostakovich, was released in November 2022. Over recent years, Weiss has also raised his profile through video, assembling a broad and growing YouTube videography that includes the Goldberg variations, the Op. 39 Rachmaninoff etudes, and Grieg’s Lyric Pieces, among many others.
Weiss’s impressive list of awards includes the Classical Recording Foundation’s Young Artist of the Year, Gilmore Young Artist Award, an Avery Fisher Career Grant, the Gina Bachauer Scholarship at The Juilliard School, and the Mieczyslaw Munz Scholarship. He won the 2005 William Petschek Recital Award at Juilliard and made his New York recital debut at Alice Tully Hall that April. Also in 2005, Weiss made his European debut in a recital at the Musée du Louvre in Paris. From 2002-2004, he was a member of Lincoln Center’s The Bowers Program (formerly CMS Two), which included his performance of Ravel’s La Valse with Shai Wosner in the opening concert of the Society’s 2002-2003 season at Alice Tully Hall.
A native of Lyndhurst, Ohio, Weiss attended the Cleveland Institute of Music, where he studied with Paul Schenly, Daniel Shapiro, Sergei Babayan, Kathryn Brown, and Edith Reed. In February 1999, Weiss made his Cleveland Orchestra debut performing Liszt’s Piano Concerto No. 1. The next month, with less than 24 hours’ notice, Weiss stepped in to replace André Watts for a performance of Shostakovich’s Piano Concerto No. 2 with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra and was immediately invited to return for a performance of the Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto in that October. In 2004, he graduated from the Juilliard School, where he studied with Emanuel Ax. Learn more www.orionweiss.com.
Grace Park
Praised by the San Francisco Chronicle as being “fresh, different and exhilarating” and Strings Magazine as “intensely wrought and burnished “, violinist Grace Park captivates audiences with her artistry, passion and virtuosity. Winner of the Naumburg International Violin Competition, she showcases her artistry as a dynamic soloist and dedicated chamber musician.
Ms. Park has appeared as soloist, recitalist, and chamber musician throughout the United States, Europe, Asia, and Canada at venues such as Walt Disney Hall, The Kennedy Center, The Rudolfinum in Prague, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Jordan Hall and Rockefeller University. Most recent debuts include recital debut at Carnegie Hall and concerto debuts with Prague Philharmonia, Colorado Symphony and Orchestra NOW at the Bard Festival. She has performed in festivals such as Music @ Menlo, IMS Prussia Cove, Festival Mozaic, Yellowbarn, and Chamber Music Society of Palm Beach where she has performed with many of today's celebrated artists.
Ms. Park recently recorded her debut album of works of Mozart and Dvorak with Prague Philharmonia and their music director, Emmanuel Villaume, which is set to be released the Spring of 2024.
A devoted and passionate educator, Ms. Park is an alumnus of Carnegie Hall’s Ensemble Connect and has taught masterclasses and coached at Conservatorio de Musica de Cartagena, Mannes School of Music, University of North Carolina, Washington and Lee University, North Dakota State University, Skidmore College, among others.
As a native to Los Angeles, California, Ms. Park began violin at the age of 5 where she trained at the Colburn School of Music. She continued her studies at Colburn Conservatory and New England Conservatory for her Bachelor and Master of Music degrees. Principal teachers are Donald Weilerstein, Miriam Fried, Sylvia Rosenberg, and Robert Lipsett. She now resides in New York City.
She performs on a 1717 Giuseppe Filius Andrea Guarneri on loan from an anonymous sponsor.