USC School of Music kicks off centennial celebration with historic performance

Music blared outside the Copenhaver Band Hall as the sun set on a recent Wednesday evening. 

Damian Bertrand, a clarinet player in the Carolina Band, said he feels “extremely lucky” to be one of more than 500 musicians kicking off a historic year of music. 

“There’s just so much joy, pride and reward in having the opportunity to be a part of a performance like this,” Bertrand said. “We want to show people that we mean business.” 

This year marks the University of South Carolina School of Music’s 100th birthday. The festivities will start with a special performance featuring the school’s nine largest student ensembles Sept. 13 at the neighboring Koger Center for the Arts. 

Nate Terracio, the center’s director, described large-scale musical performances such as this one as a “powerful experience”.

“It really taps into something inside us and it creates a sense of community,” Terracio said. “We all react to different types of music differently, but music on a large scale like this has the power to really touch people emotionally.” 

The theme of the season of celebration is “Sing Thy High Praise,” a reference to the first line of the USC Alma Mater. 

Tayloe Harding, the school’s dean, said the title honors the school’s way of building a community with the greater university and the public by singing together. 

USC students have free access to the event with their student ID. Terracio said the Koger Center prioritizes free student admission – even if there’s a price tag for the other members of the community.

“This is a great way to support the University of South Carolina, when you can come out and get in the audience for these events because just like student athletes, the student musicians work very hard,” Terracio said. “And they appreciate people being there live in person.” 

The School of Music fosters relationships with the greater Columbia community in more ways than just putting on performances. 

They include hands-on opportunities for community music making and listening, offered under a program called Music For Your Life.

People of all ages can perform, study and be part of a musical ecosystem where they can develop friendships and colleagues. 

The school is nationally recognized for those efforts. And it prioritizes teaching students how to be musical leaders in their community, Harding said.

“I think that’s what distinguishes us as a national music school,” Harding said. “We do more than any school of music at a public institution in America to help build community music-making around the resources of the music school and our 60 faculty and 500 students.” 

The school has worked for 15 months to put the year-long celebration together, Harding said, and the energy can be felt throughout the building. 

“It’s very exciting,” he said. “Kids are coming up to me in the hallway talking about how excited they are to be doing these concerts.” 

Students, alumni and faculty members will be traveling to places including New York, Los Angeles and Europe to perform. 

“We want to make sure alumni and faculty still feel a part of the music-making community at Carolina,” Harding said.  “So part of what we’re doing with the students and faculty today is connecting them to their (alumni) predecessors so that we can all celebrate 100 years of the history of music on campus together.” 

The September performances will begin with offerings from The Palmetto Pans Steel Drum Band and the students in the Music Industry Studies program on the outdoor plaza stage.

“This is a real opportunity for people to become excited, be in the same space as the musicians and get a firsthand experience of how impactful music can be when you hear it performed live,” Terracio said. 

The performances will highlight a variety of musical genres, such as jazz, opera, symphony orchestra and wind ensemble.

“If someone has not heard of any of these bands or choirs, they’re in for a very special treat,” band member Bertrand said. “They are as professional as it gets, and they bring so much to the table.”

Terracio hopes the event will open people’s eyes to the high quality of talent the students have and that they will learn something new.

“I think people don’t realize we have programs like jazz or opera,” he said. “So I hope this gives people an opportunity to meet our students, recognize their talents and want to see them perform again.”

It wasn’t until 1994 that the music program became a stand-alone college with its own dean. But USC has fostered a music program for a century.

Harding said just a handful of other universities have taken this initiative.

“It’s a part of our vision to be the nation’s model public music school,” Harding said. 

Harding thinks the college is on the road to a future that’s even more “vibrant and celebratory than its 100-year past.”

He said everyone involved is very proud. 

“The fact that I have been able to work with my colleagues and students to pull a celebration like this off serves me such a feeling of immense pride and joy, probably more than anything that I’ve ever done in my life,” Harding said.