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00000177-2120-db48-a97f-fb222fe30000 South Carolina Public Radio brings you coverage of Spoleto Festival USA in Charleston, SC, May 27 through June 12, with reports throughout the day on the artists, events, and organizers of both Spoleto and Piccolo Spoleto.Listen to Performance Today and Sonatas and Soundscapes each week day for previews of upcoming performances and guest interviews.Spoleto Coverage Archive

Spoleto Festival USA, Opened Friday, in Full Swing

During the opening ceremony for Spoleto Festival USA, Charleston, SC,  the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Company perform an excerpt from “D-Man in the Water.”
Alexander Olgin/SC Public Radio

The 40th Spoleto Festival U.S.A. is in full swing. The music and arts festival opened Friday and runs through the middle of June. In his speech opening the event, Charleston Mayor John Tecklenburg says Spoleto holds a special place for him because he grew up going.

“I was like a little kid in a candy store. I was a chemistry major, but I loved music and played the piano. Every day deciding what event we were going to go to. It was just terrific.”

In his first opening address at the Spoleto Festival U.S.A. on Friday, Charleston Mayor John Tecklenburg recognized his predecessor who helped bring the event to the city 40 years ago. Tecklenburg attributed the success of the arts in Charleston to former Mayor Joe Riley and festival founder and Italian composer Gian Carlo Menotti.

“We know that our city’s great flowering of arts and culture, of civic pride and progress. In short our modern renaissance could never have happened without them.”

Menotti had established a arts and music festival in Italy in 1958. In 1977 he chose Charleston as the city for his American counterpart festival. Spoleto Festival U.S.A. runs through mid-June.