Spoleto Festival USA has deep family ties for violinist Livia Sohn.
Sohn’s late husband, Geoff Nuttall, 56, a violinist, curator and former chamber music director, first introduced her to the festival before they married. Sohn had not even taken the stage yet — she came to support her partner. The couple kept coming back to Spoleto for more than 20 years.
This season, Sohn honors her late husband’s legacy with a concerto performance during the Spoleto Orchestra’s Mahler Symphony No.1 program.
“We shared so much of playing and performing and listening and attending concerts, all of us together. It was impossible to separate anything I played with some memory of him,” Sohn said. “That was beautiful but also difficult. This is really a breakthrough in that cycle for me — like this bright light.”
Current Chamber Music Director Paul Wiancko will present his first-ever concerto during the performance on Thursday, June 4 at the Gaillard Center. The program marks the orchestra’s largest festival program.
Wiancko co-commissioned “Agrifolia” at Nuttall’s request before he died. The Spoleto performance will be the fifth presentation of the piece. Sohn will be the only soloist performing the concerto onstage. A full string orchestra and percussion section will join her.
Sohn has performed “Agrifolia” three times before with the Rogue Valley Symphony Orchestra in Oregon. As a chamber music regular, Sohn said the piece feels like an expansion of chamber music in the way it was written.
“The whole vibe of Spoleto, which is so community-based, is the essence of chamber music really,” Sohn said. “I mean, chamber music is born of literally getting together with your friends and playing in a room, in a chamber.”
The concerto is a celebration of legacy and friendship. Nuttall served as chamber music director for 13 years before passing the torch to Wiancko. Sohn met Wiancko through her husband. The two continue to perform together regularly in chamber music programming. Offstage, they share meals and discuss music drafts.
Sohn said she did not originally know about Nuttall’s request for the concerto. Now, she’s grateful for Wiancko, not only as a colleague, but as a close friend, for crafting this piece with Nuttall and herself in mind.
The concerto is not the only piece on the docket for the orchestra. The programming includes three pieces, anchored by the Mahler piece, Symphony No. 1 in D Major, op. “Titan.”
Spoleto Orchestra Director Tim Myers describes the performance as part of the orchestra’s legacy repertoire.
“We want to create these environments, not just for the orchestra, but even for the audience, where we’re on a journey together,” Myers said.
The performance begins with Paola Prestini’s 10-minute piece, “My Brilliant Friend: Those Who Leave and Those Who Stay,” based on the novel by Elena Ferrante.
Spoleto audiences will be reintroduced to Prestini’s composition with this piece. This is Prestini’s first major composition with the orchestra in the past few years.
Wiancko will present “Afrigolia” in the middle of the programming. Before he died from pancreatic cancer in 2022, Nuttall commissioned Wiancko to write a violin concerto for his wife. Geoff was known for cultivating young classical composers, including cellist Wiancko. Eventually, Wiancko took over running the Spoleto Chamber Music program.
“One of the greatest things about working with living composers is they can be there, and they can really help you understand exactly what was in their mind,” Myers said. “With Mozart, we can’t do that.”
The orchestra, built of early performers from all over the world, will conclude with “Titan.” Myers said “Titan” is a large-scale piece — a moment the orchestra has built up for over the entire festival.
The orchestra performers are selected from all over the world. Myers hosted eight live auditions as well as hundreds of virtual applications to find his orchestra. Out of the 700 applicants, about 100 were hired to create this “elite” group of musicians.
In his third year as director, Myers said the most satisfying part of his role is passing his skills onto the next generation.
“This is a craft,” Myers said. “Helping establish them as the next generation who carries this craft forward is exciting and deeply meaningful.”
For Sohn, what stands out most about these performances is the community. Her chamber music friends will all be in attendance to support her concerto performance. She said she has found freedom in learning the piece, despite expecting it to be another hurdle to overcome.
“It’s a gift in many ways,” Sohn said.
IF YOU WANT TO GO:
Mahler Symphony No. 1 by the Spoleto Orchestra is on Thursday, June 4 at 7:00 p.m at the Gaillard Center. Tickets start at $57.
Remi Turner is a magazine, news and digital journalism graduate of the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University.
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