Donald Portnoy, conductor and musical director of the USC Symphony, says symphonic music is around us all the time.
We just don t realize it.
When you go to the movies, you see (the music is) written by composers, Portnoy said.
The music changes moods.
Jennifer and Patrick Patch Renegar are about to switch the mood of their social life. They plan to attend the S.
C. Philharmonic s Symphonic Movie Spectacular concert at the Koger Center on May 1 with music writer Otis Taylor.
I don t know what my wife has gotten me into, said Patch, 37.
I m pretty excited. It s neat to be surprised.
The Renegars, who listen to bands such as Nickelback, Rascal Flatts, Daughtry and Kenny Chesney, have two children and don t get out to many events.
And Jennifer, 38, who calls her husband a meat-and-potatoes guy, wanted to get Patch a little sophistication.
I think it ll be exciting for him because he doesn t get to do anything like this, she said.
Like many parts of Columbia s arts scene, classical music developed through small cultural organizations and USC.
The S.C. Philharmonic began its life as the Columbia Festival Orchestra in 1963 and for 25 years was conducted by USC faculty members.
In 1972, what was then called the Columbia Philharmonic hired its own conductor, Einer Anderson.
During his decade at the podium, Anderson, who also was a medical doctor, took the orchestra to professional status. It was renamed the S.
C. Philharmonic.
Nicholas Smith became the first full-time music director in 1991 and also was the first not based in Columbia.
Smith has expanded the concert season and the variety of music played and hired more experienced musicans. He will conduct for the final time during the arts festival; a new music director will be hired next year.
The USC Symphony, conducted by Donald Portnoy, is composed of USC students and often brings in guest soloists.
During the arts festival, both orchestras will lean more than usual toward modern, listener-friendly pops programs as opposed to music by iconic classical composers like Mozart, Beethoven or Mahler.
The S.C.
Philhamonic will play the music of John Williams in Symphonic Movie Spectacular on May 1 in celebration of the 30th anniversary of Star Wars. Williams wrote that soundtrack along with music for E.T, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Jaws and many more.
The USC Symphony also is going to the movies. Composer Marvin Hamlisch, who wrote music for The Way We Were, The Spy Who Loved Me and Ordinary People, will be guest artist at its April 30 Koger Center concert.
Columbia also has several singing groups, including the Palmetto Mastersingers, the Arpad Darazs Singers and the Sandlapper Singers.
Only the Mastersingers are performing during the festival. Like the orchestras, they are going with pops sounds with an all- beach-music program May 3.
The Sterling Chamber Players are presenting a children s performance May 2.
Other musical offerings in Columbia include the long-running Baker and Baker series at the Columbia Museum of Art and the Southern Exposure new music series at USC.
The only real classical music taking place during the festival isn t officially part of the festival. Charles Wadsworth, who runs the chamber music program at the Spoleto Festival USA in Charleston, will have one of his concerts at the Columbia Museum of Art on May 1.
But Spoleto won t allow it to be billed as part of the Columbia Festival of the Arts.
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