The Score | Sweet Land of Liberty

South Carolina’s Hilton Head Symphony Orchestra, serving the coastal southern tip of the state, saluted its local Gullah people, descendants of slaves from West Africa, with a pair of February concerts dubbed “Lowcountry Pops—A Gullah Celebration.” Joining the orchestra under Music Director John Morris Russell were the HHSO Chorus, the Savannah Children’s Choir from nearby Georgia, the Hilton Head Dance Theatre, local TV celebrity Natalie Daise, and soprano Kisma Jordan. Daise narrated the traditional Gullah story “The People Could Fly” and “Isaiah an’ de Gatah,” an adaptation of Prokofiev’s Peter and the Wolf rendered in the Gullahs’ own creole language. Vocal selections ranged from “Ride on King Jesus” to “My Country ’Tis of Thee.”