The Score | Symphony at the Park

Parks continue to be popular destinations for music-lovers eager to hear their hometown orchestras in live performance. On April 28, the Hilton Head Symphony Orchestra presented an outdoor pops concert for a socially distanced audience of more than 400 people at the recently opened Lowcountry Celebration Park at Coligny in Hilton Head Island, South Carolina. Music Director John Morris Russell led physically distanced HHSO musicians in the “Symphony Celebration!” concert, which featured music by George Gershwin, Dizzy Gillespie, Scott Joplin, and Astor Piazzolla; performers included vocalist Kimberly Hawkey, pianist Assaf Gleizner, and saxophonist Daniel Dickinson. The concert had many of the hallmarks we’ve come to expect at events during the pandemic: no intermission, audience members seated on the lawn individually and in “pods,” masks required when not within one’s own pod, hand-sanitizing stations, and guests bringing picnics and sitting in their own lawn chairs. Symphony CEO Alan Jordan described the event as a “great success. We know people are eager to gather and enjoy live music again, and we will make that possible in a safe and responsible way.”