A little bit of news

 S.C. Philharmonic snags NEA grant for new two-piano concerto

The S.C. Philharmonic has received a $10,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Arts to commission and premiere a two-piano concerto by composer John Fitz Rogers of Columbia. The commission was announced at the last Philharmonic concert, but the award was just made public today.

The piece will be premiered in November by the Philharmonic and pianists Marina Lomazov and Joseph Rackers of Columbia. The Philharmonic is working toward having the piece performed by other orchestras around the country

Rogers, Lomazov and Rackers all teach at the USC School of Music.

New executive director 

at Workshop Theatre

Take a look at my story about Joe Reuter, new executive director of Workshop Theatre in today's Free Times on paper in the purple boxes of online at http://www.free-times.com

Former cartoonist for The State wins big 

Editorial cartoonist Robert Ariail, who departed The State newspaper in March, has won first place in the  Ranan Lurie U.N. Political Cartoon Award. This is the first time the $10,000 award, started 10 years ago, has been awarded to an American cartoonist.

He won for a cartoon, done when he was still at The State, about gas prices.  Elie Wiesel headed the judging committee, which included the crown prince of Serbia and actor Jeff Bridges.
You can see the award-winning piece and his other work at http://robertariail.com/