Piccolo Spoleto

May 23, 2006: Amy Riley introduced Ellen Dressler-Moryl, who was the first Director of Cultural Affairs of the City of Charleston. She shared information about the upcoming events, especially the Piccolo Spoleto Festival. Piccolo Spoleto was established to give access to local citizens who could not afford or would not otherwise attend Spoleto Events. Since its inception in 1977, Piccolo Spoleto has grown to 700 events and has a budget of $1.1 million. While its budget is less than the Spoleto’s budget of $7 million, it provides a real impact on citizens in the local area. Even with the much smaller budget, Piccolo Spoleto accounts for almost half or $31 million of the $67 million economic impact from the Spoleto each year.

Piccolo Spoleto’s events range from free puppet shows to concerts by the Charleston Symphony Orchestra with admission fees. It serves a broad rang of individuals and diverse groups in the community. Most importantly, it provides opportunities for local artists to participate and develops a “love of the arts” with the residents.

A very important part of Piccolo Spoleto is the Charleston Symphony Orchestra. David Stahl, Director of CSO, shared many of the things the CSO does year round, not just during Spoleto, in its vital role of promotion of the arts in Charleston. According to David, “Art is at the heart of any great city.” With that being said, we are very fortunate to have the Charleston Symphony Orchestra as one of the best of its type which contributes immeasurable to art and our great city.

We also heard from Scott who recently became the Resident Conductor. He related his last experience in front of a Rotary group when he received a Rotary Scholarship to a summer art program which helped fuel his enthusiasm for the arts. Of the 240 services each year, CSO does 15% to 20% devoted to education and David is heavily involved. The community-oriented events range from Kinder Concerts for children under the age of 5 to Platinum Concerts given at senior citizens’ homes.

Recently, CSO has been making great progress in solidifying their financial position and hopes soon to provide more support to the musicians. David said “he very much wanted to be able to pay musicians more than $18,000 a year.” The group was very heartened by the progress that CSO is making and very grateful for their contribution to the cultural life of our city. David thanked the members of Rotary for their active support of the organization in many ways, not just financially.

Contributed by Wayne Outlaw, Keyway Committee