Scott Weiss, music director and conductor for the Aiken Symphony, recently received the 2024 Order of the Palmetto, South Carolina’s highest civilian award.
Awarded by Gov. Henry McMaster and presented by State Representative Paula Calhoon, the award recognizes Weiss’s “extraordinary contributions to music, education, and the arts, including his leadership with the Aiken Symphony, the Palmetto Concert Band and the University of South Carolina School of Music,” according to a news release.
Weiss joined the faculty at the University of South Carolina in 2010 and is the Sarah Bolick Smith Distinguished Professor of Music. In addition to conducting the university’s symphony orchestra, he leads the master’s and doctoral programs in orchestral conducting.
Weiss will conduct the Aiken Symphony’s next performance at 7:30 p.m. Jan. 11, 2025, at the University of South Carolina Aiken’s Etherredge Center with guest artist – pianist Ying Li.
“After her triumphant Aiken Symphony debut in 2023 as a last-minute replacement on the Rachmaninov Piano ‘Concerto No. 2,’ pianist Ying Li returns to Aiken to perform Mozart’s 23rd piano concerto. This all-Mozart program opens with a charming divertimento for strings and also includes the rousing “Symphony No. 39” – the first of Mozart’s final three symphonies, according to the Aiken Symphony website.
Tickets are $45-$60 and are available here.
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