Internationally celebrated cellist Paul Wiancko stepped into a big role last year as the artistic director of Spoleto Festival USA’s prestigious Bank of America Chamber Music series. Taking over from the late Geoff Nuttall, who helped shape the series’ reputation, Wiancko faced the challenge with determination—already planning next year’s lineup before the 2025 festival even began.
“The first time around, there were just a lot of unknowns,” Wiancko said. Now in his second year, with a clearer sense of his role, he’s ready to push creative limits while honoring the series’ traditions.
A Packed Season of Chamber Music
The 2025 season includes 33 chamber music performances across 11 programs, each performed three times in just over two weeks. Wiancko will perform cello in nearly every program, and outside the series, he’ll also appear with the famed Kronos Quartet at Charleston Music Hall on June 2.
Innovative Programming and Unconventional Choices
This year’s series promises to blend different eras, genres, instruments, and cultures in fresh, sometimes unexpected ways. Wiancko describes the season as “fun,” “weird,” and “a little bit outside the box,” but confident it will resonate with audiences.
Highlights include a Barbra Streisand tribute by countertenor Anthony Roth Costanzo and a unique program mixing Beethoven, Samuel Barber, Sri Lankan Canadian composer Dinuk Wijeratne, and medieval composer Hildegard von Bingen—the first known composer to put her name on her work.
For the first time, the series will offer two evening performances, breaking from its traditional afternoon schedule.
One evening features a world premiere by Iranian singer and composer Mahsa Vahdat, the 2025 composer-in-residence—an honor Wiancko himself held in 2019.
“She is one of the most legendary artists I’ve ever worked with,” he said.
The Composer-in-Residence Influence
Wiancko’s experience as composer-in-residence shapes his approach to programming. “The first step is usually considering the composer-in-residence,” he said. “As a composer myself, I know how long it takes to write a piece of music.”
Mahsa Vahdat: A Voice That Transcends Borders
Vahdat’s story is as powerful as her music. Banned from solo public performances in Iran due to restrictive laws, she lives in exile, using her voice as a tool of resistance and connection.
Her world premiere at Spoleto will blend her signature style with elements from Vivaldi’s Baroque masterpiece The Four Seasons, which will also be performed alongside her work.
Her piece “Three Songs” combines 800-year-old poetry by Persian mystic Rumi with Vahdat’s own words, blending traditional Persian music with contemporary interpretation. The themes—love, resistance, freedom, death, and longing—reflect a profound emotional journey.
“Working with Persian poets, from old and contemporary times, is a never-ending journey,” Vahdat said. “They are precious. Like an ocean, you always can find something in them.”
She emphasizes her unique connection with audiences worldwide, transcending language and culture through the pure emotion of her performances. “You don’t need to know the language. You don’t need to know the culture,” she said. “When it comes from the heart, it goes to the heart.”
A Celebration of Humanity Through Music
For Wiancko, Vahdat’s work perfectly represents what the Chamber Music series is about. “It’s all about being human,” he said. “We’re all weird and wonderful creatures doing this strange thing called music.”
