Lawn concert returns to Aiken’s Joye Cottage

The centuries-old tradition of the "lawn concert" will come to life once again during the Juilliard in Aiken Festival this year.

The festival, which runs from March 8-2, will join in the celebration of Aiken's 175th anniversary with a concert on the lawn of Joye Cottage, 129 First Ave. The concert will be held on Wednesday, March 10, at 2 p.m. at Joye Cottage and will feature music popular during the era in which Aiken was founded. Afterward, a "tea" will be served by ladies dressed in period attire.

Returning to Aiken for this special event will be the renowned American Brass Quintet, which is celebrating its own 50th anniversary this year. Hailed as "the high priests of brass" by Newsweek magazine and "positively breathtaking" by The New York Times, the American Brass Quintet is among the elite chamber ensembles on the world stage.

The ABQ has performed in all 50 states and in countries around the globe.¬ ¬ 

Musicians Kevin Cobb and Raymond Mase on trumpet, David Wakefield on horn, Michael Powell on trombone and John D. Rojak on bass trombone have been in residence at Juilliard since 1978 and at the Aspen Music Festival since 1970.¬ 

As members of the Juilliard faculty, the ABQ players are committed to the promotion of brass chamber music through education as well as performance. In their roles as teachers, they will also present an Outreach Performance in North Augusta for area high schools and middle schools as part of the festival's outreach program.

The concert setting will be the lawn of Joye Cottage, the former Whitney-Vanderbilt estate at the heart of Aiken's historic Winter Colony district. With 60 rooms, Joye Cottage is the largest survivor among the many winter homes built by wealthy Northerners during the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

Joye Cottage began modestly as a small farm house in 1830 - about the same time the city of Aiken was founded. A later owner converted the house to an inn and gave it her name, Sarah Joye.¬ 

In 1898, William Whitney, a prominent Wall Street tycoon and later secretary of the Navy, purchased Sarah Joye's inn and began expanding it to suit his baronial lifestyle. Eventually, with the help of Stanford White and Thomas Hastings, the two most prominent architects of the era, he turned the modest inn into one of the largest houses in South Carolina.

Decades of glittering social events during the golden age of the Winter Colony were followed by years of decline and disrepair after the Whitney family sold the house in the 1980s, and it remained vacant for years.

What happened next in the long history of Joye Cottage could be the plot for a book.¬  Indeed, the book has already been written. In 1989, the Pulitzer-Prize winning authors Steve Naifeh and Gregory Smith, came, like Whitney, from New York and began the long process of restoring Joye Cottage to life. They chronicled their (mis)adventures in their book, "On a Street Called Easy, in a Cottage Named Joye."

Tickets are $45 and may be purchased at Nandina Home and Design or online at www.juilliardinaiken.com.

In the event of rain, the concert will be held at First Presbyterian Church, 224 Barnwell Ave. N.W.