Tuning Up: SC Phil conductor news + South Arts fellowships
Good morning!
“Tuning Up” is a morning post series where The Hub delivers curated, quick-hit arts stories of interest to readers. Sometimes there will be one story, sometimes there will be several. Get in tune now, and have a masterpiece of a day. And now, in no particular order…
Final call for Southern Prize apps
APPLICATION DEADLINE: February 12, 2025
The South Arts Southern Prize and State Fellowships acknowledge, support, and celebrate the highest quality artistic work being created in the American South. The program is open to individual artists living in the South Arts region: Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Tennessee.
There are two options nowadays: one for visual artists prizes and literary artists prizes. The 2025 literary genre of call is poetry.
South Arts State Fellowships: $5,000
The South Arts State Fellowship (state fellowship) is a state-specific prize awarded to artists whose work reflects the best of the visual arts and poetry in the South. A national jury will select one awardee per eligible state, based on artistic excellence that reflects and represents the region’s diversity of artistic expression. Each state’s fellowship awardee will receive a $5,000 state fellowship and will compete for one of the two Southern Prizes. State fellowship recipients will be required to attend the awards ceremony in late summer 2025.
South Arts Southern Prize: $25,000 and $10,000
The nine state fellowship recipients will compete for the Southern Prize. The $25,000 Southern Prize will be awarded to the artist whose work demonstrates the highest artistic excellence, and a runner-up will be awarded a $10,000 Prize. Both Southern Prize recipients will also receive a two-week residency at The Hambidge Center in Rabun Gap, Georgia. A separate national jury will convene to evaluate the body of work represented by the nine-state fellowship recipients and select the Prize winner and finalist. Winners of the Southern Prize will be announced at the awards ceremony.
The Southern Prize ceremony and exhibition of state fellows’ works may be planned for fall 2025.

Morihiko Nakahara. Provided photo.
Breaking: S.C. Philharmonic, Nakahara agree to contract renewal
The Columbia-based South Carolina Philharmonic announced today that long-time Music Director Morihiko Nakahara will remain in his position another four years, through the 2028/2029 season. The native of Kagoshima, Japan has occupied the Governor’s Award-winning orchestra’s podium since 2008 and is also artistic leader of the 60-year-old organization. In an announcement, Executive Director Rhonda Hunsinger heralded the heights to which he has taken the orchestra artistically, and Board of Directors President Emily Luther said, “I’m also excited that this extended contract means we will continue to have Morihiko’s talent and insight in pursuing our strategic initiatives, in particular diversifying community and educational programs over the next four years.”