St. Cecilia Society - Current Activity

Current Activity

Between the cessation of its concert patronage in 1820 and the onset of the Great Depression in the 1930s, the St. Cecilia Society continued its activities by presenting an annual series of three or four elegant balls. The economic downturn of the 1930s induced the society to limit its activities to a single ball, however, and this pattern continues to the present day.

During its first century, the St. Cecilia Society's membership included the gentlemen of Charleston's socio-economic elite---a group that included representatives of a broad range of professions and backgrounds. As the city's population expanded and more men sought to be included in this prestigious organization, however, the society established new restrictions on membership in an effort to prevent its events from swelling to an unmanageable size. For more than a century now, the society has limited its membership to the male descendants of earlier members---a move that has effectively closed the organization to anyone without deep roots in Charleston. The St. Cecilia Society continues to flourish in the twenty-first century, but two hundred years of social changes have sapped much of its original vitality. Due to its popular reputation as an ancient, hyper-exclusive organization, the society is frequently portrayed in the media as an exaggerated romantic synecdoche for the historic "charm" of the city of Charleston. The modern St. Cecilia Society of Charleston strives to eschew public notice, however, as it attempts to preserve its narrowly-defined, time-honored cultural traditions.