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This Week at An Appalachian Summer Festival is Packed with Ballet, Orchestra, Lecture and Interactive Arts

July 11, 2012. Appalachian State University’s annual summer arts attraction, An Appalachian Summer Festival, heads into its third weekend with a jammed packed schedule starting this Thursday with the second performance of the Broyhill Chamber Ensemble. The weekend continues with classical ballet performed by the Carolina Ballet, American Celtic music by Solas, arts & crafts at the Turchin Center’s Family Day and the Eastern Festival Orchestra showcasing pianist Alexander Toradze. 

 

Gil Morgenstern

Broyhill Chamber Ensemble – Divine Inspiration or Intelligent Design?

Rosen Concert Hall – Thursday, July 12, 8 p.m.

Ticket Prices: Adults: $18, Students & Children: $10

Featuring violinist Gil Morgenstern and pianist Rieko Aizawa, the Broyhill Chamber Ensemble explores the question of where inspiration comes from with their performance this Thursday featuring music by Beethoven, Copland, Auerbach and more.

How could Beethoven have written one of his wittiest sonatas for violin and piano just as he was struggling with his growing deafness? Are works by the deeply spiritual Olivier Messiaen and Arvo Pärt “heaven sent?” And how did Aaron Copland, a nice Jewish boy from Brooklyn, find a way to so authentically capture the sounds of the American West? The Broyhill Chamber Ensemble explores the age-old question of where inspiration comes from, but also asks, “does it matter?”

For more information about this performance, please visit appsummer.org/schedule/id/405.

 

Clyde Edgerton

Carol Grotnes Belk Distinguished Lecturer: Clyde Edgerton

 

Plemmons Student Union, MacRae Peak Room – Thursday, July 12, 3:30 p.m.

Free Event

Acclaimed Southern novelist Clyde Edgerton was raised in the community of Bethesda, near Durham. Edgerton has published ten novels, including Raney and Walking Across Egypt, and a memoir, Solo, My Adventures in the Air. His latest novel, The Night Train, was published in 2011. Three of his books have been made into movies and seven were adapted for the stage. A professor of creative writing in UNC-Wilmington’s MFA program, Edgerton has been honored with numerous awards, including a Guggenheim Fellowship, Lyndhurst Prize, honorary doctorates from UNC Asheville and St. Andrews Presbyterian College, membership in the Fellowship of Southern Writers and the prestigious North Carolina Award for Literature. During his lecture, he will tell humorous stories and play music associated with his best-selling novels.

For more information, visit appsummer.org/schedule/id/474.

 

Carolina Ballet – Black & White Swan and Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9

Farthing Auditorium – Friday, July 13, 8 p.m.

Ticket Prices: Adults: $25, Students: $15, Children 5 & Under: $10

On the heels of the popular Natalie Portman thriller Black Swan, Raleigh’s own Carolina Ballet will perform their own rendition of Black & White Swan during An Appalachian Summer Festival. The ballet will also showcase a new work by Artistic Director, Robert Weiss. After many years of culminating inspiration for choreography to Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9, Weiss has worked on this piece for the last 10 months—recently debuting the ballet in Raleigh. A pre-performance curtain talk with a member of the company will begin at 7 p.m. and all who have a ticket for the event are welcome to attend. 

Launched as a professional dance company in 1997 under the direction of Artistic Director/CEO Robert Weiss, Carolina Ballet has become one of America’s premier arts organizations. The company has garnered critical praise from the national and international media, staged 80 world première ballets, and toured in China and Hungary. Formerly the artistic director of the Pennsylvania Ballet and principal dancer at New York City Ballet under the legendary George Balanchine, Weiss programs traditional ballets by legendary masters and new works by contemporary choreographers.

For more information on this event and to purchase tickets, visit appsummer.org/schedule/id/403.

 

Solas

Farthing Auditorium – Saturday, July 14, 8 p.m.

Ticket Prices: Adults: $25, Students: $15, Children 5 & Under: $10

In the midst of their latest tour, Shamrock City, the American Celtic band Solas, returns to Farthing Auditorium to fill the hall with their own unique sound mixed with the traditional jigs and reels and music like Springsteen’s Ghost of Tom Joad. Their latest album, Shamrock City, tells the story of a small mining town at the turn of the 20th century. 

Celebrating fifteen years of making music, Solas has become one of the most popular and exciting Celtic bands ever to emerge from America. In a manner befitting their name (meaning “light” in Gaelic), Solas has become a beacon— finding contemporary relevance in timeless tradition. From Woody Guthrie’s Pastures of Plenty, to Springsteen’s Ghost of Tom Joad, to traditional jigs and reels, Solas defines the path in the Celtic music world and makes continuous leaps to drive the genre forward.

With ten albums under their belt, Solas’ band leader Seamus Egan was inspired by his family history to create their latest album, Shamrock City, due for release in 2013. Shamrock City tells the story of Butte, MT, a mining town at the turn of the 20th century, as seen through the eyes of Seamus’ great-great uncle, Michael Conway, an Irish immigrant who died six years after sailing to America at the age of 25. Shamrock City seeks to not only uncover the life and young death of Conway, but to also illuminate life as an immigrant during the Industrial Revolution and create a more meaningful and open dialogue about many of the issues in today’s America.

To get a sneak peek of the band and to learn more about the album, visit appsummer.org/schedule/id/382 for videos and ticket information.

 

Turchin Center Family Day

Turchin Center for the Visual Arts – Saturday, July 14, 11 a.m. – 2 p.m.

Free Event

The Turchin Center invites families to a fun-filled day of arts & crafts designed to make the arts fun for children of all ages. Join them for face painting, temporary tattoos, chalk murals, many craft stations and more. Food will be provided by Panera Bread of Boone. For more information, visit tcva.org/calendar/events/731.

 

Turchin Center Inside Exhibitions: Catherine Altice

Turchin Center for the Visual Arts – Saturday, July 14, 2 p.m.

Free Event

Ever visit a museum and wish you could ask, “What was the artist thinking?” “How did the artist do that?” “What does this mean?” or “What is this made of?” Every Saturday in July, you can find out the answers to these questions and more on a 45-minute, guided tour led by a Turchin Center staffer. This Saturday, join artist Catherine Altice for a tour through her current exhibition At the Seams in the Community Gallery.

Altice’s Artist’s Statement:

I find myself swimming around in a deep undercurrent of emotions. Subconscious worlds break through the vain outer surface in visceral, unapologetic misshapen forms, brazen drips and vibrant stains all alluding to bones and entrails. The work is rooted in raw fecundity. Biomorphic images pour forth and float in translucent layers. Deep below our epidermis exists a flourishing world of fluids, organs, muscle, mucous, bones and blood. This is where my sensual beauty resides. It’s not pretty nor is it sentimental. These works are as much about ugly mishaps as they are about the happy accidents in life.

For more information, visit tcva.org/calendar/events/728.

 

Alexander Toradze

Eastern Festival Orchestra – Gerard Schwarz, conductor; Alexander Toradze, piano; Ben Robinette, saxophone

Farthing Auditorium – Sunday, July 15, 8 p.m.

Ticket Prices: Adults: $25, Students: $15, Children 5 & Under: $10

Performing under the baton of Maestro Gerard Schwarz, the Eastern Festival Orchestra returns to the festival for a performance featuring pianist Alexander Toradze, who will be performing Prokofiev’s Concerto No. 3 for Piano in C Major, Op. 26. Also performing a solo in this Sunday’s concert is Ben Robinette, first-place winner of the 2011 Rosen-Schaffel Young Artist Competition, who will be performing Glazunov’s Concerto for Saxophone in E-flat Major, Op. 109.

For tickets and more information about this performance, visit appsummer.org/schedule/id/407

 

Upcoming festival events include:

Film: My Afternoons with Margueritte – July 16

Shipwrecked! An Entertainment by Donald Margulies – July 19 

Linda Eder: Songbirds – July 20

The Travelin’ McCourys with Sierra Hull and Highway 111 – July 21 

EMF: Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra & The Sorcerer’s Apprentice – July 22

Chicago and The Doobie Brothers – July 25

Fellow Traveler- A Staged Reading – July 27

26th Rosen Outdoor Sculpture Walk – July 28

For information on vacation packages, restaurant partners and additional festival information, visit www.appsummer.org.