Asheville Symphony Orchestra - Concerts, Youth Orchestra, Darko Butorac

MASTERWORKS 6: ODE TO JOY

Beethoven's most magnificent work closes our season alongside Copland and Tower

ALT ASO CHAMBER ORCHESTRA SERIES

Experience your Symphony in a new way at unique locations throughout Asheville

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Live symphonic music returned to Asheville with our Symphony in the Park performance

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Asheville Symphony Youth Orchestra

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UPCOMING EVENTS

Saturday, Jun. 4, 2022 / 8:00 p.m.

Masterworks 6: Ode to Joy

Tuesday, Jun. 21, 2022 / 6:00 p.m.

ALT ASO at Asheville Art Museum

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COVID-19 SAFETY PROCEDURES

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COVID-19 SAFETY PROCEDURES

The Asheville Symphony is dedicated to our audience members’ safety and comfort. We are closely monitoring COVID-19 conditions, CDC recommendations, and local guidelines. As of Wednesday, August 11, 2021, Harrah’s Cherokee Center (which contains our performance hall, Thomas Wolfe Auditorium) updated their health and safety requirements.

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That is why the Asheville Symphony’s programs bring excellent, beautiful, live music to all corners of our community. Your gift is your instrument. Please use it to support your symphony.

The Asheville Symphony Orchestra performs and promotes symphonic music for the benefit, enjoyment and education of the people of Western North Carolina.

The ASO presents concerts in the 2,300-seat Thomas Wolfe Auditorium in Asheville’s U.S. Cellular Center. Related organizations include the Asheville Symphony Guild, Asheville Symphony Chorus, Asheville Symphonettes, and education initiatives including the Asheville Symphony Youth Orchestra and Music in the Schools.

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News & Press

The Asheville Symphony Orchestra Explodes With a Folk-Inspired Program

03.22.2022Concert Reviews

By Danielle Schroeder CVNC.org March 19, 2022 – Asheville, NC: “The concerto was likely the audience favorite. It was exuberant, exciting, and una...

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Michelle Cann Dazzles with Florence Price Featured Program

03.02.2022Concert Reviews

By Danielle Schroeder CVNC.org February 28, 2022 – Asheville, NC: “The intensity that the programmed pieces created and the vibrant execution from...

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2021-2022

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A little change in scenery suits us, don't you thi

A little change in scenery suits us, don't you think? Rehearsals begin tonight for Masterworks 5: Looking Glass! With two opportunities to see this performance (Friday, May 13 and Saturday, May 14), there's no excuse to miss your Asheville Symphony at Central United Methodist Church performing Prokofiev, Saint-Saëns, and Mozart featuring guest cellist Christine Lamprea.

Limited tickets remaining for these intimate events. Visit AshevilleSymphony.org to get yours soon!

🍊 Snag a Seat at the Iconic Orange Peel! Celeb

🍊 Snag a Seat at the Iconic Orange Peel!

Celebrate American Songbook classics and Jazz faves with your Asheville Symphony at @the_orange_peel.

April’s ALT ASO event at downtown Asheville’s iconic Orange Peel will feature a chamber orchestra, Guest Conductor Christopher Lees, Resident Conductor of the Charlotte Symphony and vocalist Melinda Rodriguez (of The Voice fame). The program includes music from the American Songbook and Jazz repertory — think Ella Fitzgerald, George & Ira Gershwin, Cole Porter, Rodgers & Hammerstein, and more. Don’t miss this memorable night showcasing the golden era of American music! Plus, a unique Orange Peel experience: a seated event. That's right, seating will be available for this performance! Purchase a ticket today to save your seat today! Limited tickets remaining at $40 each.

🎟 https://ashevillesymphony.org/event/alt-aso-at-the-orange-peel/ (link in bio)

🇬🇧 A Misfit with a Spectacular Mustache: Edw

🇬🇧 A Misfit with a Spectacular Mustache: Edward Elgar

A self-taught composer among academics. A Roman Catholic among Protestants. A lower class upbringing that led to a life among elites thanks to an advantageous marriage and a successful career. An English composer primarily inspired by continental Europe. Edward Elgar, featured on this weekend's Masterworks 4: Enigma program, didn't quite fit in any of his roles during his lifetime, but, due to his undeniable talent as a composer, he would become one of England's most celebrated composers.

Our Enigma program this weekend is named for one of Elgar's most well known works: Variations on an Original Theme, Op. 36 or, as it's more commonly known, the Enigma Variations. Elgar had this to say about this piece:

"This work, commenced in a spirit of humour & continued in deep seriousness, contains sketches of the composer's friends. It may be understood that these personages comment or reflect on the original theme & each one attempts a solution of the Enigma, for so the theme is called. The sketches are not 'portraits' but each variation contains a distinct idea founded on some particular personality or perhaps on some incident known only to two people. This is the basis of the composition, but the work may be listened to as a 'piece of music' apart from any extraneous consideration."

Read our latest enews to learn more about the piece that lent its name to tomorrow's Masterworks performance: https://mailchi.mp/ashevillesymphony/mw4-elgar-040722?e=adeba3de5a

🎟 Don't have your tickets yet? Walk ups are always welcome at our performances, but to guarantee a seat (especially in a great area), we recommend that you purchase your tickets ahead of time. Visit ashevillesymphony.org to learn more about this performance and for ticket purchase information.

This performance is generously sponsored by our co-sponsors Rhonda & Marcus Grimes and Olivia & Gary Zahler. Our guest artist, Orion Weiss, is sponsored by Morgan Stanley. Thank you all for your support!

🎭 Brahms's Not-So-Identical Twin Overtures Ope

🎭 Brahms's Not-So-Identical Twin Overtures

Opening this week's Masterworks 4: Enigma performance is Brahms's Tragic Overture. One of the composer's more moody works, the Tragic Overture was composed in the summer of 1880 and premiered later that year. To discuss the Tragic Overture, one must also take into account its counterpart of sorts, the Academic Festival Overture (even though it's not on the upcoming program).

The two overtures were composed around the same time but intentionally have vastly different personalities. The Tragic Overture is turbulent, atmospheric and dramatic; though it doesn't follow any particular narrative, the mood of this fifteen-ish minute work certainly lives up to its name. The Tragic Overture was written intentionally as a response to the work written immediately prior: The Academic Festival Overture. The piece was composed as an homage to a the University of Breslau, which had given Brahms an honorary doctorate that same year. Rather than a solemn march worthy of academia, Brahms crafted this jovial overture that famously showcases several drinking songs (something that likely amused the students more than their professors). The two overtures, composed in quick succession, are linked thanks to their strikingly contrasting personalities and probably their memorable and fitting names.

Enjoy Brahms's turbulent and dramatic Tragic Overture alongside Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 20 and Elgar's mysterious Enigma Variations. Tickets still available starting at $25. Visit www.ashevillesymphony.org for more details.

❤️ To Wolfgang From Your Not-So-Secret Admirer

❤️ To Wolfgang From Your Not-So-Secret Admirer (AKA the Asheville Symphony)

It's not a surprise that the Asheville Symphony loves Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. If you know our Asheville Amadeus Festival, you know we created an entire 7+ day festival inspired by Mozart. Coming up on our Masterworks 4: Enigma program THIS WEEKEND is his twentieth piano concerto. Composed in 1785, Piano Concerto No. 20 was quite popular with audiences immediately following its premiere, but the work would more importantly serve as inspiration for the Romantic composers to come. Beethoven, Brahms, Clara Schumann, and more were all inspired by the Piano Concerto No. 20 and also wrote cadenzas for the work.

Need a refresher on what exactly a cadenza is? Want to learn more about one of Mozart's most beloved piano concertos? Click on the following link to check out our latest enews for more: https://mailchi.mp/ashevillesymphony/mw4-mozart-033022?e=adeba3de5a

Experience one of Mozart's most beloved works for the piano -- performed by the inimitable Orion Weiss backed by your Asheville Symphony -- alongside Brahms's Tragic Overture and Elgar's mysterious Enigma Variations. Tickets still available starting at $25. Visit https://ashevillesymphony.org/event/masterworks-4-enigma/ for details on the program plus info on how to buy tickets.

Don't miss our very own @darkobutorac on @wlos_13'

Don't miss our very own @darkobutorac on @wlos_13's Spotlight Carolina with Nelson Weston, this Thursday, March 31 at around 12:50 p.m. Darko shared some exciting details about the upcoming April 9 Masterworks concert, and more of what the ASO has in store for the remainder of our 21-22 season!

Your Asheville Symphony will be performing the fir

Your Asheville Symphony will be performing the first two movements of Finnish composer Sibelius's Lemminkäinen Suite on TOMORROW's Folklore Fantasy program. Composed in 1895, The Lemminkäinen Suite is a four movement work based on a collection Finnish oral folklore and mythology called the Kalevala, widely considered to be the national epic of Finland. Stories contained within the Kalevala range from the creation of the earth (which was formed with the shards of a duck egg) to classic hero-villain tales of good triumphing over evil... or dying tragically in the effort.

Each of the four movements tells a story about a dashing, young redhead named Lemminkäinen, one of the many heroes of the Kalevala. In the stories depicted within Sibelius's Lemminkäinen Suite, our hero is assigned a series of tasks in exchange for a beautiful bride (the daughter of an evil queen), but dies tragically in his attempt to slay the sacred swan of Tuonela (the island of the dead). Overcome with grief, Lemminkäinen's mother recovers his body and prays to the gods for her son to be brought back to life. With the help of a gracious bee, she brings her beloved son back to life at last with a drop of honey.

Be inspired by timeless Scandinavian mythology at next week's performance of Masterworks 3: Folklore Fantasy. Tickets are still available starting at $25 depending on seating area.
https://ashevillesymphony.org/event/masterworks-3-folklore-fantasy/

🔥 The final piece on THIS SATURDAY'S Folklore F

🔥 The final piece on THIS SATURDAY'S Folklore Fantasy program is Suite from "The Firebird" by Igor Stravinsky. If you are a Disney fan, you might be familiar with this piece already as it was featured in the film Fantasia 2000.

The suite featured on this Saturday's program is a collection of highlights from the complete ballet, "The Firebird," which premiered in 1910 at the Palais Garnier in Paris by the Ballets Russes. This was the first of many collaborations between Stravinsky and the founder of the Ballets Russes, Sergei Diaghilev, who said of Stravinsky "Mark him well, he is a man on the eve of celebrity." Diaghilev's prediction absolutely came true. Stravinsky rose to instant fame after The Firebird's immediate success. One critic had this to say when he attended a private viewing of The Firebird:

"The composer, young, slim, and uncommunicative, with vague meditative eyes, and lips set firm in an energetic looking face, was at the piano. But the moment he began to play, the modest and dimly lit dwelling glowed with a dazzling radiance. By the end of the first scene, I was conquered: by the last, I was lost in admiration. The manuscript on the music-rest, scored over with fine pencillings, revealed a masterpiece."

Experience the dramatic, gorgeous, and intimidating Firebird Suite, Stravinsky's first big step towards becoming a legend in his own right. Also on the program are two movements Sibelius's mythology-inspired Lemminkäinen Suite plus Tchaikovsky's rugged Violin Concerto performed by visiting soloist William Hagen.

🎟 Tickets still available starting at $25. Visit ashevillesymphony.org or call 828.254.7046 to secure your seats for TOMORROW'S performance of Folklore Fantasy at Thomas Wolfe Auditorium in Downtown Asheville, 8:00 p.m. See you at the Symphony!

This performance is generously sponsored by the Asheville Symphony Guild! Stop by their table in the lobby the night of the performance to learn more about this incredible, volunteer-run organization.

🎻 Leaving the violin "black and blue," a legend

🎻 Leaving the violin "black and blue," a legendary violin concerto headlines our Folklore Fantasy program NEXT WEEK on Saturday, March 19.

Tchaikovsky's only violin concerto was written shortly after his marriage to Antonina Miliukova effectively ended in 1878. The marriage was a complete disaster. While it is widely accepted by scholars that Tchaikovsky identified as homosexual, their personalities were completely incompatible in addition to that significant challenge. The newlyweds lived together for just six weeks before permanently separating. It's no wonder that the Violin Concerto, written so soon after their separation, is known for its stormy and dramatic personality.

Similarly to Tchaikovsky's marriage, the Violin Concerto had a rocky start before it became a legend. Tchaikovsky had two different soloists refuse to premiere the work before finally having Adolph Brodsky perform the concerto for the first time in Vienna, 1881. Critics reacted strongly to the work, to put it lightly. Eduard Hanslick, one of the 19th century's most influential critics, famously called the piece "long and pretentious," bringing the audience "face to face with the revolting thought that music can exist which stinks to the ear..." "The violin was not played," he declared, "but beaten black and blue."

Despite that cringe-worthy review, the concerto would become one of the most played works for violin and orchestra. Witness this self-made legend in action at next week's performance of Masterworks 3: Folklore Fantasy NEXT WEEK. Tickets are still available starting at $25 depending on seating area. Visit https://ashevillesymphony.org/event/masterworks-3-folklore-fantasy/ to buy tickets.

This performance is generously sponsored by the Asheville Symphony Guild and Maurice and Bonnie Stone. Thank you so much for supporting our third masterworks performance of the 21-22 season!

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