This season, we welcome the world’s biggest name in bluegrass and traditional music to the Asheville Symphony stage as Festival Headliner: banjo legend, Béla Fleck. Performing his The Imposter concerto for banjo and orchestra with the ASO at our grand festival finale on May 20 and collaborating with the Asheville Chamber Music Series to perform his banjo quintet, Night Flight Over Water, Béla’s participation in this year’s festival will make for a truly Appalachian musical experience. Music education will also be a centerpiece of Béla’s residency in Asheville, as he joins forces with Asheville Symphony Youth Orchestra and the ASO in a performance for more than 4,000 5th graders in Buncombe County!

Opening this year’s Amadeus Festival is multi-instrumentalist Kishi Bashi, a folk-infused, cinema-inspired artist known the world over for his cross-genre and multi-disciplinary approach to music making. 

Kishi Bashi recently performed with the Seattle, Virginia, and Oregon Symphonies, and was featured in Ben Folds’ DECLASSIFIED series with the National Symphony Orchestra. Now, on May 13 as part of the festival’s opening weekend, he will join forces with the Asheville Symphony on its final ALT ASO concert of the year at Salvage Station on the banks of the French Broad River.