7 minute read
The hills are alive with music
The hills are alive … with the world’s greatest music
story compiled by Brett McLaughlin | photos courtesy of the Highlands-Cashiers Chamber Music Festival
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It took 41 years for the Highlands-Cashiers Chamber Music Festival to celebrate its 40th anniversary, but that celebration is at hand.
Since 1982, world class musicians have been bringing their talents to beautiful, intimate settings on the Highland-Cashiers Plateau in Western North Carolina.
Now, though delayed one year by the Covid-19 pandemic, the milestone 40th anniversary season is scheduled July 5 through August 8. Featured will be a larger-than-ever lineup of internationally known classical artists, performing works from Beethoven to Mendelssohn with plenty of notes in between.
The event will feature special activities including a family concert and ice cream social, a free Interlude Concert at Highlands Presbyterian Church, and a ticketed special concert and art exhibit at The Bascom Center for the Visual Arts. Lakeside Restaurant, Old Edwards Farm and The Chattooga Club will host other festival events.
“After the last year, we are bursting with excitement and cannot wait to be back in action,” said Festival Executive Director Nancy Gould-Aaron.
Opening night performances will be by (from left) Pinchas Zukerman on violin, Amanda Forsyth on cello and George Li on piano.
At the forefront of the festival is the regular concert series, which is held Fridays and Sundays at the Highlands Performing Arts Center, 507 Chestnut St., and Saturdays and Mondays at the Village Green Commons in Cashiers. That schedule begins July 5 with the acclaimed Pinchas Zukerman Trio and continues each week, concluding Sunday, August 8, with two favorites — The Eroica Trio and violinist David Coucheron — with the Festival Chamber Orchestra in The Eight Seasons, Vivaldi’s masterpiece interspersed with Astor Piazzolla’s seductive 4 Seasons of Buenos Aires performed by the Eroica. A dinner party at the Wildcat Cliffs Country Club follows.
A QUIET BEGINNING NOW A RESOUNDING EVENT
The origins of the festival date to August 1976 when Lucas Drew, having purchased a small summer house in Scaly Mountain, NC, organized a series of three concerts at the Episcopal Church and Highlands Playhouse. These concerts were a pilot project for the founding of the Festival in 1982 when Dr. Drew obtained a $5,000 grant from Mr. and Mrs. Donald Kahn of Miami, FL, through the University of Miami School of Music.
“The enthusiastic response from music lovers in Highlands encouraged the founding of an annual season of performances,” GouldAaron explained.
In 1983, the Festival was incorporated and was granted non-profit status. The home of the Festival was the Great Hall of the Episcopal Church of the Incarnation through the first 10 years. In 1991, all 11 concerts were sold out, and there was a waiting list for tickets. For this and other reasons, various venues were used in ensuing years until, in 1999, the Festival acquired the CBC as a permanent home and gifted it to the town of Highlands for yearround use as a Performing Arts Center. In the early 2000s, concerts in Cashiers became a part of the Festival.
Under the guidance of Dr. Drew, the artistic director and distinguished double bassist, the Highlands Chamber Music Festival achieved a musical maturity that belies its youth. In 2000, William Ransom, founder and Artistic Director of the Emory Chamber Music Society of Atlanta and Emerson Professor of Piano at Emory University, began his duties as artistic director. In 2008, GouldAaron joined the organization as executive director.
The Festival is now among the oldest and longest summer chamber music festivals in the United States.
“I am honored to be the executive director of such a vibrant part of the Highlands and Cashiers artistic, cultural scene,” Gould-Aaron said.
David Coucheron
The Eroica Trio includes (from left) Sara Parkins on violin, Sara Sant’Ambrogio on cello and Erika Nickrenz on piano.
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Michael Gurt
host a June 27 performance of Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition. The concert will coincide with an exhibit of the Festival’s original cover artwork. Refreshments will be served. The artwork will be on exhibit throughout the festival season.
Among this year’s other performers will be Cho-Liang Lin, the Rasa Quartet, the Trout Quintet performing Beethoven’s Violin Sonata #10 in G Major at the Founders Celebration honoring of Dr. Drew, and Sonata Mulattica playing Beethoven’s Kreutzer Sonata.
The Rasa String Quartet
On July 10, Stephen Crist, PhD. of the Emory University College of Arts and Sciences, will present a class entitled: “Felix Mendelssohn: Prodigy & Disciple of J.S. Bach.” Call 828.526.8811 for lecture tickets, class times and location.
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David Coucheron (left) and Yinzi Kong are shown concluding another outstanding performance at an earlier Gala Concert event. Both will return for this year’s festival.
Week 4, July 23-26, will feature Bridget Kibbey — called “the Yo-Yo Ma of the harp” — entrancing the audience with a program called The Enchanted Harp and piano wizard Michael Gurt in The Virtuoso Piano. In the final week of the festival, audiences will be entertained by the groups Sibling Rivalry and Concerto Night.
The Interlude Concert at 2 p.m., July 7, will feature a special presentation of Musical Fireworks, while the Family Concert at 3 p.m., July 8, will feature a performance of Peter & the Wolf/Ferdinand the Bull.
The efforts of festival organizers do not end with the final notes of the summer festival. In October a fall residency takes place with a renowned quartet presenting programs at the three Highlands and Cashiers schools and either Chestnut Hill Retirement Community or the Fidelia Eckerd Living Center. The quartet will also present a free concert for the public. n
PERFORMING ARTS CENTER HIGHLANDS, NC
From Main Street, Highlands, take 64 West toward Cashiers. Go past Bank of America and First Citizens Bank. Take the next right onto Chestnut Street. The Performing Arts Center is located 1/2 block on the right.
EPICENTER/VILLAGE GREEN CASHIERS, NC
From Main Street, Highlands, take 64 to Cashiers. Go 10 miles to the first crossroads intersection and traffic light in Cashiers. Turn right onto 107 South. Go one block to the next traffic light and turn right (Frank Allen Road). Go straight and the EPICenter is on the right before the post office.
Details of these and other special events, as well as additional information and ticketing information regarding the Highland-Cashiers Chamber Music Festival, are available at: www.h-cmusicfestival.org
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