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Come Home to Vienna with the Blue Ridge Orchestra

For its final concert of the 2015–2016 International Studies season, the Blue Ridge Orchestra will present “Homecoming: Vienna” in two performances over Mother’s Day weekend. The concerts will be at 7:30 p.m. on Saturday, May 7, at Biltmore United Methodist Church, and again at 3 p.m. on Sunday, May 8, at Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Asheville. The music will feature works by 18th and 19th century composers who made their homes in Vienna. The program will open with Ludwig von Beethoven’s Overture to Egmont, a musical reflection of the triumph of liberty over oppression explored in Goethe’s play Egmont, for which it was composed. Many consider this to be Beethoven at his emotional best. This will be followed by Johann Baptist Vanhal’s Symphony in G minor. The full orchestra will be joined by two of the Asheville Symphony’s finest musicians to present Johannes Brahms’ Concerto for Violin and Cello—the final work he composed for orchestra. Soloists Kathryn Otwell (née Gardner) and Franklin Keel will join the orchestra for this Brahms concerto. Kathryn is the principal second violin for the Asheville Symphony, and Franklin is its associate principal cello.

Tickets are $15 ($10 for Blue Ridge Orchestra Friends) and student admission is $5. For tickets and more information, go to blueridgeorchestra.org.(Photo by Anthony Harden of Alt Media Pros)

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