Kishi Bashi. Photo by R. Renee Levasseur
By Natasha Anderson
The Asheville Symphony’s Asheville Amadeus Festival returns Thursday, May 11, through Saturday, May 20. This year’s festival highlights all things Americana, featuring banjo superstar Béla Fleck as festival headliner and renowned multi-instrumentalist Kishi Bashi as guest artist. With more than 25 partner organizations offering more than 40 events, this is the most ambitious Amadeus Festival in the Symphony’s history.
“The Amadeus Festival seeks to celebrate our Symphony’s connections to the community and highlight the myriad ways that it intersects with our region’s and country’s cultural traditions,” says the Symphony’s executive director Daniel Crupi.
Béla Fleck. Photo by William Matthews
The celebration kicks off May 11 with the release of Das Horner Bier, an exclusive beer brewed by Cursus Kĕmē from a nearly forgotten recipe. Das Horner Bier was a known favorite of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.
On Saturday, May 13, Kishi Bashi performs at Salvage Station with a chamber orchestra of Asheville Symphony musicians for an ALT ASO series performance. Bashi inspires audiences worldwide with his unique blend of folk, classical and cinematic music.
“I absolutely love the sound of the orchestra, and I hope to give my fans the same kind of transcendent experience I have when I listen to it myself,” says Bashi.
Headliner Béla Fleck performs his original work Night Flight Over Water with members of Asheville’s Opal String Quartet on Tuesday, May 16, with the Asheville Chamber Music Series at the Wortham Center for the Performing Arts. Fleck will join Asheville Symphony Orchestra music director Darko Butorac for a Symphony Talk at Cursus Kĕmē on Friday, May 19, before taking the stage with the Asheville Symphony for the Festival Finale concert on May 20. The Finale concert explores the many shades of Americana with Fleck’s own The Impostor concerto for banjo and orchestra, Bach’s Chaconne, Ellington and Tizol’s Caravan, and Bernstein’s Symphonic Dances from West Side Story.
Youth activities include two Young People’s Concerts, free for all Buncombe County fifth-graders, featuring Fleck, the Asheville Symphony Youth Orchestra and members of the Asheville Symphony.
“We are particularly proud to work with Béla to teach and inspire so many students in our area,” says Crupi.
Other festival highlights include a conversation with Bashi and others about minority identity and racism towards Asians; a LEAF Global Arts Spring Retreat honoring First Nations, Indigenous and Latinx peoples; a series of free music and movement events for babies, toddlers and young children; a Mostly Mozart evening at Parker Concert Hall at Brevard Music Center; and a performance from the American Patchwork Quartet at the Wortham Center for the Performing Arts.
The Festival includes events that are free and open to the public, ticketed general admission and ticketed by seat. To purchase tickets visit AshevilleAmadeus.org or call the Asheville Symphony Orchestra at 828.254.7046.
