Echoes Across the Smokies Brings Stories, Strings and Songs to Bardo

The Bardo Arts Center and Mountain Heritage Center at Western Carolina University (WCU) presents Echoes Across the Smokies: A Night of Strings, Stories, and Songs on Thursday, October 30. The evening begins with a preshow at 6:30 p.m., followed by the mainstage performance at 7:30 p.m.

The program features storytelling from Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians enrolled member Kathi Littlejohn, performances by the Cherokee Language Repertory Choir, and music by Grammy-nominated artist Amythyst Kiah and her band. Attendees will also have the opportunity to enjoy hot concessions, explore the WCU Fine Art Museum’s exhibition North Carolina Glass 2025, and hear music from young regional performers, including Jackson County and Blue Ridge Junior Appalachian Musicians, before the concert begins.

Sara Snyder Hopkins is the Cherokee language program director and associate professor at WCU and also the director of the Cherokee Language Repertory Choir. “I formed the choir with my colleague, Garrett Scholberg, who is also the former music teacher at New Kituwah Academy (2016–2024),” she says.

The choir features both EBCI tribal and non-tribal members, including WCU students and staff. “We take anyone who has an interest in singing in Cherokee, whether they have musical or language knowledge or not,” says Snyder Hopkins. “Everyone comes from a different perspective and brings that perspective to the table and we share and learn together. The three main challenges we work through are Cherokee language pronunciation, the sound of the voices in how we sing the language and reading shaped notes. We review the sounds of the language often, and we speak through texts to get choir members more comfortable with how the sounds of the language are formed in our mouths.”

Hopkins emphasizes that while the group sings in Cherokee, it is not intended to stand as the sole representation of Cherokee identity. “There are Cherokee people in the choir, but we have lots of non-Native folks singing,” she says. “It’s an avenue for learning about Cherokee language and growing together through music.”

For the Echoes Across the Smokies performance, the choir will sing a song with historical resonance. “We will be singing a song with the words, ‘Where will I find a resting place for my soul here on earth? I could search the ocean and the earth for it but I will never find it. Because I will not be given the peace I yearn for below,’” she says. “It will be sung to the beautiful shape note tune ‘Idumea,’ which was widely known regionally in the 19th century.”

Tickets for Echoes Across the Smokies range from $5–$25 and are available through the Bardo Arts Center box office or online. The WCU Bardo Arts Center is located at 199 Centennial Drive, Cullowhee. Museum hours are Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., and Thursday, 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. For more information about programming, call 828.227.2787 or visit arts.wcu.edu/echoes-25.