(From left) Matthew Hannah, Keith Freeburg, Rita Hayes, Byron Hedgepath and Christopher Tavernier
The Music Foundation of WNC presents the 3rd Annual Music Festival Saturday, August 14, at 2 p.m. at the Blue Ridge Community College’s Thomas Auditorium. The event, hosted by the Hendersonville Symphony Orchestra, is free and open to the public. Attendees should arrive one hour early for seating.
“Our inspiration was to have a program centered around a variety of 20th-century music with a strong focus on the Americas and including works that are very popular as well as those that are unheard of,” says pianist Christopher Tavernier. “We wanted to put together something playful and delightful for what may be the first concert many have attended in a while.”
The one-day festival includes three concerts. The first features the duo 88 Keys and a Reed, composed of Tavernier and clarinetist Matthew Hanna. They will perform three Latin American works: Zarabandeo by Mexican composer Arturo Márquez, The Cape Cod Files by Cuban musician and composer Paquito D’Rivera and Libertango by Argentine composer Astor Piazzolla. The second concert, also performed by Tavernier and Hanna, includes Leonard Bernstein’s Jet Song and Something’s Coming, both from the musical West Side Story, as well as Bernstein’s Clarinet Sonata. These works are followed by George Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue.
“Despite being very different styles of music, all of the pieces in these two performances are very rhythmically driven and stylized,” says Tavernier. “It’s very difficult to provide the range of those extremities with just a piano and clarinet, but that’s what makes these programs challenging for us and engaging for the audience.”
The festival finale features The Mountain Chamber Quartet performing French pianist and composer Claude Bolling’s Suite No. 2 for Flute & Jazz Piano Trio. The quartet includes Tavernier, flautist Rita Hayes, double bassist Keith Freeburg and drummer Byron Hedgepeth.
“I enjoy the varied musical expressions that Claude Bolling has achieved with just four instruments,” says Freeburg. “Each part of the suite is unique so it is fascinating to hear what is coming next.”
Festival attendees can browse booths set up throughout the lobby for information on a variety of area arts organizations in mediums including music, dance, theatre and visual arts.
Thomas Auditorium is located at 180 West Campus Drive, Flat Rock. Learn more at 88KeysandaReed.com.
