April Verch Joe Newbery. Photo by Bruce DeBoer
The Blue Ridge Orchestra presents BRO Revels! 2018, a celebration of the holiday season, on Sunday, December 9, at 1 p.m. and 3:30 p.m. in the Folk Art Center auditorium. Sponsored by Mosaic Community Lifestyle Realty and supported by the Asheville Area Arts Council, the concerts by the BRO Chamber Strings feature international artists Joe Newberry and April Verch. Newberry and Verch are known for their banjo and fiddle duets and original compositions.
“I look forward to integrating the talents of a professional banjo-fiddle duo with the BRO Chamber Strings and our local guest musicians,” says music director Milton Crotts. “BRO Revels! 2018 will offer classical, oldtime, bluegrass, Celtic, folk and some traditional carols.”
The concerts also feature local musicians Franklin Keel, Megan McConnell, Alex Watson and Ryan Kijanka, as well as dancer/vocalist Rebecca O’Quinn, with Milton Crotts on rhythm guitar and mandocello. Keel, a member of the Asheville Symphony, the Opal String Quartet and Sirius B, will join the BRO Chamber Strings to perform the violin solo in Vivaldi’s Winter on cello and the guitar solo in the Trans-Siberian Orchestra’s Christmas Eve Sarajevo on electric cello. Folk songs and traditional carols will be presented from a fresh and vivid perspective.
“Everything on the program is exciting,” says Crotts. “A few highlights in addition to Newberry and Verch are Keel’s solos, McConnell’s performance of
O Holy Night and an original dance by O’Quinn.”
The Folk Art Center is located at 382 Blue Ridge Parkway, Asheville. Tickets are $25 general admission and $15 Friends of the Orchestra and students. For more information or to purchase tickets, visit BlueRidgeOrchestra.org.
