The Music Foundation of Western North Carolina (MFWNC) presents The French Connection, featuring local pianist Christopher Tavernier and flutist Matthew Hanna, at Flat Rock Playhouse Downtown on Saturday, February 3, at 2 p.m.
“While our mission is to promote local music, we are also looking for ways to build community,” says MFWNC’s founder and CEO Joann Freeburg. “This wonderful afternoon of quality music for a good cause accomplishes both.”
The concert features French composers as well as composers of other nationalities who lived and worked in France during the Impressionistic, Romantic and Modern periods. The performance will include works by Claude Debussy, Frederic Chopin, Franz Liszt, Francis Poulenc, André Messager and Jérôme Naulais.
“This is a very unique program,” says Tavernier. “These works are not often heard together in concert, especially the piano and clarinet duos.”
Tavernier, now 17 years old, made his orchestral debut with the Tar River Philharmonic at age 13. In 2014, he placed second in the National Elizabeth Harper Vaughn Concerto Competition in Kingsport, TN, and was the youngest performer in the competition’s history. More recently, Tavernier won the Hendersonville Symphony Orchestra and Asheville Symphony’s Concerto Competitions and the junior division of the Charlotte Symphony’s Concerto Competition, among others. His repertoire includes concertos by Bach, Mozart, Mendelssohn, Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninoff, Prokofiev and Liszt.
Hanna’s skill on the clarinet has earned him numerous awards, including fi rst place in the Southeastern Clarinet Workshop Competition and in the Music Teachers National Association state and divisional woodwind competitions. In 2016, Hanna was invited to perform with the Heliotrope Chamber Ensemble near London, England in a concert featuring the rarely performed Richard Strauss Sonatine No. 2 for 16 winds.
Flat Rock Playhouse Downtown is located at 125 South Main Street, in Hendersonville. Admission to The French Connection is $35. Tickets can be purchased online at thefrenchconnection.rocks or by phone at 773.213.2200.
