The Asheville Area Piano Forum (AAPF) will present its 18th Fall Benefit Concert on Sunday, September 23, at 3 p.m. at the Diana Wortham Theatre. Worldclass artists and premiere concert pianists from WNC will take the stage, playing classical, jazz and popular favorites on two grand pianos. Regional performers on the roster include Deborah Belcher, Kimberly and Michelle Cann, Les Downs, Charles Harnish, Shelley Hartman, Chad Leatherman, Irem Ozay, Taylor Pierson and Brian Turner. Guest performers will include cellist Franklin Keel and Freeman Dalton, student winner of the 2018 Asheville Piano Competition.
The concert seeks to raise funds for the AAPF, a nonprofit organization providing financial assistance for music education students and teachers. “For more than 20 years, we have been dedicated to providing topnotch education and support,” says Kimberly Cann, AAPF president. “We have no endowment and yet, in the past ten years alone, we have provided more than $70,000 in financial assistance to deserving students in need.”
The organization’s programs include Keys for Kidz, a group piano class for under-served children established and funded by donations in 2011. Additional educational and community outreach activities, open to the public, include lecture/presentations with guest artists, student recitals, professional performances, master classes and informal performance groups.
“In these economically diffi cult times, the amount of assistance requested in the past few years has doubled,” Cann says. “Every penny we raise truly counts and goes directly into our scholarship programs.”
Tickets may be purchased at dwtheatre.com or by calling the Diana Wortham Theatre box offi ce at 828.257.4530. For more information, visit ashevillepiano.org or email office@ashevillepiano.org. Donations may be sent through the website or mailed to: The Asheville Area Piano Forum, P.O. Box 1101, Asheville, NC 28802.
