Asheville Symphony music director Darko Butorac. Photo by Mike Morel
By Natasha Anderson
The Asheville Symphony’s 2023-2024 season includes the popular free Symphony in the Park concert in Downtown Asheville’s Pack Square Park, a seven-concert Masterworks series, a four-concert ALT ASO series featuring rock and klezmer, a Star Wars-themed concert held in conjunction with Beer City Comic Con, a soulful New Year’s Eve show, a world-class piano recital and a new festival celebrating the violin.
“Last season saw our first-ever award from the National Endowment for the Arts—one of the highest marks of excellence in the country,” says the Symphony’s executive director Daniel Crupi. “We worked to defy expectation and that success has poised the Asheville Symphony to build upon that growth and plan for exciting and unique offerings for the coming year.”
The season opens with the Symphony in the Park concert on Sunday, August 27. The concert features selections from classic movie scores by composers including Ennio Morricone, Nino Rota, Hans Zimmer, John Williams and James Horner.
The Masterworks Series premieres on Saturday, September 23, with Masterworks 1: Out of the Shadows. This show features cellist Sterling Elliott, the winner of the Senior Division of the 2019 National Sphinx Competition celebrating young Black and Latinx classical string players.
The 2023-2024 Masterworks Series features seven Asheville Symphony premieres, including one newly commissioned work. The season will showcase Jennifer Higdon, William L. Dawson and Ukraine’s Valentin Silvestrov alongside favorites including Johannes Brahms, Aaron Copland and Gustav Mahler. Masterworks 3: American Portraits will feature narrator and vocalist Bryan Terrell Clark, who has performed major roles in successful Broadway shows including as George Washington in Hamilton and as Marvin Gaye in Motown: The Musical.
The Asheville Symphony will expand programming with a new pops concert on Sunday, October 1. Star Wars: Celebrating a Galaxy of Music is presented in collaboration with Beer City Comic Con and will feature a selection of John Williams’ iconic music from Star Wars. This adds to the New Year’s Eve tribute to Soul and R&B with the legendary Capathia Jenkins, who is known for her performances On- and Off-Broadway.
In the 2023-24 season, the ALT ASO chamber orchestra series will feature music of the 1980s at Highland Brewing, rock and heavy metal at The Orange Peel, folk and klezmer at the Asheville Masonic Temple and immersive projection art at The Mule at Devil’s Foot Beverage Company.
The Asheville Symphony plans to launch a new festival held in collaboration with a world-renowned artist in 2024, to celebrate one instrument and explore its impact on the musical world. The inaugural year will explore the legacy of the violin and feature Asheville native Noah Bendix-Balgley, First Concertmaster of the Berlin Philharmonic.
“Our goal is to make the Asheville Symphony resonate with everyone in our community, no matter their musical interests,” says Crupi. “Our 2023-2024 season takes us one step closer to that goal.”
To view the full season lineup, visit AshevilleSymphony.org. Season tickets are on sale now, and single tickets will go on sale August 8.
