By Gina Malone
In a collaborative first, the Asheville Symphony Orchestra and Black Mountain College Museum + Arts Center (BMCM+AC) present a series of performances and events in October in conjunction with BMCM+AC’s exhibition Points in Space: Performance at Black Mountain College, running through January 10. The exhibition features historical and contemporary works, interactive installations, performances and immersive experiences that reflect the collaborative and experiential legacy of Black Mountain College (BMC) from 1933 to 1957. The events that the Symphony and BMCM+AC have planned will complement Points in Space.
“It is a priority for the Symphony to serve as a hub for innovative programming while celebrating the unique character of our community,” says the Symphony’s executive director Daniel Crupi. “This partnership embodies that mission by exploring Western North Carolina’s musical history through the lens of BMC, which serves as one of the most influential artistic movements of the 20th century. To honor that legacy alongside BMCM+AC is authentic to Asheville and exciting for us.”
On Saturday, October 25, the Symphony’s Masterworks 2: Convergence will engage audiences at the First Baptist Church of Asheville with two performances—at 2 p.m. and 8 p.m.—of a program including work by Erik Satie, Béla Bartók and Johannes Brahms alongside groundbreaking works by John Cage, a notable American composer and music theorist who taught at BMC during the summers of 1948 and 1952.
“This concert is special,” says Asheville Symphony music director Darko Butorac, “because the American avant-garde as represented by John Cage challenged the very philosophy of ‘What is music?’, ‘How is it performed?’, What does it mean to us?’, ‘How far can we push the envelope of expression?’ And BMC was the location where all these ideas fomented and converged.” The Masterworks 2 performances will highlight the aesthetic connection between what Cage brought to American music and those earlier composers of European Romanticism whose works will also be performed.
“When you experience something like 4’33” [Cage’s modernist composition of instrumental silence] in person, in a hall—that is a concept that one could not have dreamed of as a musician just 10 to 20 years earlier,” says Butorac. “These musicians definitely drew the line back towards composers like Brahms, and that is something I look forward to exploring with the audience.”
Butorac advises audiences to approach Cage’s composition without expectations, “as an experience rather than just listening. Witness it in full,” he says, “then at intermission, talk to your neighbors in the audience, see what discussions arise.”
In the days leading up to the Convergence performances, two other collaborative events are planned. On Tuesday, October 21, at 7 p.m., a chamber music concert, The Music of John Cage, Lou Harrison, Arnold Schoenberg and Amy Williams, will be held at BMCM+AC. Selections will highlight experimental music that reshaped the 20th century sound. Tickets are available at BlackMountainCollege.org.
An Evening of Inspirational Art, History & Music, hosted by the Asheville Symphony Guild at BMCM+AC, will be held Thursday, October 23, at 5 p.m. Violist Natalie Brennecke, who will be featured during Convergence will be part of the evening’s performance. Tickets for this event are available at AshevilleSymphonyGuild.org.
Learn more and purchase tickets for Masterworks and other performances at AshevilleSymphony.org or by phone at 828.254.7046. The First Baptist Church of Asheville is located at 5 Oak Street, Asheville.
