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Parties with a Purpose
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By Frances D. Sandfort
Over the past 25 years, an annual series of parties known as Musical Feasts has become the Asheville Symphony Guild’s signature fund-raising activity. For these “parties with a purpose,” hosts and co-hosts offer their homes or favorite places, their culinary acumen and their talents for conviviality to support the Symphony.
The present incarnation of Musical Feasts began in 1985-86, the Symphony’s Silver Anniversary Season, when Virginia “Ginger” Mallard, who originated the Feasts concept, had a booklet printed with all of that season’s 15 Feasts laid out in delicious detail. Prior to that, Musical Feasts were part of the Guild’s Special Events program, with only three or four Feasts offered during a season.
From the very start the Feasts set a standard—interesting, cosmopolitan and musical—for the food and culture of almost every continent.
A 1985 “Moveable” Feast, “A Medley of Continental Cuisine,” was offered at the home of Fran and Ray Scovill on Kimberly Avenue. Guests were entertained after dinner by lyric tenor Jay Scovill and soprano Alfreda Gerald, accompanied at the piano by Steve Williams of the Warren Wilson College music faculty. Co-hosting were Kay and Dick Gallagher, Karen and Clay Whitaker and Eddie Stearns. Three teenagers, Greg Gallagher, Reavis Eubanks and Bo Barrett, rolled a piano borrowed from the Edison Hill home along the street for the occasion.
In January 1988, Mimi and Bill Cecil offered a “Gala Austrian-Style Dinner” at Frith House, their home in Biltmore. Following the cocktail hour, guests enjoyed a sumptuous dinner served in grand style after which they adjourned to the Music Room. There they were joined by an additional group of guests, and the company enjoyed baroque music played by an ensemble from the Symphony.
Musical Feast at Claxton Farms
Perennial favorites
Small dinner parties, gala affairs, bridge luncheons, games and sporting events appear in the Musical Feasts booklets. Over the years special favorites have been repeated: Christmas season brunch at the home of Chuck and Beverly Briedis is a perennial favorite; musicales at Bright Clearing, the home of local artist Leslie Ann Keller and her husband, Graham Ramsey, who raises orchids and built their lovely home around the remains of the chimney of his grandfather’s original cabin; and visits to Claxton Farm in Weaverville. And every year Marilyn Kolton and Lou Dwarshuis lead wildflower and/or bird-watching hikes. Picnics in one of Bob Caldwell’s “Secret Places” were an annual treat until he retired as WLOS-TV weatherman, as were Asheville Citizen-Times writer Bob Terrell’s tours for “getting-to-know-downtown-Asheville.”
Musical Feasts remain the Guild’s chief fund-raising vehicle. The first season’s 15 parties earned almost $8,000. This 50th Anniversary Season’s 21 parties could earn close to $22,000. Almost all Guild members have from time to time hosted, co-hosted, cooked, schlepped or been a guest at a Musical Feast, ensuring its success year after year.
Lelia Hall Lattimore, ASO principal harp, enjoys performing at a Bright Clearing Musical Feast
Frances D. Sandfort, a Guild member since 1994, has served as Hospitality Co-chair and Second Vice President. She joined the Musical Feasts Committee in 1998 and remains an active member.
Asheville Symphony A TIMELINE
The Early Years
1927
Lamar Stringfield, a Mars Hill College and Juilliard School graduate, forms the Asheville Symphony Orchestra, performs concerts for three summers, before departing for the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
1932
Asheville Civic Orchestra and North Carolina Symphony in Chapel Hill formed by Federal Music Project; the two orchestras work collaboratively, with Lamar Stringfield conducting in Chapel Hill and Joseph DeNardo, director of music for Asheville City Schools, conducting in Asheville; Asheville Civic Orchestra performs concerts until early 1950s before becoming inactive.
1960
Helen Sorton, a music graduate of the High School of Music and Art in New York and former publicity chairman of the Charlotte Oratorio Singers, becomes first manager.
1961
Composer and Conductor M. Thomas Cousins of the Brevard College music faculty becomes first continuing conductor of the Asheville Little Symphony, leads a concert at Brevard College on May 1,1961, at which a “proposed plan for expansion for 1961-62” is announced.
Charter revised to reflect a new name: the Asheville Symphony Society, Inc.; orchestra now referred to as Asheville Symphony and Asheville Symphony Orchestra.
1963
Albert Chaffoo moves to Asheville from Defiance College, Ohio, for the Symphony’s Third Season to serve as resident conductor. Asheville Symphony (without the “Little”) plays first concert of its first subscription season on October 17, 1961, in David Millard Junior High School Auditorium; annual subscription seasons continue here through 1968.
1964
Third Season ends with fourday Mozart Music Festival at Asheville-Biltmore College, with pianist Soulima Stravinsky, son of Igor Stravinsky, as guest soloist; the renamed Asheville Symphony Chorus, directed by Robert C. Rich, Jr., performs Mass in C Major.
1955
Musicians associated with Asheville Civic Orchestra meet for weekly rehearsals at First Presbyterian Church at invitation of choir soloist Jane McIntire; Sol B. Cohen, violinist and composer teaching at the Asheville School, becomes conductor; Lamar Stringfield, retired to Asheville, plays flute and occasionally conducts rehearsals.
1958
Joan Beebe, Agnes K. Whitman and Frank Rutland sign charter incorporating the Asheville Little Symphony in September; Sol B. Cohen conducts his final concert with the Little Symphony in November for a broadcast on radio station WWNC.
1959
Richard Renfro of Western Carolina College music faculty becomes Little Symphony conductor.
1962
Asheville Symphony Chorale formed, performs Mozart’s Requiem with the Symphony; Asheville Youth Strings Orchestra formed. The Symphony performs an outdoor pops concert at Asheville-Biltmore College at its recently-opened campus off W. T. Weaver Boulevard; for several years, the Symphony plays annual outdoor pops concerts in the breezeway of Phillips Hall.
Photo courtesy of Asheville Citizen-Times
The Fischer Years
Joseph E. Fischer, a member of the music faculty of Limestone College, Gaffney, South Carolina, later of Converse College, Spartanburg, South Carolina, becomes music director for the Fourth Season and serves through the Fifteenth Season.
1965
Asheville Symphony Guild is established at the beginning of the Fifth Season, with approximately 75 women members; Mrs. Lewis Lunsford Jr. (Charlotte) and Mrs. William A.V. Cecil (Mimi) are founding co-chairs; its purpose is “to support and stimulate interest in the work of the orchestra”; the Guild begins a series of informal pre-concert “coffees” with talks by guest artists and the conductor; by the end of the Eighth Season, the Guild has approximately 170 members.
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1965 continued Guest soloists make their first appearances with the Symphony during the Fifth Season: Israeli pianist Malka Mevorach-Choset for Grieg’s Concerto in A Minor; Belgian cellist (and conductor of the Charleston, S.C., Symphony) Lucien DeGroote for Schumann’s Concerto in A Minor; and Paul A. McEnderfer, violinist and member of the music faculty at Furman University, for Tchaikovsky’s Concerto in D Major.
1966
The Symphony performs its first free afternoon “Kinder Concert” for children at David Millard Junior High School Auditorium and a free afternoon Junior and Senior High School Concert at the City Auditorium at the end of the Fifth Season; “Kinder Konzerts,” as they came to be known, continue but move to a Christmas event in December, with admission charged.
Courtesy of Asheville Citizen-Times
1973
For its Thirteenth Season, the Symphony moves to the First Baptist Church while the City Auditorium is renovated as part of the new Civic Center; it stays here through the end of its Fourteenth Season in the spring of 1975; the choir of the First Baptist Church, under the direction of Charles F. Crocker, performs Brahms’ Song of Destiny with the Symphony for the final concert.
Photo courtesy of Asheville Citizen-Times
1975
The Symphony returns to the new Civic Center for the first concert of its Fifteenth Season in October; its second concert of the season, on December 13, 1975, is the formal opening of the newly renovated auditorium, now renamed the Thomas Wolfe Auditorium.
1977
To conclude its Sixteenth Season, the Symphony performs Carl Orff’s Carmina Burana, with the Asheville Symphony Chorus, the Western Carolina University Concert Choir, the Western Carolina University Chorus and the Western Carolina Community Chorus; choruses are prepared by Joyce Farwell, Sallie Whalen and James E. Dooley.
1978
At the March 1978 concert of the Seventeenth Season, the Symphony performs Concerto for Bluegrass Band and Orchestra (Bluegrass Festival Suite) by North Carolina composer Carl Rhodes, with the McClain Family Band of Kentucky as guest artists; the composer wrote the piece for the McClains in 1974, who premiered it with the Louisville Symphony.
Photo courtesy of Asheville Citizen-Times
1968
For its Eighth Season the Symphony moves to the City Auditorium.
1969
Tenor opera star Jan Peerce appears in January 1969, as guest soloist, the first of many notable musical artists to play with the Symphony; Peerce is originally scheduled for the Symphony’s regular Saturday concert on January 18, but when he is invited to sing that night at a Washington gala prior to the inauguration of Richard Nixon, the Symphony reschedules the performance to Sunday night, January 19.
1970
For Tenth Anniversary Season, the Symphony expands its subscription series to five concerts.
1971
To climax the Symphony’s Tenth Anniversary Season, soprano Phyllis Curtin is guest soloist on May 8, 1971; a gala champagne reception to benefit the orchestra is held after the concert at the Governor’s Western Residence at $10.00 per person; Ms. Curtin appears as guest soloist again in November 1980.
The WelchYears
1976
Helen Sorton resigns as Symphony manager at the end of the Fifteenth Season; she is replaced by Patricia Berlet, the Symphony’s principal violist, until Jane B. McNeill becomes manager after the first concert of the Sixteenth Season. After the death of Joseph E. Fischer in an automobile accident, Robert B. Welch of the music faculty of Western Carolina University becomes artistic director and conductor for the Sixteenth Season; he will serve through the Symphony’s 20th Anniversary Season, 1980-81.
At the beginning of the Eighteenth Season, the Symphony establishes a Strings in the Schools program, under the leadership of Lucia Ward, the chair of the Guild’s education committee; at the end of the season, 196 students from 20 schools perform a Showcase for Strings at Asheville High School on June 5, 1979; by the end of the 23rd Season in 1984, there are over 350 students from 36 schools participating.
1979 1980
Randall Rosenbaum becomes Symphony’s fourth general manager, serves until 1982. The Symphony celebrates its 20th Anniversary Season, the final season for Music Director Robert B. Welch; he begins the first concert of the season with Brahms’ Academic Festival Overture, which opened the Symphony’s First Season in 1961; soprano Phyllis Curtin is guest soloist in her second Symphony appearance.
Ensembles from the Symphony perform Christmas Concerts at the Biltmore House in November and December, beginning an annual tradition that continues for several years.
The Baker Years
1981
James Dooley, president of the Symphony board, announces the appointment of Robert Hart Baker, founding music director of the Connecticut Philharmonic, as the “first full-time resident conductor and music director,” in April 1981, shortly before Robert Welch’s final concert. Robert Hart Baker conducts the Symphony’s first concert of its 21st Season, beginning a 22-year tenure during which the orchestra grows in size, professionalism, musicianship and number of subscribers. John Bridges writes in the Asheville CitizenTimes, “Larger in size, more resonant in sound and with marked improvement in technical accomplishment, the orchestra was a genuine pleasure to listen to. The level of this first performance also indicates what Asheville Symphony audiences may expect to enjoy in the future with the continued work of Baker.”
1983
The Emerson String Quartet performs back-to-back concerts in Asheville; on Thursday, December 1, it performs with the Symphony at Thomas Wolfe Auditorium, then on Friday, December 2, for the Asheville Chamber Music Series at UNC Asheville.
1985 continued The Symphony celebrates its 25th Anniversary with a “Silver Season,” 1985-86, that includes as guest artists pianist Alexander Toradze, duo-pianists Joan Yarbrough and Robert Cowan, cellist David Finckel, violinist Daniel Phillips and a return engagement of the David Aiken National Touring Company in Amahl and The Night Visitors; the Symphony launches a “Drive 25” fund-raising campaign with a goal of $35,000 and raises $39,490 in private contributions.
1984
The Symphony purchases a concert grand piano for its rehearsal hall in the Civic Center; the Guild contributes over half the cost. Winners of the Guild’s Young Artist Competition, all pianists, perform at the Symphony’s Pops Concert in May. The Symphony performs with the David Aiken National Touring Company production of Amahl and the Night Visitors at the First Baptist Church, under the direction of Charles Crocker, with the First Baptist Church Choir in December; Aiken, who sang in the famous first production broadcast on NBC-TV in 1951 under Menotti’s own direction, sings and is stage director.
The Symphony performs Verdi’s Requiem for the first time in April with choruses from Western Carolina University, James Dooley and Robert Holquist, directors; Mars Hill College, Joel Reed, director; and MontreatAnderson College, Ed Carwithen, director.
1986
Marcia Dean Onieal becomes sixth general manager, serves until 1989; Elisabeth P. Varner joins the staff and continues into her present position as Office Administrator. The Guild presents the Symphony performance of “Ghostbusters,” a sold-out children’s Sunday matinee concert in February.
Asheville Junior Symphony begins as an offshoot of the Strings in the Schools program; under the direction of Robert Hart Baker, some 70 fifth grade through junior high students perform a 45-minute program of selections from Haydn, Mendelssohn and Prokofiev in Lipsinky Auditorium at UNC Asheville.
1982
Ellen Sandweiss becomes the Symphony’s fifth general manager, serves until 1986; Sally Keeney joins the staff as personnel manager, continues into her present position as Artistic Administrator.
The Guild produces “Picnic with Dinah,” on July 2, a “Patriotic Pops” concert with the Symphony and guest artist Dinah Shore at the horse arena of the Western North Carolina Agricultural Center; the concert concludes with Tchaikovsky’s 1812 Overture, complete with 16 electrically-charged cannons. The Symphony combines with Asheville Junior Symphony for the first time at Bele Chere, for “Symphony In The Sky,” on the roof of the Haywood Street Garage on July 26.
Two weeks prior to the opening of the 26th season in October, the Symphony offers a free open rehearsal in September during “Asheville Symphony Month.”
The Symphony accompanies a concert by the North Carolina Dance Theatre in April at the Thomas Wolfe Auditorium; it will perform with the Dance Theatre again in 1983 and 1984.
The Symphony performs a gala concert in July to kick off the 1982 Bele Chere festival; flamenco guitarist Carlos Montoya performs solo selections; the program concludes with Tchaikovsky’s 1812 Overture; the performance is conducted by Robert Lyall, music director of the Oak Ridge Symphony Orchestra.
Jazz trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie performs with the Symphony, October 1982.
1985
The Guild and the Symphony present “Happy 50th Birthday, Babar!” a Sunday afternoon children’s concert in January.
Photo courtesy of Asheville Citizen-Times At the end of the 24th Season, the Guild produces “Rhapsody in Blue - Take Off with the Asheville Symphony” as its third annual Pops Concert; the June 1 event is held at American Enka’s airplane hangar at Asheville Regional Airport.
Also in June, to initiate the Symphony’s 25th Anniversary season, the Guild begins a fund-raising program of “Musical Feasts,” parties held at private homes; 15 events are held the first year; it expands to 19 the following year, becoming an annual Guild project and a major source of support for the Symphony.
Courtesy of Asheville Citizen-Times
1986 continued Cellist Janos Starker is guest artist for Tchaikovsky’s Variations on a Rococo Theme in October; the Saturday night concert is in memory of Joseph Vanderwart, founder of the Asheville Chamber Music Series; Starker, a longtime friend of Joseph Vanderwart’s, appears the following afternoon to open the Chamber Music Series; Russian pianist Bella Davidovich performs Grieg’s Piano Concerto with the Symphony in November.
1987
The Guild and the Symphony present “Carnival of the Animals,” a Sunday afternoon children’s concert, in February. The Symphony closes its 26th Season with 500 new subscribers, bringing the total to a record high of 1,900 attendees.
1988
The Guild and the Symphony present “Music is My Life: The Garfield Family Concert,” a Sunday afternoon children’s concert, in March. The Guild returns to the Western North Carolina Agricultural Center in June to produce “Pops Goes Country” with the Symphony and guest artist Ronnie Milsap; Symphony players also perform with their own groups: Braidstream (folk and new age), Mary’s Family Band (traditional bluegrass), Asheville Flute Quartet, the Orengo Band (Latin music) and Maddy and the Music Masters (popular). Pianist Dewitt Tipton and the Symphony perform the rarelyheard Piano Concerto by Caryl Florio, resident composer of the Biltmore Estate in the early 20th century on October 15.
1989 continued In November Saxophonist James Houlik performs Concerto for Tenor Saxophone and Orchestra by North Carolina composer Robert Ward and the world premiere of Caryl Florio’s Introduction, Theme and Variations for Alto Saxophone and Orchestra, edited by Robert Hart Baker from the composer’s manuscript in the New York Public Library.
1990
The Guild and the Symphony present “Adventure on the High C’s,” a Sunday afternoon children’s concert in March. The Symphony performs Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony for the first time with choruses from Western Carolina University, directed by James Dooley, Mars Hill College, directed by Joel Reed, and UNC Asheville, directed by Dewitt Tipton.
The Symphony’s 27th Season introduces four “Matinees Musicales,” chamber concerts in addition to the six Masterworks concerts at Thomas Wolfe Auditorium; the matinees are held at the Walker Arts Center, Asheville School, with the Symphony’s String Quartet, Woodwind Quintet and Brass Quintet; two weeks prior to the October opening concert, the Symphony offers a free open rehearsal during “Asheville Symphony Month.” Pianist Christopher O’Riley is guest soloist with the Symphony in November for Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 3.
The Asheville Junior Symphony, in its fifth year as a full orchestra, changes its name to the Asheville Symphony Youth Orchestra, under the direction of Sidney Baker, the Symphony’s principal cellist.
The Guild produces “Pops Downtown” in June with the Symphony and guest artist Tony Bennett at the Asheville Civic Center.
1989
The Guild and the Symphony present “Sounds of the Super Heroes,” a Sunday afternoon children’s concert in February. The Symphony sponsors violinist Itzhak Perlman in recital on March 4, 1989, during its 28th Season. Pianist Misha Dichter performs Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 4 with the Symphony in October during its 29th Season.
The Asheville Symphony Chamber Orchestra begins a concert series at the Walker Arts Center at the Asheville School which continues through 1991.
Philip Messner becomes seventh general manager, serves until 1991.
The Symphony sponsors violinist Itzhak Perlman in an encore recital featuring an all-new program on May 15, 1990. The Symphony opens its 30th Anniversary Season on September 22 with a Masterworks concert featuring pianist Leonard Pennario performing Khachaturian’s Concerto for Piano and Orchestra; Robert Hart Baker, in his 10th year in Asheville, conducts the Asheville Symphony Chamber Orchestra, with 26 players, in a Sunday matinee performance on September 30 at the Walker Arts Center, Asheville School.
1991
Margaret Gormley becomes the eighth general manager and serves until 1996. The Guild sponsors “An Afternoon with Disney,” a children’s concert in February. The Symphony sponsors soprano Leontyne Price in a recital on April 27.
1992
Edvard Tchivzhel, formerly music director and principal conductor of the Karelian Symphony Orchestra of National Television and Radio in the U.S.S.R., is guest conductor for the Symphony’s performance of Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 4. in November.
1993
The Guild and the Symphony present “Talk to the Animals,” a Sunday afternoon children’s concert in February. The Symphony opens its 33rd Season with a free mid-day, pre-Labor Day “Pops in the Park” concert at City/ County Plaza on Sunday, September 5; a new family series of Sunday Matinees begins in October, followed by a second matinee in March 1994; a special Halloween Concert is also held in October at the Diana Wortham Theatre.
1996
The Symphony closes its 36th Season in May with “A Tribute to the Boston Pops” in the Asheville Civic Center Arena; after intermission, guest artist Shirley Jones performs “An Evening with Shirley Jones,” a selection of songs by Rodgers and Hammerstein, Meredith Wilson and others, accompanied by her pianist Dan Micheli, with area musicians Byron Hedgepeth on drums and Ian Bracchitta on bass. Alice Jolley becomes the Symphony’s ninth manager with new title of executive director and serves one season.
1997
Steven R. Hageman becomes the Symphony’s tenth manager and second executive director and continues to serve; the Symphony’s first website goes online in May.
At the end of the 30th Season in the spring and before the beginning of the 31st Season in the fall, the Symphony Board initiates a “Community Awareness” program, informally known as “Save Our Symphony,” to tackle a $100,000 debt that had accumulated over several seasons; by the end of the 31st Season in 1992, most of the debt has been erased. Robert Hart Baker begins his second decade as music director and conductor at the beginning of the 31st Season; a free “Pops in the Park” concert on September 1 raises $4,154 in donations and sales of box lunches, T-shirts, drinks and season subscriptions, bringing the emergency fund-raising total to approximately $63,000. Dewitt Tipton begins a new Asheville Symphony Chorus, which sings an all-Mozart program in its first concert in November at First Presbyterian Church and performs at the Symphony’s Holiday Pops Concert in December.
1994
The 33rd Season’s next-tolast concert is the “Maestro’s Birthday Bash,” celebrating the 40th birthday of Robert Hart Baker; pianist Eugene Istomin plays Mozart’s Piano Concert No. 21 (“Elvira Madigan”); the season concludes with “A Sonic Spectacular” that includes Carl Orff’s Carmina Burana with the Asheville Symphony Chorus. The Asheville Symphony Youth Orchestra becomes the Asheville-Buncombe Youth Orchestra, a separate organization, under the direction of Ron Clearfield, the Symphony’s principal cellist. Annual “Pops in the Parks” Labor Day concerts, begun in 1991, are discontinued as an annual event.
The Symphony performs a Labor Day Pops Concert, “Sports Trivia,” in City County Plaza, the first since 1993 and the last until 2010. For its 37th Season, the Symphony celebrates Asheville’s 200th Anniversary with concerts that include Symphony No. 1 by Caryl Florio, resident composer at the Biltmore House, as a tribute to the importance the Vanderbilts placed on music, Bartok’s Rumanian Folk Dances and selections from Lamar Stringfield’s From the Southern Mountains Suite and The Blue Ridge; the program notes Stringfield’s role as the founder of the first Asheville Symphony.
Photo courtesy of Asheville Citizen-Times
1998
The Asheville Symphony Children’s Chorus forms under the direction of Susan Hensley, arts education supervisor for the Buncombe County Schools.
Stephen Burns 1998 continued The Symphony’s 38th Season features as guest artists a combination of “rising stars” and “grand masters”; among the rising stars are pianist Alan Gampel, who three years earlier, at age 30, had won the Chopin Prize at the Artur Rubinstein International Piano Competition in Israel, and Russian-born violinist Philip Quint, who had made his American debut at Avery Fisher Hall in New York three years prior; Gampel performs Mozart’s Piano Concert in C Minor in September; Quint performs Lalo’s Symphonie Espagnole for Violin and Orchestra in October; among the grand masters are trumpeter Stephen Burns, making a return appearance, who performs Hummel’s Trumpet Concerto in E Major in November, and pianist Dimitri Ratser, also making a return appearance, who performs Rachmaninoff’s Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini in April 1999, completing a Rachmaninoff cycle with the Symphony.
2000
The Symphony partners with the Asheville Lyric Opera to produce Puccini’s La Bohème at Thomas Wolfe Auditorium in January, the first full production of the new opera company. During the Symphony’s 39th season, violinist Philip Quint makes a return engagement to play Paganini’s Violin Concerto No. 1 in D Major in February.
2001 continued The Symphony partners with the Asheville Lyric Opera to produce Gilbert and Sullivan’s The Pirates of Penzance in Thomas Wolfe Auditorium in May.
2003
The Symphony completes its 42nd Season in April and announces that the 43rd season, beginning in September, will be Robert Hart Baker’s final season as music director and conductor; the Board begins a two-year search to find Baker’s replacement; Henry Janiec, former music director and conductor of the Brevard Music Center, joins the Symphony as adviser to assist in planning programs for the 2004-2005 season. The Symphony’s 43rd Season begins in September with a concert directed by Guest Conductor Enrique Barrios, music director of the Mexican National Opera Company; the season’s second concert in October is directed by guest conductor Milen Nachev, formerly principal conductor of the Bulgarian National Radio Symphony Orchestra in Sofia; the third concert in November is conducted by George Del Gobbo, music director of the Columbus (Georgia) Symphony Orchestra.
The Asheville Symphony Children’s Chorus makes its debut at the annual Holiday Pops Concert in December.
1999
The Symphony concludes its 38th Season with “A Night at the Oscars,” a Pops Concert in May, with the Asheville Symphony Children’s Chorus and a special guest appearance by actress (and Asheville resident) Andie MacDowell. The Symphony’s 39th season includes Peter Maxwell Davies’ Mavis in Las Vegas: Theme and Variations for Orchestra (1997) in October; guest artists include pianist Oleg Marshev in November. On December 31, 1999, the Asheville Symphony Chamber Orchestra performs a Millennium New Year’s Eve concert at the skating rink of the Asheville Civic Center; the audience welcomes the year 2000 skating to waltzes by Johann Strauss, Jr.
Robert Hart Baker becomes ill with pancreatitis in Baltimore in April; Assistant Conductor Leonora Thom conducts final concert of the season, a “Choral Spectacular,” featuring bass-baritone John Cheek in William Walton’s “Belshazzar’s Feast” and the Asheville Symphony Chorus, the Asheville Symphony Children’s Chorus, the Asheville Choral Society and the UNCA Community Chorus; Sally Keeney, the Symphony’s artistic administrator, relays the performance over her cell phone to Robert Hart Baker’s hospital room. Because of Robert Hart Baker’s illness, the 40th season opens in September under Guest Conductor David Bowden, music director of the Terre Haute Symphony Orchestra; Maurice Peress, a former music director of Kansas City Philharmonic, conducts the October concert; Paul Polivnick, music director of the Oberlin Conservatory Orchestras, conducts the November concert.
2001
Robert Hart Baker returns for the February concert and the remainder of the 40th Season; the Symphony performs North Carolina composer Russell Peck’s Harmonic Rhythm, Timpani Concerto (2000), with Symphony principal timpanist Byron Hedgepeth as soloist in April.
2004
The Symphony concludes its 43rd season with Robert Hart Baker conducting his final concert in April; Baker is named Conductor Laureate from the stage by board president James Topp; the Asheville Citizen-Times reports, “He leaves an orchestra that he has developed into a fine professional organization. He has given all subscribers to the ASO’s concert seasons the best of his considerable musical skills in producing an orchestra which at the start of every concert season has revealed more ability and more musicianship than it showed in the previous years.”
2004 continued The Symphony begins its 44th Season with three concerts conducted by candidates for the position of music director; Daniel Meyer, resident conductor of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra and music director of the Pittsburgh Symphony Youth Orchestra, directs in September, with violinist Nicolas Kendall performing Sibelius’ Violin Concerto in D Minor; Alexander Mickelthwate, assistant conductor of the Atlanta Symphony, directs in October, with pianist Jonathan Biss performing Mendelssohn’s Piano Concert No. 2; Timothy Hankewich, a resident conductor of the Kansas City Symphony, directs in November, with soprano Rachel Holland performing Strauss’s Four Last Songs for Soprano and Orchestra. The Symphony names Daniel Meyer as its new conductor and music director in December.
2006
The Symphony opens its 46th Season in September with “Celebrating Black Mountain College,” featuring a performance of Lou Harrison’s orchestra version of John Cage’s Suite for Toy Piano, which premiered at Black Mountain College in 1948. Music Director Daniel Meyer begins adding contemporary and new music to Symphony concerts, including Lucas Richman’s Concerto for Percussion and Orchestra: The Healer, performed by percussionist Timothy Adams Jr, for whom the piece was written, in November.
Courtesy of Asheville Citizen-Times
2008
In conjunction with the March performance of Richard Danielpour’s Pastime, a song-cycle for baritone and orchestra paying tribute to the Negro Baseball League and three of its players, John Gibson, Hank Aaron and Jackie Robinson, the Symphony sponsors a “community collaboration” called “Spring Training: Baseball in Black and White”; the week-long event features a youth poetry contest, a performance by spoken word artists, a poetry and dance event and an improvisational theatre evening; collaborators are Asheville City Schools, Asheville Tourists, Lake Eden Arts Festival, UNC Asheville, WCQS, YMI Cultural Center, W.C Reid Center of the City of Asheville Parks, Recreation and Cultural Arts Department, Stephens-Lee Alumni Association and Asheville Playback Theatre.
The Meyer Years
2005
The Symphony’s 44th Season continues with two concerts by guest conductors, Israel Getzov, assistant conductor for the Arkansas Symphony Orchestra, in February, and David Bowden, music director of the Terre Haute Symphony Orchestra, in March; Daniel Meyer returns in April to conduct Orff’s Carmina Burana, with the Asheville Symphony Chorus, the Western Carolina University Concert Choir and the Western Carolina Community Chorus.
With the 46th Season, the Symphony expands its subscription series to seven concerts; the season also includes a Holiday Pops in December, conducted for the first time by Daniel Meyer, with a matinee and evening performance, and two concerts by the Asheville Symphony Chorus. The Symphony’s 45th Season, its first full season under Daniel Meyer, opens in September; violinist Nicolas Kendall, who played during Daniel Meyer’s audition concert the previous season, returns to perform Vivaldi’s Concerto for Violin; other young rising stars who appear as guest artists during the first half of the season are violinist Jennifer Orchard and cellist Mikhail Istomin in October; and pianist Berenika Zakrzewski, who uses “Berenika” as her professional name, in November.
2007
The Symphony opens its 47th Season in September with a concert that includes Christopher Theofanidis’s Rainbow Body (2000); other contemporary works during the season include William Jackson’s Fantasia on Scottish Themes (2007) in October, performed by the composer, a native of Scotland and an Asheville resident; John Adams’s “The Chairman Dances” from Nixon in China (1985); and Richard Danielpour’s Pastime (2006) in March 2008. The 47th Season features “rising star” guest artists including violinist Jennifer Frautschi in September, cellist Zuill Bailey in November, baritone Gregg Baker in March 2008 and soprano Sarah Elizabeth Wolfson and baritone Craig Verm in April 2008.
Photo: Diane Hammar The 47th Season closes with a May concert performing Stravinsky’s Petrushka, featuring the Red Herring Puppets of Asheville.
