The Woman Behind Performing Arts

For Mary Adair Trumbly, bringing art to the Plateau is an unquenchable passion that powers her days and nights.

Mary Adair Trumbly is well-known in Highlands.

She’s been a resident, business owner, and valued leader for more than 20 years.

“Mary Adair sets a high bar in our communities for giving back (Highlands Chamber of Commerce, Rotary, Highlands Hospital board) and arts collaborations (Highlands-Cashiers Chamber Music Festival, The Bascom, The Center for Life Enrichment) to name only a few,” says Nancy Gould-Aaron, the Executive Director of the Chamber Music Festival. “This is truly welldeserved recognition.” be able to accommodate more shows as well as expand the caliber of performers. She notes that this is because the stage is larger, and the technical capabilities are greater.

“I am hoping to bring Rhythm of the Dance, the National Dance Troup of Ireland for next season,” she says. “It will still have the same intimate feel,” she says of the new center while also noting that the existing performance facility will now be known as the Martin Lipscomb Theater.

She credits the strong vision-oriented board of the PAC for making this expansion a reality for all performing arts groups in Highlands to utilize a shared space.

Sarah is a daughter of Appalachia. However, growing up in Virginia her early interest was in Classical music. After attending a music camp at Appalachian State University, she decided to attend the university and major in music. Most of her career has been teaching, whether in classroom settings, private lessons, or church choirs. Her passion for music, teaching, and the mountains of western North Carolina led her to her current teaching position.

“I was hired to teach music for Blue Ridge School and start a new music program for grades 7-12 for Blue Ridge Early College,” Sarah says. She started in 2015 at a time when Blue Ridge Early College had not had a music program for several years. “I tried to introduce as much music I could in a short amount of time. I also wanted to try to give greater opportunities when possible. Students performed at PTO meetings, musicals and caroling at The Village Green.”

JAM has more than 50 chapters regionally, and according to their website the organization believes that “children who are actively engaged in traditional mountain music are more connected and better prepared to strengthen their communities for future generations.”

Sarah says, “It is my hope that the young people who decide to remain on the Plateau will have developed a greater appreciation for, and knowledge of, music and other arts, and draw upon to benefit the area.”

Sarah founded the Blue Ridge chapter of JAM ((Junior Appalachian Musicians) as an after-school club.

“I believe in volunteerism,” she says, “Community is only as good as you make it.” This conviction and attitude have had a notable impact on the arts in the community.

Mary Adair’s infectious enthusiasm and endless work in support of the arts has been pivotal in the development of a new performing arts center for the plateau.

The result was a renewed interest and an outpouring of support from community members with both financial gifts and donated instruments. Sarah found other resources, too. She applied for grants which enabled her to establish an “Artist In Residence” position at the school with Bryan Heller teaching piano.

Says Heller, “Sarah genuinely cares for all of her students. Her dedication, patience and passion for teaching is inspiring. I have witnessed Sarah go above and beyond what is required

The first year 32 Blue Ridge students signed up. With support from Mountain Youth Charities, the program expanded to include students from the Summit Charter School as well as homeschoolers. Today, the 501(c)(3) program has six faculty offering instruction in guitar, banjo, mandolin, and fiddle. Sarah finds herself on the weekends scouring pawn shops for more instruments as the student demand has exceeded all expectations. Her endeavors are widening the circle of musicians who preserve the legacy of mountain music.

Area residents and visitors will enjoy hearing the JAM musicians at upcoming events like the Cashiers Valley Leaf Festival this month.

Mary Adair is no stranger to the stage. She grew up in Oklahoma, of Osage Indian descent, and attended the University of Oklahoma to study ballet under premier ballet dancers Miguel Terekhov and Yvonne Chateau, one of the “Five Moons” Native American prima ballerinas.

“I love all the arts, but I always consider myself a dancer,” she reflects. It’s the origin of her passion for the performing arts. So, it was only natural that after a career in curating fine art, including ten years owning the Summit One art gallery here, that she would return her attention to enriching performance culture as Executive Director of the Highlands Performing Arts Center.

Mary Adair has guided the Highlands PAC since 2010. She is percipient in her estimation of Highlands as a cosmopolitan community with wide ranging interests and experiences. “The dinner conversations here are wonderful,” she observes. This keen perspective has informed what she refers to as the “bluegrass, Broadway, and retro-rock” approach to programming at the Highlands PAC.

She adds “One of the current goals is to expand our audience and entice a younger demographic.”

Board member Cindy Trevathan says, “Mary Adair’s infectious enthusiasm and endless work in support of the arts has been pivotal in the development of a new performing arts center for the plateau. We have worked together for the past seven years and whenever I felt a loss of faith in our goal, Mary Adair provided the energy and support to keep us going.”

While planning a selection of entertaining performances, community members is one way Mary Adair shapes the arts on the Plateau. She considers her endeavor to offer the PAC Youth Theater program in the Highlands School as her most significant contribution. More than 70 percent of lower school students participate with high school students receiving educational opportunities in the technical aspects of theater. Mary Adair says “This program promotes creativity and builds self-esteem.”

A great variety of music, theater, and film performances fill the calendar through the end of the year, the curtain call on a momentous 2022 season for Highlands PAC.

by Ann Self

by Ann Self

This aim will likely be realized with the opening of the new Highlands Performing Arts Center last month. The venue will