An Appalachian Summer Festival Playbill 2026

JUNE 27 - AUGUST 1, 2026

CALENDAR

JUNE

27 - AUGUST 1, 2026

THANK YOU

Generous support from our lead sponsors enables us to present diverse artistic programming and sustain a level of excellence we have enjoyed since 1984. We wish to thank the corporate and media sponsors that proudly support An Appalachian Summer Festival!

Catsman Foundation

WELCOME TO AN APPALACHIAN SUMMER FESTIVAL

For 42 years, our community has gathered to celebrate the arts and enjoy time with family and friends. Whether you’re joining us for a single day or you proudly call the High Country home, we’re delighted to share this season with you.

This year’s festival spans 250 years of American history across four venues, showcasing music, theatre, dance, film, and the visual arts. From introducing young audiences to classical music through Peter and the Wolf to honoring iconic performers like Gladys Knight, our programming offers something meaningful for every age. We also celebrate four decades of the Rosen Outdoor Sculpture Walk — an enduring tradition that has brought more than 400 remarkable works of art to our campus.

In a world increasingly shaped by technology and distance, the arts remain a powerful force for connection. Through shared experiences, we laugh, reflect, remember, and imagine the future together.

Whether this is your first festival or your 42nd, welcome — we’re glad you’re here.

With Gratitude,

Elizabeth Auer Executive Director

AN APPALACHIAN SUMMER FESTIVAL ADVISORY COUNCIL

The Advisory Council provides important leadership for An Appalachian Summer Festival by offering overall guidance, fundraising assistance, programming ideas and long-term direction for the series. Advisory Council members are representative of the festival audience and community — providing valuable feedback to the staff, and serving as advocates and community ambassadors for the university and App Summer.

Joe Logan Chair

Carol Berns

Immediate Past Chair

Carol Blumberg

Wendy Brenner

Steven Brooks

Tara Brossa

Penn Broyhill

Eilleen Dempsey

Lynn Eisenberg

Jo Ann Hallmark

Ben Henderson

Edward Hinson

Barbara Moskowitz

Peter Petschauer

Christine Petti

Traci D. Royster

Nancy Schaffel

Sandi Finci Solomon

Liz Neisler Sumner

Wright Tilley

Pam Walker

Ex-Officio Members:

Elizabeth Auer

Executive Director, Arts Engagement & Cultural Resources

Hank Foreman

Director of Development, Arts Engagement & Cultural Resources

Soo Goh

Interim Director, Hayes School of Music

Jamie Parson

Senior Vice Provost

Will Sears

Vice Chancellor, University Advancement

Dr. Neva J. Specht

Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost

THE HISTORY OF AN APPALACHIAN SUMMER FESTIVAL

The origins of An Appalachian Summer Festival date to the early 1980s, when university leaders sought to expand summer programming and strengthen the institution’s role in the region. A highquality arts and cultural series would deepen community partnerships while attracting visitors beyond the High Country.

Chancellor John Thomas and Vice Chancellor Bob Snead led this effort. At the same time, summer residents Arnold and Muriel Rosen were advancing cultural opportunities from another angle. Arnold, a board member of the Chopin Foundation, worked with Robert Chumbley, the foundation’s director in Florida, to explore forming a North Carolina chapter and bringing foundation-sponsored musicians to Boone. Their collaboration led to a series of recitals, and by 1984 the vision took shape as a broader festival that included a residency by the North Carolina Symphony in conjunction with Cannon Music Camp — firmly establishing a classical music foundation.

By 1985, An Appalachian Summer Festival had become a fixture on the High Country’s summer calendar. The Rosens provided the program’s first major financial contribution, joined by vital early support from other key donors — Paul and Faye Broyhill, the Broyhill Family Foundation, Robert G. and Mariam Cannon Hayes, the Cannon Foundation, Martin and Doris Rosen, Satie Hunt Broyhill, James and Louise Broyhill, Robert and Allene

Broyhill Heilman, Willard and Bettie Gortner, Eileen Lackey Sharpe, and Bernard and Shirley Spector — whose generosity helped sustain the festival’s growth.

The Chopin Foundation musicians became the Appalachian Chamber Ensemble in 1985 and, with support from the Broyhill family, were later named the Broyhill Chamber Ensemble. Early seasons also featured the North Carolina Symphony, North Carolina Dance Theatre, the Acting Company directed by John Houseman, and the Smithsonian Lecture Series. Sculptor Richard Hunt helped shape the festival’s visual arts component, launched with support from Martin and Doris Rosen.

As the festival evolved, its schedule was condensed into a more focused season. In 1989, management transitioned to the newly established Office of Cultural Affairs. Artistic leadership from Chumbley, followed by Gil Morgenstern, helped define the festival’s identity and uphold its standards of excellence. In the decades since, the festival has expanded its programming, broadened its audience, and built enduring support — while remaining rooted in its founding commitment to artistic excellence, innovation, and audience development. Its impact has earned national recognition, with features in The New York Times, Southern Living, and US Airways Magazine, and designation as one of the “Top 20 Events in the Southeast” by the Southeast Tourism Society.

APP SUMMER ‘26 and

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FOUNDERS SOCIETY

CHARTER MEMBERS

The Broyhill Family Foundation: J. Edgar & Satie H. Broyhill, James T. & Louise R. Broyhill, Paul H. & Faye A. Broyhill

Armfield & Rachel Rivers Coffey

Willard A. & Bettie B. Gortner

Robert E. & Allene B. Heilman

Robert G. & Mariam Cannon Hayes

Berge H. & Meliné A. Markarian

Budd & Nanette Mayer

Arnold P. & Muriel S. Rosen

Martin L. & Doris B. Rosen

Robert & Minnie Snead

J. Bernard & Shirley S. Spector

Robert L. & Lillian A. Turchin

2002 MEMBERS

John E. & Faye B. Cooper

Buddy & Charlotte Halpert

Florence R. Hecht

D. Grady Moretz Jr. & Reba Smith Moretz

Peter & Joni Webb Petschauer

2013 MEMBERS

Connie Adams

Bonnie & Jamie Schaefer

2015 MEMBERS

Frank & Kay Borkowski

Doug & Teresa Johnson

Ralph & Venda Lerch

Ralph Glaser, Jr. & John A. Pfeifer

Neil & Nancy Schaffel

Mark & Nancy Tafeen

2019 MEMBERS

Explore Boone (Wright Tilley)

Wendy & Mike Brenner

Sue & Steve Chase

Creekside Electronics (Lane Robinson)

Susan & Harvey Durham

Lynn & Barry Eisenberg

Adrienne Finkel

Barbara & Larry Freiman

Mary & Nick Friedman

Goodnight Brothers (Jim Goodnight & Bill Goodnight)

Susie Greene

Ralph Grier

Sandy & Marc Kadyk

Helen & Roger Michelson

Nanci Tolbert Nance & Larry Nance

Peabody’s Wine & Beer Merchants (Jeff Collins)

Edie Peiser

Tina & Gary Silverstein

SkyBest Communications (Edward Hinson & Karen Powell)

Sandi Finci Solomon

Letty & Keith Stoneman

Cyn D Weaver

Helene & Stephen Weicholz

2024 MEMBERS

Bill Barbour

Bettie & John Bond

Lainey & Steven Brooks

Natalie & Penn Broyhill

Broyhill Chamber Ensemble

Barbara Watkins Daye

Jana Duke

Chuck & Anna Eyler

Ellen Harrell

Mary Underwood & Ben Henderson

Anne C. & Dr. Myron Liptzin

Jenny & Wayne Miller

Carmen Patella

Christine Petti

Susan Pettyjohn

Denise Ringler

Pam Walker

On July 22, 2000, the university created a Founders Society to recognize the supporters whose generosity and hard work helped build An Appalachian Summer Festival. The program owes its success in large part to these extraordinary individuals.

FOR CHRISTINE PETTI ROUND OF APPLAUSE!

Christine Petti’s extraordinary and visionary commitment to Appalachian State University stands as a powerful testament to the transformative role of the arts in education, community, and human connection. Through her $1 million philanthropic commitment, she has created a lasting legacy that will inspire generations and elevate Appalachian’s position as a national leader in arts access and engagement.

Christine’s generosity ensures this reach continues to grow, expanding access through subsidized tickets, enriching educational resources, and thoughtfully curated programming that brings learning to life.

“The APPlause! series is committed to offering accessible performance opportunities to K-12 students in perpetuity thanks to the generosity of the aptly named Christine Petti Opportunity Fund,” says Christy Chenausky, Director of Arts Education and Outreach. “This type of sustaining support will open a world of opportunity for thousands of students in our region. APPlause! underscores a fantastic visit to the beautiful Boone campus of Appalachian State University with the magic of live performances. We are so grateful for the impact of this gift and look forward to welcoming new students each season.”

This is philanthropy at its most powerful. Bold, enduring, and deeply human. Thank you, Chris, for your remarkable leadership, your steadfast belief in the arts, and your commitment to ensuring every child has the opportunity to experience their power. Your legacy will resonate across the university and throughout our region for generations to come.

IN MEMORIAM

This past year, An Appalachian Summer Festival lost special members of its family, whose leadership, support, and generosity nurtured the growth and development of the summer series. The memory of these beloved friends lives on in our hearts.

JOHN JAMES BOND passed away on October 29, 2025, at age 85. Educated at Kentucky Military Institute and Centre College in Kentucky, he earned his PhD in plant pathology at NC State in 1971 and joined the App State biology faculty, where he mentored generations of students before retiring as professor emeritus in 1996. John and his wife Bettie, married for more than 60 years, were devoted patrons of the performing arts and familiar faces at the Schaefer Center, where they regularly supported and enjoyed An Appalachian Summer Festival and Appalachian Arts events. To echo his obituary, John will be remembered as a gentleman and a noble soul.

JAMES C. “JIM” GOODNIGHT JR. was a loyal supporter of An Appalachian Summer Festival and many App State programs, as well as a beloved friend, colleague, and co-owner of Boone's Goodnight Brothers Inc. Following his passing on September 15, 2025 at age 83, his cousin and business partner Bill shared: “Jim was not only a respected leader and mentor, but also a trusted friend to so many. His vision, dedication, and genuine care for people shaped our company and touched countless lives. We will remember him for his integrity, generosity, and unwavering commitment to our Goodnight Brothers family and community. While we feel this loss deeply, we are grateful for the legacy he leaves behind.”

NANCY TAFEEN, who passed away on July 7, 2025, is remembered for her quiet generosity, deep love of family, and steadfast commitment to the arts. A longtime member of the advisory council for An Appalachian Summer Festival, Nancy, alongside her late husband Dr. Mark Tafeen, was a devoted champion of the arts at Appalachian. Together with dear friends Tina and Gary Silverstein, they strengthened our arts community in meaningful and lasting ways. Nancy established family endowments in the Hayes School of Music to support students with financial need, helping aspiring musicians access transformative educational opportunities. Nancy and Mark also shared a passion for regional art and sculpture and were dedicated supporters of the Turchin Center for the Visual Arts. Though she never sought recognition, her generosity left a lasting impact across the High Country and Florida through her support of cultural and community initiatives. Above all, Nancy treasured her family. She held dear the memory of Mark and found immense joy in her children, Rebecca and Peter, along with her four grandchildren and three great grandchildren, who were the light of her life. Her legacy of grace, humility, and generosity lives on through the many lives she touched and the arts community she helped sustain.

FRIENDS

OF AN APPALACHIAN

SUMMER FESTIVAL

VOLUNTEER COORDINATOR

Harper Crowder

SUPERVISORS

Bill Barbour

Anindita Das

Jennifer Dotson

Diana Latendresse

Jackie McInturff

Carmen Patella

Pam Walker

VOLUNTEERS

Ben Alexander-Eitzman

Judy Alexander-Eitzman

Francine Barr

Barbara Barghothi

Judy Carlson

Deb Chalfant

Kerry Clark

Carl Cordini

Rosa Dargan-Powers

Sandy Davis

Barbara Daye

Susan Graham

Candace Hall

Susan Hazlewood

Ben Henderson

Tuney Henson

Barbara Hunsucker

Robin Hunt

Rebecca Kaenzig Hutchins

Aviva Kahn

Dale Kirkley

Beth Lyons

Amber Mellon

Ray Moretz

Sally Orr

Sandra Perry

Phoebe Pollitt

Joanne Puliatti

Kim Reese

Kitty Rominger

Traci Royster

Mary Rupp

Sharon Shew

Joanie Shirley

Robert Shirley

Deanne Smith

Ineke Thomas

Carol Thompson

Nanci Tolbert Nance

Jeannie Tygielski

Mary Whisenant

Jim Zellner

Joyce Zellner

Office of Arts Engagement and Cultural Resources

STAFF STUDENT EMPLOYEES

ACADEMIC AFFAIRS

Dr. Heather Norris Chancellor

Dr. Neva J. Specht

Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost

Jamie Parson Senior Vice Provost

Elizabeth Auer Executive Director, Arts Engagement and Cultural Resources

SCHAEFER CENTER FOR THE PERFORMING ARTS

Mary Lois Bolka Director of Business Services

Harper Crowder Box Office and Volunteer Coordinator

Christy Chenausky Director of Arts Education and Outreach

Madison Clark Assistant Director of Marketing

Hank Foreman Director of Development

Adam Greco Business Services Coordinator

Scott Haynes Director of Operations

Lacy Holder Leadership Annual Gifts Officer

Annie Jones

Administrative & Special Events Coordinator

Laura Pritchett Director of Booking & Artist Relations

Conor McKenzie Technical Director

Maura McKenzie Director of Audience Services

Chris Pope Lead Technician

Molly Wells Assistant Artist Relations & Hospitality Manager

Allison West Director of Marketing

TURCHIN CENTER FOR THE VISUAL ARTS

Mandy Bass Lead Installer / Preparator

Mary Lois Bolka Director of Business Services

Shauna Caldwell Associate Curator for Academic Engagement

Christy Chenausky Director of Arts Education and Outreach

Hank Foreman Director of Development

Adam Greco Business Services Coordinator

Lacy Holder Leadership Annual Gifts Officer

Annie Jones

Administrative & Special Events Coordinator

Grace Raimo

Communications and Content Coordinator

Mary Anne Redding Senior Curator

Ashley Sinclair Exhibition Assistant

Hillary Wagner Exhibition Assistant

Abby Williams Visitor Services Coordinator

MARKETING ASSISTANT

Gabrielle Hargrave Social Media Marketing, Communications, 2027

BOX OFFICE STAFF

Matalin Bloomfield Global Studies & French, 2026

Lanie Edelson English, Master of Arts, 2026

Maya Harris Communication Studies, 2028

Abigail Lapp Global Studies & Spanish, 2026

Winifred Rhea-Unruh Geography, Master of Arts, 2026

BACKSTAGE CREW

Hadley Brickman

Theatre Arts, Design & Technology, 2027

Alex Calderon Music Industry Studies, 2029

Avery Edwards Theatre Design & Technology, 2027

Anna Huey

Music Industry Studies,: Recording & Production, 2027

Ethan Rapier

Electronic Media/Broadcasting & Filmmaking, 2026

Shelby Rochez

Music Industry Studies: Marketing & Promotion, 2027

Oliver Sasser

Music Industry Studies,: Recording & Production 2028

Elizabeth Vann

Music Industry Studies,: Recording & Production 2028

VISITOR SERVICES ASSISTANT

Beatrix Johnson Professional Writing, 2026

GALLERY AMBASSADORS

Morgan Brookshire Studio Art, 2025

Reese Clemons Art Education, 2027

Jodie Coble Environmental Science, 2028

Gracelyn Donahue Exercise Science, 2027

Grace Guevarra Studio Art

Chloe Holliday Studio Art, 2027

Kaylinne Jones Art and Visual Culture, 2028

Addison Reed

Syd Tidwell Biology, 2028

WORKSHOP FACILITATOR

/

INTERN

Emily Suit Art Education - B.F.A., 2027

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LIFETIME CUMULATIVE FESTIVAL SUPPORT

Since An Appalachian Summer Festival’s inception in 1984, many individuals, corporations, and foundations have made significant contributions to the creation and growth of the program. This list recognizes their cumulative commitments.

$5,000,000 AND ABOVE

Bonnie & Jamie Schaefer

$1,000,000 - $4,999,999

Blue Ridge Electric Membership Corporation

The Broyhill Family Foundation

Barbara & Lawrence Freiman

Christine Petti

Arnold & Muriel Rosen / Rosen-Schaffel Endowment for Classical Music Programming

The Martin & Doris Rosen Giving Fund

Debbie Rosen Davidson & David Rosen

Charles & Nancy Rosenblatt Foundation

Neil & Nancy Schaffel

$500,000 - $999,999

Mr. Paul H. Broyhill

The Cannon Foundation, Inc.

John, Faye, and Lisa Cooper / Mast General Store

Mariam Cannon Hayes

Nanette & Budd Mayer

Martin & Doris Rosen

SkyBest Communications, Inc.

$250,000 - $499,999

Appalachian Home Care / Ellen Harrell

Lainey & Steve Brooks

Ford Motor Company

J.C. Goodnight

William S. Goodnight

Goodnight Brothers Produce, Inc.

Venda & Ralph Lerch

Northern Trust Company

Robert & Lillian Turchin

Mrs. Nan Van Every

Helene & Stephen Weicholz

Mr. & Mrs. Ken Wilcox

$100,000 - $249,999

Wendy & Mike Brenner

Anthony & Deborah di Santi

The Max & Victoria Dreyfus Foundation, Inc.

Explore Boone Adrienne Finkel

Mr. & Mrs. Willard A. Gortner

Ralph S. Grier

Sandy & Marc Kadyk

Joan & Bernie Keele

Harold Libby & Wanda Rayle-Libby

Mr. & Mrs. Roger Michelson

National Endowment for the Arts

North Carolina Arts Council

Peabody’s Wine & Beer Merchants

Peter & Joni Webb Petschauer

R.Y. & Eileen L. Sharpe Foundation

Tina & Gary Silverstein

J. Bernard & Shirley Spector

Mrs. Allene Broyhill Stevens

Keith & Letty Stoneman

Mark & Nancy Tafeen

$50,000 - $99,999

Michael & Judy Adler

Allen Wealth Management, LLC

Appalachian Hospitality Management

Barbara & George Ball

Boone Ford-Lincoln

Hanes & Lida Boren / Footsloggers

Outdoor & Travel Outfitters

Sen. & Mrs. James T. Broyhill

Catsman Foundation

Mr. & Mrs. Keith Cloyed

Armfield & Rachel Coffey

Susan & Harvey Durham

Lynn & Barry Eisenberg

Chuck & Anna Eyler / Highstreet Insurance Partners

A.J. Fletcher Foundation

The Friedman Family: Ingrid, Mary & Nick

Susie Greene

Dr. & Mrs. Brent Hall

Mr. & Mrs. Sol Halpert

Dieter & Karyn Herterich

Anne C. & Myron B. Liptzin

Dr. & Mrs. Berge Markarian

Bob & Minnie Snead

Kent & Shelley Tarbutton / Chetola Resort

Mr. J. Wallace Wrightson

Mr. & Mrs. Arthur Yergey

$25,000 - $49,999

Appalachian Ski Mountain / The Moretz Family

Art Cellar Gallery / The McKay Family

Drs. William & Sally Atkins

Joan & Albert Benbasat

Frank & Kay Borkowski

Natalie & Penn Broyhill

Kathleen Price Bryan Family Fund

Sue & Steve Chase

Mr. & Mrs. Arthur Courshon

Creekside Electronics / Lane & Joan Robinson

Byrdie & Ed Denison

Dewoolfson Down Products

Merle & Louis Feinberg

Mr. Jim Furman – Wendy’s of Boone

Dr. & Mrs. Lowell Furman

Mr. & Mrs. Robert F. Gilley

Ralph Glaser, Jr. & John A. Pfeifer

Sonya Rabin Greenfield

The Bruce J. Heim Foundation

Holiday Inn Express

Hospitality Mints, Inc.

Billie & Ray Howell

Mr. & Mrs. Harry F. Jacobs

Ethel & George Kennedy Family Foundation

Anonymous

Laurelmor - A Ginn Company Resort

Edgar & Nan Lawton

Lexington Furniture Industries

Linville Ridge Country Club

Morris & Katia Lioz

Mr. & Mrs. James T. Lynagh

Karen P. Minges

Daniel & Harlene Mitchum

Rosanne & Ken Peacock

Edith S. Peiser

Perfection Equipment Company

Betty & Jesse Pike

Drs. Raymond & Judith Pulley

John & Joy Safer

Marla Schaefer & Steven Weischoff

Mr. & Mrs. Lawrence Singer

Sandi Finci Solomon

T.G. Solomon

Marshall Stein & Denise Grohs

David & Ginny Stevens

Ms. Helen Taulman

Park Terrell / Nationwide Insurance Agency

Mr. & Mrs. Dolph von Arx

Wells Fargo Bank

Mr. & Mrs. Samuel Whalen

$10,000 - $24,999

Brenda & Ira Abrams

Sheldon E. Anderson

Homer & Margie Barrett

Carol Berns & Ted Silver

William & Linda Blanton

Blue Ridge Mountain Club

Carol & Morty Blumberg

Kathryne & Howard Brafman

Jack Branch

Peter & Susan Brockway

Charter Communications, Inc.

Cheap Joe’s Art Stuff, Inc.

Helen Clabough Foundation

Alan & Sally Cone

Courtyard by Marriott

Crestwood Resort & Spa

Dr. Pamelia S. Cromer

Barbara Watkins Daye

Deer Valley Racquet Club

Dianne Davant Interiors

Foundation of Jewish Philanthropies

Suzanne Lasky Gerard & Bill Liebman

The Alfred B. & Josette L.

Glover Family Foundation

Mr. & Mrs. Julian Good

Molle Grad

Mr. & Mrs. Harold Granoff

Robert Grier

Mr. & Mrs. Ronald G. Hester

John Howell

Kenneth Hubbard

Rebecca & Jerry Hutchins

Steven & Jocelyn Lacey

Linda Larson and Bill Pelto

Joe Logan

Michael & Sara Mayhew

Sharon Mills

Barbara & Mark Moskowitz

Larry & Nanci Tolbert Nance

The Nesor Foundation

Old World Galleries

Panoramic Hospitality

Janet Pepin & Francie Field

Edmund F. Perls

PNC Bank

Premier Sotheby's International Realty Anonymous

Ron Redmon & Tom Normand

Fred & Priscilla Robinette

Sally & Russell Robinson

The Rosemyr Corporation

Mr. & Mrs. Frank Ross, Jr.

Gerard & Judith Rothschild

Sazingg Jewelers

The Sesame Foundation

The Shane Family Foundation

Kim Shepherd

Alex Sink

Jessica & Cameron Smith

Gus & Frances Stavros

Sam Tallman & Mike Zuravel

Tarheel Capital

Town of Boone

Charles Gordon Travis

Triangle Community Foundation, Inc.

Tweetsie Railroad

Mary Underwood & Ben Henderson

United Technologies Corp.

US Airways

Mr. & Mrs. Alberto Vadia

Mr. Edward Vincz

Cindy Wallace & Allen Moseley

Betty E. Yount

Jeffrey & Cher Zavik

2026 SUPPORTERS

An Appalachian Summer Festival deeply appreciates the support of its contributors. This list reflects contributions and pledges made solely to An Appalachian Summer Festival’s Annual Appeal from October 1, 2025 through May 8, 2026.

PREMIER

$100,000 & ABOVE

Christine Petti

Bonnie & Jamie Schaefer

Neil & Nancy Schaffel

EXECUTIVE PRODUCER

$25,000 - $99,999

Lainey & Steve Brooks Catsman Foundation

Debbie Rosen Davidson & David Rosen

Charles & Nancy Rosenblatt Foundation

PRODUCER

$15,000 - $24,999

App State Campus Store

Broyhill Family Foundation, Inc.

Circle S Foundation / Keith & Letty Stoneman

Barbara F. Freiman

(in memory of Larry Freiman)

Ralph S. Grier

Steven & Jocelyn Lacey

Anne C. and Myron B. Liptzin

Mast General Store / John, Faye, & Lisa Cooper

DIRECTOR

$10,000 - $14,999

Appalachian Home Care / Ellen Harrell

Art Cellar Gallery / The McKay Family

Peter & Susan Brockway

Dianne Davant Interiors

Explore Boone Goodnight Brothers

Highstreet Insurance Partners / Chuck & Anna Eyler

John Howell

Marla Schaefer & Steven Weishoff

SkyBest Communications, Inc.

ARTIST

$6,000 - $9,999

Joan Benbasat Courtyard by Marriott

Creekside Electronics / Lane & Joan Robinson

Lynn & Barry Eisenberg

Graystone Lodge, An Ascend Collection Hotel

Hampton Inn & Suites

Holiday Inn Express

Peter & Joni Webb Petschauer (in memory of Nancy Tafeen)

Peabody’s Wine & Beer Merchants / Jeff Collins

AMBASSADOR

$3,000 - $5,999

Banner Elk Tourism Development Authority

Carol Berns & Ted Silver

Carol & Morty Blumberg

Kathryne & Howard Brafman

Wendy & Mike Brenner

Natalie & Penn Broyhill

Sue & Steve Chase

Barbara Watkins Daye

Adrienne Finkel

Suzanne Lasky Gerard & Bill Liebman

Grandview Catering & Events

Richard & Vicki Hammer

Sandy & Marc Kadyk

Barbara & Mark Moskowitz

The Rev. Dr. Oxford & Mrs. Courtney

Premier Sotheby’s International Realty

The Rosemyr Corporation

Bill Sears & Family

Christine & G. Mark Shalloway

R. Y. & Eileen L. Sharpe Foundation

Jeff & Caroline Sikorske

Sandi Finci Solomon

Barbara & Fred Webb

Ann & David Kamons

Phyllis & Edward Zissman

BENEFACTOR

$1,200 - $2,999

Brenda & Ira Abrams

Rebecca & Mike Alford

Nancy & Carlo Bonomo

Kay Borkowski (in memory of Frank Borkowski)

Susan & Harvey Durham

(in honor of Minnie & Bob Snead, and in memory of Muriel & Arnold Rosen)

Ron & Dana Garrow

Susie Greene

The Bruce J. Heim Foundation

Rusty & Sara Isenhour

Jeff Paul Lindsay

Joe Logan

Jenny & Wayne Miller

Bill Pelto & Linda Larson

Julie & Gary Simon

Alex Sink

Dolph & Liz Sumner

Scott & Terri Tart

Tracy & Wright Tilley

PATRON

$600 - $1,199

Jonathan & Marisue Beloff

Kathryn & Stephen Birgel

Birtwistle

Mary & Nick Friedman

Molle Grad (in honor of Denise Ringler)

Marilyn Green

Larry & Nanci Tolbert Nance

Sally Robinson

Gloria & Rick Singer

Dottie & Charlie Sykes

Sam Tallman & Mike Zuravel

Mary Underwood & Ben Henderson

Claudia Van Essen

Debra & George Warren

CONTRIBUTOR

$300 - $599

Elizabeth Auer & John James

Bettie Bond (in memory of John Bond)

Hanes & Lida Boren

Jacqueline & Robert Brauser (in honor of Bonnie & Jamie Schaefer)

Craig & Rose Bridgeman

Lorraine Childers

Nancy Clark & Howard Miller

Jeannine Underdown Collins

Gigi & William Egge

Dan Gaugert & Terry Harper (in honor of Anna Gaugert)

Dr. Lou Gottlieb & Gloria Lipson

Kristina Groover & Marian Peters (in memory of Dr. Rosemary Horowitz)

Jo Ann Hallmark

Doris & Mac Leitner

Richard & Pat Lord

Tim & Nancy Lorenzen (in memory of Keith & Leota Cloyed)

Sally Gray Lovejoy

Bob & Jill Maland

Susan Pettyjohn (in memory of Bruce Pettyjohn & Ken Peacock)

Denise Ringler

Edward & Barbara Rosasco

Traci D. Royster

Dr. Morris & Margery Segall

Rebecca Shankland

Sharon & Walter Smoski

Eleni & Steven Sonenreich

Shari Steinberg

Norma S. Suddreth

Charles & Leighann Swanson

John & Patti Turner

Mr. & Mrs. Robert White

FRIEND

$1 -$299

Ellis & Barbara P. Aycock

Michael & Joan Bell

Jeanne Cardinal & Robert Henne

Christy & Brad Chenausky

Everette & Jane Clark (in honor of Tucker Clark)

Dyan & George Cutter

Hank Foreman & John Baynor

Melinda Friddell & Shawn Vestey

Anna Gaugert & Thomas Martin

Sali Gill-Johnson & John Johnson

Steve J. Hageman & Elizabeth Miller

Jeff Handler

Annie & Tyler Jones

Jane Lonon

Gregg & Bonnie Marland

Tamara Michael

Nancy Morehouse

Doug & Susan Morton

Joyce Newman & Dr. Richard Newman

George & Kathleen O'Brien

Elizabeth W. Plaster

Laura Pritchett

Tish Rokoske (in memory of Tom & Keith Rokoske)

Mary Rupp (in memory of Richard “Dick” Rupp)

Patrick K. Setzer

Marilyn Seward

Jim & Sandy Sheatsley

Joanie & Robert Shirley

Thomas & Amy Shober

Helen Sirett & Ken Hendrix

Carol & Hank Thompson

Pam Walker

Allison West & Rick Suyao

Victoria Whitworth

Tanya Shook Wilder

THE FUTURE IS BRIGHT FOR AN APPALACHIAN SUMMER FESTIVAL

BECOME A SUPPORTER

Artistic excellence, accessibility, and audience engagement make An Appalachian Summer Festival unique. Because the series is committed to affordable ticket prices, revenues from ticket sales cover only about 43% of its annual costs. Private support must fill the gap in order to ensure a continued commitment to both quality programming and affordable ticket pricing.

CREATIVITY TAKES COMMUNITY

Our rewards are measured in impact. Because of your generosity, we remain committed to…

• Affordable ticket prices and free events, ensuring arts access for all.

• Seeing the arts grow and flourish while building the next generation of arts lovers.

• Programming that emphasizes education and enrichment as well as entertainment.

• Artistic excellence that celebrates both established and emerging artists.

• Events that foster conversation, bridge communities, and strengthen social ties.

WAYS YOU CAN HELP

• Attend events and share the power of the arts with friends and family.

• Become a supporter and enjoy benefits that include priority purchasing, parking privileges, and special events.

• Consider making an outright gift or a planned gift. Gifts may be targeted to specific programming and designated in honor of the donor or in recognition of friends or family.

TO JOIN OR RENEW:

Scan the QR code or contact Lacy Holder, 828.262.7791

EVERY SCHOOL SEASON, APPLAUSE! K-12 PERFORMING ARTS brings together students and teachers (public, private, and homeschool) from more than 10 counties across the region to experience affordable music, dance, and theatre programming. Featuring local, regional, and world-renowned artists — from high-flying acrobatics and genre-spanning live music to international dance and literary classics brought to life — APPlause! educates and inspires through the magic of live performance.

REGISTRATION OPENS AUGUST 31 AT 9AM

Season includes MOMIX: Botanica, North Carolina Symphony, App State’s Carnival of the Animals and other stories, Cirque Mechanics: TILT, and more!

FOR MORE INFORMATION

Christy Chenausky, Director of Arts Education and Outreach | chenauskyc@appstate.edu | 828.262.2948

The APPlause! 2025-2026 season received individual support from Jacqueline and Robert Brauser (in honor of Bonnie and Jamie Schaefer), Sue and Steve Chase, Christy and Brad Chenausky, Richard and Vicki

and Jeff

Sustaining support for the series is offered by the Christine Petti Opportunity Fund.

OVATIONS START HERE

CELEBRATE YOUR LOVE OF THE ARTS WITH A LASTING TRIBUTE

With a gift of $3,000, you can place your name, the name of a loved one, or your business on a seat in the Schaefer Center for the Performing Arts. An elegantly engraved brass plaque with your chosen inscription will be prominently displayed on the back of the seat(s) you select.

This fully tax-deductible gift is considered a charitable donation and includes lifetime early ticket buying privileges. Donors also receive the first right of refusal for tickets to their named seats for events presented through the Appalachian Arts series and An Appalachian Summer Festival.

SEAT NAMING IS A MEANINGFUL WAY TO:

• Celebrate your connection to the arts at App State and the Schaefer Center

• Give a unique and lasting gift

• Honor a loved one

• Commemorate a special occasion

• Celebrate the arrival of a child or grandchild FOR

Maura McKenzie Director of Audience Services

COURTYARD BY MARRIOTT

1050 NC-105, Boone • 828.265.7676 marriott.com/hkybn

GRAYSTONE LODGE, AN ASCEND COLLECTION HOTEL

2419 Hwy 105 S. Boone • 828.264.4133

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Special Rate: Save 10% direct on Choice Hotels with Book Now link.

HAMPTON INN & SUITES BOONE

1252 US Hwy 421 S. Boone • 828.386.6464 hilton.com

Special Rate Code: 003350757

HOLIDAY INN EXPRESS

1943 Blowing Rock Road, Boone 828.264.2451

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10% OFF for App Summer patrons: Rate Code IXNM9 IN BOONE

Coyote Kitchen The Local Lost Province Brewing Co. Pepper’s Restaurant IN BANNER ELK LP on Main

An Appalachian Summer Festival and its hotel and restaurant sponsors make a trip to the High Country unique, relaxing and affordable! Visit AppSummer.org/visit

ARTS ENGAGEMENT & CULTURAL RESOURCES

APPALACHIAN ARTS

Presented during the academic year (SeptemberApril), this series supports the teaching mission of the university by presenting a diverse array of music, dance, theatre, and multi-disciplinary arts events designed to enrich the cultural, educational, and economic landscape of the campus and surrounding region. By creating memorable performance experiences, App Arts promotes the power of live events, provides a “window on the world” through the artistry and culture of national and international artists, and makes artistic excellence accessible to all.

Schaefer Center for the Performing Arts • 733 Rivers St., Boone | TheSchaeferCenter.org

APPLAUSE! K-12 PERFORMING ARTS SERIES

Appalachian State University’s arts education and outreach program strives to broaden and deepen arts experiences for young audiences, while ensuring access to the arts for all, building future audiences, and inspiring a love of learning through the arts.

Schaefer Center for the Performing Arts • 733 Rivers St., Boone | TheSchaeferCenter.org/applause

TURCHIN CENTER FOR THE VISUAL ARTS

Located in the heart of downtown Boone at the crossroads between campus and community, the center’s exhibitions feature a blend of contemporary and historically important artwork by local, regional, national, and internationally renowned artists across six galleries. With its multifaceted education and outreach programs, the center is a dynamic, vibrant presence in the Appalachian community, creating opportunities for people of all ages and backgrounds to experience the power and excitement of the visual arts. Admission is free.

Turchin Center for the Visual Arts • 423 W. King St., Boone | TCVA.org

DEPT. OF ART | art.appstate.edu

DEPT. OF THEATRE & DANCE | theatreanddance.appstate.edu

HAYES SCHOOL OF MUSIC | music.appstate.edu

CANNON MUSIC CAMP

2026 PERFORMANCE SCHEDULE

FREE AND OPEN TO THE PUBLIC

FACULTY RECITAL I

Thursday, June 25 | 7:00-8:30pm

KALEIDOSCOPE CONCERT (Honors Quartet/ Quintet Groups, Chamber Singers, String Orchestra, Wind Ensemble)

Saturday, June 27 | 7:00-9:00pm

FACULTY RECITAL II

Tuesday, June 30 | 7:00-8:30pm

HONORS RECITAL I (Honors Chamber Groups and Other Small Ensembles)

Friday, July 3 | 7:00-8:30pm

HONORS RECITAL II (Selected Solo Performances)

Sunday, July 5 | 2:00-3:30pm

PIANO AND GUITAR STUDIO RECITAL

Sunday, July 5 | 7:00-8:30pm

FINALE CONCERT I: PERCUSSION ENSEMBLE, TREBLE CHOIR, AND STRING ORCHESTRA

Thursday, July 9 | 7:00-9:00pm

FINALE CONCERT II: JAZZ VOCAL ENSEMBLE, JAZZ BAND AND WIND ENSEMBLE

Friday, July 10 | 7:00-9:30pm

FINALE CONCERT III: CHAMBER SINGERS AND CONCERT CHOIR

Saturday, July 11 | 10:00-11:30am

FINALE CONCERT IV: SYMPHONIC BAND

Saturday, July 11 | 12:00-1:00pm

FINALE CONCERT V: SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA

Saturday, July 11 | 1:00-2:30pm

CANNON MUSIC CAMP

813 RIVERS STREET, ROSEN CONCERT HALL

APPALACHIAN STATE UNIVERSITY, BOONE, NC

Schedule subject to change; visit cannon.appstate.edu for updates.

SATURDAY, JUNE 27

7:30 PM

BROTHERS

Punch Brothers, formed by mandolinist Chris Thile in 2006, is known for pushing the boundaries of acoustic music. In addition to Thile, the band currently comprises guitarist Chris Eldridge, bassist Paul Kowert, banjoist Noam Pikelny, and violinist Brittany Haas. Punch Brothers has garnered critical acclaim, including a Grammy for Best Folk Album for All Ashore (2018). The Washington Post applauded them for taking “bluegrass to its next evolutionary stage, drawing equal inspiration from the brain and the heart.”

Over the past two decades, Punch Brothers has become a pioneer in modern string music, with albums like Antifogmatic (2010), Who’s Feeling Young Now (2012), and The Phosphorescent Blues (2015) showcasing the group’s genre-defying sound. Rolling Stone praised their work as “wild virtuosity used for more than just virtuosity,” cementing their reputation as trailblazers in contemporary acoustic music. The band’s most recent album, Hell on Church Street (2021), is a reimagining of, and homage to, the late bluegrass great Tony Rice’s landmark solo album Church Street Blues

Most recently, Punch Brothers have been focused on the band’s musical variety show, The Energy Curfew Music Hour. Season One is available on all podcast platforms, with season two exclusively out on Audible. Season 1 was nominated for a Webby Award in the Podcast:

Features, Experimental & Innovation category; it also won Most Innovative Audio Experience, Best Live Podcast Recording, and Best Sound Design in the Listener’s Choice category of the 2025 Signal Awards.

The Unsung Adventures of Punch Brothers, the seventh album from the Grammy-winning band — and its first comprising all instrumental tunes as well as its first with fiddle player Brittany Haas, who joined the quintet in 2023 — is due July 24, 2026, on Nonesuch Records. The album features eight new original compositions by Punch Brothers as well as three traditional songs they arranged. 

The Unsung Adventures of Punch Brothers out July 24

ARTTALKS

Step behind the curtain for a series of intimate conversations with this season’s guests about the passions and processes that shape the work. All talks are FREE.

“40 Years of Public Art”

Hank Foreman

“Curating Global Cinema” Dale Pollock

TUESDAY, JUNE 30 | 4-5PM | TURCHIN CENTER LECTURE HALL, RM 1102

Get an insider’s look at how this year’s International Film Series lineup was selected — and why global cinema matters. The Catsman Foundation Global Film Series features films on June 30, July 14, July 21 and July 28 at 7:30pm at the Schaefer Center (see pages 28, 64, 88 and 94).

THURSDAY, JULY 9 | 4-5PM | TURCHIN CENTER LECTURE HALL, RM 1102

A retrospective on the Rosen family’s vision for sculpture at App State and the lasting impact of four decades of the Rosen Sculpture Competition. The 40th Annual Rosen Outdoor Sculpture Walk and Competition takes place July 11 at 10am at the Schaefer Center (see page 52).

“Innovation

in Motion” Jillian Davis, Co-Associate Artistic Director

WEDNESDAY, JULY 15 | 4-5PM | TURCHIN CENTER LECTURE HALL, RM 1102

Go behind the scenes to discover how Complexions Contemporary Ballet has transformed ballet through creativity and fearless artistry. The company performs July 16 at 7:30pm at the Schaefer Center (see page 66).

“Beethoven in the 21st Century” Calidore String Quartet

WEDNESDAY, JULY 29 | 4-5PM | TURCHIN CENTER LECTURE HALL, RM 1102

Moderated by Dr. Soo Goh, Interim Director of the Hayes School of Music

Join the Calidore String Quartet for an intimate conversation about their acclaimed Beethoven quartet cycles and the enduring relevance of the master composer today. The ensemble performs July 29 at 7:30pm in Rosen Concert Hall (see page 96). 

TICKETS $10

SCHAEFER CENTER FOR THE PERFORMING ARTS

TUESDAY, JUNE 30

7:30 PM

CATSMAN FOUNDATION

GLOBAL FILM SERIES

CALLE MALAGA

In Spanish and Arabic with English subtitles France, Spain, Germany, Belgium, Morocco / Not Rated / Directed by Maryam Touzani / 2025 / Drama, Romance / 116 minutes

ABOUT CALLE MALAGA

An aging Spanish woman in Tangier, Morocco, resists her daughter’s decision to sell her home. Determined to stay, she does everything she can to keep her home and reclaim the belongings of a lifetime. Along the way, she rediscovers love and desire. 

Dale M. Pollock, a writer, film producer, filmmaker and author, has served as head film critic for Daily Variety, chief entertainment correspondent for the Los Angeles Times, Dean of the School of Filmmaking at the (then) North Carolina School of the Arts, and Professor of Cinema Studies at NCSA, among other illustrious roles. He was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize in the early 1980s, wrote Skywalking: The Life and Films of George Lucas, and his first work of fiction, Chopped: A Novel, is available in print, e-book, and audiobook. Pollock continues to teach Continuing Education classes at UNCSA, along with programming the Global Film Series for An Appalachian Summer Festival.

POST-SHOW Q&A

Immediately following the film, join Dale Pollock and fellow audience members for a Q&A.

WEDNESDAY, JULY 1

7:30 PM

CHARLOTTE SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA

CLASSIC CONCERT SERIES

Principal

TICKETS $10-$45

SCHAEFER CENTER FOR THE PERFORMING ARTS

Christopher James Lees Conductor

Emerging American conductor Christopher James Lees brings passionate and nuanced orchestral performances to the stage, a fierce commitment to contemporary music, and a natural charisma to audiences all around the world.

Lees has served as Resident Conductor of the Charlotte Symphony Orchestra since 2018 and was Principal Conductor of the Charlotte Symphony Youth Orchestra through 2024. In addition to the more than 70 concert appearances with the CSO per season, he has annually stepped in to conduct Subscription Classical performances, including two Gala concerts with legendary artists and Grammy Award winners Brandford Marsalis and Rhiannon Giddens, respectively.

An active guest conductor, Lees has conducted or returned for performances with the New York, Los Angeles, and Rochester Philharmonic Orchestras, as well as the Houston, Detroit, New World, Indianapolis, Milwaukee, Kansas City, Fort Worth, North Carolina, Portland, Flint, Toledo, and Winston Salem symphonies.

Additional engagements have taken him to the National Arts Centre Orchestra, Orchestra de Chambre de Paris, Aspen Philharmonic Orchestra, Cabrillo Festival Orchestra, and the Music in the Mountains Festival and Festival Internacional de Inverno de Campos do Jordão in Brazil.

Only the second American to be named a Gustavo Dudamel Conducting Fellow with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Lees made his debut with the orchestra in April 2013 and returned for concerts in February 2015.

With the New York Philharmonic, St. Louis and Atlanta symphonies, among others, Lees has served as an assistant conductor for the world’s leading conductors, including Gustavo Dudamel, Paavo Järvi, Herbert Blomstedt, Leonard Slatkin, David Robertson, Robert Spano, Marin Alsop, Pablo Heras-Casado, Stéphane Denève, Susanna Mälkki, and Nicholas McGegan.

Additionally, Lees was named Music Director of the Rock Hill Symphony Orchestra in 2023.

A dedicated advocate for music of our time, Lees has premiered more than 150 works by a diverse range of composers, and collaborated closely with Pulitzer Prize winners John Adams, William Bolcom, John Corigliano, Jennifer Higdon, Joseph Schwantner, Steven Stucky, Caroline Shaw, Roger Reynolds, and Julia Wolfe.

When not performing, Lees can be found riding roller coasters with his 10-year-old son, reading through the stack of books by his nightstand, or training for his next World Majors marathon.

PROGRAM

Suite from Appalachian Spring

Aaron Copland

~ Intermission ~

PROGRAM NOTES

Notes on the program by Ken Meltzer

Vltava (The Moldau) from Má vlast (My Homeland) (1874-1879)

Bedřich Smetana was born in Leitomischl, Bohemia (now, Litomyšl, the Czech Republic) on March 2, 1824, and died in Prague on May 12, 1884. The first complete performance of Má Vlast took place at the Žofín Palace in Prague on November 4, 1882, with Adolf Čech conducting. Vltava is scored for piccolo, two flutes, two oboes, two clarinets, two bassoons, four horns, two trumpets, three trombones, tuba, timpani, triangle, bass drum, cymbals, harp, and strings.

Approximate performance time is 12 minutes.

Behind the Music

In the autumn of 1874, Bedřich Smetana suddenly found himself totally deaf. Smetana was forced to resign all of his public appointments, and it appeared that the career of the first great Czech nationalist composer was at an end. But Smetana’s passion to express unbounded love for his Czech homeland was too powerful. This devastating period witnessed the triumphant birth of Smetana’s orchestral masterpiece, Má vlast (My Homeland). Smetana composed the collection of six orchestral tone poems during the period between 1874 and 1879. The beloved Vltava (The Moldau) is the second of the six tone poems.

Smetana describes The Moldau

Two springs gush forth in the shade of the Bohemian forest, the one warm and swift flowing, the other cool and tranquil. Their waters join and rush joyously down the rocky bed, glistening in the light of the morning sun. The hurrying forest brook becomes the River Moldau (Vltava), which flows across the land of Bohemia, widening as it goes. Passing through dark forests, the sounds of the hunter’s horn are heard ever nearer. Through meadowlands it passes where a wedding feast is being celebrated by peasants with song and dance. At night, water nymphs play in its gleaming depths in which are reflected fortresses and castles from the glorious past. At the Rapids of St. John, the stream becomes a roaring cataract, beating its way through rocky chasms, widening at last into the majestic river that flows through Prague, greeted by the mighty old fortress, Vyšehrad, where it vanishes over the horizon lost to the poet’s sight.

Appalachian Spring, Suite from the Ballet (1944)

Aaron Copland was born in Brooklyn, New York, on November 14, 1900, and died in Tarrytown, New York, on December 2, 1990. The first performance of the ballet, Appalachian Spring, took place at the Library of Congress in Washington, DC, on October 30, 1944. The premiere of Appalachian Spring, Suite from the Ballet, occurred in Carnegie Hall in New York City on October 4, 1945, with

Artur Rodziński conducting the New York Philharmonic. The Suite from Appalachian Spring is scored for two flutes (2nd doubling piccolo), two oboes, two clarinets, two bassoons, two horns, two trumpets, two trombones, timpani, bass drum, suspended cymbal, snare drum, tabor, triangle, glockenspiel, xylophone, woodblock, claves, harp, piano, and strings.

Approximate performance time is 23 minutes.

The American dancer and choreographer Martha Graham commissioned Aaron Copland’s Appalachian Spring, choosing the title for the ballet from a poem by Hart Crane. Copland began work on the score in June of 1943. Because of various delays, the premiere of Appalachian Spring did not occur until October 30, 1944. Graham and Eric Hawkins danced the principal roles.

Copland scored the original ballet for a chamber group of 13 instruments. Subsequently, Copland arranged a Suite from Appalachian Spring for a larger ensemble. The Suite received its premiere in 1945.

Appalachian Spring takes place in the early part of the 19th century in the hills of Pennsylvania. The story concerns the wedding of a young farmer and his bride. At the work’s conclusion, according to Copland, the couple are left “quiet and strong in their new house.”

While You Listen

—The Suite is divided into eight sections, performed without pause.

—About 2/3 into the piece, the solo clarinet introduces the Shaker melody “Simple Gifts” (“’Tis the gift to be simple / ’Tis the gift to be free”). Five variations on the beloved Shaker melody follow. Copland later arranged “Simple Gifts” for voice and piano, part of Set 1 of the composer’s Old American Songs (1950).

The Composer Speaks

“I felt that ‘Simple Gifts,’ which expressed the unity of the Shaker spirit, was ideal for Martha’s scenario and for the kind of austere movements associated with her choreography.”

Symphony No. 9 in E minor, Opus 95 (“From the New World” (1893)

Antonín Dvořák was born in Mühlhausen, Bohemia (now Nelahozeves, Czech Republic), on September 8, 1841, and died in Prague on May 1, 1904. The first performance of the “New World” Symphony took place at Carnegie Hall in New York on December 16, 1893, with Anton Seidl conducting the New York Philharmonic. The Symphony No. 9 is scored for two flutes (2nd doubling piccolo), two oboes, English horn, two clarinets, two bassoons, four horns, two trumpets, three trombones, tuba, timpani, triangle, cymbals, and strings. Approximate performance time is 40 minutes.

Behind the Music

From the fall of 1892 through the summer of 1895, Czech composer Antonín Dvořák served as Director of the National Conservatory of Music of America, located in New York City. Dvořák came to New York at the invitation of Jeannette Meyer Thurber, who founded the Conservatory with the hope that it would foster the development of important American concert music.

When Dvořák arrived in America, he began to study the musical heritage of the “New World,” concluding that America’s great folk tradition was based on the music of African Americans. (It should be noted that in May of 1893, the National Conservatory first opened its doors to African American students.) Dvořák also acknowledged the importance of the folk music of Native Americans.

Dvořák’s Symphony in E minor received its premiere at New York’s Carnegie Hall on December 16, 1893, with Anton Seidl conducting the New York Philharmonic (a rehearsal, open to the public, took place the previous day). A month earlier, Dvořák gave the piece its nickname, “From the New World.”

The premiere of the “New World” Symphony was an unqualified success. Dvořák proudly informed his publisher, Simrock: “The papers say that no composer ever celebrated such a triumph. Carnegie Hall was crowded with the best people of New York, and the audience applauded so that, like visiting royalty, I had to take my bows repeatedly from the box in which I sat.”

While You Listen

—The “New World” Symphony is in four movements. In the opening movement, the flute introduces a theme that bears a kinship to “Swing Low, Sweet Chariot,” a spiritual especially favored by the Czech composer.

—The second movement features one of Dvořák’s most beloved melodies. Played by the English horn, this melody was later adapted by Dvořák’s pupil, William Arms Fisher, for the song “Goin’ Home.”

—The third movement was, according to Dvořák, inspired “by a scene at the feast in [Longfellow’s] ‘Hiawatha,’ where the Indians dance; and is also an essay which I made in the direction of imparting the local color of Indian character to music.”

—The dramatic finale (Allegro con fuoco) includes the return of themes from the prior movements.

The Composer Speaks Dvořák, on the use of folk melodies in concert music: “I myself have gone to the simple, half-forgotten tunes of Bohemian peasants for hints in my most serious works. Only in this way can a musician express the true sentiment of his people. He gets into touch with the common humanity of his country.” 

ABOUT THE COMPETITION

This year’s competition, now in its 15th year, accepted entries by undergraduate and graduate collegiate musicians from North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia, West Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana and Florida. Finalists were selected this past spring via a blind adjudication process by esteemed musicians and collegiate educators. In this final live round of the competition, a panel of distinguished judges will select First, Second, and Third Place winners, as well as an Honorable Mention, for cash prizes. Audience members will also select an Audience Choice winner. The winner of the afternoon competition will perform a 60-minute public evening recital featuring the full works of which they competed.

FIRST PLACE: $3,500 & PUBLIC RECITAL

SECOND PLACE: $2,500

THIRD PLACE: $1,500

AUDIENCE CHOICE: $1,000

HONORABLE MENTION: $500

FINALIST JUDGES

DONALD OEHLER is a professor of music at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and an active performer, educator, and artistic leader. He is the founder and artistic director of the Chapel Hill Chamber Music Workshop and the University Chamber Players, and serves as music director of the Chapel Hill Philharmonia. Oehler has held international roles, including directing chamber programs in Wales and Switzerland and serving as artistic director in Italy. He also leads the Burch Musical Perspectives Honors program, which takes students to London and Florence for immersive study.

He began his career as principal clarinetist with the Orchestra Philharmonique Tehran and has since performed widely with orchestras and chamber ensembles, including as a founding member of the Carolina Wind Quintet. Additionally, he has served as an international adjudicator for numerous competitions, including the International Johannes Brahms Chamber Music Competition in Poland. He is a graduate of the Juilliard School.

XUN PAN is a Steinway artist who recently finished a

15-city concert tour in 30 days in China, and performed chamber music concerts with the American String Quartet and the Gabriel Chamber Ensemble. He was inducted into the Steinway & Sons Teacher Hall of Fame in 2023.

Dr. Pan is the Director of Keyboard Studies of The Tell School of Music at Millersville University of Pennsylvania and is a visiting professor at many universities and conservatories in China. He also taught master classes at Manhattan School of Music, Boston University, Frost School of Music at University of Miami, University of West Florida, The Catholic University of America, Dartmouth College, Mozarteum University (Austria), Bellini Music Institute (Italy), Tbilisi State Conservatoire (Georgia), and others.

He is one of the founding members and the Co-Artistic Director of the Lancaster International Piano Festival in Pennsylvania. Dr. Pan performed the entire 32 piano sonatas, 10 piano/violin sonatas, eight piano/cello works, and 13 piano trios of Beethoven to celebrate the composer’s 250th birthday a couple of years ago.

Since his solo debut with the legendary Philadelphia Orchestra at age nine, violinist TIMOTHY SCHWARZ has had a brilliant career as a soloist, chamber musician, and pedagogue. His work promoting living composers has led to numerous recordings, performances, and premieres around the globe earning accolades such as “A virtuoso tour de force” (Gramophone) and “glorious tone and impeccable technique” (Music Web International). An avid educator, Schwarz is currently Visiting Professor of Performance at the London College of Music, Associate Professor and Head of Strings at Rowan University and Founder and Artistic Director of the Techne Music Festival.

In 2026, Dr. Schwarz participated in a week-long residency at Saint Andrews University in Scotland, where he performed and taught numerous classes. In 1996 the United States named him an Artistic Ambassador, resulting in over 100 solo concerts promoting American music throughout Africa, the Middle East, South America and Southeast Asia. In between his solo playing and teaching, Schwarz is often performing as a substitute violinist with the Philadelphia Orchestra and the Baltimore Symphony. He owns several fine violins, including a 1745 Carlo Antonio Testore, an 1830 J. B. Vuillaume, and a 1921 Leandro Bisiach.

JOIN US FOR ANOTHER AMAZING SEASON

september 16, 2026

CYNTHIA ERIVO

Three-time Academy Award nominee and star of “Wicked,” she captivates audiences while serving as a fearless voice for women and people of color and setting new standards for diversity across the arts.

october 21, 2026

KEN BURNS

Recipient of 17 Emmy Awards and two Grammy Awards, he has directed and produced some of the most acclaimed historical documentaries ever made, including “The Civil War,” “Baseball,” “The Vietnam War” and, most recently, “The American Revolution.”

december 3, 2026

special add-on event

MICHAEL SCHUR

Award-winning television writer, producer, director and actor who was a writer and executive producer for “The Office” and created or co-created such shows as “Parks and Recreation,” “The Good Place” and more. Presented in partnership with the Program for Leadership and Character.

february 25, 2027

JOSÉ ANDRÉS

A renowned chef, Emmy Awardwinning television personality and founder of World Central Kitchen, an organization that is often first on the frontlines, providing meals in response to humanitarian, climate and community crises.

april 20, 2027

JACK NICKLAUS

Named one of the 10 greatest athletes of the century by ESPN, he boasts 120 professional tournament victories, including a record 18 majorchampionship titles. In addition, he has designed close to 325 golf courses and is a tireless philanthropist, particularly in the area of children’s health.

THURSDAY, JULY 2

SUMMER EXHIBITION CELEBRATION

Engage with visiting artists and fellow arts advocates, enjoy live music and refreshments, and discover the exciting exhibitions showcased across six galleries by local, regional, national, and international artists.

5:00-8:00 PM FREE TURCHIN CENTER FOR THE VISUAL ARTS

belonging to place: The Creative Community & Artistic Legacy of bell hooks

MAY 1 - OCTOBER 3 | GALLERY A

The bell hooks Institute in Berea, KY reflects hooks’ belief that her identity was shaped by Appalachia. This exhibition highlights artists connected to the region or to hooks herself, exploring the complex process of belonging to a marginalized place and celebrating the intertwined histories, landscapes, and communities that shaped their work.

Community Contours in the Southern Appalachian Mountains: Jill Pelto

JUNE 5 - NOVEMBER 7 | MAYER GALLERY

The Southern Appalachian Mountains, part of a biologically diverse temperate rainforest, reveal a powerful spirit of place and a fragile, interconnected ecosystem. Artist Jill Pelto channels this landscape to spark emotional engagement with climate science, embedding data into her paintings.

Earth Tones: Etienne Charles

MAY 1 - OCTOBER 3 | PETTI/PEISER GALLERY

The creation of Earth Tones as a multimedia project began in 2021, which led Charles to ask, “How could I use music to tell stories, but from the perspective of the people I met?” Following a campus performance in April 2026, this exhibition includes the visual stories gathered from around the world demonstrating loss, resilience, joy, and hope.

Sculpting With Paper: Hand Papermaking at Dieu Donné

FEBRUARY 6 - AUGUST 8 | COMMUNITY AND HODGES GALLERIES

This exhibition highlights innovative sculptural works—all crafted by paper—created by artists from around the world. Featuring selections from the renowned Dieu Donné residency program, the exhibition showcases the incredible versatility of paper as a medium. Together, these works celebrate experimentation, materiality, and the global community of contemporary papermaking.

Stitching the Natural World: Nancy Hershberger

JUNE 5 - NOVEMBER 21 | BICKERS GALLERY

With a passion for interpreting the natural world in fabric and thread, fiber artist Nancy Hershberger transforms landscapes into vivid textile pieces. Her process, rooted in raw edge appliqué, incorporates inks and paints to create detail, while intricate freemotion quilting, brings movement and depth to each scene.

TUESDAY, JULY 7

7:30 PM

MERZ TRIO

Claire Bourg, Violin

Julia Yang, Cello

Amy Yang, Piano

Hailed as “entrancing” (BBC Music Magazine) and “artists in the deepest sense of the word” (CutCommon), Merz Trio, winners of the Naumburg, Concert Artists Guild, Fischoff and Chesapeake Competitions, and recipients of a Salon de Virtuosi Career Grant, have been lauded for their “stunning virtuosity... fresh and surprising interpretations” (Reading Eagle), and “perfection of intonation and ensemble” (Hudson Review). Merz Trio are passionately committed to reshaping the narrative of classical music through vibrantly dynamic programming and wide-ranging interdisciplinary collaboration. Their narrative programming style juxtaposes classical standards, new music, and their own arrangements of familiar and forgotten works, fluidly interwoven and guided with speaking from the Trio’s members. Their interdisciplinary collaborations include ongoing projects with directors Emma Jaster and Jon Levin, dancer Caroline Copeland, and Sandglass Theater.

The Trio are equally known for their more immersive integrations of music and text in performance, ranging from their recital-theater piece built around Shakespeare’s Macbeth (“Those Secret Eyes”), to their debut album interweaving Ravel’s Trio with short pieces, poems, and diaries of the era (Ink, August 2021), which was presented in a live concert format (Ink Spills) during their 2021-2022 season. Finally, in their prolific arranging, the Trio are committed to uplifting overlooked voices from history, ranging from Hildegard von Bingen to Lili and Nadia Boulanger, and from Joséphine Baker to Irish folk melodies.

Merz Trio’s 25-26 Season included welcome returns to Philadelphia Chamber Music Society, Chamber Music Houston, Chamber Music Louisville and Pro Musica (San Miguel, Mexico), as well as an anticipated debut at People’s Symphony NYC, among others. Recent previous season highlights have included appearances at Tippet Rise, Duke Performances, Chamber Music Dallas, Da Camera, Coleman Chamber Music Association, the New Orleans Friends of Music, and the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. Other notable debuts have taken the Trio to Carnegie Hall, the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, and the Schubert Club (St. Paul, MN), among others. Merz Trio have been encouraged in their explorations by numerous institutional homes around the world: New England Conservatory, Yellow Barn, Snape Maltings, Avaloch Farm Institute, the Naumburg Foundation, the Lake Champlain, Olympic, and Chesapeake Music Festivals, and the Fischoff Competition, as well as many other venues and hosts around the US, Australia, the Netherlands and the UK.

CLARA'S CIRCLE

This program traces friendship through the steps of Clara Wieck Schumann, from 1857-1859, by way of flowers. It reflects sentiments from her Blumentagebuch — her diary of pressed flowers — in which Clara left dedications to meaningful people and moments in her life. This precious book accompanied her as she toured throughout Europe and served as a record of relationships, mourning and memory. Moving amongst Clara’s floral meditations, we explore floriography in its romantic heyday and delight in the coded and the unspoken. With Clara, we visit Robert, Beethoven and Brahms, and bring in a musical friend of our own, Chris Rogerson (b. 1988). In River Songs, Rogerson recalls family trips to Stehekin, WA, capturing its distinct topography and sense of nostalgia.

Zwei Gesänge für Altstimme, Bratsche und Klavier, Op. 91 (1884)

Johannes Brahms (1833 - 1897)

1. Gestillte Sehnsucht (Bestilled Longing) (arr. Merz Trio)

Piano Trio No. 3 in G minor, Op. 110 (1851)

I. Bewegt, doch nicht zu rasch

Piano Trio in G minor, Op. 17 (1846)

II. Andante - più animato

River Songs (2014)

1. A Fish Will Rise

2. Massing Clouds

3. Swan Song

Piano Trio No. 7 in B-flat Major, Op. 97 'Archduke' (1811)

1. Allegro moderato

2. Scherzo - Allegro

3. Andante cantabile, ma pero con moto

4. Allegro moderato - Presto

Intermission ~

Robert Schumann (1810 - 1856)

C. Schumann

Chris Rogerson (b. 1988)

Ludwig van Beethoven (1770 - 1827)

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PROGRAM NOTES

The following program notes are copyright © Susan Halpern Program Notes, 2026.

Zwei Gesänge für Altstimme, Bratsche und Klavier, Op. 91, 1. “Gestillte Sehnsucht” (“Bestilled Longing”) — Johannes Brahms, (arr. Merz Trio) (Born May 7, 1833, in Hamburg; died April 3, 1897, in Vienna)

Brahms wrote the Zwei Gesänge, Op. 91, with their unusual combination of scoring for mezzo-soprano, viola and piano, for his friends the contralto Amalie Schneeweiss and her husband, Joseph Joachim. Brahms, who had written an early version of “Geistliches Wiegenlied” for a wedding present for the couple, hoped that a revised version of the work paired with a new romantic song intended for them to perform together as a couple, might have the effect of helping the newly separated couple rejoin in a reconciliation. In these two songs, Brahms revisits his older and more expansive style.

In 1863 violinist Joseph Joachim married the distinguished mezzo-soprano Amalie Schneeweiss. Both were important musical partners for Brahms, as well as close personal friends, but their marriage became troubled by Joachim’s paranoid delusions about an affair he imagined Amalie had with Fritz Simrock, Brahms’ publisher. Hoping to bring them together, Brahms reworked the lullaby and wrote a new song, “Gestillte Sehnsucht” (“Stilled Longing”), but the song could not repair the rift. When Brahms testified for Amalie in the subsequent divorce proceedings, which Joseph brought, the violinist extended the broken relationship to include Brahms as well.

Brahms published these songs in 1884 as Op. 91. Images of wind in trees are calming in “Gestillte Sehnsucht” (“Stilled Desire”). Evening breezes and the songs of birds assuage the pain of the protagonist. Brahms creates the scene with a gently flowing accompaniment, disturbed by occasional viola dissonances. The suffering reaches a climax in the song’s center before settling down again with a reprise of the music of the song’s beginning. Musicologist and Brahms biographer Karl Geiringer suggests that Brahms might have been influenced by Bach here, if only in the use of an obbligato instrument.

Friedrich Rückert’s “Gestillte Sehnsucht” was the kind of nature poem to which Brahms was very partial, with woods, birds, and winds all summoned to calm the world, including people’s yearning desires. He aimed for nature to sing everyone to sleep. Brahms gives the viola an independent melody, which the voice then uses as a refrain, with rustling broken chords in the piano supporting the whole. Desires, always stirring “sonder

Rast und Ruh” (without rest and peace), are presented in the urgent minor-key middle section, then quelled by nature in the return to the initial material.

Piano Trio No. 3, in G minor, Op. 110, 1st movement — Robert Schumann (Born June 8, 1810, in Zwickau; died July 29, 1856, in Endenich)

As the years of Robert Schumann’s life passed, his periods of mental illness grew longer and more oppressive, but when he was well, he worked hard. In the summer of 1851, he began a series of pieces of chamber music that soon included two violin sonatas and this, his third trio, which he composed in one week from October 2-9. On March 21,1852, the premiere was performed at a charity concert in the Leipzig Gewandhaus (“Drapers' Hall”). The performers were Clara Schumann, the composer’s wife, pianist; Ferdinand David, who inspired the Violin Concerto of Mendelssohn, violinist; and the cellist Andreas Grabau. When the trio was published, in 1852, it was dedicated to the Danish composer, Niels Wilhelm Gade, a friend who had succeeded Mendelssohn as conductor of the Leipzig orchestra.

Clara Schumann was greatly concerned about her husband's condition around the time of this trio, but the new work was in some ways more vigorously energetic, more effectively dramatic than the first two. Yet, there is a sense of uneasiness in the music in its uneven rhythms, irregular phrase lengths, and unexpected key shifts.

The first movement, headed Bewegt, doch nicht zu rasch, (“agitated, but not too fast,”) begins abruptly. There is no introduction or any kind of lead in to the opening theme, a big far ranging, powerfully passionate melody that establishes the expressive character of the entire work.

Piano Trio in G minor, Op. 17 (1846) — Clara Schumann III. Andante - più animato (Born September 17, 1819 in Leipzig; died in Frankfurt on May 20, 1896)

Clara first appeared in public when she was nine and held her first complete piano recital at 11, followed by an extended tour a year later. She performed extensively and studied piano, voice, violin, instrumentation, score reading, counterpoint, composition; she also wrote and published several pieces for solo piano.

Robert Schumann, who came to live and study with her father in 1830, asked to marry Clara in 1837. Wieck refused, but finally a day before Clara’s 21st birthday and only after the young couple filed and won a lawsuit, they were married. Initially, they remained in Leipzig; both taught at the Conservatory; they moved to Dresden in

1844, and to Düsseldorf in 1853. In Düsseldorf, they finally had room for Clara to practice and compose comfortably without disturbing her, by then, very nervous husband.

Robert and Clara’s influences were mutual and husband and wife relied on each other. Clara’s 1846 Piano Trio in G minor, Op. 17, was a direct influence on Robert’s Piano Trio in D minor, Op. 63, written in 1847. (Robert’s Piano Trio in G minor was composed in 1851.) After Robert wrote his trios, Clara lost confidence in hers, but Brahms was one of many who performed Clara’s trio, too. Her trio, overall, is noted for its romantic intensity and balanced interplay between instruments.

The 3rd movement, Andante, is an instrumental lyrical song in G Major, yet it has a fiercely contrasting middle section. In ternary (ABA) form, the more restless B central section, also contains lyrical warmth; it modulates to the minor mode before returning to G Major for the recapitulation of the A (first) section. This movement includes some particularly technically complex writing for the piano, Clara’s own instrument. Clara wrote this movement when she was pregnant with her fourth child and unable to tour, thereby finding a precious bit of "idle" time to devote to composition.

The Piano Trio in G minor is a finely crafted work easily recognizable for its mid-century Romantic style. Often called the heart of the whole trio, the tender music of the slow third movement, feels as if it shares a likemindedness with the music of Robert Schumann as well as possibly that of Felix Mendelssohn. This movement and the other inner movement, a gentle scherzo which precedes it, introduce lyrical warmth occasionally tinged with pathos, especially in the central episode. Overall, the Andante is a very moving, wistful romance that can't fail to evoke the ghosts of Robert Schumann and Johannes Brahms.

River Songs (2014 — Chris Rogerson (Born in 1988 in Amherst, New York)

Hailed as a “confident new musical voice” by The New York Times, a “big discovery” (The Philadelphia Inquirer) Chris Rogerson’s music has been praised for its “haunting beauty” and “virtuosic exuberance” (The New York Times). Among Rogerson’s most outstanding recent works are Of Simple Grace for cellist Yo-Yo Ma, a violin concerto for Benjamin Beilman and the Kansas City Symphony, and Dream Sequence, for Anne-Marie McDermott and the Dover Quartet.

Rogerson’s compositional work is frequently evocative of a sense of place: Four Autumn Landscapes, a clarinet concerto written for Anthony McGill, is a portrait of Rogerson’s childhood home in Buffalo, New York, while String Quartet No. 4, commissioned for the

Escher Quartet, draws from Rogerson’s experience in a remote corner of Afghanistan. His first piano concerto, Samaa, praised as “captivating” (Gramophone) and “haunting” (Minnesota Star-Tribune), was commissioned by Bravo! Vail for Anne-Marie McDermott and the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, and inspired by a recent trip to Yemen. Rogerson’s music has been programmed around the world including Carnegie Hall, the Library of Congress, the Kennedy Center, Wigmore Hall in London, and the Musikverein in Vienna.

In 2023, Rogerson was the recipient of the Elise L. Stoeger Prize from the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center. He has also been honored with awards and fellowships from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the Theodore Presser Foundation, the MacDowell Colony, Yaddo, and Copland House.

Rogerson’s 2026-2027 season includes continuing his ongoing creative partnership with the Kansas City Symphony, where he composes his fifth new work for the orchestra, a piano concerto for Inon Barnatan. Beginning in 2026, he was named the Artistic Director of Bravo! Vail Music Festival, the fourth in the festival’s 40-year history.

A dedicated and passionate educator, Rogerson joined the faculty at the Curtis Institute of Music in 2016. He studied at the Curtis Institute of Music, Yale School of Music, and Princeton University.

Rogerson has written his own program note for his three River Songs: 1. “A Fish Will Rise,” 2. “Massing Clouds,” and 3. Swan Song:

I had an idea to write a series of River Songs. The first movement, titled “A Fish Will Rise,” is a reference to a favorite book of mine, Norman Maclean’s A River Runs Through It. On the last page, he writes: “...all existence fades to a being with my soul and the sounds of the Big Blackfoot River and a four-count rhythm and the hope that a fish will rise.” The second movement re-imagines some material from a previous work, and is called “Massing Clouds.” Finally, the third movement is titled “Swan Song.” Here, I imagine Norman Maclean fishing the waters alone among the shadows, as an old man. This work is dedicated to my sister, Bethany.

Piano Trio in B Flat, Op. 97 (“Archduke”) — Ludwig van Beethoven

(Born December 16, 1770, in Bonn; died March 26, 1827, in Vienna)

The piano trio was one of the most popular ensembles in Beethoven’s time. In his middle years, Beethoven brought the forms he had inherited from Mozart and Haydn to their height, composing three beautiful trios, the two of Op. 70 and Op. 97, dedicated to Archduke Rudolph, known as the Archduke Trio.

Rudolph was the youngest son of Emperor Leopold II, a passionate music lover; at 18, he became Beethoven’s student; the two formed a lifelong friendship. In 1809, when Beethoven thought of taking a post with one of Napoleon’s brothers, Rudolph and two other young noblemen joined to guarantee him an annual income to keep him in Vienna. Beethoven treated the Archduke with unusual respect mingled with affection, and dedicated 14 scores to him. Rudolph had hoped for the dedication of the Op. 70 Trios, which mistakenly went to another, but Beethoven dedicated the next, Op. 97, to him.

Beethoven sketched the Archduke Trio in 1810 and completed it in three weeks in March 1811. No one heard the Trio until rehearsals for a concert in April 1814. The composer Louis Spohr, who attended the concert, wrote, “There was almost nothing left of Beethoven’s former great virtuosity, which used to be so admirable. I was moved to deepest sorrow. Since deafness is so great a misfortune for anyone, how can a musician endure it without despair? Beethoven’s continual melancholy was no longer a riddle to me.”

In addition to increasing hearing loss, Beethoven had other problems. He believed he was exhausting the expressive possibilities of classical musical structures. A period of near silence was coming, when he would

compose nothing, while he gathered his energies for future works that would have a new style.

Perhaps the elevated nobility of the first movement, Allegro moderato, has always made the work’s subtitle seem appropriate. The trio’s distinctive qualities are immediately apparent: each of its musical ideas is rich in new possibilities. The brilliantly colorful writing perfectly matches the music’s shifting moods. After the broad grandeur of the main theme, the 2nd theme provides a charming, playful interlude; then, Beethoven gets down to the serious business of development: every direction he can take he explores with the incomparable fertility of his creative imagination.

The second movement is a long, complex, but lively Scherzo, Allegro. The central section consists of a mysterious, chromatic, syncopated canon and a contrasting rhythmic section; at the end, the canon returns as a coda. Next comes a lyrical Andante cantabile, ma pero con moto (Andante, but, however, with motion) that foreshadows the slow movements of his final works. The movement has a calm hymn-like theme with variations of constantly increasing intensity and complexity. Then, a pensive coda runs without pause directly into the last movement, Allegro moderato, a big, joyous, witty rondo that alternates lighthearted passages with heroic ones before it ends in a Presto. 

CELEBRATING 44 YEARS!

SPRING GROUP EXHIBITION Contemporary Abstract Art - Exploring Individual Perceptions May 30 - July 15

MID-SUMMER GROUP EXHIBITION

Landscapes Transformed - A Celebration of Earth’s Beauty July 25 - September 15

AUTUMN GROUP EXHIBITION Artistic Odysseys - Echoes of Presence October 10 - November 15

27 - April 30 Featured artists exhibitions - tba

inFormation on 2026 Workshops

call 828-963-4288

receptions on saturday may 30, July 25 & oct. 10, 2 - 5:00 p.m. holiday open house: nov. 27 & 28, 11-5

WEDNESDAY, JULY 8 7:30 PM

GLADYS KNIGHT

SCHAEFER SPOTLIGHT SERIES

Presenting Sponsorship provided by Bonnie and Jamie Schaefer, Christine Petti, and Neil and Nancy Schaffel

Principal Sponsorship provided by App State Campus Store, Broyhill Family Foundation, Catsman Foundation, and Mast General Store

Supporting Sponsorship provided by Appalachian Home Care, The Art Cellar Gallery, Dianne Davant & Associates, Explore Boone, Goodnight Brothers, Highstreet Insurance Partners, and SkyBest Communications, Inc.

This performance was also funded, in part, by a generous gift from Steven & Jocelyn Lacey and Circle S Foundation / Keith & Letty Stoneman

TICKETS $25-$75

SCHAEFER CENTER FOR THE PERFORMING ARTS

The great ones endure, and Gladys Knight has long been one of the greatest. Very few singers over the last 60 years have matched her unassailable artistry. This seven-time Grammy Award winner has enjoyed #1 hits in Pop, Gospel, R&B, and Adult Contemporary, and has triumphed in film, television, and live performance.

All told, Knight has recorded more than 38 albums over the years, including four solo albums: Good Woman (1991); Just for You (1994); the inspirational Many Different Roads (1999); and At Last (2001). At Last showed the world that she still has what it takes to record a hit album, employing the talents of contemporary producers like Randy Jackson.

Knight has continued to spread her acting wings, making a guest star appearance in the FOX hit show Star and appearing in the film Almost Christmas in 2016, both which were produced and directed by Lee Daniels. She appeared on ABC’s 14th season of Dancing with the Stars in 2012. In 2019, she competed on the inaugural season of The Masked Singer and sang the National Anthem at Super Bowl LIII in Atlanta. Knight sang the National Anthem on yet another major sports stage at the 2021 NBA All-Star Game. During the 2022 holiday season, she starred in I’m Glad It’s Christmas on Great American Family, received the 45th Kennedy Center Honors for Lifetime Artistic

Achievements along with George Clooney, Amy Grant, Tania León, and U2, and was awarded the National Medal of Arts along with Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Bruce Springsteen, Jose Feliciano and Mindy Kaling. In 2024, Knight was named a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award Honoree.

Her involvement in other creative undertakings, business ventures, and humanitarian activities has been extensive, and has brought her honors from industry and community alike. In 2015, a portion of Atlanta’s State Route 9 from Peachtree Street to 14th Street was officially named Gladys Knight Highway. 

APPALACHIAN ARTS 2026/2027

SEASON ANNOUNCEMENT

WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 19 AT 10AM

FRIDAY, JULY 10

7:30 PM

STRAIGHT NO CHASER BEACH BASH

SCHAEFER SPOTLIGHT SERIES

Presenting Sponsorship provided by Bonnie and Jamie Schaefer, Christine Petti, and Neil and Nancy Schaffel

Principal Sponsorship provided by App State Campus Store, Broyhill Family Foundation, Catsman Foundation, and Mast General Store

Supporting Sponsorship provided by Appalachian Home Care, The Art Cellar Gallery, Dianne Davant & Associates, Explore Boone, Goodnight Brothers, Highstreet Insurance Partners, and SkyBest Communications, Inc.

This performance was also funded, in part, by a generous gift from Lainey & Steve Brooks and Peter & Susan Brockway

TICKETS $25-$60

SCHAEFER CENTER FOR THE PERFORMING ARTS

If the phrase “male a cappella group” conjures up an image of students in blue blazers, ties, and khakis singing traditional college songs on ivied campuses... think again. Straight No Chaser (SNC) are neither straitlaced nor straight-faced, but neither are they vaudevillestyle kitsch. They have emerged as a phenomenon with a massive fanbase and a long list of accomplishments including 2 RIAA Gold Certified albums, over 1.5 million concert tickets sold, over 1 billion streams on Pandora, and over 2 million albums sold worldwide. Straight No Chaser is the real deal, the captivating sound of nine unadulterated human voices coming together to make extraordinary music that is moving people in a fundamental sense... and with a sense of humor.

The nine-member group will perform iconic songs of summer from the last six decades, including Pharrell Williams’ “Happy” and Walk The Moon’s “Shut Up and Dance.” 

SATURDAY, JULY 11

10:00 AM

40TH ANNUAL ROSEN SCULPTURE WALK

Celebrating 40 years of the Martin and Doris Rosen Outdoor Sculpture Competition and Exhibition, the Rosen Sculpture Walk will kick off at the Schaefer Center for the Performing Arts. After a brief welcome, juror and sculptor Sam Spiczka will lead guests on a guided tour of the 10 sculptures installed along Rivers Street. The group will then return to the Schaefer Center for the announcement of this year’s award winners, a complimentary lunch, and time to chat with friends about your favorite pieces.

Guests are encouraged to wear comfortable clothing and shoes, as the walking and standing portion lasts approximately 45–60 minutes. Water stations will be available along the route.

ABOUT THE JUROR

Inspired by natural bone forms, rural technology, and geometric structure, Sam Spiczka has produced a distinctive body of work that is both modern and intensely primal, public, yet deeply personal. Born and raised in rural Minnesota, Spiczka became captivated by metal at an early age working in his family’s welding shop. Though he briefly studied art and philosophy at Gustavus Adolphus College in St Peter, Minnesota, his true education has come from nature, the example of past sculptors, and the craftsmanship taught to him by his father. Spiczka’s award-winning sculptures have been exhibited internationally — including at the Seolbong International Sculpture Park in Icheon, South Korea, the DeCordova Museum and Sculpture Park in Lincoln, Massachusetts, and the Franconia Sculpture Park in Taylors Fall, Minnesota. 

40th Annual Rosen Sculpture Competition Accepted Pieces

WHKY is proud to support Appalachian State University in bringing the High Country’s annual Appalachian Summer Festival to life — a celebration of music, dance, theatre, visual arts, and film.

Thank you for joining us in making this season unforgettable. Because when the arts thrive, we all thrive.

SUNDAY, JULY 12

2:00 PM

Garrett Hudson, flute

Emily Tsai, oboe

Graeme Steele Johnson, clarinet

Anni Hochhalter, horn

Kara LaMoure, bassoon

Atimeless tale of courage and adventure springs to life in this exciting, family-friendly production of Sergei Prokofiev's Peter and the Wolf. Complete with costumes and choreography, this engaging 45-minute performance by acclaimed quintet WindSync introduces young audience members to the five wind instruments of the orchestra and concludes with a retelling of the classic Russian folk tale. Peter, the wolf, and their friends the duck, the cat, and the little bird will make a live appearance! Children are invited to come dressed as their favorite character from Peter and the Wolf. 

FUN FACTS

Sergei Prokofiev: Born on April 23, 1891, in Sontsovka, Russia, Sergei grew up listening to his mother play the works of Chopin and Beethoven on the piano. At age five, he composed his first piano piece; at nine, he composed his first opera.

Famous Narrators: Celebrities ranging from Eleanor Roosevelt and Boris Karloff to Alice Cooper and Sting have served as narrators.

Over 400 Recordings: Peter and the Wolf is a staple in musical education and has been recorded over 400 times in 12 different languages.

TWEETSIE RAILROAD 2026 SPECIAL EVENTS ALL ABOARD!

Easter Bunny

April 4 & 5

Day Out With Thomas™ Let’s Rock, Let’s Roll! Tour

June 12-15 & 18-21

Open 10 am - 6 pm

Saturdays 9 am - 6 pm

Fireworks Extravaganza

Saturday, July 4

Open until 9 pm

July 25-27 & 30 - August 2

Shows at 11 am, 1 pm & 3 pm; Saturday evening show at 5 pm

Riders In The Sky

August 8 & 9

Performances at Noon & 3 pm

Railroad Heritage Weekend

August 29 & 30

Ghost Train®

September 25 - October 31

Friday & Saturday evenings

Open 7:30 - 10:30 pm

Tweetsie Christmas®

November 27- December 30

Friday, Saturday & Sunday through December 20th, and December 21, 22, 23, 26, 27, 28, 29 & 30

Fireworks at 9:30 pm K-9s in Flight Frisbee® Dogs

Open 5 - 9:30 pm

SUNDAY, JULY 12

7:30 PM

WINDSYNC

Presenting Sponsorship provided

Principal Sponsorship provided by App State Campus Store,

Family Foundation, Catsman Foundation, and Mast General Store

Garrett Hudson, flute

Emily Tsai, oboe

Graeme Steele Johnson, clarinet

Anni Hochhalter, horn

Kara LaMoure, bassoon

Versatile and vibrant, the musicians of WindSync “play many idioms authoritatively, elegantly, with adroit technique, and with great fun” (All About the Arts), showing off the uniquely wide-ranging sounds of the wind quintet. WindSync’s charismatic and personal performance style, combined with a three-pronged mission of artistry, education, and community-building, lends the group its reputation as “virtuosos who are also wonderful people, too" (Alison Young, Classical MPR).

WindSync has enjoyed an international touring career since winning the 2012 Concert Artists Guild Victor Elmaleh Competition and the 2016 Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition. The group has regularly appeared on notable chamber music stages throughout the United States and abroad, including Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall, the Library of Congress, Ravinia, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Phoenix Chamber Music Society, Rockport Music, and Emerald City Music. Building a new repertoire, WindSync’s recent premieres include works by Viet Cuong, Marc Mellits, Ivan Trevino, Mason Bynes, Nathalie Joachim, and Pulitzer finalist Michael Gilbertson.

WindSync has also served in residencies with the Grand Teton Music Festival, Orcas Island Chamber Music Festival, and the Lied Center, and they work with local partners to craft musical events for cities out of range of large arts organizations. Winner of the 2022 Fischoff Ann Divine Educator Award, the ensemble regularly coaches at training programs nationwide, collaborates with youth orchestras, and performs for thousands of young people each year.

On the heels of All Worlds, All Times, WindSync’s 2022 release (which “will make you want to get up and dance,” The Whole Note), the quintet’s second commercial album recorded with composer Miguel del Aguila at Abbey Road Studios, debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard Traditional Classical Albums chart. This year, the ensemble began a partnership with legendary American label Delos upon the release of Nadia. 

PROGRAM

Three Pieces Nadia Boulanger / arr. Kara LaMoure

1. Modéré

2. Sans vitesse et à l'aise

3. Vite et nerveusement rythmé

Pastoral Suite

Le Rappel des Oiseaux (The Calling of Birds)

The Arts and the Hours

Contredanse Très Vive

Jean-Philippe Rameau / arr. Kara LaMoure

Summer Music Samuel Barber

Sambeada Miguel del Aguila

Serenade in C minor, K. 388 W.A. Mozart / arr. Rechtman Allegro

Andante

Menuetto in canone

Allegro

PROGRAM NOTES

Nadia Boulanger: Three

Pieces

A towering figure of 20th century music, Nadia Boulanger was born in 1887 to a family of musicians and entered the Paris Conservatoire at the remarkable age of nine, where she and her sister Lili stood among Gabriel Fauré’s most promising students. Lili’s untimely death in 1918 caused Nadia to abandon composing in favor of teaching composition to the next generation of musicians. The career shift, while tragic in origin, ultimately earned Boulanger cult-like status. Composer Ned Rorem described her as the “greatest teacher since Socrates,” and her influence was particularly acute on American music, with the likes of Aaron Copland, Elliott Carter, Quincy Jones, and Philip Glass citing her as an important influence. While brief, Boulanger’s compositional period yielded works that could serve as master classes in and of themselves for their rigor and harmonic interest. Boulanger’s Trois Pièces were composed for organ over a number of years, but they are best known in a version for cello and piano published in 1914. Folk-like melodies and old-style counterpoint filter through modes and harmonies associated with French “Impressionist” composers like Fauré and Debussy. Rather than feature a single solo instrument, WindSync’s adaptation is scored for a more organ-like mixture of instrumental colors.

Jean-Philippe Rameau: Pastoral Suite

Himself an arranger and theorist, Jean-Philippe Rameau would have happily joined in the practice of creating wind quintet adaptations of his works, as WindSync has done with these movements here. Each short piece is taken from one of two sources: the Pièces de clavecin, or pieces for keyboard, and the score to the opera Les Boréades. The title “Pastoral Suite” is not Rameau’s but rather refers to his depiction of natural elements like bird calls, pastures, and weather patterns in the music. The Pièces de clavecin were composed during Rameau’s early career as a teacher of the keyboard, and besides being useful pedagogical pieces, they formed the basis for his harmonic style. The most successful pieces from these books were later rewritten into Rameau’s works for opera, his most lasting legacy. Rameau composed his final opera Les Boréades in 1763 at the age of 80. The story, based on Greek mythology and Masonic symbols, is a marriage plot involving a conflict between the gods of the winds. Practically begging to be adapted for wind instruments, the dances from Les Boréades are performed by characters including the Seasons, Zephyrs, and Subterranean Winds.

Samuel Barber: Summer Music

The Chamber Music Society of Detroit approached Samuel Barber with the commission that would become Summer Music in 1953. After initially dragging his feet, Barber was at last inspired to write a wind quintet the

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following summer, upon hearing a festival performance in Maine by the New York Woodwind Quintet. Barber worked closely with the New York Woodwind Quintet during the composition process that followed, including many readings of sketches and extensive study of music performed and written by the wind players. Summer Music ultimately premiered in 1956 — behind schedule, but as planned, with the principal players of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra performing at their Chamber Music Society. Today, Summer Music is one of the most frequently performed masterworks for the wind quintet. Even though many passages are difficult, even virtuosic, the piece offers a meandering, relaxed, and romantic picture of the natural world. “It’s supposed to be evocative of summer,” Barber is quoted as saying, “meaning languid, not killing mosquitoes.”

Miguel del Aguila: Sambeada

The musical style of Uruguayan-American composer Miguel del Aguila combines drama, driving rhythms, and nostalgic nods to his South American roots. Miguel del Aguila composed Sambeada for WindSync in June 2022 to commemorate the ensemble’s recent recording project of Del Aguila’s music at Abbey Road Studios in London. This short work is a humorous samba dance that starts cool and relaxed and ends in a rhythmic frenzy. The oboe and French horn players are called to be multiinstrumentalists, performing percussion on the samba

rhythm that underlies the piece.

W. A. Mozart: Serenade in C minor, K. 388

In a letter dated July 27, 1782, Mozart wrote to his father that he was composing a piece of Nacht musique (night music), a designation typically given to music for evening social events. While historians are unsure about the exact chronology of the Serenade in C minor, most likely it is the work mentioned in the letter. The manuscript, however, shows that Mozart ultimately titled the work Parthia (partita) before changing his mind again and inscribing Serenada (serenade). Mozart’s difficulty in classifying the Serenade in C minor speaks to its weight. Dramatic, profound, and at times even ominous, the piece proceeds more like a symphony than like party music. Particularly notable are the third movement, a clever canon, and the fourth movement, a virtuosic theme and variations. The 1780s were the heyday of Harmoniemusik, small wind bands employed as entertainers by arts patrons like Habsburg Emperor Joseph II, Viennese noble Prince Schwarzenberg, and music connoisseur Prince Aloys Joseph Liechtenstein. The Serenade in C minor, scored for pairs of oboes, clarinets, horns, and bassoons, was likely written for one of these Harmoniemusik patrons. WindSync performs an arrangement by bassoonist and conductor Mordechai Rechtman, who used both the original score and Mozart’s own quintet arrangement for strings as references.

MUSICIAN BIOS

GARRETT HUDSON (flute) is a founding member of WindSync. The Canadian flutist’s roots lie in Winnipeg, Manitoba, where he made his solo debut with the Winnipeg Symphony at the age of 16. During his training, Hudson performed with the National Academy Orchestra of Canada and l’Orchestre de la Francophonie in Montreal, Quebec. He earned degrees from the University of British Columbia under Scottish flutist Lorna McGhee, and Rice University’s Shepherd School of Music, where he studied with renowned flute pedagogue Leone Buyse. Hudson has coached woodwind students at the Eastman School of Music, Northwestern University, University of Iowa, and University of Texas. He lives in Houston, Texas.

EMILY TSAI (oboe) — noted by DMV Classical as “[having] a consistently lovely tone and [taking] her melodic twists and turns with stylish assurance” — is Assistant Principal Oboe of the Washington National Opera, and can be seen in regular performances of Washington, DC opera, ballet, and musical theater productions. She has made solo appearances with the Lafayette Symphony Orchestra, the River Oaks Chamber Orchestra, the Alba Music Festival Orchestra, the Paragon Philharmonia, the Amadeus Orchestra, and others, and is on the faculty at the University of Maryland School of Music. Emily began her musical studies at the age of four on the violin and started the oboe when she was ten. Her main teachers include Mark Hill, Richard Killmer, and Malcolm Smith. Emily received her Bachelor of Music degree in Oboe Performance, with a Performer’s Certificate and the Chamber Music Award, from the Eastman School of Music, and her Bachelor of Science degree in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology from the University of Rochester. She received her Master of Music from the University of Maryland, where she was part of the Graduate Fellowship Quintet.

GRAEME STEELE JOHNSON (clarinet) — praised as “technically and interpretively impeccable and passionately communicative” (Boston Musical Intelligencer) — is an artist of uncommon imagination and versatility. The clarinetist, curator, and “musical detective” (New York Classical Review) recently garnered international attention for his rediscovery and reconstruction of a 125-year-old Octet by Charles Martin Loeffler, profiled in a full-page spread by The Washington Post. Released on his debut album Forgotten Sounds, Johnson’s world-premiere recording of the work was named one of The New York Times’ Best Classical Music Albums of 2024 and nominated for a Gramophone Classical Music Award. Johnson led the Octet’s first present-day performances at the Library of Congress, Morgan Library, Harvard Musical Association, Phoenix Chamber Music Festival, Emerald City Music, Chamber Music Northwest, La Jolla Music Society, and more. Driven by his interest in shedding fresh perspective on familiar music, Johnson

has appeared as a TEDx speaker comparing Mozart and Seinfeld, and authored chamber arrangements heard around the world. He earned degrees from The University of Texas at Austin, Yale School of Music, and a doctorate from the CUNY Graduate Center, where his research won the Elebash Dissertation Award. His principal teachers include David Shifrin, Charles Neidich, Nathan Williams, and Ricardo Morales.

KARA LAMOURE (bassoon) approaches the bassoon as a dynamic performer, educator, and creative. Her interest in the creation and curation of music has led to premieres of works for solo bassoon by Akshaya Avril Tucker and Adeliia Faizullina, and she is a prolific arranger of chamber music for winds. LaMoure has performed as a chamber musician at Ravinia, Strathmore, Carnegie Hall and the Grand Teton and Moab Music Festivals, as a soloist with ROCO, Caroga Arts Collective and the Eastman Wind Ensemble. She is also a founding member of the viral chamber-comedy group the Breaking Winds Bassoon Quartet, which has forged a special connection with thousands of young musicians and found broad appeal in venues from Beijing’s Forbidden City Concert Hall to Seattle’s Museum of Pop Culture and the Nathan’s Famous Hot Dog Eating Contest in Coney Island. LaMoure earned degrees from the Eastman School of Music and Northwestern University, where she studied with John Hunt and Christopher Millard, and she is an alumna of Eastman’s cutting-edge Institute for Music Leadership.

ANNI HOCHALTER (horn) — a maverick French horn player — is a founding member and Executive Director of WindSync. As an award-winning chamber musician, Hochhalter has set a new standard of wind performance practice and built a new repertoire for the wind quintet in addition to her experimental craft in non-traditional performance styles and mediums. Hochhalter was the only musician selected for Stanford University’s Executive Program for Social Entrepreneurship in 2017 and has been a featured speaker at Chamber Music America’s National Conference and the MENSA World Gathering to share bold approaches to community building through chamber music. Outside of WindSync, she performs on vocals, electronics, and horn with the band Late Aster, praised by the San Francisco Chronicle as a “very cool collision of brass and electronics.” Hochhalter studied horn at the University of Southern California with leading studio musicians Rick Todd, James Thatcher and Kristy Morrell, with additional summer training at Chautauqua Music Festival with Roger Kaza.

More information: www.windsync.org www.youtube.com/windsync www.facebook.com/windsync Instagram: @windsync

TICKETS $10

SCHAEFER CENTER FOR THE PERFORMING ARTS

TUESDAY, JULY 14

7:30 PM

CATSMAN FOUNDATION

GLOBAL FILM SERIES

SENTIMENTAL VALUE

In Norwegian, English and French with English subtitles Norway, Germany, Denmark, France, Sweden, United Kingdom, Turkey / Rated R (language, sexual reference, brief nudity) / Directed by Joachim Trier / 2025 / Psychological Drama, Showbiz Drama / 133 minutes

ABOUT SENTIMENTAL VALUE

In this intimate exploration of family, memories, and the reconciliatory power of art, two sisters must navigate their complicated relationship with their estranged father (Stellan Skarsgård), a charismatic once-renowned director who casts an eager young Hollywood star (Elle Fanning) in what he hopes will be his comeback film. 

Dale M. Pollock, a writer, film producer, filmmaker and author, has served as head film critic for Daily Variety, chief entertainment correspondent for the Los Angeles Times, Dean of the School of Filmmaking at the (then) North Carolina School of the Arts, and Professor of Cinema Studies at NCSA, among other illustrious roles. He was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize in the early 1980s, wrote Skywalking: The Life and Films of George Lucas, and his first work of fiction, Chopped: A Novel, is available in print, e-book, and audiobook. Pollock continues to teach Continuing Education classes at UNCSA, along with programming the Global Film Series for An Appalachian Summer Festival.

THURSDAY, JULY 16

7:30 PM

COMPLEXIONS CONTEMPORARY BALLET

Principal

TICKETS $10-$45

SCHAEFER CENTER FOR THE PERFORMING ARTS

FOUNDING CO-ARTISTIC DIRECTORS

Dwight Rhoden & Desmond Richardson

ASSOCIATE ARTISTIC DIRECTORS

Jillian Davis & Joe González

EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

Muadi B. Dibinga

PRINCIPAL CHOREOGRAPHER

Dwight Rhoden

ARTISTIC ADVISORS

Carmen de Lavallade & Sarita Allen

ARTISTIC ASSOCIATE AND REPETITEUR

Miguel Solano

ARTIST IN RESIDENCE

Jae Man Joo, Vincenzo Di Primo, Addison Ector, April Watson

REHEARSAL DIRECTORS

Natalia Alonso, Christina Dooling, Natiya Kezevadze, Terk Lewis

RESIDENT LIGHTING DESIGNER

Michael Korsch

RESIDENT COSTUME DESIGNER

Christine Darch

DIRECTOR OF EDUCATION

Monica Montaño

THE COMPANY

Jordan Beasley, Aeron Buchanan, Jillian Davis, Angelo De Serra, Chloe Duryea, Joe González, Aristotle Luna, Marissa Mattingly, Laura Perich Villasmil, Jasmine Robinson, Imani Sailers, Lucy Stewart, Manuel Vaccaro, Drazen Wilmers

Apprentices: Caleb Burks, Damaris Ruiz

PROGRAM

IMAGINE JOY

2025

Choreography: Dwight Rhoden

Music: Beethoven, Samuel Barber with additional sound design by Patrick Doran-Sheeran and Cory Folta

Lighting Design: Michael Korsch

ostume Design: Christine Darch

Performed by: The Company

Was it all just a dream?

Imagine Joy was made possible through the support of

HONESTLY

2025

Choreography: Dwight Rhoden

Music: Donny Hathaway

Lighting Design: Michael Korsch

Costume Design: Christine Darch

Performed by: Vincenzo Di Primo

FIRST COMES LOVE

2025

Choreography: Dwight Rhoden

Music: David Rozenblatt

Lighting Design: Michael Korsch

Costume Design: Christine Darch

Performed by: Jillian Davis and Joe González

TESTAMENT

(Excerpt - Amazing Grace) 2011

Choreography: Dwight Rhoden

Music: Traditional

Lighting Design: Michael Korsch

Costume Design: Jae Man Joo

Performed by: Lucy Stewart and Addison Ector

TESTAMENT was commissioned through the generous support of TITAS/Dallas, TX.

MERCY (excerpt)

2009

Music: Hanz Zimmer*

Performed by: The Company

*Mercy: 160 Bpm by Hans Zimmer

– INTERMISSION –

LOVE ROCKS

2020

Choreography: Dwight Rhoden

Music: Lenny Kravitz

Lighting Design: Michael Korsch

Costume Design: Christine Darch

Sound Design: Corey Folta

Performed by: The Company

MUSIC CREDITS

“Raised Vibrations,” “We Can Get It All Together,” “I Belong to You,” “Take Time,” “Fly Away,” “It’s Enough,” “Here to Love”

All written by Leonard A. Kravitz with permission of BMG Gold Songs.

“Are You Gonna Go My Way”

Written by Leonard A. Kravitz and Craig David Ross with permission of BMG Gold Songs and Wigged Music Rights/ Clearances: BZ/Rights & Permissions, Inc.

PROGRAM NOTES

“We’ve got to dance and be in love.” —Lenny Kravitz

Special thanks to Lenny Kravitz.

ABOUT THE COMPANY

Hailed as a “matchless American dance company” by the Philadelphia Inquirer, Complexions Contemporary Ballet transcends dance tradition through a groundbreaking approach to the art. Founded in 1994 by master choreographer Dwight Rhoden and the legendary Desmond Richardson, Complexions’ foremost innovation is to remove boundaries, not reinforce them. The company blends methods, styles, and cultures from across the globe, and the result is a continually evolving form of dance that reflects the movement of our world — and all its cultures — as an interrelated whole.

Complexions’ artistic directors and company members teach master classes around the world to dancers of all levels, bringing the company's inventive vision of human movement to five continents, over 20 countries, and over 20 million television viewers. The company has also performed at major dance festivals throughout Europe. These include Italy’s Festival of Dance; France’s Isle De Dance Festival and Maison De La Dance Festival; the Holland Dance Festival; Switzerland’s Steps International Dance Festival; Poland’s kódźBiennale, Warsaw Ballet Festival and Kraków Spring Ballet Festival; and Spain’s Dance Festival of Canary Islands. Complexions has

toured extensively throughout the Baltic Region, Korea, Brazil, Japan, Egypt, Germany, Italy, Israel, Russia, New Zealand, Bermuda, Serbia, Jamaica, and Australia.

Complexions Contemporary Ballet has received The New York Times Critics’ Choice Award, among numerous other awards. It has appeared in theaters across the U.S., including The Joyce Theater, Lincoln Center, Brooklyn Academy of Music, New Victory Theater (New York City), the Mahalia Jackson Theater for the Performing Arts (New Orleans), Paramount Theatre (Seattle), The Music Center (Los Angeles), Winspear Opera House (Dallas), Cutler Majestic Theatre (Boston), the Music Hall (Detroit), and the Kennedy Center (Washington, D.C.) as part of the 2017 Ballet Across America. Prominent theaters abroad that have hosted Complexions include the Bolshoi Theatre, the Kremlin Theatre (Moscow), The Mikhailovsky Theater (St. Petersburg), and the Melbourne Arts Center. Over the past three decades, the company has witnessed a world becoming more fluid, more changeable and more culturally interconnected than ever before. Today, Complexions Contemporary Ballet represents one of the most recognized and respected performing arts brands worldwide.

WHO'S WHO IN THE COMPANY

DWIGHT RHODEN (Co-Founder, Co-Artistic Director, Principal Choreographer) has established a remarkably wide-ranging career, earning distinction from The New York Times as “one of the most sought out choreographers of the day.” Rhoden began dancing at age 17, and performed with Dayton Contemporary Dance Company, Les Ballets Jazz De Montréal, and as a principal dancer with the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater. In 1994, alongside Desmond Richardson, he founded Complexions Contemporary Ballet, bringing their unique brand of contemporary ballet to the world, forging a center for innovation and cuttingedge programming. Rhoden’s choreography has been the lynchpin of the company's repertory development. In three decades, he has created over 100 ballets for Complexions, as well as for numerous other companies, including the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, Arizona Ballet, Aspen Santa Fe Ballet, BalletMet, Dance Theatre of Harlem, Joffrey Ballet, Miami City Ballet, New York City Ballet, Pennsylvania Ballet, PHILADANCO!, Mariinsky Ballet, Zenon Dance Company, The Washington Ballet, The Houston Ballet and The San Francisco Ballet, among many others. Rhoden has also choreographed for So You Think You Can Dance, E! Entertainment’s Tribute to Style, AMICI, Cirque Du Soleil’s Zumanity, Mozart Her Story, and collaborated with artists including Prince, Lenny Kravitz, Paul Simon, Nina Simone, and many more. A recipient of The New York Foundation for the Arts Award, The Choo San Goh Award for Choreography,

and The Ailey School’s Apex Award, and an Honorary Doctorate from the Boston Conservatory in recognition of his extensive contributions to the field of dance. Currently he is Adjunct Professor at Howard University, and Artistic Professor of Dance at Chapman University.

DESMOND RICHARDSON

(Co-Founder, Co-Artistic Director) is an iconic American Dance Professional, Broadway Tony Award nominee, TedTalk Guest artist & speaker, and So You Think You Can Dance & AMICI (Italy) Guest Choreographer. Richardson is a Presidential Scholar in the Arts and has graced the covers of various publications; he was the first African American Principal dancer of American Ballet Theater, a principal dancer with The Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, Frankfurt Ballet and a featured guest performer nationally and internationally. He has received the Capezio, Rosey Roosevelt Thompson, Bessie and Dance Magazine awards. He is an honorary Doctorate Recipient from the University of North Carolina School of the Arts. Currently, Richardson and his collaborator Dwight Rhoden are working on the Broadway-bound Mozart Her Story with producers Tegan Summer, Patricia Klausner and Christopher Sepulveda. Richardson’s character Ted appeared on the HBO Max hit series The Other Two (Season 3).

JILLIAN DAVIS (Associate Artistic Director, Dance Artist) is from Pennsylvania and began her ballet training at the age of three. She studied extensively with Risa Kaplowitz and Susan Jaffe at Princeton Dance and Theater Studio in Princeton, NJ. She has been a Company Artist with Complexions since 2014 and has been a part of several Dwight Rhoden world premieres. Additionally, she is a Co-Assistant Rehearsal Director and a Production Associate with the Company. Jillian is also a Choreographer Assistant with Jae Man Joo and Dwight Rhoden. Jillian is a Master Faculty member for Complexions Academy, teaching at the Winter and Summer Intensives, as well as Master Classes around the U.S. @jillange93

JOE GONZALEZ (Associate Artistic Director, Dance Artist) is from Boston Massachusetts, where he trained at Roxbury Center Performing Arts and the Boston Arts Academy. Joe has participated in Boston Conservatory's summer intensive, American Dance Festival, Bates Dance Festival and twice at Springboard Danse Montreal. He received his BFA from Boston

Conservatory. Gonzalez has commissioned works for a few universities, educational institutions, and dance companies. Joe toured nationally and internationally as performing artist with Philadanco, Anna Myer & Dancers, Prometheus Dance, #DBdanceProject, WaheedWorks and was the 2020/21 DanceVisions Artist in Resident at Performance Garage. He is currently founder and Artistic Director of Jo-Mé Dance and was on faculty at Temple University, Georgian Court University and Boston Arts Academy. He joined COMPLEXIONS in 2022. @j.gonzalez.dance

MIGUEL SOLANO (Artistic Associate and Repetiteur) is originally from Medellín, Colombia. He began his training there before moving to New York City, where he completed his studies at the Gelsey Kirkland Academy of Classical Ballet on full scholarship. He went on to perform with Gelsey Kirkland Ballet, Connecticut Ballet, and Thomas/Ortiz Dance before joining COMPLEXIONS in 2018, later becoming Assistant Rehearsal Director in 2023. Miguel toured internationally with the company for seven years and now contributes to repertory staging, leads rehearsals, and supports the company’s artistic and educational work while teaching masterclasses worldwide. He has collaborated with choreographers including Dwight Rhoden, Christopher Rudd, Ricardo Amarante, Francesca Harper, Darrell Moultrie, and Jenn Freeman, and has staged repertory by Rhoden and Rudd for universities and professional companies across the U.S. and abroad.

NATIYA KEZEVADZE (Rehearsal Director) started her training in Classical Ballet at V. Chabukiani State Ballet School in Tbilisi, Georgia. At age 13, she was accepted to the Vaganova Academy of Russian Ballet on full scholarship in St-Petersburg, Russia. While at the Academy, Natiya studied with professor T. Udalenkova, performed extensively on the celebrated Mariinsky Stage, and received her BFA. She joined Boris Eifman Dance Company, and then was a soloist with Ballet Classic. Natiya moved to NYC in 2004 to further pursue her performing career, and a year later joined Forces of Nature Dance Theater Company, under the direction of Abdel Salaam. In 2007 she joined Complexions Contemporary Ballet, touring worldwide performing works by Dwight Rhoden, Desmond Richardson, Igal Perry and Jae Man Joo. In 2012, Ms. Kezevadze left touring life to focus on motherhood, and to embrace her love for teaching. She has taught at the Joffrey Experience in NYC, Broadway Dance Center, was assistant choreographer with the New York City Ballet’s Choreographic Institute and for Dwight Rhoden’s original international production of the Great Gatsby Ballet. Today, Natiya continues performing with Complexions as Rehearsal Director, teaching as Master faculty at the Complexions Academy, and collaborates in various dance projects.

NATALIA ALONSO (Rehearsal Director) began her career in dance when joining Ballet Hispanico in 2001, for which she received accolades in Dance Magazine’s cover story for her work with the company. Shortly thereafter, she joined Complexions Contemporary Ballet where she danced for five seasons. Natalia then performed the role of Maria Tallchief in the Lincoln Center Theater play, Nikkolai and the Others. She can also be seen in commercial publications such as Discount Dance and Baltogs, as well as several TV shows including Law and Order: SVU. Ms. Alonso is currently performing with the Metropolitan Opera and has appeared in productions of Die Rosenkavalier, Carmen, La Nozze de Figaro, Die Fleidermaus, Rigoletto, and Turandot. Before beginning her career as a professional dancer, Ms. Alonso, received a BA in Economics from Wesleyan University, where she also performed and co-directed a student run dance company. Ms. Alonso has taught master classes at institutions such as The Juilliard School, The Joffrey Ballet School, Barnard, Broadway Dance Center, Perry Mansfield, and is also a certified GYROTONIC® instructor.

CHRISTINA DOOLING (Rehearsal Director) began her career performing with Complexions Contemporary Ballet after working with Dwight Rhoden at NYU Tisch. After several exhilarating years with the company, Christina parted ways to pursue additional opportunities. Credits include The Phantom of the Opera, Radio City's Christmas Spectacular, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, Flesh & Bone, and performances with artists Pharrell and Camilla Cabello to name a few. Christina is honored to support Complexions in its 30th Season. Represented by Lakey Wolff & Company.

TERK LEWIS (Rehearsal Director) is from Mansfield, OH and earned his BFA in Dance from Western Michigan University performing in works by Antony Tudor, Frank Chaves and Ron DeJesus. Lewis then went on to join Complexions Contemporary Ballet performing works by Artistic Directors Dwight Rhoden and Desmond Richardson, Jae Man Joo, William Forsyth and Marcelo Gomes. Lewis later danced in Jesus Christ Superstar Live on NBC (choreographed by Camille A. Brown) and performed in Peter Pan and Rock of Ages at Pittsburgh Civic Light Opera, as well as the music video “Cross Me” by Ed Sheeran. He has done industrial work for Hanes, Hyundai, FujiFilm, and V magazine. Lewis danced in the Lin-Manuel Miranda feature film In the Heights (choreographed by Chris Scott), at the Met Gala (choreographed by Andy Blankenbuehler), in the musical series Up Here on Hulu (choreographed by Sonya Tayeh), and at Radio City Music Hall for NBC (choreographed by Shannon Lewis). Most recently Lewis performed on Saturday Night Live (choreographed by Chris Bailey). Lewis is a proud member of SAG-AFTRA. Lewis’ choreography highlights include: The National Dance Theatre Company of Jamaica, Bryant Park NYC, Steps Professional Performance Showcase, The Steps Conservatory, The Joffrey Ballet School, Black Boys Dance

Too, Complexions Contemporary Ballet Academy, Western Michigan University, The Kalamazoo Civic Theater, Nickelodeon, and Gayletter magazine. Teaching highlights include: Western Michigan University (visiting assistant professor), Steps on Broadway, Broadway Dance Center, The Alvin Ailey Extension Program and New York City Dance Alliance. Lewis completed his MFA in dance from Montclair State University in May of 2026.

MICHAEL KORSCH (Resident Lighting Designer)

is a lighting, projection and scenic designer based in Philadelphia, PA, where he earned his BA in theatre from Temple University. He has worked with numerous directors and choreographers, creating hundreds of visual designs for dance, theatre and other live performances throughout North and South America, Europe, Asia, and Australia, as well as New Zealand. Michael has been the resident lighting designer for Complexions Contemporary Ballet since 1998, and Ballet Arizona since 2001. In addition, Michael has created designs for Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, American Ballet Theatre, Aspen Santa Fe Ballet, Backhausdance, BalletMet, Ballet Nice Méditerranée, Ballet West, BalletX, Carolina Ballet, Charlotte Ballet, Cincinnati Ballet, Cleveland Play House, Czech National Ballet, DanceBrazil, Dance Theatre of Harlem, Dayton Contemporary Dance Company, Disney Creative Entertainment, English National Ballet, FELA! The Concert, Houston Ballet, Hubbard Street Dance Chicago, MOMIX,

Oakland Ballet, Pacific Northwest Ballet, Philadelphia Ballet, Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre, Royal Danish Ballet, Sacramento Ballet, San Francisco Ballet, Staatsballett Berlin, and Washington Ballet among others.

CHRISTINE DARCH (Resident Costume Designer) has designed for Complexions since 2006. She designs and builds costumes for many choreographers including Julia Adam, Natasha Adorlee, Jennifer Archibald, Val Caniparoli, Rena Butler, Jorma Elo, Nicolo Fonte, Jen Freeman, Adam Hougland, Jae Man Joo, James Kudelka, Gabrielle Lamb, Edward Liang, Matthew Neenan, David Parsons, Caili Quan, Amy Seiwert, Merián Soto, Septime Webre, and Yin Yue. Ms. Darch has been commissioned by Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, Astana Ballet, Atlanta Ballet, Ballet Arizona, Ballet Hawaii, Ballet Memphis, Ballet Met, Charlotte Ballet, Cincinnati Ballet, Colorado Ballet, Dayton Ballet, Gibney Dance, Gwangju City Ballet, Houston Ballet, Kansas City Ballet, MADCO, Marin Ballet, Milwaukee Ballet, Le Ballet Nice Méditerranée, Oklahoma City Ballet, Oregon Ballet Theatre, Pacific Northwest Ballet, Parsons Dance, Pennsylvania Ballet, Pittsburgh Ballet Theater, Post:ballet, San Francisco Ballet, Seoul Metropolitan Ballet, Singapore Ballet, Tulsa Ballet, Washington Ballet, and BalletX. Her full-length works include four Nutcrackers, Sleeping Beauty, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and Dwight Rhoden’s Othello. She builds costumes from her studio in East Northport, New York.

WHO'S WHO IN THE COMPANY

JORDAN BEASLEY (Dance Artist) began his training in competitive dance and classical ballet in Los Angeles before continuing his studies at Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre and Miami City Ballet on full scholarships. He launched his professional career with IAF Company, performing in a range of on-camera commercial projects and creating work as both a dancer and choreographer for music videos and live productions. Jordan has appeared as a guest artist with American Contemporary Ballet and Pacific Festival Ballet, and was a featured soloist in an immersive cabaret performance at the historic Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel. Now pursuing his career in New York, he is dedicated to further expanding his artistry and exploring new performance opportunities. He joined Complexions in 2025.

AERON BUCHANAN (Dance Artist) began his formal training began at age 10 at Maryland Youth Ballet, but Aeron's passion for dance has been there since birth. Having a mother who was a former dancer and studio owner, Buchanan's love of movement came naturally. He trained at The Washington Ballet and then at Baltimore School for the Arts (BSA) graduating in 2017. He spent summers attending programs such as Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, The School of American Ballet, Boston Ballet, Deeply Rooted Dance Theater, and Dance Theatre of Harlem. After graduating from BSA he attended the year round programs at Boston Ballet and Pacific Northwest Ballet before joining Cincinnati Ballet’s second company, followed by Nashville Ballet as an Apprentice in 2020 and promoted to Company Artist in 2022. During his four seasons with the company he was featured in works by Jermaine Spivey, Jennifer Archibald, Justin Peck, Jiří Kylián and Matthew Neenan. Aeron joined Complexions in 2024.

CALEB BURKS (Apprentice) born and raised in Southfield, Michigan where he started dance at age seven. He is currently pursuing a BFA in Dance at The Juilliard School. Caleb has trained on scholarship at the Joffrey Ballet School pre-professional program, Cecchetti Council of America International Summer School, Alonzo King LINES Ballet PreProfessional Program, and has attended winter and summer programs at the Complexions Contemporary Ballet Academy. He has had the opportunity to perform in works created by Lauren Lovette, Rennie Harris, Jennifer Freeman, William Forsythe, My’Kal Stromile, and Martha Graham. Caleb joined Complexions in the summer of 2026.

ANGELO DE SERRA (Dance Artist) grew up in Sassari, Sardinia, Italy. He began his professional training at the age of 14 with Sharon Podesva, his private ABT ballet teacher. He attended summer intensives at The Royal Ballet School, American Ballet Theatre, and Académie Princesse Grace. At the age of 17 he was awarded Senior Male Classical Top Six at Youth America Grand Prix Italy, and a year later won first place in Classical Soloist the Expression International Dance Competition in Florence were he received a scholarship to the Alvin Ailey School. He then moved to Cannes, France, graduated from PNSD-Rosella Hightower and joined Cannes Jeune Ballet. After moving to New York City to attend The Ailey School, he attended intensives at the Complexions Academy and joined Complexions as an apprentice in 2022 and was promoted to company member in 2024.

VINCENZO DI PRIMO (Artistin-residence) grew up in Adrano, Sicily, Italy, and graduated from the Vienna State Opera Ballet Academy. Vincenzo performed with some of the world’s most reputable dance companies including The Royal Ballet of London and danced works from choreographers including Kenneth MacMillan, Crystal Pite, Marius Petipa, Peter Wright, Frederick Ashton, Morgann RunacreTemple, Nacho Duato, Natalia Horecna, Dwight Rhoden, Justin Peck, Jae Man Joo, Ricardo Amarante, and Jenn Freeman. Vincenzo received several awards including Prize winner and Contemporary Prize at The Prix de Lausanne, Gold Medal and Nureyev prize at Grand Prix de Paris, Outstanding Artistry Prize at Youth America Grand Prix New York, and Bronze Medal at the Beijing International Ballet Competition. In 2019, he was a contestant and finalist on the Italian TV show Amici, following this he joined the company. In 2021 Vincenzo was included in Dance Magazine’s “25 to Watch.” Vincenzo joined Complexions in 2019.

CHLOE DURYEA (Dance Artist) received her early dance training near her hometown of Haslett, Michigan. At ages 16 and 17, she attended American Ballet Theatre’s Summer Intensive as a National Training Scholar on full scholarship. Chloe graduated from Indiana University’s Jacob School of Music with Highest Distinction, earning a Bachelor of Science in Ballet with an outside field of Kinesiology. At Indiana University, she was featured in works by Twyla Tharp, Dwight Rhoden, and as Princess Aurora in The Sleeping Beauty. Chloe has guested with the Ruth Page Civic Ballet and the Indianapolis

School of Ballet, where she performed George Balanchine’s Nutcracker Pas de Deux. Prior to joining Complexions, Chloe danced professionally with Elements Contemporary Ballet, James Sewell Ballet, and performed at the Cannes Dance Festival. Since joining Complexions, Chloe has danced works by Dwight Rhoden, Justin Peck, Ricardo Amarante, and Jae Man Joo, as well as perform at the Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival. Chloe joined Complexions in 2023.

ARISTOTLE LUNA (Dance Artist) began as a trainee with Complexions Contemporary Ballet in the spring of 2022 while in college. He grew up on Salt Spring and Orcas Islands in the Salish Sea and began dancing fulltime at age 10 under the direction of Anthony the Dancer. He was a member of The Island Inspiration All Stars, studied ballet, contemporary, tap, hip hop, salsa, jazz and aerial acrobatics, and performed in many shows, including Billy in Billy Elliot. He also trained with Ariel Serrano at the Sarasota Cuban Ballet School, Homer Bryant of the Chicago Multicultural Dance Center and did an apprentice-residency with Dance Now! Miami. Summer intensives include Jacob's Pillow, Orsolina28, Hubbard Street, Houston Ballet and Interlochen. Aristotle completed his BFA in dance and graduated from NYU Tisch School of the Arts in May 2024. In his spare time, Aristotle is an avid capoerista and Charles Mingus devotee. He became an apprentice with Complexions in 2024 and was promoted to company member in 2025.

MARISSA MATTINGLY

(Dance Artist) grew up in Tampa, Florida, where she was trained in several different styles of dance since the age of three. She started to take ballet and contemporary more seriously at the age of 13 when she began training at All American Dance Factory and Classical Ballet School under the direction of Terri Howell and Julio Montano. With this training she took part in many ballet competitions. She is a four-time YAGP finalist, and performed in the UBC 2022 finals gala as a Legacy Award winner. She attended her first Complexions summer intensive in 2021, and was invited to take part in their two week Trainee Program in the spring of 2022. She then joined Complexions in August of 2022 at the age of 17. Since then, she has performed in numerous ballets by Dwight Rhoden, including four world premiers at the Joyce Theater of Endgame, For Crying Out Loud, Bolero, and Deeply. @marissa_mattingly_

LAURA PERICH VILLASMIL

(Dance Artist) was born in Maracaibo, Venezuela, where she began training at the age of three. She then moved to Houston, Texas, where she continued her training with Catriona Steel and completed The Royal Academy of Dance Ballet exams under Steel’s direction. After graduating, Laura

then joined Texas Ballet Theater's Studio Training Company completing two full years in the program. In 2021, Laura moved to New York City and joined Ballet Hispanico's Professional Studies Program as part of the inaugural cohort on full scholarship where she had the opportunity to tour and be a guest artist for the main company. Laura then joined Complexions Contemporary Ballet as an Apprentice. Laura has had the opportunity to work with and perform works by Annabelle Lopez-Ochoa, Gustavo Ramirez-Sansano, Pedro Ruiz, Eduardo Vilaro, Norbert De La Cruz III, Tsai-Hsi Hung, Morgan McEwen, Ben Stevenson and more. She joined Complexions as a full-time dancer in 2025.

JASMINE ROBINSON

(Dance Artist) was born in Long Island, New York and raised in Scottsdale, Arizona, where she discovered her passion for dance and art at an early age. She trained at Master Ballet Academy, studying the Vaganova Method, while gaining a diverse dance education through competition dance. She went on to join Phoenix Ballet Studio Company and was a Trainee and Guest Artist with Complexions during their 2021-2022 season. She pursued higher education at the University of Southern California (USC), earning a BFA in Dance with a minor in Psychology. During her time at USC, she performed works by Christopher Wheeldon, Justin Peck, and Kyle Abraham. She furthered her training at intensives such as Nederlands Dans Theater, Orsolina28, Complexions Academy, and Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival, and assists with New York City Dance Alliance (NYCDA). Jasmine joined Complexions in 2025.

DAMARIS RUIZ (Apprentice) is a Spanish dancer trained in classical and contemporary disciplines. She received her foundational training in Madrid under Carmina Ocaña and Pablo Savoye before expanding her expertise internationally in cities like Paris, where she studied with renowned teachers such as Wayne Byars. Her professional stage career includes five years in the principal ensemble of The Lion King in Madrid, later transitioning to the Paris production where she served as a swing for two years. In 2016, she performed at the Brit Awards in London under the direction of visionary choreographer Wayne McGregor. Most recently, for the 2025–2026 season, she was awarded a scholarship to the Peridance Center professional training program, supported by Nikki Holck. Damaris joined Complexions in 2026.

IMANI SAILERS (Dance Artist), a native Chicagoan, began her dance training at the Chicago Multi-Cultural Dance Center at age three. Throughout her early training, she attended various summer courses including Pacific Northwest Ballet, Charlotte Ballet, Dance Theatre of Harlem, and The School at Jacob’s Pillow. In 2013, she graduated from Indiana University’s (IU) Jacobs School of Music with a B.S. in Ballet with an Outside Field in Political

Science. At IU, Sailers performed works by George Balanchine, Twyla Tharp, Merce Cunningham, Paul Taylor, and more. Imani joined Nashville Ballet’s second company in 2017, was promoted to Company Apprentice in 2018, and advanced to Company Artist in 2019. In 2018, she was named one of Pointe Magazine’s “Stars of the Corps.” During her eight seasons with Nashville Ballet, she performed works by Paul Vasterling, Val Caniparoli, Matthew Neenan, Jennifer Archibald, Justin Peck, Jermaine Spivey, Jiří Kylián, and more. Imani joined Complexions in 2025.

LUCY STEWART (Dance Artist) grew up in Lakewood, Colorado, dancing at Colorado Ballet and Kinetic Arts Dance Studio. She spent her summers training with American Ballet Theatre, The Joffrey Ballet, Complexions, and Colorado Ballet. Lucy attended numerous Complexions summer intensives from the years 2017 to 2021, in addition to its pre professional program in New York in 2019 and 2020. Prior to joining Complexions in 2022, Lucy studied at The Juilliard School in the dance division. She has had the opportunity to study with various leading artists in the dance world, including Ohad Naharin, Francesca Harper, Houston Thomas, Tiler Peck, Rena Butler, James Whiteside, Karole Armitage, Matthew Neenan, Jae Man Joo, Jenn Freeman, and Ricardo Amarante, as well as the opportunity to perform Set and Reset by Trisha Brown. In addition to dancing with Complexions, she has had various teaching opportunities, is a Bloch Influencer, and is attending Fordham University’s Professional and Continuing Studies program part-time.

MANUEL VACCARO (Dance Artist) was born in Modica, a small Sicilian city in Italy. His passion for dance has lived since he learned how to walk. He began his dance studies at the age of six at a private school in Sicily. When he turned ten, Manuel was admitted to the Rome Opera House dance school where he studied for four years. In September 2018, he started studying at the Rosella Hightower dance school in France. After sending a video audition to the Bolshoi Ballet Academy in Moscow, Russia in 2019, he was admitted and studied for three years. In June 2022, Manuel received his diploma in professional dance and ballet teaching from the prestigious Bolshoi Ballet Academy. Manuel joined Complexions in 2023. @manuel_vaccaro_

DRAZEN WILMERS (Apprentice) is a dancer who is grounded in curiosity, discipline, and a genuine love for movement. Originally from Cincinnati, Ohio, Drazen received his BFA in Dance from Point Park University, where he trained in a range of techniques that shaped his versatility. Drazen’s expansive skill set is exemplified through his performances of works by some of the most influential choreographers in the field. His repertoire includes Sweet Fields by Twyla Tharp, Cry Me by Jae Man Joo, Serenade by George Balanchine, Boots on the Ground by Mike Tyus and Luca Renzi, Cloudline by Robyn Mineko, and Steel City by Houston Thomas — each piece contributing to his rich and diverse dance experience. These works have deepened his understanding of movement, storytelling, and collaboration. With a strong educational foundation and a steadily growing professional career, Drazen continues to establish himself as a remarkable and evolving talent within the dance community. He joined Complexions in 2025. 

STAFF

STAGE MANAGER: Madison Ellis

LIGHTING SUPERVISOR: Kimberly Pukay

BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Everick Brown, Dwight Rhoden, Desmond Richardson, Carl Nelson, Sarah Picot, Felicia Swoope

NATIONAL ADVISORY BOARD

Debbie Allen, Angela Bassett, Wren T. Brown, Susan Jaffe, Carmen de Lavallade, Lisa Niemi Swayze, Courtney B. Vance, Pauletta Washington

COLLABORATORS

Publicist: Richard Kornberg & Associates

Photographers: Rachel Neville, Steve Vaccariello Company, Taylor Craft, PhotosbyDrizzy, The Gingerb3ardman Photography Accompanists: Ai Isshiki, Dan Meinhardt, Alice Hargrove Videographer: Jacob Hiss

REPRESENTATION

MARGARET SELBY

SELBY/ARTISTS MGMT

262 West 38th Street, Suite 1701 New York, NY 10018 Office: 212-382-3260 | mselby@selbyartistsmgmt.com

COMPLEXIONS CONTEMPORARY BALLET FOUNDATION, INC.

244 Fifth Avenue, Suite 2875 New York, NY 10001

www.complexionscontemporaryballet.org complexionsacademy.com

CONNECT WITH US

complexionscontemporaryballet.org

@Complexions_Ballet

complexionsacademy.com @Complexions_Academy

SATURDAY, JULY 18

7:30 PM

DARREN CRISS

SCHAEFER SPOTLIGHT SERIES

Presenting Sponsorship provided by Bonnie and Jamie Schaefer, Christine Petti, and Neil and Nancy Schaffel

Supporting

TICKETS $25-$60

SCHAEFER CENTER FOR THE PERFORMING ARTS

Since bursting onto the pop-culture landscape over a decade ago in Fox’s hit TV show Glee, Emmy and Golden Globe winner Darren Criss has embodied the kind of kaleidoscopic artistry that’s entirely uninhibited by form or genre. For this concert, Darren will be performing well-known songs featured throughout his wildly eclectic career as both a songwriter and performer, including those from Glee, Starkid and the Broadway shows he’s starred in.

Criss recently starred in the Tony Award–winning Broadway hit Maybe Happy Ending, directed by Michael Arden. Now playing at the Belasco Theatre, the production opened to rave reviews and earned him the Tony Award for Best Leading Actor.

Before Darren Criss exploded into the internet’s subculture as both an actor and songwriter for the YouTube viral hit A Very Potter Musical in 2009, he had made a small name for himself playing unique interpretations of popular songs he’d perform at cafes and bars in his hometown of San Francisco. Little did he know that the same knack for covering tunes would serve him well in 2010, when he was cast on FOX’s massively successful musical series Glee, from which many of his performances of popular songs would lead to several Billboard-topping records. In 2015, his songwriting also landed an Emmy nomination for Best Original Music and Lyrics, from penning the song “This

Time” for the show’s series finale.

Criss has continued to write and produce music extensively through the years, whether for his own releases as an artist or as a songwriter for theater, film and television. In 2019 Criss created, executive produced, starred in, and provided all the original songs for his short-form musical comedy series Royalties, and in 2022 he wrote the music and lyrics for the opening number of the Tony Awards: “Act One.” As an artist, he most recently delivered a genre-diverse collection of “character-driven” singles as part of his 2021 solo EP, Masquerade (BMG), and in the same year, released a full-length Christmas album titled, aptly, A Very Darren Crissmas (Decca).

As an actor, Criss is a veteran of the stage whose Broadway credits include the titular role of Hedwig and the Angry Inch (2015), How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying (2012), and the most recent 2022 revival of David Mamet’s seminal play American Buffalo alongside Laurence Fishburne and Sam Rockwell. In 2018, his work in Ryan Murphy’s The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story received wide critical acclaim, earning him a Primetime Emmy, Golden Globe, Screen Actors Guild, and Critics’ Choice Award. He was most recently seen starring in Netflix’s hit series Hollywood, for which he also served as executive producer.

SUNDAY, JULY 19

2:00 PM

THE OTHER MOZART

Presenting Sponsorship provided by Bonnie and Jamie Schaefer, Christine Petti, and Neil and Nancy Schaffel

Principal Sponsorship provided by App State Campus Store, Broyhill Family Foundation, Catsman Foundation, and Mast General Store

This performance was also funded, in part, by a generous gift from Peter & Joni Webb Petschauer

TICKETS $20-$45 VALBORG THEATRE

An

Summer Festival and Little Matchstick Factory present

The Other Mozart

Created, Written, and Performed by Sylvia Milo

Directed by Isaac Byrne

Music Composed by Nathan Davis and Phyllis Chen

Additional Music by Marianna Martines, Leopold Mozart, and W. A. Mozart

Sound Design: Nathan Davis

Period Style Movement Directed by: Janice Orlandi

Costume: Magdalena Dąbrowska and Miodrag Guberinic

Lighting Design: Joshua Rose

Hair Design: Courtney Bednarowski

Stage Manager, hair and makeup: Kodi Lynn Milburn

The Other Mozart is the true, forgotten story of Maria Anna (Nannerl) Mozart, the sister of Amadeus — a prodigy, virtuoso and composer, who performed throughout Europe with her brother, to equal acclaim, but whose work and story faded away, lost to history. The play is based on facts, stories and lines pulled directly from the Mozart family’s humorous and heartbreaking letters.

The Other Mozart had a critically acclaimed Off-Broadway run at HERE Arts in NYC and in London at St. James Theatre. The play has been presented in Austria by the Mozarteum Foundation at the Mozart Wohnhaus in Salzburg (inside the Mozart's apartment), in Vienna at the Mozarthaus Vienna (inside Amadeus’ Domgasse apartment), at the Pasinger Fabrik in Munich, in Hong Kong, Estonia, and Toronto, and continues touring theaters and universities across the US.

ARTIST BIOGRAPHIES

SYLVIA MILO (Creator, Writer, Original Performer) is an award-winning theatre artist, actress, playwright and director originally from Poland. Milo wrote, starred in, and self-produced (crowd-funded) her one-woman play The Other Mozart, for which she received the New York Innovative Theater Award for Outstanding Solo Performance and nomination for Outstanding Full-Length Script, and an Off-Broadway Alliance nomination for Best Solo Performance. Milo was commissioned by The Guardian to write an article about The Other Mozart and its cultural impact, which in turn inspired the creation of a documentary film on Nannerl Mozart. Sylvia and the play are featured in the Mediastockade PBS 2024 documentary Mozart’s Sister.

Sylvia also created the character of Bob Dylan in the OBIE Award-winning The West Village Fragments by Peculiar Works, and, as a member of the Bats at the Flea Theater, she co-wrote and starred in Seating Arrangements, directed by Eric Pold of Gob Squad. She adapted and directed an all-female version of Hamlet and starred as Ophelia at the Mark Morris Center. In NYC she has performed at La Mama, Ontological-Hysteric, Theatre for the New City, Dixon Place, Cherry Lane, The Ohio Theatre and at MoMA.

Sylvia is also a violinist (acoustic and electric violins – Irving Plaza, Knitting Factory, CBGB’s, Joe’s Pub) and has composed scores for dance and theater (Merce Cunningham Studio, La Mama). She is a graduate of New York University, with extensive training at the Stella Adler and Lee Strasberg Theatre Institutes, and at The Grotowski Institutes in Poland and Pontedera in Italy. Her recent play on Mary Magdalene, 7 MAGDALENES, was developed at her fellowships at the Bogliasco Foundation in Italy and at the Baryshnikov Arts Center in New York, premiering Off-Broadway at HERE Arts in 2024. She is currently developing a new play with the support of NYSCA and Theaterlab (NYC). www.sylviamilo.com

ISAAC BYRNE (Director) is a playwright, director, and acting teacher. He has been awarded the New York Innovative Theatre Award for Outstanding Direction twice, and productions he has directed have been nominated for a Drama Desk Award, an Off-Broadway Alliance award, 24 NYIT awards, and 6 Planet Connection Awards. Credits include: The Other Mozart (NYIT Outstanding Solo Performance, Nominated for Director), In Vestments (NYIT Outstanding Premiere of a New Play), To Nineveh (NYIT Outstanding Production), Tar Baby (DR2, PS122), 52 Man Pick Up (Ars Nova, Edinburgh Fringe), The New Normal, I Used to Write on Walls, Grimm Reality (Co-Production with Bryant Park), and Hazard a Little Death (Planet Connection Best Original Script). www.isaacbyrne.com

NATHAN DAVIS (Co-Composer and Sound Designer) “writes music that deals deftly and poetically with timbre and sonority” (NY Times). His opera/ballet Hagoromo was produced by American Opera Projects and premiered at the 2015 BAM Next Wave Festival with the International Contemporary Ensemble, the Brooklyn Youth Chorus, choreographer David Neumann, and dancers Wendy Whelan, and Jock Soto. Lincoln Center presented the premiere of Bells, a site-specific work for ensemble, multichannel audio, and live broadcast to audience members’ mobile phones. Nathan received other commissions from GMEM and Ensemble CBarré (Marseille), FringeArts and the Pew Center for Arts & Heritage, Donaueschinger Musiktage (Germany), Yarn/Wire, Claire Chase, Ekmeles, Miller Theatre, Ojai Music Festival, the Calder Quartet, and Third Coast Percussion — with premieres at Tanglewood, Park Avenue Armory, Guggenheim Museum, and Carnegie Hall. His music has been released on Starkland, Tundra, New Focus, and Bridge. Nathan is the co-creator (with Sylvia Milo) and the live musician of the music-theatre piece I am the utterance of my name: Divining Mary Magdalene.

The 2018 Aaron Copland Fellow at the Bogliasco Foundation, Davis received awards and fellowships from the Camargo Foundation, New Music USA, NYSCA, Meet the Composer, Fromm Foundation, Jerome Foundation, American Music Center, MATA, and ASCAP. He and Phyllis Chen won an NY Innovative Theater Award for their score to Sylvia Milo’s play The Other Mozart, for which Davis

also received a Drama Desk nomination for Outstanding Sound Design. An active percussionist and member of the International Contemporary Ensemble, Nathan appeared as a concerto soloist with the Seattle Symphony, Tokyo Symphony, and Nagoya Philharmonic. A graduate of Rice, Yale, and a Fulbright Fellow at the Rotterdam Conservatory, he currently teaches composition at The New School College of Performing Arts. www.nathandavis.com

PHYLLIS CHEN (Co-Composer), described by The New York Times as “spellbinding” and “delightfully quirky matched with interpretive sensitivity,” is a composer, pianist and sound artist whose music draws from her tactile exploration of object and sound. She has performed her music at Lincoln Center, Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago, Abrons Arts Center, Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston, Los Angeles County Museum, Baryshnikov Arts Center, and numerous other places.

Phyllis has received commissions by ensembles and organizations such as the International Contemporary Ensemble (ICEensemble), A Far Cry, Baryshnikov Arts Center, Claire Chase Density Project, Opera Cabal Opera SHOP, Singapore International Festival of the Arts, the Roulette-Jerome, Look & Listen Festival, Jacob Greenberg, and others. She has received grants from New Music USA, Foundation for the Contemporary Arts, NYSCA (via Concert Artists Guild and Look & Listen Festival), Fromm

a Play and a Stay Getaway

Foundation, and the Pew Heritage Trust via Christ Church of Philadelphia. “Through the Thicket of Stars,” a multilayered toy piano piece based on an original scroll painting by children’s author/illustrator Grace Lin, premiered at Kaufman Center Piano Dialogues in April 2022.

The featured solo musician in Stephin Merritt’s OffBroadway musical Coraline, Phyllis is one of the founding members of the International Contemporary Ensemble and the founder of the UnCaged Toy Piano, a composition competition to further expand the repertoire for toy piano. A strong interest in interdisciplinary work led her to collaborations with video artist and electronic musician Rob Dietz with whom she created multimedia works such as The Memoirist, Pearlessence, Chroma, and Carousel. She attended Oberlin Conservatory as a recipient of the Dean’s Talent Award Scholarship, and received a Masters from Northwestern University and DMA from Indiana University. Her piece Chimers, based on Papageno’s magic bells from Mozart’s Magic Flute, was premiered at the Lincoln Center’s Mostly Mozart Festival in 2011, and a program of her music was featured at the festival in 2013. 2019 Cage-Cunningham Fellow, 2022 Guggenheim Fellow. On the Nature of Thingness (Starkland), a collaborative album featuring the chamber works of Phyllis and Nathan Davis (The Other Mozart), was awarded the Independent Music Award for Best Contemporary Classical Music Album. www.phyllischen.net

JANICE ORLANDI (Period Style Movement Director) is a movement specialist in period styles, historic dance, psychophysical techniques, character transformation and physical dramaturgy, having trained and co-taught with Loyd Williamson and Richard Schechner. Recent directing credits include: Bette Davis Ain’t for Sissies (Five Stars at Edinburgh Fringe Festival, St. James Studio London; Theater Row, Laurie Beechman, 59E59), Garbo Dreams (Red Room NYC). Movement Director: The Contrast (Mirror Repertory Company St Clements), An Ideal Husband and Tartuffe (Sonnet Repertory NYC). A certified teacher of Michael Chekhov and Williamson Technique. Period style specialist of Elizabethan and Restoration, Baroque, Regency, Victorian, Edwardian, 1920s-1970s. Artistic director at Actors Movement Studio NYC, faculty at TISCH School of the Arts, Atlantic Theater Company, University of the Arts Philadelphia, Rutgers University, New York Conservatory for Dramatic Arts. Janice’s work as an educator, director, actress and movement coach has been seen at Williamstown Theater Festival, State Theater School Denmark, Lindenberg Center for Culture Netherlands, Princeton Repertory Shakespeare Festival, Classic Stage Company, Circle Rep Lab. Founding Member of Shakespeare in the Parking Lot. Featured in Backstage and the American Theater Magazine on current “Trends in Movement Training” in theater. www.actorsmovementstudio.com

MAGDALENA DABROWSKA (Costume Designer, the dress), a versatile Polish designer whose projects include fashion, theatrical costumes and set designs, is a graduate of Łazarski University in Warsaw and of the Cracow School of Art and Fashion Design. Her designs have been finalists at such prestigious competitions as Oskary Mody, OFF Fashion, and Złota Nitka. She participated in joint shows organized during the International Millinery Competition in France. She designed costumes for the plays Idiota, Burza, Taksówka, Zaćmienie, Starucha, Rewizor, W starych dekoracjach, Wariat i Zakonnica, Spacerowicz, Arabela, Młodzik, Życie towarzyskie i uczuciowe (dir. I. Gorzkowski), Platonow, Antyhona, Sońka, Król Lear (dir. A. Korytkowska), and Bulwar Zachodzącego Słońca (dir. M. Znaniecki). She also designed sets and costumes for Obchód Teatru, Czyli Kim Jest Wojciech B.? at the National Theatre of Poland and for the opera O Genowefie (dir. I. Gorzkowski), Hamlet (dir. I. Garcia), Carmina Burana (Israel), Szekely Fono (Budapest), Księżniczka Czardasza, Maria de Buenos Aires and Czarodziejski Flet (dir. M. Znaniecki). She also runs INNI –a fashion and costume design studio. www.innimoda.pl

MIODRAG GUBERINIC (Costume Designer, the pannier/ corset sculpture) grew up in Serbia and graduated from the FPU in Belgrade with a BFA in costume design, then from Northwestern University in Chicago with an MFA in costume design. His designs have been worn by Lady

Gaga, Katy Perry, Scarlett Johansson, B Akerlund, and Bianca Del Rio among others. His costume artisan work has been featured on numerous Broadway productions including ones currently on Broadway: Frozen, Head Over Heels, Mean Girls, Pretty Woman; TV shows: The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, The Tick, and the last season of Gotham. He created accessories for fashion campaigns for Estee Lauder and Shiseido and small-scale costumes, crafts, and puppetry work for the iconic retailers’ windows of Bergdorf Goodman, Saks Fifth Avenue, Bloomingdales, Tiffany & Co., Macy’s, Lord & Taylor, and Prada. Mio was also responsible for the creation of the iconic headpieces and armor for Madonna’s World Rebel Heart Tour and has collaborated with luminary designers including Anne Roth, Gregg Barnes, Arianne Phillips, and Michael Wilkinson. Mio resides in Brooklyn, where he owns the design company Mio Design NYC focusing on the highly innovative design and artisan projects, using the newest cutting-edge materials and technology on a wide range of Costume and Wearable Art projects. Most recently he started sharing his experiences as a lecturer and guest designer with students of Carnegie Mellon University, Long Island University, Parsons School of Design and Princeton University. miodragguberinic.com

JOSHUA ROSE (Lighting Designer), a graduate of the stage design program at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas, resides in New York City and designs lighting for a variety of projects all over the world — from intimate

solo shows to full operas, from architectural installations to modern dance. Some designs of note include The Edge of Some World, choreographed by Jonathan Fredrickson and premiered in Beijing; The Blue Frog jazz club in Mumbai; and A Celebration of Music and Dance with The Limon Dance Company and Simon Bolivar National Youth Choir of Venezuela at Lincoln Center. Recent designs include Tar Baby by Desiree Burch, La Bohême for The Bronx Opera, and Madame Butterfly for the Martina Arroyo Foundation. www.joshuarosedesigns.com

COURTNEY BEDNAROWSKI (Hair Designer) is an emerging hairstylist residing in Brooklyn. Originally from Milwaukee, Wisconsin, she graduated from the Aveda Institute, completed an assistant program at Mizu Salon in NYC, and decided to expand her skillset into barbering at Freeman’s Barbershop. Courtney has styled for countless fashion events, film and theater, print and online publications (including VOGUE), and is now working for Dior as the lead wig stylist. (In The Other Mozart, Courtney sculpted Sylvia’s hair — it is all her real hair!)

KODI LYNN MILBURN (Hairstylist and Stage Manager), dubbed as the “Swiss Army Knife of Theater,” embodies a fusion of creativity and activism. As a mixed indigenous neurodivergent queer, Kodi’s artistry resonates with a commitment to justice, harmony with nature, amplifying lost voices, and reflecting contemporary issues, echoing

the ethos of the Jester’s Privilege. Kodi’s work has been described as “inspired” (Alix Cohen, Women Around Town), “amazing” (Travelanche), “lush compositions and evocative soundscapes…a fantastic collaborator: creative, proactive, generous, organized, versatile, and indispensable” (Nathan Davis, Drama Desk Nominated Sound Designer).

Cross-discipline credits include: Treaty (The Foundry), Funny Guy (59e59, London, Edinburgh Fringe), Talking with Angels (TheaterLab), Faust (Baruch Performing Arts), Salome (Irondale Theater), AMP (HERE), Tussaud/ Antoinette (IRT), Big Wave (TaDa!), My Onliness (The New Ohio), Chess (American Theater for Actors), Uta Hagen Centennial Salon (Lincoln Center), Heart Strings (Atlantic Theater Co), 7 Magdalenes (Baryshnikov Arts Center, TheaterLab, HERE), Sparkle Spa (BMI), Ewalt & Walker (54 Below), Mary & Max (Bobby Cronin & Crystal Skillman), Voyage en Chanson (National Sawdust), L’autre Mozart (Fringe North, Halifax Fringe), Rhinoceros (Atlantic Acting School), and more. Kodi is a New York Foundation for the Arts Music Fellow. kodilynnmilburn.com

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TUESDAY, JULY 21

7:30 PM

TICKETS $10

SCHAEFER CENTER FOR THE PERFORMING ARTS

CATSMAN FOUNDATION

GLOBAL FILM SERIES

SIRAT

In Spanish, French, English, and Arabic with English subtitles Spain, France / Rated R (violent content, drug use) / Directed by Oliver Laxe / 2025 / Drama, Mystery, Thriller, Action, Adventure / 115 minutes

ABOUT SIRAT

Searching for his missing daughter, a father (Sergi López) and his son travel to a remote rave in Morocco’s mountains where she disappeared months earlier. As they descend into a world of endless music and burning wilderness, the journey forces them to confront their own limits. 

Dale M. Pollock, a writer, film producer, filmmaker and author, has served as head film critic for Daily Variety, chief entertainment correspondent for the Los Angeles Times, Dean of the School of Filmmaking at the (then) North Carolina School of the Arts, and Professor of Cinema Studies at NCSA, among other illustrious roles. He was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize in the early 1980s, wrote Skywalking: The Life and Films of George Lucas, and his first work of fiction, Chopped: A Novel, is available in print, e-book, and audiobook. Pollock continues to teach Continuing Education classes at UNCSA, along with programming the Global Film Series for An Appalachian Summer Festival.

POST-SHOW Q&A

Immediately following the film, join Dale Pollock and fellow audience members for a Q&A.

Download the WBTV First Aler t Weather App.

Before severe weather threatens be prepared Get custom aler ts for your location. Track inclement weather with an interactive radar. Plus, real-time updates from the First Aler t Weather Team Stay aler t and be safe through ever y storm with Charlotte’s Cer tified Most Accurate Forecast.

THURSDAY, JULY 23 7:30 PM

Over the past four decades, Rick Springfield has worn many hats as an entertainer and performer. The creator of some of the finest power-pop of the ’80s, a Grammy-winning singer-songwriter-musician who has sold 25 million albums and scored 17 U.S. Top 40 hits, including “Jessie’s Girl,” “Don’t Talk to Strangers,” “An Affair of the Heart,” “I've Done Everything for You,” “Love Somebody,” and “Human Touch.” He’s an accomplished actor who has starred opposite Meryl Streep in the feature film Ricki and the Flash, gave a chameleonic performance as the creepy Dr. Irving Pitlor in HBO’s prestige drama True Detective, earned great reviews for his portrayal of Lucifer on the CW hit Supernatural and most recently played the insane Pastor Charles on FX’s worldwide hit series American Horror Story. An author as well, both his candid 2010 memoir Late, Late at Night (which Rolling Stone named one of the 25 greatest rock memoirs of all time) and his 2014 comedic novel Magnificent Vibration earned rave reviews and spots on the New York Times Best Sellers’ list. In 2014, Springfield was honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, located around the corner from the first apartment he lived in when he first arrived in the U.S. from Australia in 1971. Springfield’s Sirius-XM radio show, Working Class DJ, is a huge hit and airs weekly on ’80s on 8. His new album, Automatic, is his first album of all new original material in five years. 

An

TICKETS $10 SCHAEFER CENTER FOR THE PERFORMING ARTS

TUESDAY, JULY 28

7:30 PM

CATSMAN FOUNDATION GLOBAL FILM SERIES

HAPPY BIRTHDAY

In Arabic with English subtitles Egypt / Not rated / Directed by Sarah Goher / 2025 / Drama / 91 minutes

ABOUT HAPPY BIRTHDAY

Eight-year-old maid Toha goes to great lengths to ensure that her best friend Nelly, the daughter of her wealthy employer, has a successful birthday party in this poignant debut feature exploring classism, power, and belonging in modern-day Cairo. 

Dale M. Pollock, a writer, film producer, filmmaker and author, has served as head film critic for Daily Variety, chief entertainment correspondent for the Los Angeles Times, Dean of the School of Filmmaking at the (then) North Carolina School of the Arts, and Professor of Cinema Studies at NCSA, among other illustrious roles. He was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize in the early 1980s, wrote Skywalking: The Life and Films of George Lucas, and his first work of fiction, Chopped: A Novel, is available in print, e-book, and audiobook. Pollock continues to teach Continuing Education classes at UNCSA, along with programming the Global Film Series for An Appalachian Summer Festival.

POST-SHOW

Q&A

Immediately following the film, join Dale Pollock and fellow audience members for a Q&A.

Set the stage for something unforgettable. With handcrafted menus, flexible service options, and a team focused on every detail, Grandview Catering brings your event to life with ease. From intimate gatherings to large celebrations, we offer full-service support to match your vision.

Elevate your event at the Grandview Ballroom, where the High Country celebrates with breathtaking views and seamless support.

WEDNESDAY, JULY 29

7:30 PM

CALIDORE STRING QUARTET

Jeffrey Myers, violin Ryan Meehan, violin Jeremy Berry, viola Estelle Choi, violin

The Calidore String Quartet has been recognized for achieving an extraordinary cohesion of individual artistry and collective expression — what The Washington Post described as “four more individual musicians are unimaginable, yet these speak, breathe, think and feel as one.” Their artistry reflects a profound engagement with both the classical canon and the evolving language of 21st-century chamber music.

The Calidore has performed at many of the world’s greatest concert halls, including Lincoln Center, Carnegie Hall, the Kennedy Center, and Wigmore Hall, and festivals such as the BBC Proms, Verbier, Ravinia, and Caramoor. Collaborators have included Anne-Sophie Mutter, Joshua Bell, Anthony McGill, Marc-André Hamelin, Jean-Yves Thibaudet, David Finckel and Wu Han, the Emerson String Quartet, and Quatuor Ébène, among others. Dedicated advocates for today’s music, the Calidore has premiered works by Caroline Shaw, John Williams, Anna Clyne, and

Gabriela Montero, to name a few. In the 2025-26 season, they gave the world premiere of a new quartet, “Arietta” by Mark-Anthony Turnage, at the Segerstrom Center for the Arts. In 2026, the Calidore released an all-American album on Signum Records featuring music by Barber, Marsalis, Korngold, and John Williams. In 2025, they unveiled a landmark box set of the complete Beethoven string quartets, recorded for Signum following their live cycle at Lincoln Center during the 2024–25 season.

Formed in 2010 at the Colburn School in Los Angeles, the Calidore has won top prizes at major US chamber music competitions, including the Fischoff, Coleman, Chesapeake, and Yellow Springs. In 2016, they won the Grand Prize of the inaugural M-Prize International Chamber Music Competition as well as the Borletti-Buitoni Trust Fellowship. Additional honors include the Avery Fisher Career Grant, the Lincoln Center Emerging Artist Award, and selection as BBC Radio 3 New Generation Artists.

Currently the Distinguished String Quartet-in-Residence at the University of Delaware, the Calidore has also held residencies at the University of Toronto, University of Michigan, and Stony Brook University.

PROGRAM

String Quartet in E-flat Major, Op. 33, No. 2, Hob. III:38, “The Joke” Joseph Haydn

I. Allegro moderato cantabile

II. Scherzo. Allegro - Trio

III. Largo sostenuto

IV. Finale. Presto At The Octoroon Balls (Selections)

IV. Many Gone

V. Hellbound Highball

VI. Blue Lights on the Bayou

VII. Rampart St. Row House Rag

String Quartet No. 14 in C-sharp minor, Op. 131 Ludwig van Beethoven

I. Adagio ma non troppo e molto espressivo

II. Allegro motlo vivace

III. Allegro moderato

IV. Andante, ma non troppo e molto cantabile

V. Presto

VI. Adagio quasi un poco andante

VII. Allegro

The Calidore Quartet appears by arrangement with IMG Artists, LLC 7 West 54th Street, New York, NY 10019. 212-994-3500. www.calidorestringquartet.com

PROGRAM NOTES

The following program notes are copyright © Susan Halpern Program Notes, 2026.

Quartet in E-flat major, Op. 33, No. 2 (H. III:38) (“The Joke”) — Franz Josef Haydn (Born March 31, 1732, in Rohrau; died May 31, 1809, in Vienna)

A decade passed between Haydn’s “Sun” Quartets, Op. 20 and his next set of quartets, Opus 33. According to his biographer Geiringer, he wanted unification and concentration, but not knowing how to achieve them, renounced the composition of string quartets for what became 10 years. By 1781, Haydn had found the musical solution he needed to write the Op. 33 six quartets, for which, in an offer to prospective subscribers, he advertised that he was writing “in an entirely new and special way.”

What constituted this “new and special way” has been debated from then on. Some commentators suggest that Haydn was only trying to drum up interest with the phrase, using it as an advertising ploy. Others tried to focus on the quartets’ light character, because these were the first quartets in which Haydn replaced the traditional minuet with a so-called scherzo, from which the set’s nickname, “Gli Scherzi” (“The Jokes”), arose. It particularly referred to this quartet.

The set’s dedication to the Grand Duke Paul Petrovich of Russia, the son of Catherine the Great, who later became Tsar Paul II, after his visit to Vienna in 1781, where he attended a performance of the Op. 33 quartets, inspired yet another nickname, the “Russian” quartets. Charles Rosen in The Classical Style, credits these quartets with being the first to display the “true invention of classical counterpoint.” Haydn called this new compositional technique “thematic elaboration,” a form of melodic fragmentation and development that became critical in the growth of Classical period style that would culminate in Beethoven’s music. Rosen points to new dramatic clarity, and he credits it to Haydn’s time in the previous decade writing operas. Rosen says: “This sense that the movement, the development, and the dramatic course of a work can be found in the material, that the music can be made to release its charged force . . . [so that it is] literally impelled from within — this sense was Haydn’s greatest contribution to the history of music.”

The sonata-form first movement, Allegro moderato, cantabile, is lyrical but not very lively. The second movement Scherzo, can be distinguished from Haydn’s earlier minuets only by its overall lightness of spirit and texture and its cheerful nature. A true scherzo, however, still awaited Beethoven’s hand; what Haydn did was more

to rename than to recast the movement, but he put the process in motion. The slow movement, Largo e sostenuto, is reminiscent of Haydn’s baryton trios in structure, although it foreshadows the Op. 76 Quartets with some of its effects. The coda of the final movement’s rondo, may have given the quartet the nickname of “Joke.” Placing rests between each two-bar phrase of the recapitulation of the main theme, followed by rests twice as long after each phrase, makes this quartet not only unique, but it keeps audiences smiling and a bit off balance at the end.

At the Octoroon Balls — Wynton Marsalis (Born October 18, 1961 in New Orleans)

Wynton Marsalis, a distinguished classical performer and composer, has become well-known for bringing jazz to the forefront in the U.S. A musician with a relentless work ethic and powerful drive, he became the first jazz musician to win the Pulitzer Prize in music, in 1997, for his epic oratorio on the subject of slavery, Blood on the Fields. Marsalis, a gifted trumpet player, joined Art Blakey's band, the Jazz Messengers, when he was a teenager. In the 1980s, he led his own jazz bands before becoming artistic director of Jazz at Lincoln Center. Simultaneously, he led an active classical music career, winning Grammy Awards for both classical music and jazz, the first recording artist ever to do so.

At the Octoroon Balls, Marsalis' first string quartet, was commissioned by Lincoln Center. The Orion Quartet premiered it in 1995 at Lincoln Center. As Leon Wieseltier said in his commentary and analysis for the Sony Classical recording of At the Octoroon Balls, “America is a hothouse of hybridity; and the very title of Wynton Marsalis’s strong work for string quartet suggests that its subject is hybridity.” The “balls” that are memorialized in this work had been New Orleans institutions. At them, Creole men chose Octoroon women to become their mistresses, in, Wieseltier reports, “various rituals of mixture, in which the terribilities of race collided jubilantly with the terribilities of sex. It was a universe in which mixture was destiny.”

Marsalis takes inspiration and quotation from American fiddle tunes, and also from blues. The work begins with a lengthy violin solo “Come Long Fiddler,” and flows onward, joining influences of the carefree and highspirited sound of Copland’s Appalachian Spring with the serious, more sedate feel of Satie’s music. Here, Marsalis created his own distinct hybrid genre in which classical music merges with jazz, creating a new entity. He has created something entirely new with instruments of a traditional quartet by incorporating vernacular American musical components.

Wieseltier has explained Marsalis’s work well: “Marsalis writes out of a profound conviction of the naturalness of

American themes and American forms. This is a string quartet saturated in the blues. Its mysterious opening strains, like the first rays of light on an uncertain day, quickly issue in a piquant, fractured country dance that leaves one imagining Bartók on the Delta. The violin sounds like a fiddle, the fiddle sounds like a violin: Marsalis is uninhibited by the dichotomies.”

The quartet’s most memorable movements are the 5th movement, “Hellbound Highball,” which swings with rhythmic intensity, and the 6th, “Blue Lights on the Bayou,” a somber tone poem, is also rambunctious and a “furious scherzo based on the diabolical propulsion of trains, the great symbol of American energy, and of the speed with which fortunes and directions are reversed in this exacting land of opportunity.” The charming 7th, “Rampart St. Row House Rag,” draws heavily on ragtime. Throughout the sixteen movements of this elaborate work, Marsalis uses portamentos, occasional dissonance in a tonal framework, as well as pizzicatos, and a percussive effect created by knocking on the instruments’ bodies.

String Quartet No. 14, in C-Sharp minor, Op. 131 — Ludwig van Beethoven (Born December 16, 1770, in Bonn; died March 26, 1827, in Vienna)

Quartet No. 14 is one of Beethoven’s final chamber masterpieces. While he was composing it, he considered writing other types of works, but when he had completed a commission for three quartets, he wrote two more string quartets, this one and Op. 135, his last work.

Beethoven made his earliest sketch for Op. 131 during the last days of 1825; he quickly completed it during July 1826. Composing it required an intense effort when he was already totally deaf and deeply troubled by his failing health as well as by the misadventures of his nephew, for whom he was responsible, and who was then threatening to commit suicide. Beethoven’s concern for his nephew was so great that he changed the dedication of the quartet, which he had intended for a personal friend, inscribing the work instead to Lieutenant Field Marshal Baron Joseph von Stutterheim, who took this problematic nephew into one of his regiments as an officer cadet.

In late summer, when he delivered the quartet score to his publisher, he said that he had “stolen and assembled [it] from various bits of this and that.” The publisher, alarmed, demanded assurance that the work was new and original. He had apparently not looked at the music, for if he had, he would have understood Beethoven’s ironic jest. Nothing could have been newer than this quartet, a work totally without precedent. Huge in size and cast in entirely original shapes invented in the course of the writing, it was the final example of how Beethoven had outgrown the forms he had inherited from Haydn

and Mozart. To invent and assemble this work in six or seven months had been an astonishing creative feat. Beethoven’s notes and sketches for it occupy three times as much paper as the finished work.

This quartet seems somehow to leap forward into the expressive world of the early 20th century. Although written for only four instruments, it creates much of the grandeur and profundity of some large statements Strauss and Mahler were striving for in their huge orchestral scores. In 1860, a German conductor made a full orchestral version of this quartet with the intention of expanding the audience for this great music, but his result proved to be a clumsy travesty.

The quartet has seven parts, knit together into a continuous whole. Some scholars have claimed to reveal a nearly traditional four-movement structure as its base, but it seems more reasonable to accept Beethoven’s demarcations and consider the seven separately.

The first movement is sad but majestic, a slow fugue, Adagio, ma non troppo e molto espressivo, which Wagner said, “shows the most melancholy sentiment ever expressed in music.” The second movement, Allegro molto vivace, begins with a key-shift that was astonishing then; it still puzzles music analysts today looking for the mold in which the movement was cast. It has been variously identified as truncated sonata-form or a dance comparable to those in Baroque suites. What remains important, however, is that it is a form of Beethoven’s own devising, which contains lyrical, wistful music of great appeal.

The third movement begins energetically, Allegro moderato, with two rapping chords, but it soon becomes an Adagio recitative introducing the glorious theme-andvariation fourth movement, which begins with a flowing theme, Andante, ma non troppo e molto cantabile, that journeys through seven variations. Only some of them are elaborations; others concentrate and reduce the theme to its very essence.

The fifth, an expanded scherzo, Presto, has savage force; following the Presto, a brief, slow song, Adagio quasi un poco andante, runs into the finale, Allegro, the quartet’s only relatively regular sonata-form movement. The finale, a wild, dancing movement, is related to the finale of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 7. Some also sound distantly derived from this quartet’s own opening fugue. Here there are tempo changes within phrases that are labeled rubato (with expressive rhythmic freedom), but instead of leaving the freedom to the performers’ wills, Beethoven has actually written them into the music. Great themes simply flash by. The music races on until just before the end, when it slows, speeds up again, closing with a few slashing chords. 

FRIDAY, JULY 31

7:30 PM

AARON DIEHL

Mr. Diehl will announce selections for tonight's program from the stage.

Pianist Aaron Diehl has quietly redefined the boundary between jazz and classical music, building an international career distinguished by stylistic fluency, intellectual rigor, and a deep sense of musical lineage. Praised for his “melodic precision, harmonic erudition, and elegant restraint” (The New York Times), Diehl is increasingly recognized as a singular voice whose work moves freely across genres while remaining grounded in historical awareness. He has worked extensively with figures such as Tyshawn Sorey, Timo Andres, Philip Glass, and Cécile McLorin Salvant, forging projects that span concerti, chamber music, orchestral works, and jazz performance. In 2023, Diehl was named as the Artistic Director of 92NY’s Jazz in July Festival, succeeding the legendary Bill Charlap.

Diehl has headlined the Monterey, Detroit, and Newport Jazz Festivals and held residencies at Jazz at Lincoln Center, the Village Vanguard, and SFJAZZ. Recent genre-defying highlights include performances of Timo Andres’s piano concerto, collaborations with Tyshawn Sorey, and appearances as a soloist in André Previn’s Honey and Rue with the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra. Diehl has also performed with major orchestras, including the New York Philharmonic, Los Angeles

Philharmonic, and Cleveland Orchestra, performing at venues such as Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, the Hollywood Bowl, the Elbphilharmonie, and Tanglewood.

Born in Columbus, Ohio, Diehl grew up listening to his grandfather, musician Arthur Baskerville. In 2002, a 16-year-old Diehl competed in the Essentially Ellington competition, where he attracted the attention of Wynton Marsalis, who invited Diehl to join his septet for a European tour. After studying at Juilliard under the direction of Kenny Barron, Eric Reed, and Oxana Yablonskaya, Diehl was awarded the 2011 American Pianists Association’s Cole Porter Fellowship. Diehl, who holds several pilot certifications, inherited a lifelong love of flying from his father. He has been a Steinway Artist since 2016.

SATURDAY, AUGUST 1

7:30 PM

THE JAYHAWKS

SCHAEFER SPOTLIGHT SERIES

Presenting Sponsorship provided by Bonnie and Jamie Schaefer, Christine Petti, and Neil and Nancy Schaffel

Principal Sponsorship provided by App State Campus Store, Broyhill Family Foundation, Catsman Foundation, and Mast General Store

Supporting Sponsorship provided by Appalachian Home Care, The Art Cellar Gallery, Dianne Davant & Associates, Explore Boone, Goodnight Brothers, Highstreet Insurance Partners, and SkyBest Communications, Inc.

TICKETS $25-$60

SCHAEFER CENTER FOR THE PERFORMING ARTS

For more than 40 years, The Jayhawks have created music that embodies the enduring spirit and soul of classic American songwriting. The Jayhawks emerged from Minneapolis in the post-punk era of The Replacements, Hüsker Dü, and Soul Asylum. They pioneered today’s Americana movement through a series of classic albums that introduced rock audiences to their unique musical stew of country, folk, soul, britpop and rock-n-roll.

The band has played most every major music festival, from Farm Aid to Primavera Sound, Pink Pop to Wilco’s Sky Blue Sky. In the tradition of The Band and Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers, The Jayhawks have toured with and served as backup band for many of music’s most acclaimed visionaries, including Ray Davies, Roger McGuinn, and Johnny Cash.

Today, Gary Louris, Marc Perlman, Karen Grotberg, and Tim O’Reagan continue to record and tour worldwide. Over 12 studio albums and two live albums, The Jayhawks are still building a legacy of music that stands the test of time.

The band once again teamed up with legendary producer Bob Ezrin (Pink Floyd, Peter Gabriel, Lou Reed) to create their upcoming album titled Sanctuary Park, set to be released this summer. 