New Year’s Eve party starts at 7:30 pm with 3WB playing and will end after midnight with house music. 3WB is a multi piece band with a horn section. One of the NC’s most entertaining and unique bands. 3WB mixes a tight rhythm section, soulful horn arrangements, vocal harmonies, artistic solos to entertain you, playing a mix of Rock and Roll, Blues, Funk, and Soul.

🌟 Begin Your New Year in Sacred Intention + Self-Love 🌟

Step into 2025 by nourishing your spirit and opening your heart through the healing vibrations of a Serenity Sound Bath. Allow the frequencies to wash over you, realign your energy, and awaken the peaceful wisdom within. ✨💖🌙

Join your host Kristin Hillegas, for a one-hour sacred sound immersion, where crystal tones and soothing vibrations gently clear what no longer serves you and invite harmony, clarity, and divine connection. 🎶💜✨
Experience the stillness. Feel the light within. Return home to yourself.

🧺 What to Bring:
A yoga mat, pillow, and/or blanket for comfort as you rest on the floor. Come in warm, cozy, flexible clothing that supports deep relaxation. 🧘‍♀️💫

📍 Location:
Upstairs in the Education Building at the Center for Spiritual Living Asheville.
Arrive beginning at 12:45 PM to choose your space. Doors will close promptly at 1:00 PM to honor the sacred container we create together. 🔔✨

💰 Sliding Scale: $10–$20

Accessible parking is available in the upper parking lot off S. Bear Creek Rd. A boardwalk walkway leads directly to the entrance. 🚗💫

✨ Give your soul the gift of presence.
✨ Let the sound gently reset your energy.
✨ Step into the New Year aligned, open, and renewed.

Join us at BMCM+AC on Wednesday, January 7th, 2026 for a live performance of Merce Cunningham’s Suite for Two (1958) and a screening of the dance film Beach Birds.
___
About the Performance

Suite for Two (1958) is an arrangement of three solos and one duet from the dance Suite for Five (1956). Cunningham made this arrangement for Carolyn Brown and himself for a concert at the University of Pittsburgh in 1958. Suite for Two was subsequently performed on two European tours made by Cunningham, Brown, John Cage, and David Tudor in 1958 and 1960. Chalvar Monteiro dances two solos entitled “At Random” and “Stillness.” Jacquelin Harris dances “A Meander,” a new solo made for Carolyn Brown for the 1958 arrangement. The dance concludes with a duet entitled “Extended Moment.” Renowned pianist Adam Tendler plays John Cage’s Music for Piano.

Mara Johnson and the Carolina Tumbleweed Band deliver a rich blend of blues, soul, and heartfelt storytelling, wrapped in vibrant instrumentation. Mara’s vocals—warm, expressive, and finely honed—draw listeners into every lyric, while David “Tumbleweed” Robbins’ fiery saxophone brings an edge of raw energy and artistry. Together they create performances that are both intimate and electrifying, rooted in authenticity and groove.

ASHEVILLE JUNIOR THEATER PRESENTS
The Lion King JR.

Saturday & Sunday, Jan 10 & 11 • 2 pm & 6 pm

From the company that brought you Frozen JR., Shrek JR., and The Wizard of Oz: Bluegrass Style! comes our most breathtaking production yet—The Lion King JR.!

Join us on an unforgettable journey to the PrideLands in this professional-caliber musical event that’s perfect for audiences of all ages. With soaring vocals, eye-popping costumes, and powerful performances, this show will wow audiences of all ages.

Follow Simba’s epic adventure as he discovers his courage, faces his destiny, and rises to become king—all set to the timeless songs you know and love, including “I Just Can’t Wait to Be King,” “He Lives in You,” and “Hakuna Matata.” Along the way, you’ll meet beloved characters like wise Rafiki, brave Nala, the hilarious Timon and Pumbaa, and the villainous Scar in a heartwarming and action-packed story about friendship, responsibility, identity, and the enduring power of the Circle of Life.

This is not just a junior theater production—it’s a full-scale theatrical experience.
Our shows are unparalleled in Asheville. With jaw-dropping costumes, professional staging, and the kind of heart you can only find at Asheville Junior Theater, The Lion King JR. is a must-see.

Tickets WILL sell out.
Don’t miss your chance to see why Asheville families return to our shows again and again.

The Circle of Life is calling—get your tickets today and experience the magic! Run time is approximately 75 minutes.

Spirited Improv is a 5-week expressive arts and spiritual development experience that invites you to play, heal, and reconnect with your creative essence. Unlike traditional improv, this series isn’t about comedy or performance techniques, it’s about presence, expression, and connection.

Guided by creator Jessica Chilton, a seasoned performer, expressive arts therapist, and spiritual practitioner, you’ll step into a welcoming space where vulnerability is met with love, creativity is encouraged, and every emotion has room to breathe. You’ll explore spontaneous movement, sound, character work, song, storytelling, ritual, and group co-creation. Each session includes grounding meditation, heart-centered intention, and spacious improvisational activities that awaken joy, courage, and curiosity.

Throughout the series, you practice releasing control and trusting the unknown, an experience participants often call “both liberating and deeply healing.” As the group’s trust and connection deepen, a final performance is created. It’s not scripted or rehearsed; instead, it emerges from the collective heart and the spiritual aliveness of the moment.
The closing performance becomes a celebration of everything you’ve reclaimed: your voice, your playfulness, your presence, your courage, and your connection to community.

Wortham Presents The Slocan Ramblers

Fri, Jan 16 • 8 pm

With raw emotion, tight harmonies, and impeccable musicianship, The Slocan Ramblers will light up the stage and lift your spirits. Their latest album Up the Hill and Through the Fog transforms hardship into hope with a powerful, joyful soundtrack. Say hello to your new favorite band.

“This fearless, fleet-fingered string band is adventurously advancing the high lonesome sound of bluegrass to great acclaim.” —The Bluegrass Situation

Spotlight on The Slocan Ramblers:

Made their acclaimed Grand Ole Opry debut in 2023
2020 International Bluegrass Music Association Momentum Band of the Year
Based in Canada, they are a Juno Award nominee for Queen City Jubilee
Known for blistering live shows and genre-defying bluegrass innovation
Up the Hill and Through the Fog hailed as their strongest album yet

A Lecture Demonstration Series for the Curious, the New, and the Devotee

Sun, Jan 18 • 3 pm | 60 Minutes
In the 1940s, Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, and Thelonious Monk took jazz to thrilling new heights. The tempos got faster, the harmonies bolder, and the rhythms more complex. Dancers sat down and leaned in to listen. It’s challenging. It’s beautiful. It’s music that asks you to catch up—and rewards you when you do.

Jazz Is for Everyone is a series of five one-hour sessions exploring jazz music. Come to one or join them all—each session stands on its own and welcomes listeners at any level.

What You’ll Experience:

Guided listening
Live music demonstrations
Stories that connect the music to people, places, and intent
A space for questions, curiosity, and shared discovery

Jeremy Walker launched Jazz Is for Everyone in 2004 at his Brilliant Corners Jazz Club, with Wynton Marsalis serving as Artistic Advisor. The program was developed as an Educational Affiliate with Jazz at Lincoln Center. Since then, Walker’s been writing, composing, performing, producing, and speaking about why this music still matters.

The first 2026 concert from the Friends of Music & the Arts Series at the
Episcopal church of St. John in the Wilderness will be held at 4:00 p.m., Sunday, January 18 in the
historic church, 1895 Greenville Highway in Flat Rock.

Lucy Owen Hoyt, lyric soprano and Charles Frost, Organist and Conductor, will bring together their
love of music in a program celebrating African American composers and spirituals. The two knew
each other a few years back while attending Westminster Choir College in Princeton, New Jersey but
this is their first concert performance together.

Their shared artistry promises an inspiring afternoon of powerful music rooted in faith and tradition.
The music concert is free and open to the public, but donations are encouraged to fund the
ongoing series.  Reservations are not necessary.
Free parking and accessible parking are available. For more information call the church office at
828-693-9783 or visit www.stjohnflatrock.org.

AmiciMusic, the award-winning chamber music organization based in Asheville, returns to the Asheville Art Museum on Thursday, January 22 at 6:30pm with another thrilling chamber music program entitled “JEWISH JAZZ.”  This program features clarinetist Seth Kibel from Baltimore along with pianist and Artistic Director Daniel Weiser as they perform and tell the fascinating story about the interconnections between early American Jazz and Klezmer-style music.  Those two styles of music came into direct contact in New York City in the early part of the 20th century when the Great Migration of blacks from the South converged with the large influx of Jews escaping pogroms from Eastern Europe.  The program features some inspiring Klezmer-style music by Jacob Weinberg and Bela Kovacs as well as some toe-tapping Jazz by Benny Goodman and George Gershwin, including a fantastic arrangement of his “Rhapsody in Blue.”  For more info about the program, please visit:  https://www.amicimusic.org/concert/jewish-jazz-5-2-2-2/.

Beginner’s workshop lesson at 7:30 P.M., then 8-11 P.M. Contra Dance with Country Waltzing at the break and the final dance. This is a partner dance but it’s not necessary to come with a partner. We have different live bands and callers.

From the haunting sounds of “Breathe” to the timeless “Time” and the profound “Money,” this is your chance to hear The Dark Side of the Moon in its entirety, performed live in its original form. With meticulous attention to detail and a passion for perfection, The Black Jacket Symphony delivers an immersive, one-of-a-kind tribute to Pink Floyd that will leave you awestruck.

Don’t miss your chance to experience this legendary album in a whole new way!

Direct from Off-Broadway and London’s West End, the internationally acclaimed A Taste of Ireland Company returns with its flagship production —‘A Taste of Ireland—The Irish Music & Dance Sensation’— touring the USA in 2026. Laugh, cry, and jig into the night with a production that is Celtic, for this generation.
Performed by former World Irish dance champions, and featuring dancers from Lord of the Dance, Riverdance, and the recent West End cast of Éireann, ‘A Taste of Ireland’ brings the spirit and energy of modern Ireland to life with a pint of Irish wit. Watch world-class performers blend melodic folk mash-ups, live jaw-dropping acapella tap battles, and heartfelt storytelling in a live celebration of Irish music and dance.
**Please note: musical instruments are subject to change from performance to performance

Candlelight concerts bring the magic of a live, multi-sensory musical experience to awe-inspiring locations like never seen before in Asheville. Get your tickets now to discover the music of Hans Zimmer at Central United Methodist Church of Asheville under the gentle glow of candlelight.

General Info
Venue: Central United Methodist Church of Asheville
Dates and times: select your dates/times directly in the ticket selector
Duration: 60 minutes. Doors open 45 minutes before the show and close 5 minutes prior to the start. Late arrivals will not be permitted
Age requirement: 8 years old or older. Anyone under the age of 16 must be accompanied by an adult
Accessibility: ADA compliant
View the FAQs for this event here
Seating is assigned on a first come first served basis in each zone
If you would like to book a private concert or buy regular tickets for a large group (+30 people), click here
Check out all the Candlelight concerts in Asheville
To treat your friends and family to a Candlelight gift card, click here

Tentative Program

Time – Inception
This Land – The Lion King
Zooster’s Breakout – Madagascar
Supermarine – Dunkirk
Honor – The Pacific
A Dark Knight – The Dark Knight
Wonder Woman Suite
Gladiator Suite
Cornfield Chase – Interstellar
Dune Suite
Discombobulate – Sherlock Holmes
Pirates of the Caribbean Suite

Performers

String Quartet – Listeso

Wortham Presents

Special Event: LP & The Vinyl – From Blues to Beatles to Bowie

A Benefit for Arts for All Kids

Fri, Feb 6 • 7 pm

Sit center stage and step into the spotlight. Join us on the Diana Wortham Theatre stage for an unforgettable evening where every note played helps open doors to the arts for WNC students.

Enjoy intimate on-stage seating, light bites and drinks, a silent auction, and a soul-stirring performance by LP & the Vinyl. Order your tickets today—seating is limited.

Arts for All Kids opens doors to the performing arts for students across Western North Carolina through scholarships and creative opportunities—empowering students to explore, imagine, and connect both on stage and beyond.

This production includes unique video content for each song as the fusion of Beatlesque-Pop and Classical arrangements performed by EVIL WOMAN’s 12 musicians, including a live string section, is brought to life.

The attention to detail on vocal harmonies and string arrangements is astonishingly similar to all of ELO’s original recordings.

Mr. Blue Sky, Telephone Line, Don’t Bring Me Down, Livin’ Thing, Evil Woman and Roll Over Beethoven are among a list of over 20 instantly recognizable chart-topping hit songs.

A Lecture Demonstration Series for the Curious, the New, and the Devotee

Sun, Feb 8 • 3 pm | 60 Minutes

In the late 1950s and ’60s, musicians like John Coltrane, Miles Davis, Charles Mingus, Wayne Shorter, Ornette Coleman, and others claimed their place as artists. There wasn’t any real doubt before, but jazz now sat at the heights of contemporary art, fully claiming the aesthetic and compositional achievements originally won by artists like Mary Lou Williams and Ellington. Still, it never stopped being a soulful expression of individuality, inspiration, and a challenge to embrace our highest intent.

Jazz Is for Everyone is a series of five one-hour sessions exploring jazz music. Come to one or join them all—each session stands on its own and welcomes listeners at any level.

What You’ll Experience:

Guided listening
Live music demonstrations
Stories that connect the music to people, places, and intent
A space for questions, curiosity, and shared discovery

Jeremy Walker launched Jazz Is for Everyone in 2004 at his Brilliant Corners Jazz Club, with Wynton Marsalis serving as Artistic Advisor. The program was developed as an Educational Affiliate with Jazz at Lincoln Center. Since then, Walker’s been writing, composing, performing, producing, and speaking about why this music still matters.

When Dean was 3, the documentary “This Is Elvis” was being broadcast on television. He immediately cleared the coffee table, jumped on top of it and started trying to imitate Presley’s every move. Not long after, Dean’s mother made his first Elvis jump suit, and he was on his way.”The first song I sang on stage was ‘Jailhouse Rock.’ Every time I shook the audience would scream, and I’ve been shaking ever since.” Z said.

Billy Strings is a force to be reckoned with in the world of American roots music. Born William Lee Apostol, this prodigious guitarist, singer, and songwriter has captivated audiences across the globe with his virtuosic playing, heartfelt lyrics, and boundless energy on stage. With a sound that seamlessly blends traditional bluegrass, folk, country, and metal influences, Billy Strings has become a leading figure in the modern roots music revival. Hailing from the musical hotbed of Michigan, Billy Strings discovered his passion for music at a young age.

This is a four day music festival at Harrrah’s Cherokee Center Asheville.

Billy Strings is a force to be reckoned with in the world of American roots music. Born William Lee Apostol, this prodigious guitarist, singer, and songwriter has captivated audiences across the globe with his virtuosic playing, heartfelt lyrics, and boundless energy on stage. With a sound that seamlessly blends traditional bluegrass, folk, country, and metal influences, Billy Strings has become a leading figure in the modern roots music revival. Hailing from the musical hotbed of Michigan, Billy Strings discovered his passion for music at a young age.

This is a four day music festival at Harrrah’s Cherokee Center Asheville.

Billy Strings is a force to be reckoned with in the world of American roots music. Born William Lee Apostol, this prodigious guitarist, singer, and songwriter has captivated audiences across the globe with his virtuosic playing, heartfelt lyrics, and boundless energy on stage. With a sound that seamlessly blends traditional bluegrass, folk, country, and metal influences, Billy Strings has become a leading figure in the modern roots music revival. Hailing from the musical hotbed of Michigan, Billy Strings discovered his passion for music at a young age.

This is a four day music festival at Harrrah’s Cherokee Center Asheville.

Billy Strings is a force to be reckoned with in the world of American roots music. Born William Lee Apostol, this prodigious guitarist, singer, and songwriter has captivated audiences across the globe with his virtuosic playing, heartfelt lyrics, and boundless energy on stage. With a sound that seamlessly blends traditional bluegrass, folk, country, and metal influences, Billy Strings has become a leading figure in the modern roots music revival. Hailing from the musical hotbed of Michigan, Billy Strings discovered his passion for music at a young age.

This is a four day music festival at Harrrah’s Cherokee Center Asheville.

Wortham Presents Solas

Sat, Feb 14 • 8 pm

Hailed by The Boston Globe as “the finest Celtic ensemble this country has ever produced,” Solas celebrates 30 years of boundary-pushing Irish music. With fiery instrumentals, rich vocals, and adventurous musicality, their high-energy performance promises a powerful celebration of Irish music—past, present, and future.

“An Irish traditional band bearing all the marks of greatness” —The Wall Street Journal

Spotlight on Solas:

Formed in New York City in 1995 by a powerhouse lineup of Irish-American talent
Released twelve acclaimed albums blending Irish tradition with folk, bluegrass, and Americana
Concept album Shamrock City explores immigrant life in early 1900s Montana
Features founding members Seamus Egan, Winifred Horan, and John Williams
The concert will feature acclaimed flute player and singer Nuala Kennedy, touted as “spellbinding” and “a delight” by The Irish Times

Wortham Presents Ailey II: The Next Generation of Dance

Tue & Wed, Feb 17 & 18 • 8 pm

For over 50 years, Ailey II has merged the spirit and energy of the country’s finest early-career dance talent with the creative vision of today’s outstanding and emerging choreographers. One of America’s most popular dance companies, Ailey II brings fresh perspectives to Alvin Ailey’s legacy—propelling the next generation forward.

“Clearly, the future is theirs.” —The New York Times

Connect with the artists in a dance masterclass and preshow discussions.

Spotlight on Ailey II:

Founded in 1974 by Alvin Ailey to spotlight rising dance talent and visionary choreographers
Bridges the gap between student training and professional performance for early-career dancers
At least half the members of the main company are Ailey II alumni
Led for 38 seasons by Sylvia Waters, handpicked by Ailey himself
Now under the direction of Francesca Harper, a former student at The Ailey School, bringing bold, inclusive, and experimental energy

Wortham Center Student Series Ailey II: The Next Generation of Dance