Upcoming events and things to do in Asheville, NC. Below is a list of events for festivals, concerts, art exhibitions, group meetups and more.

Interested in adding an event to our calendar? Please click the green “Post Your Event” button below.

Monday, February 19, 2024
NC Arboretum Hiking Trails
Feb 19 @ 9:00 am – 5:00 pm
NC Arboretum

Located within the wildly-popular and botanically beautiful Southern Appalachian Mountains, The North Carolina Arboretum offers more than 10 miles of hiking trails that connect to many other area attractions such as Lake Powhatan, the Pisgah National Forest and the Blue Ridge Parkway. Visitors of all ages and abilities can enjoy their hiking experience at the Arboretum as trail options include easy, moderate, and difficult challenge levels. All trails are dog-friendly and visitors are asked to adhere to the proper waste disposing procedures for pets.

Part of a running group that would like to use the Arboretum as a starting point or parking location? Please review our Running Group Guidance and email [email protected] with any questions.

Tuesday, February 20, 2024
NC Arboretum Hiking Trails
Feb 20 @ 9:00 am – 5:00 pm
NC Arboretum

Located within the wildly-popular and botanically beautiful Southern Appalachian Mountains, The North Carolina Arboretum offers more than 10 miles of hiking trails that connect to many other area attractions such as Lake Powhatan, the Pisgah National Forest and the Blue Ridge Parkway. Visitors of all ages and abilities can enjoy their hiking experience at the Arboretum as trail options include easy, moderate, and difficult challenge levels. All trails are dog-friendly and visitors are asked to adhere to the proper waste disposing procedures for pets.

Part of a running group that would like to use the Arboretum as a starting point or parking location? Please review our Running Group Guidance and email [email protected] with any questions.

Worlds Apart: Musical Instruments from Secular to Sacred
Feb 20 @ 10:00 am – 5:00 pm
Sigal Music Museum
Sigal Music Museum’s current special exhibition, Worlds Apart: Musical Instruments from Secular to Sacred, highlights items from the JoAnn and Frank Edwinn Collection, which hails from all over the world. Showing November 2023 – May 2024, Worlds Apart uses a diverse range of historical instruments, objects, and visuals to bring together musical narratives from seemingly disparate parts of the globe.

 

Worlds Apart: Musical Instruments from Secular to Sacred aims to increase public access to historical instruments from around the world and improve visitors’ understanding of musical traditions at the global level. Expanding beyond the typical parameters of the Western musical canon, Worlds Apart seeks to expose audiences to musical instruments and customs that are often overlooked or exotified. The instruments and other exhibit materials will offer visitors new perspectives on global music and a chance to consider how music is used for prayer and leisure in cultures around the world. By celebrating these stories, the museum intends to further its mission to collect and preserve historical musical instruments, objects, and information, which engage and enrich people of all ages through exhibits, performances, and experiential programs.

 

Displaying various objects from the JoAnn and Frank Edwinn Collection, Worlds Apart: Musical Instruments from Secular to Sacred focuses on international musical instruments and cultures, celebrating rites and traditions with ancient histories and contemporary legacies. Frank Edwinn, a successful basso in the mid-20th century, studied and toured internationally, eventually settling in North Carolina, where he taught music at the University of North Carolina Asheville. Throughout his life, he purchased various objects from around the world, aiming to expose students, and himself, to the wide and wonderful world of musical instruments. This impressive collection occupies a unique position for educating audiences unfamiliar with the vast scope of global music.

And, UNCA’s Ramsey Library Special Collections is now processing the Edwinn’s papers and a few recordings that will be accessible next semester!

Disturbed: Take Back Your Life Tour
Feb 20 @ 6:30 pm
Bon Secours Wellness Arena

Disturbed is heading to Bon Secours Wellness Arena on February 20, 2024 on the Take Back Your Life Tour with special guests Falling In Reverse & Plush!

Elias String Quartet
Feb 20 @ 7:30 pm
Tryon Fine Arts Center
This ensemble of young and distinguished musicians was formed in 1998 at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester, England. Taking its name from Mendelssohn’s Elijah (Elias is the German form), it is now one of the foremost quartets of this generation. Their playing is vibrant, energetic, and scintillating.

Tickets are sold by subscription.  For more information or to purchase individual tickets, contact Tryon Concert Association:

888-501-0297 or contact through partner website.

“Rhythmically alive and emotionally responsive”
(Classical Music)

This ensemble of young and distinguished musicians was formed in 1998 at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester, England. Taking its name from Mendelssohn’s Elijah (Elias is the German form), it is now one of the foremost quartets of this generation. Their playing is vibrant, energetic, and scintillating. The quartet is composed of Sara Bitlloch and Donald Grant, violins, Simone van der Giessen, viola, and Marie Bitlloch, cello.

Elias has recently performed a “Schumann series” of concerts at Wigmore Hall in London with Jonathan Biss and has premiered works by several contemporary composers. The ensemble has performed in major venues in North America. Recipients of the Borletti-Buitoni Trust Award, the players mounted the “Beethoven Project in which they studied and performed all of Beethoven’s quartets as cycles while sharing their experiences on a special website (www.beethovenproject.com).”

The group’s discography has received critical acclaim. Recent recordings include the Schumann and Dvorák piano quintets with Jonathan Biss, and quartets by Britten, Mendelssohn, and Schumann. The
final volume of the complete quartets by Beethoven, including the live performance at Wigmore Hall, was recently released.

PROGRAM
Elias String Quartet

Stravinsky: Three Pieces for String Quartet
Haydn: Quartet in G-Major, Op. 54, No. 1
– intermission –
Schubert: Quartet in D-minor, D 810 (“Death and the Maiden”)

 

Hannah Wicklund
Feb 20 @ 8:00 pm
The Grey Eagle
Doors Open: 7:00 PM

– ALL AGES
– STANDING ROOM ONLY

HANNAH WICKLUND

Hannah Wicklund has been traveling fast and far, playing big cities and small towns around the world since starting her band at 8 years old. With her new album, Produced by Sam Kiszka, she is now arriving somewhere completely unexpected. Ethereal texturing, smokey falsetto vocals, string section surprises and guitar solos that carry equal parts pain and joy are woven tastefully into what Wicklund says is , “A record that just sounds like me”. Much like Hannah’s paintings she has become known for, each song is intricately entrancing and honored with two things seemingly lost in today’s world….patience and time. With Sam Kiszka on bass/keys/organ and Danny Wagner on drums, both of Greta Van Fleet, the songs serve as a rock ’n’ roll roadmap to a crossroads that Wicklund has been unknowingly gravitating towards for well over a decade. X marks the spot where the weary girl speeding towards the woman she will become meet in a fiery head-on collision. On this album, we hear from the woman rising from that wreckage. The woman who’s scarred but smarter, holds compassion for the girl who carried her here, and with wide-open clear eyes, unflinchingly stares down the future.

Indeed, The Prize is a beautiful representation of what raw feminine power and determination look, feel and sound like. Carved with pain during the most wounded and fragile point in our young heroine’s life, this record is for anyone that has ever had to look inward to move onward. “This album was so radically healing for me, and I hope it can inspire and perhaps play a role in someone else’s story” says Wicklund. “I want us all to remember, it can be lonely and is never easy ‘doing the work’, but we are each worthy of our own love, time, and dedication.”

THE HIGH DIVERS

The High Divers have seen some things. There are scars adorning each member that serve as constant reminders that the traveling rock n’ roll lifestyle is not for the faint of heart. After narrowly surviving a bloody scene with a semi on an Arizona Highway in 2017, and a stage silencing pandemic, the band has proved its resilience and dedication to crafting albums that they can continue to be proud of. With the release of their newest record, “Should I be Worried” due out April 2023, the band is breathing a sigh of relief in finally getting the Sadler Vaden produced album out into the hands of their fans. “The return to live shows with all of the excitement and energy behind these new songs is going to be really healing for everyone involved”, says guitarist and singer, Luke Mitchell, “We’ve held onto some of these songs for almost three years now, and it’s felt like an absolute eternity!” 

Recorded in Nashville at BattleTapes and Marshall, NC at The High Divers’ own Out There Studios, this record serves as a patchwork of where the band has been and where they are going, with great care taken in curating nuanced and eclectic songs that weave into a colorful psychedelic sonic tapestry. “When you have this long to compile songs and really live with them, there are certain ones that just jump out and continue to have that sheen that keeps us all excited” says Mary Alice, whose song “Pieces” is a sparse and hauntingly beautiful look into the past “We were young, we were stupid, we were free, we were broken”.

Wednesday, February 21, 2024
Auditions Womansong
Feb 21 all-day
online

“We sing because we love to… and we sing because we can… and we sing for those who can’t… ​and we sing to honor the beauty of life within and around us!” -Althea Gonzalez, former Artistic Director

We welcome all who may be interested in joining and want to get acquainted!

Auditions for the Spring 2024 concert season are available through the end of February. For more information or to arrange a visit, please contact us here or by email at [email protected].

Interested in why our members chose to join Womansong? Hear testimonials from several of our members here.

Pacolet Adult Appalachian Music (PacJAM) Spring Semester
Feb 21 all-day
Tryon Fine Arts Center

Adult Classes

Wednesdays

2:45-3:45 pm & 6:15-7:15 pm

 

Afternoon adult classes are for fiddle, beginning guitar, and beginning mandolin. Evening adult classes are for bluegrass jam, and beginning clawhammer banjo.

“If you don’t let things develop, it’s like keeping something in a bag and not letting it out to fly”
— Earl Scruggs

It’s never too late to learn to play and/or enjoy being part of the synergy that is created by adult PacJAMMERs!

Adult classes are $15/session, for a total of $210 for the 14-week session.

 

NC Arboretum Hiking Trails
Feb 21 @ 9:00 am – 5:00 pm
NC Arboretum

Located within the wildly-popular and botanically beautiful Southern Appalachian Mountains, The North Carolina Arboretum offers more than 10 miles of hiking trails that connect to many other area attractions such as Lake Powhatan, the Pisgah National Forest and the Blue Ridge Parkway. Visitors of all ages and abilities can enjoy their hiking experience at the Arboretum as trail options include easy, moderate, and difficult challenge levels. All trails are dog-friendly and visitors are asked to adhere to the proper waste disposing procedures for pets.

Part of a running group that would like to use the Arboretum as a starting point or parking location? Please review our Running Group Guidance and email [email protected] with any questions.

Worlds Apart: Musical Instruments from Secular to Sacred
Feb 21 @ 10:00 am – 5:00 pm
Sigal Music Museum
Sigal Music Museum’s current special exhibition, Worlds Apart: Musical Instruments from Secular to Sacred, highlights items from the JoAnn and Frank Edwinn Collection, which hails from all over the world. Showing November 2023 – May 2024, Worlds Apart uses a diverse range of historical instruments, objects, and visuals to bring together musical narratives from seemingly disparate parts of the globe.

 

Worlds Apart: Musical Instruments from Secular to Sacred aims to increase public access to historical instruments from around the world and improve visitors’ understanding of musical traditions at the global level. Expanding beyond the typical parameters of the Western musical canon, Worlds Apart seeks to expose audiences to musical instruments and customs that are often overlooked or exotified. The instruments and other exhibit materials will offer visitors new perspectives on global music and a chance to consider how music is used for prayer and leisure in cultures around the world. By celebrating these stories, the museum intends to further its mission to collect and preserve historical musical instruments, objects, and information, which engage and enrich people of all ages through exhibits, performances, and experiential programs.

 

Displaying various objects from the JoAnn and Frank Edwinn Collection, Worlds Apart: Musical Instruments from Secular to Sacred focuses on international musical instruments and cultures, celebrating rites and traditions with ancient histories and contemporary legacies. Frank Edwinn, a successful basso in the mid-20th century, studied and toured internationally, eventually settling in North Carolina, where he taught music at the University of North Carolina Asheville. Throughout his life, he purchased various objects from around the world, aiming to expose students, and himself, to the wide and wonderful world of musical instruments. This impressive collection occupies a unique position for educating audiences unfamiliar with the vast scope of global music.

And, UNCA’s Ramsey Library Special Collections is now processing the Edwinn’s papers and a few recordings that will be accessible next semester!

Sing with our Choir
Feb 21 @ 3:30 pm – 5:00 pm
First Congregational Church

Sing with our Choir at a progressive church

Come join us! Contact Mark Acker for more information ([email protected]).

Rehearsals on Wednesday’s, 3:30-4:45

Pacolet Junior Appalachian Music (PacJAM) Spring Semester
Feb 21 @ 4:00 pm – 6:00 pm
Tryon Fine Arts Center

Beginning & Intermediate youth music classes on traditional and ol’ time instruments including but not limited to, fiddle, mandolin, banjo and guitar. Students will attend 40 minutes of music enrichment, including multiple flat-footing sessions led by Alice Kexel, story-telling, visits from guest musicians, as well as learn about the heritage of the music and the region. They will have 40 minutes of group music classes, and 40 minutes of singing or JAM rehearsal.

Advanced students will have 40 minutes of group instrument lessons, followed by 30 minutes of advanced singing including harmony and shape-note singing, and finish with 50 minutes of coached, small-ensemble rehearsal.

Classes are $15/session, for a total of $210 for the first student, and a 20% discount of $168 for each additional sibling. Parents may choose to split payments when registering. Inquire with Julie Moore at [email protected] or 864-420-6407 about scholarships.

Youth Classes

Wednesdays, 4-6 pm

OLD-TIME JAM Old-Time Mountain + Folk Music
Feb 21 @ 5:00 pm – 9:00 pm
Jack of the Wood


Grab some dinner and a pint while enjoying our long-running Old-Time jam! Featuring many talented musicians from the local WNC area, our traditional Appalachian mountain music jam runs from 5-9pm every Wednesday night at Jack of the Wood!

Citizen Swing
Feb 21 @ 6:00 pm – 10:00 pm
Citizen Vinyl

Join us for Citizen Swing, our new twice-monthly Wednesday jazz nights. Come through for a night of excellent, curated local jazz talent and classic cocktails. The fun starts at 6pm when we spin up some cool, old jazz vinyl, and then continues at 7pm with live sets by Connor Law and Will Boyd. Free!

 

CONNOR LAW:
Connor Law is a freelance bassist, bandleader and composer based in Asheville, NC. He got his start in the music business after graduating from UNCA in 2017 by going on the road as a tour manager for the progressive bluegrass band, Jon Stickley Trio. After leaving that position he realized his passion was in performance, and more specifically, jazz performance. He began working as a full time musician in Asheville in 2018 and has been performing with many of the top musicians in the area since then.

 

WILL BOYD: Multi-reed instrumentalist, composer, and educator Will Boyd hails from the soul-sax tradition of artists such as Eddie Harris, Hank Crawford, David “Fat Head” Newman, King Curtis, and Yusef Lateef. Originally from Orangeburg, S.C. by way of Queens, N.Y., Will currently resides in Knoxville, Tenn. He is an adjunct music faculty member at UNC Asheville and Warren Wilson College and member of the Knoxville Jazz Orchestra. He has released three solo albums: Live at the Red Piano Lounge, Freedom Soul Jazz, and Soulful Noise. Will also co-leads a group with his wife Kelle Jolly who is a jazz radio host and founder of the Knoxville Women in Jazz Jam Festival.

French Broad Valley Mountain Music Jam
Feb 21 @ 6:00 pm – 9:00 pm
Oklawaha Brewing Company

Weekly mountain music JAM with
players in a round, where the session is focused on regional fiddle tunes and songs, You are welcome to come and listen or to
learn and join in. This event supports the Henderson County Junior Appalachian Musician (JAM) Kids Program, Free but
donations are accepted.

Stevie Nicks
Feb 21 @ 7:00 pm
Bon Secours Wellness Arena

Legendary singer, songwriter and storyteller, Stevie Nicks has announced additional tour dates and is coming to Bon Secours Wellness Arena

An Intimate Evening With David Foster + Katharine McPhee
Feb 21 @ 7:30 pm
Peace Concert Hall

16-time Grammy® award-winning musician, composer, and producer DAVID
FOSTER and acclaimed singer, television, and Broadway star, KATHARINE
MCPHEE are bringing their viral Instagram show on the road.

Coming directly from the Living Room to the stage, this intimate show with
the powerhouse duo will be packed with David‘s hits from Chicago,
Whitney Houston, Celine Dion, Josh Groban, Michael Bublé, etc. and Kat’s
biggest songs from American IdolSmash, and Waitress. Plus some of their
favorites that they just love!

About David Foster
Few other individuals can claim to have their fingerprints on more major moments in all of popular music than David Foster. He has created hit songs for a diverse array of artists including Barbra Streisand, Celine Dion, Whitney Houston, Michael Jackson, Madonna, Andrea Bocelli, Michael Bublé, Josh Groban, Rod Stewart, Stevie Wonder, Earth, Wind & Fire, Diana Krall, Natalie Cole, Michael Bolton, Seal, Chaka Khan, Kenny Rogers, Dolly Parton, Chicago, Hall & Oates, Brandy, ’N Sync, Boz Scaggs, and Gloria Estefan.

Foster is gearing up to take on Broadway with several projects including writing the music for a new musical about the iconic animated character “Betty Boop.” He is also writing the music for a musical based on the Amy Bloom novel and New York Times bestseller Lucky Us.

About Katharine McPhee
Katharine McPhee can most recently be seen starring in the Netflix Original Series Country Comfort. Previously she starred as “Paige Dineen” on the CBS’ spy drama Scorpion and was featured in NBC’s award-winning musical series Smash, executive produced by Steven Spielberg. Her other television credits include CSI: NYCommunity, and Family Guy.

McPhee appeared on the big screen in Columbia’s romantic comedy The House Bunny. In addition to her acting career, she finds great success in the music space after her turn on Season 5 of American Idol. McPhee’s first single debuted at #2 on the Billboard’s Hot Singles Sales chart. Her debut album landed on the Billboard 200 chart and went gold in 2008.

McPhee also has a presence in theater, having recently starred in both the U.S. and U.K. productions of Waitress.

Big Richard
Feb 21 @ 8:00 pm
The Grey Eagle
Doors Open: 7:00 PM
– ALL AGES
– SEATED SHOW
– LIMIITED NUMBER OF PREMIUM SEATING TICKETS AVAILABLE

BIG RICHARD

What began as an all-female festival collab quickly morphed into a serious passion project driven by sisterhood, harmony and humor…along with the shared desire to rage fiddle tunes and smash the patriarchy.

Big Richard is a neo-acoustic super group made up of four well established Colorado musicians: Bonnie Sims on mandolin (Bonnie & Taylor Sims/Everybody Loves An Outlaw/Bonnie & the Clydes), Joy Adams on cello (Nathaniel Rateliff/Darol Anger/Half Pelican), Emma Rose on bass + guitar (Sound of Honey/Daniel Rodriguez/Whippoorwill) and Eve Panning on fiddle (Lonesome Days).

Formed in late 2021, the band gained immediate notoriety for their charismatic stage presence and their vocal/instrumental prowess. After selling out all of their club shows Big Richard quickly started confirming festival appearances across America.

CODY HALE
Cody Hale is a singer/songwriter from Penrose, North Carolina.  He began writing music in 2010 after a career ending injury kept him off the basketball court.  He currently travels and performs with his wife, Jonlyn Linville, who plays fiddle and sings.  The duo has crafted their own sound through years of performing live music.  You will hear popular, classic songs mixed in with clever and capturing original tunes if you attend one of their shows

Thursday, February 22, 2024
Volunteer Opportunities Womansong Concert Season
Feb 22 all-day
WomanSong

Volunteer Opportunities Available:

Assistance Needed During Concert Season

You don’t have to sing to be apart of the Village! Assist Womansong in carrying out our mission of singing for Joy, Social Justice, and Community this concert season. Volunteer opportunities include Ushers, House Managers, Ticket Sellers/Checkers, Product Sellers, and Stage Managers/Crew. Become a Womanstrong volunteer today!

To become a volunteer, please reach out to Kerry at [email protected].

NC Arboretum Hiking Trails
Feb 22 @ 9:00 am – 5:00 pm
NC Arboretum

Located within the wildly-popular and botanically beautiful Southern Appalachian Mountains, The North Carolina Arboretum offers more than 10 miles of hiking trails that connect to many other area attractions such as Lake Powhatan, the Pisgah National Forest and the Blue Ridge Parkway. Visitors of all ages and abilities can enjoy their hiking experience at the Arboretum as trail options include easy, moderate, and difficult challenge levels. All trails are dog-friendly and visitors are asked to adhere to the proper waste disposing procedures for pets.

Part of a running group that would like to use the Arboretum as a starting point or parking location? Please review our Running Group Guidance and email [email protected] with any questions.

Worlds Apart: Musical Instruments from Secular to Sacred
Feb 22 @ 10:00 am – 5:00 pm
Sigal Music Museum
Sigal Music Museum’s current special exhibition, Worlds Apart: Musical Instruments from Secular to Sacred, highlights items from the JoAnn and Frank Edwinn Collection, which hails from all over the world. Showing November 2023 – May 2024, Worlds Apart uses a diverse range of historical instruments, objects, and visuals to bring together musical narratives from seemingly disparate parts of the globe.

 

Worlds Apart: Musical Instruments from Secular to Sacred aims to increase public access to historical instruments from around the world and improve visitors’ understanding of musical traditions at the global level. Expanding beyond the typical parameters of the Western musical canon, Worlds Apart seeks to expose audiences to musical instruments and customs that are often overlooked or exotified. The instruments and other exhibit materials will offer visitors new perspectives on global music and a chance to consider how music is used for prayer and leisure in cultures around the world. By celebrating these stories, the museum intends to further its mission to collect and preserve historical musical instruments, objects, and information, which engage and enrich people of all ages through exhibits, performances, and experiential programs.

 

Displaying various objects from the JoAnn and Frank Edwinn Collection, Worlds Apart: Musical Instruments from Secular to Sacred focuses on international musical instruments and cultures, celebrating rites and traditions with ancient histories and contemporary legacies. Frank Edwinn, a successful basso in the mid-20th century, studied and toured internationally, eventually settling in North Carolina, where he taught music at the University of North Carolina Asheville. Throughout his life, he purchased various objects from around the world, aiming to expose students, and himself, to the wide and wonderful world of musical instruments. This impressive collection occupies a unique position for educating audiences unfamiliar with the vast scope of global music.

And, UNCA’s Ramsey Library Special Collections is now processing the Edwinn’s papers and a few recordings that will be accessible next semester!

Mixtape! Best of 60s 70s + 80s
Feb 22 @ 2:00 pm
Flat Rock Playhouse

The boys are back in town! If you enjoyed our past Music on the Rock shows like The Music of Queen, The Eagles, or The Beatles, you won’t want to miss Mixtape! Eric Anthony, Dustin Brayley, Paul Babelay, Ryan Dunn, and Ryan Guerra return to bring you the biggest hits of the 60’s, 70’s, and 80’s in one unforgettable show.

Asheville Junction Band at 12 Bones South
Feb 22 @ 6:00 pm – 8:00 pm
12 Bones South

What goes better with amazing free live music than great beer & BBQ? Phenomenal banjo player Rudy Cortese will join with Asheville Junction Band’s hot fiddlin’ and harmonies 6-8 pm at 12 Bones South in their taproom on Thursday, Feb 22. C’mon out and don’t miss this one!

ashevillejunctionband.com
https://12bones.com/location/taproom/

BLUEGRASS JAM Hosted by Drew Matulich
Feb 22 @ 7:00 pm – 10:00 pm
Jack of the Wood

BLUEGRASS JAM

Hosted by Drew Matulich


Don’t miss your chance to check out some of the best pickers from all over WNC at our amazing Bluegrass Jam curated by the talented Drew Matulich — every Thursday starting at 7:00 pm! A real show-stopping performance only at Jack of the Wood! Open jam starts at 9:30 pm.

Jazz Jam
Feb 22 @ 7:00 pm – 10:00 pm
LEAF Global Arts

Join us for Jazz Jam Thursday every Thursday from 7-10. There is a suggested donation of $10 and local craft beer and wine for sale. Come as you are or bring an instrument! Open jam starts at 8 after a House Band set guaranteed to fill your soul with groove and joy.
Public parking is available at Marjorie Street, across from Packs Tavern.

Mixtape! The Best of the 60’s, 70’s, and 80’s
Feb 22 @ 7:00 pm
Flat Rock Playhouse

It’s February, which means ‘the boys are back!’ From the same outstanding musical talent who brought you the Music of Queen, the Eagles, and the Beatles, welcome to Mixtape! The Best of the 60’s, 70’s, and 80’s. Come shake off the winter blues with this red-hot rockin’ playlist featuring tunes you know and love. It’ll be ‘a gas,’ ‘far out,’ and ‘totally tubular!’

Sally Anne Morgan ft. Ritka
Feb 22 @ 7:00 pm – 10:00 pm
Citizen Vinyl

Multi-instrumentalist Sally Anne Morgan’s rich, intimate and modern music is cultivated with the seeds sown by folk, contemporary music and psychedelia. Her work exists in conversation with the living tradition of reinterpreting folk practices, from her music to her letterpress artwork to her microbrewery Leveller Brewing Co. Alongside new interpretations of traditional songs, Morgan also composes her own pieces drawing on her a vast knowledge of folk forms, and experience with her work as part of The Black Twig Pickers and House and Land (with Sarah Louise). Her music is traditional in the sense that she continues the practice of folk songs’ rich history in social and emotional narratives yet remains completely unbound by traditional song structures and forms. Infused with her singular perspective, Morgan’s music is elevated by her deft musical skills and her remarkably expressive voice that together create wholly new folk forms, familiar in their instrumentation yet distinctly her own. Carrying tills the rich soil of Appalachian traditions and Sally’s rural North Carolina surroundings into warm, reflective songs about navigating challenges, as well as the most joyous and personal emotions surrounding Morgan’s own pregnancy and recent birth of her first child. “The process of creating this album was intimately connected to the process of conceiving and birthing and raising a child,” says Morgan. RITKA is the music project of Rita Kovtun, a multidisciplinary artist based in Asheville, NC (unceded Cherokee land). Kovtun was born in Moscow, Russia, but moved to the U.S. at age 3 and grew up in Minnesota. These places and experiences inform Kovtun’s worldview and songwriting. Her songs revolve around our relationships with the human and more-than-human world, touching on themes of memory, connection, and belonging. Her music trends toward dreamy, trancey folk-pop, sometimes in English, sometimes in Russian.

Itzhak Perlman
Feb 22 @ 7:30 pm
Peace Concert Hall

Undeniably the reigning virtuoso of the violin, Itzhak Perlman enjoys superstar status rarely afforded a classical musician. Beloved for his charm and humanity as well as his talent, he is treasured by audiences throughout the world who respond not only to his remarkable artistry, but also to his irrepressible joy for making music.

Having performed with every major orchestra and at concert halls around the globe, Mr. Perlman was granted a Presidential Medal of Freedom – the Nation’s highest civilian honor – by President Obama in 2015, a Kennedy Center Honor in 2003, a National Medal of Arts by President Clinton in 2000, and a Medal of Liberty by President Reagan in 1986. Mr. Perlman has been honored with 16 GRAMMY® Awards, four Emmy Awards, a Kennedy Center Honor, a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award, and a Genesis Prize.

In the 2022/23 season, Mr. Perlman conducts the LA Philharmonic at the Hollywood Bowl and the Houston Symphony on Mozart’s Requiem, and is joined by an illustrious group of collaborators — Emanuel Ax, Jean-Yves Thibaudet and the Juilliard String Quartet — in a special Itzhak Perlman and Friends program appearing in only three locations: Toronto’s Roy Thomson Hall, UMS Ann Arbor and Carnegie Hall. He continues touring An Evening with Itzhak Perlman, which captures highlights of his career through narrative and multi-media elements intertwined with performance, to Boston, Philadelphia, Long Island, Akron, Austin and Naples (Florida). He plays season-opening concerts for the Colorado Symphony, Vancouver Symphony and Florida Orchestra, and recitals across the United States with longtime collaborator Rohan De Silva.

He currently serves as Artistic Partner of the Houston Symphony in a partnership that commenced in the 2020/21 season and culminates at the end of 2023/24. He performs 9 programs across three seasons that feature him in versatile appearances as conductor, soloist, recitalist and presenter.

Mr. Perlman has an exclusive series of classes with Masterclass.com, the premier online education company that enables access to the world’s most brilliant minds including Gordon Ramsay, Wolfgang Puck, Martin Scorsese, Ron Howard, Helen Mirren, Jodie Foster and Serena Williams, as the company’s first classical-music presenter.

James McMurtry
Feb 22 @ 7:30 pm
Gunter Theatre

James McMurtry is a Grammy-nominated folk-rock singer-songwriter, guitarist, bandleader, and occasional actor. A luminary in the Americana space, he weaves stories that resonate with gritty authenticity and emotional depth. His songwriting is celebrated by critics and fellow artists alike, with John Mellencamp raving, “James writes like he’s lived a lifetime,” and Jason Isbell lauding, “I don’t think anybody writes better lyrics.”

In August 2021, McMurtry released The Horses and the Hounds, his first collection in seven years. The album showcases his seasoned songwriting, seamlessly blending personal narratives with elegance (“Canola Fields”) and high energy (“If It Don’t Bleed”), and his ability to inhabit characters from various walks of life, as noted by critics who describe his work as subversive, funny, vulnerable and always poignant.

The release follows in the footsteps of McMurtry’s albums Complicated Games (2015), Just Us Kids (2008) and Childish Things (2005), all of which scored endless critical praise. Just Us Kids earned McMurtry his highest Billboard 200 chart position in two decades (since eclipsed by Complicated Game) and notched Americana Music Award nominations. Childish Things spent six full weeks topping the Americana Music Radio chart in 2005 and 2006, and won the Americana Music Association’s Album of the Year, with “We Can’t Make It Here” named the organization’s Song of the Year. Other accolades include a 1996 Grammy nomination for Long Form Music Video for Where’d You Hide the Body and an American Indie Award for Best Americana Album for It Had to Happen (1997).

Touring year-round, McMurtry consistently throws down powerhouse performances backed by his band.

McMurtry will be joined by opening act BettySoo.

Lamont Landers
Feb 22 @ 8:00 pm
The Grey Eagle
Doors Open: 7:00 PM
– ALL AGES
– STANDING ROOM ONLY

LAMONT LANDERS
Born and raised in Alabama, Lamont Landers grew up absorbing the soulful sounds of the South that surrounded him. At the age of 14, he taught himself how to play guitar, and, at the age of 19, began singing. He spent years quietly honing his talents behind his bedroom doors, listening to records by Stevie Wonder, Al Green, Sly & The Family Stone, and Ray Charles on repeat. At the age of 22, a candid video recorded by his sister of Lamont performing the Ray Charles’ classic “Hit the Road Jack” went viral on YouTube and garnered over 400,000 views overnight. In the summer of 2023, history repeated itself with similar enthusiastic fan response propelling five Lamont Landers TikTok videos to over 1,000,000 views each. A feature on the Bobby Bones nationally syndicated radio show and shoutouts from music tastemakers ranging from Snoop Dogg to Questlove soon followed. No longer a secret of North Alabama, Lamont will be touring throughout North America in 2024.