Calendar of Events
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.
Iconic songwriter Louisa Branscomb is a visionary and pioneer for songwriters and women musicians. Louisa was the first women to front a band in bluegrass, play banjo, and while also writing most of the band’s material. Distinctions include 3 IBMA Awards, two Grammy cuts (Alison Krauss and John Denver), Song of the Year Awards (“Dear Sister,” with Lynch, recorded by Lynch), (“Steel Rails,” recorded by Alison Krauss), and over 250 recorded originals, many holding top 10 chart positions for a year or more. She is joined by award winning vocalists and songwriters Jeanette and Johnny Williams and flat picking guitar champion Allen Shadd, to provide a show that’s elegant while down to earth, refined while power packed. As one fan remarked “it’s more than a show, it’s an experience, and unforgettable.”
Wyatt Easterling’s decades of success in the music industry includes a myriad of roles from performer to songwriter, and as an executive of both a major record label and publishing company. This wealth of experience and accompanying success in all these varying facets of the industry, give him a unique and valuable understanding of the music business.
Come enjoy an evening of live music, food and drinks at the Isis Music Hall.
Book by: Thomas Meehan & Bob Martin; Music by: Matthew Sklar; Lyrics by: Chad Beguelin; Directed by: Jeff Catanese
Based on the beloved holiday film, this hilarious fish-out-of-water comedy follows Buddy the Elf in his quest to live joyfully in community as he finds and shares his true identity. Elf The Musical is full of cheer with bright costumes, jolly dancing, and show-stopping songs. This heartwarming holiday tale dazzles and delights all ages!
Accessibility:
All performances: Accessible wheelchair/scooter seating available.
Saturday, Dec 17, 2022: ASL-Interpreted Performance
The WNC tradition continues! This show has become a Playhouse favorite with a brand new show every year. Join the merriment of sleigh bells and mistletoe, miracles and Santa Claus, and so much more. Showcasing a cast of Flat Rock favorites, the Flat Rock Playhouse Chorus, and Pat’s School of Dance, this holiday revue promises to leave you feeling merry and bright!
Darren Nicholson Band is a group of Appalachian musicians who have common respect for and love of American acoustic music. There are GRAMMY and award-winning musicians in this band, and the members each have long track records as credible, national performers; including performances at Carnegie Hall and the Grand Ole Opry. They are known for creatively blending Bluegrass, Folk, Gospel, and Swing, into a new American acoustic music experience. Darren was recently given the “key to the city” in Canton, NC where he was honored for his musical and civic contributions to the community. Recently off Five national #1 songs and more than a dozen top-ten songs, 5 IBMA nominations, 3 IBMA Wins Including Album of the Year, Darren is excited to announce a handful of special dates with some bluegrass all-stars.
Come enjoy an evening of live music, food and drinks at Isis Music Hall . Advanced Reservations are highly recommended.
Equipped with catchy hooks and powerhouse vocals, Couch aims to reshape familiar pop tropes in fresh ways. The Boston-based septet infuses pop songs with funk, R&B, jazz, and rock influences. Their vibrant sound is further defined by the members’ personal training in jazz, a cappella, and musical theatre.
Until Spring 2021, Couch members were scattered across the country at various universities; they tackled the challenges of being a “long-distance” band, writing and even recording virtually for three years. Despite these challenges, they celebrated the release of their debut EP, “COUCH,” in February 2021. The band injected each track with their signature flavor: expressive horns, warm vocals, and bubbling synths—crafting an oasis of joy for musicians and non-musicians alike.
We invite you to come downtown and experience one or more temporary installations from the Art in the Heart program. Share your thoughts on the artwork by clicking on the second tab below. Art in the Heart is a temporary art program specifically designed to help stimulate conversations about themes like identity, community, inclusion, healing, unity, and resilience. It’s also a way to start conversations about how public spaces can, or don’t, help reflect or express a community’s past, present, and future.
You can find more background and information about the Pack Square Visioning Project here.
We want everyone to Experience More Joy this season so while you’re out shopping this weekend, find the giant, pre-lit ornament located in the median of Town Square Blvd. Not only is it a festive and fun photo backdrop but just by following a few simple prompts and entering our photo contest, you could win a $100 gift card to one Biltmore Park Town Square business of your choice. So, gather your friends, family, beloved pet, or just yourself and get creative!
How to enter the Instagram Photo Contest:
1. Take a photo at the ornament
2. Follow @biltmoreparktownsq on Instagram by December 18th
3. Post your photo on Instagram
4. Tag your photo using the hashtag #MoreJoyBPTS
*Contest ends December 18th and the winner will be randomly selected and notified on December 21st.
Asheville Regional Airport (AVL) is pleased to welcome regional school choral groups and local musicians to the airport as part of our annual Sounds of the Holidays program. The musicians and students will perform festive music for the enjoyment of those arriving and departing from AVL this holiday season.
Following is a schedule of choral performances: Thursday, December 15
11:20am East McDowell Middle School Chorus
Friday, December 16
12:45pm Erwin Combined Choirs
Following is a schedule of Music in the Airport performances:
Mike Anderson
Mondays in December 10:30am
Thursday December 15 5:30pm
Phil Okrend
Thursdays in December 11:00am
Saturday December 15 5:30pm
Joseph Olschner
Fridays in December 10:00am and 2:00pm
Saturdays in December at 11am
Bill Cozzens-Bryant
Tuesdays in December 11:00am
Wednesdays in December 10:30am
Jenna Jaffe
Sunday December 18 11:30am
Saturday December 24 2:00PM
Sunday December 25 10:00am
Potter and pottery collector Rodney Leftwich will be demonstrating surface decoration in the lobby of the Folk Art Center on the Blue Ridge Parkway. Visitors are encouraged to watch and ask questions while the demonstrators work and talk about their creative process! Call ahead for the latest updates: 828-298-7928.
Featured Artists:
Allen Davis (wood)
Vicki Love (leather)
Lynne Harrill (fiber)
Ruthie Cohen & David Alberts (jewelry)
Gigi Renee’ Fasano (fiber)
see the beautiful holiday decorations and lights. Plus find lots of great gifts at the many local shops and businesses
The Fall Studio Tour Preview Exhibition opens in the Kokol Gallery, in Toe River Arts’ Spruce Pine location at 269 Oak Ave, October 29 and runs through the end December 2022. This exhibition gives visitors an opportunity to have a glimpse into each studio and plan their route. It’s also a great place to begin the tour or take a break from a day of non-stop art and artists.
There’s something breathtaking and awe-inspiring about driving through the mountains of western North Carolina in the Fall. The way the trees show off by turning vibrant shades of red, yellow, and orange before leaving bare branches to the crisp winds and snowy days of winter, reminds us that nature herself is the original artist.
For more than a quarter century, the Toe River Arts Studio Tour has intrigued those who make the journey to visit places of inspiration and creation. Situated between Roan Mountain which boasts the world’s largest rhododendron garden and Mt. Mitchell, the highest peak east of the Mississippi, the Toe River Arts Studio Tour is a free, self-guided journey of the arts. This arts adventure through Mitchell and Yancey Counties will take visitors along the meandering Toe River, across its many bridges, around barns, acres of fields and miles of forests all while visiting the 83 talented studio artists who often take inspiration from the mountains they call home and 8 galleries featuring local and international art.
It doesn’t matter if you live up the hill or across the state. The Studio Tour provides an adventure for the intrepid seeker of the art experience. Artist studios come in many iterations—the building off to the side of the house, or across the field or down the road or right off the main road or down a gravel one-lane. Two-stories with a gallery space or small and cozy with a table set up or cleared off for display. Still there are others that devote a corner to each artist sharing the space. Wherever and however they are set up, the studios are exciting places to visit because they demonstrate the dynamic process used to create a finished piece. Every artist has their own way of telling a story, inviting visitors to ask questions, hold their work, and share a moment.
The art is as diverse as the artists who create it and features the work of glassblowers, jewelers, printmakers, potters, fiber artists, ironworkers, painters, sculptors, and woodworkers.
Natural Collector is organized by the Asheville Art Museum. IMAGE: Christian Burchard, Untitled (nesting bowls), 1998, madrone burl, various from 6 × 6 × 6 to ⅜ × ⅜ × ⅜ inches. Gift of Fleur S. Bresler, 2021.76.01.
Natural Collector | Gifts of Fleur S. Bresler features around 15 artworks from the collection of Fleur S. Bresler, which include important examples of modern and contemporary American craft including wood and fiber art, as well as glass and ceramics. These works that were generously donated by contemporary craft collector Bresler to the Asheville Art Museum over the years reflect her strong interest in wood-based art and themes of nature. According to Associate Curator Whitney Richardson, “This exhibition highlights artworks that consider the natural element from which they were created or replicate known flora and fauna in unexpected materials. The selection of objects displayed illustrates how Bresler’s eye for collecting craft not only draws attention to nature and artists’ interest in it, but also accentuates her role as a natural collector with an intuitive ability to identify themes and ideas that speak to one another.”
This exhibition presents work from the Collection representing the first generation of American wood turners like Rude Osolnik and Ed Moulthrop, as well as those that came after and learned from them, such as Philip Moulthrop, John Jordan, and local Western North Carolina (WNC) artist Stoney Lamar. Other WNC-based artists in Natural Collector include Anne Lemanski, whose paper sculpture of a snake captures the viewer’s imagination, and Michael Sherrill’s multimedia work that tricks the eye with its similarity to true-to-life berries. Also represented are beadwork and sculpture by Joyce J. Scott and Jack and Linda Fifield.
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Rebel/Re-Belle: Exploring Gender, Agency, and Identity | Selections from the Asheville Art Museum and Rubell Museum combines works, primarily created by women, from two significant collections of contemporary art to explore how artists have innovated, influenced, interrogated, and inspired visual culture in the past 100 years.
Asheville-born and Raleigh-Durham-based interdisciplinary artist Sherrill Roland’s socially driven practice draws upon his experience with wrongful incarceration for a crime he did not commit and seeks to open conversations about how we care for our communities and one another with compassion and understanding. Through sculpture, installation, and conceptual art, Roland engages visitors in dialogues around community, social contract, identity, biases, and other deeply human experiences. Comprised of artwork created from 2016 to the present, Sherrill Roland: Sugar, Water, Lemon Squeeze reflects on making something from nothing, lemonade from lemons, the best of a situation. A reference to a simple recipe from the artist’s childhood, the title also speaks to Roland’s employment of materials available to him while incarcerated, such as Kool-Aid and mail from family members. In the face of his personal experiences, he invites viewers to confront their own uncomfortable complicity in perpetuating injustice. Roland’s work humanizes these difficult topics and creates a space for communication and envisioning a better future. This exhibition is organized by the Asheville Art Museum and curated by Hilary Schroeder, assistant curator, in collaboration with the Artist. This exhibition is funded, in part, by a grant from South Arts in partnership with the National Endowment for the Arts.
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This holiday season, visit Tryon Resort’s Winterfest Village to find festive fun for the entire family. Meet Santa and your favorite Who-ville characters with your Winterfest Village ticket, or come enjoy free live music and character interactions in Legends Plaza. There is something to get every member of the family in the holiday spirit!
Over the years, JP (Jonathan Pearlman) has produced many Tribute Shows under the “Alien Music Club” pseudonym. When he’s not producing shows and writing original material, he acts as Musical Director for the popular “Asheville Sessions” series at Isis Music Hall and can often be seen on guitar in many local venues. Tonight, he’s put together a stellar lineup with Taylor Pierson on piano, Zack Page on bass, Ben Colvin on sax and Justin Watt on drums. JP steps out into the spotlight to bring you “Tom Waits: The Early Years” – A very hip Tribute to Tom Waits, A neo-beatnik songwriter who grew weirder and wilder in the ’80s, earning a cult following that only grew larger as the years passed. Brought to you by Isis Music Hall in their intimate, upstairs Lounge, we know you’re gonna love it!
Come enjoy an evening of live music, food and drinks at the Isis. Reservations are highly recommended.
Reserved Tickets for the Lounge are available with dinner reservations only :::: There is a $20 minimum in food and beverage purchases per person with your dinner reservation :: Seating will be limited :: You MUST call venue (828-575-2737) to make a dinner reservation and purchase your tickets.
Dedicated to advancing and preserving the big band jazz tradition, the 17-piece Asheville Jazz Orchestra is western North Carolina’s premier big band. Whether they are playing a swing dance, club date, or formal concert, the AJO is the hardest swinging band in Asheville.
Join us for an evening of dazzling jazz renditions of beloved Christmas songs and carols. Featuring a New York City piano trio headed by Haim Cotton.
Address: 3715 Hendersonville Road, Fletcher, NC 28732
Web: FeedAndSeedNC.com
December 16th at 7pm.
Doors open at 6pm*
Tickets online $20, at the door $25
Haim Cotton’s Jazz Trio:
Haim Cotton – piano
Solomon Gottfried – bass
Andea Niccolai – drums
Shakedown Lounge announces its grand opening party on December 16, 2022, starting at 7:00 p.m., with live music by the Lactones, drink specials, and free samples of new product offerings. The event is free and open to the public ages 18 and up.
Shakedown Lounge is open now Wednesday-Monday 4 p.m.-11 p.m., offering traditionally-prepared kava kava, as well as herbal teas, CBD/hemp edibles, lotus drinks, and coffee. The focus is on top-quality products and community through conversation, live music, poetry, and art, in an alcohol-free environment. The lounge provides a comfortable and relaxing setting for all of this. Shakedown Lounge came about when several long-time employees at Sovereign Kava got together to open their own spot in Hendersonville. www.shakedownlounge.com
Lactones is an underground drip noise band from Asheville, NC, that got their start performing at kava bars, perfecting their own blend of spacious atmospheric rock fusion that has been captivating audiences for nearly a decade. @kavalactonesmusic www.lactonesmusic.com
Poetry Open Mic Hendo is the all-new sister event of Poetry Open Mic Asheville, the longest-running open mic in Western North Carolina. Poetry Open Mic Hendo happens every Thursday at 7:30 p.m., at Shakedown Lounge. Performers are encouraged to arrive early to sign up. This poetry-centered event welcomes all people and all forms of creative expression. Look out for frequent featured guests, drink specials for performers, good entertainment, and lots more open mic to come.
This heartwarming Broadway-style show will brighten your holiday season. Don’t miss this year’s event featuring performers from western North Carolina and special guest artists performing many of your seasonal favorites. The dazzling performances include dance, live music, and comedy.
Book by: Thomas Meehan & Bob Martin; Music by: Matthew Sklar; Lyrics by: Chad Beguelin; Directed by: Jeff Catanese
Based on the beloved holiday film, this hilarious fish-out-of-water comedy follows Buddy the Elf in his quest to live joyfully in community as he finds and shares his true identity. Elf The Musical is full of cheer with bright costumes, jolly dancing, and show-stopping songs. This heartwarming holiday tale dazzles and delights all ages!
Accessibility:
All performances: Accessible wheelchair/scooter seating available.
Saturday, Dec 17, 2022: ASL-Interpreted Performance
Edvard Tchivzhel, conductor
Rachel York, soprano
Jamarcus Gaston, host
Dancers of the International Ballet
This December, the music and tradition return! Gather family and friends for all your yuletide favorites and some special surprises.
This December, let the Greenville Symphony take you on a journey through NYC led by conductor Edvard Tchivzhel and host Jamarcus Gaston. Feel the holiday spirit from Broadway to Rockefeller Center with festive favorites and special surprises, featuring soprano Rachel York and Dancers of the International Ballet.
Book and Lyrics by Jim Christian
Music by Kenneth Plain
Directed by Beth Norris
FIVE CAROLS FOR CHRISTMAS
It’s 1954, and five best friends – all named Carol – as they prepare for their annual holiday performance at the local high school on Christmas Eve. Unfortunately, egos, miscommunication, and a power outage turn their quest for perfection into a madcap misadventure that somehow manages to salvage their camaraderie and the spirit of the holidays. Bursting with wonderful new songs and lush arrangements of Christmas classics, this riotous romp is heartwarming and absolutely hilarious.
JINGLEJACKS
Four Canadian lumberjacks, isolated in a cabin, are living out their dreams of becoming internet sensations with their Christmas webcast featuring favorite holiday songs sung in the style of barbershop, classical, hip-hop, smooth jazz, rap, glee club, rock, and many more. And just like every pop star wannabe, they hold contests, sell merchandise, and send shout outs to their loyal fans, “The Jackals.” Through it all, their warmth, charm, and quirkiness provide a big ol’ holiday bear hug loaded with traditional song favorites and fresh new melodies.
Book and Lyrics by Jim Christian
Music by Kenneth Plain
DIRECTED BY CHANDLER SMITH
FIVE CAROLS FOR CHRISTMAS
It’s 1954, and five best friends – all named Carol – as they prepare for their annual holiday performance at the local high school on Christmas Eve. Unfortunately, egos, miscommunication, and a power outage turn their quest for perfection into a madcap misadventure that somehow manages to salvage their camaraderie and the spirit of the holidays. Bursting with wonderful new songs and lush arrangements of Christmas classics, this riotous romp is heartwarming and absolutely hilarious.
JINGLEJACKS
Four Canadian lumberjacks, isolated in a cabin, are living out their dreams of becoming internet sensations with their Christmas webcast featuring favorite holiday songs sung in the style of barbershop, classical, hip-hop, smooth jazz, rap, glee club, rock, and many more. And just like every pop star wannabe, they hold contests, sell merchandise, and send shout outs to their loyal fans, “The Jackals.” Through it all, their warmth, charm, and quirkiness provide a big ol’ holiday bear hug loaded with traditional song favorites and fresh new melodies.
– ALL AGES
– PARTIALLY SEATED SHOW
– SEATED AND STANDING ROOM ONLY TICKETS AVAILABLE
AMANDA ANNE PLATT & THE HONEYCUTTERS
Salvation Army Santas, hard liquor, new classics and some old country standbys make up the Honeycutters’ Holiday Spectacular. After the 2019 release of their EP, “Christmas on a Greyhound Bus,” Amanda Anne Platt and her band took to the road bringing with them a holiday show that is both irreverent and heartwarming. The spectacular is back for 2022, with some new tunes in tow from their latest studio album, “The Devil and The Deep Blue Sea.”
The music of Asheville, North Carolina based outfit Amanda Anne Platt & The Honeycutters is nuanced, bringing insight and wit to the stories Platt tells through songwriting. Lyrically driven, the band’s country roots music often inspires introspection, whether it be about life on the road, heartache or hope.
There is an empathetic and charming wit ingrained in Platt’s songwriting. She has a knack for accessing a deep well of emotion and applying it to her story-telling, whether she is writing from her own experiences or immersing herself into the melody of emotions in another person’s life.