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.
The National Forum of Music Wrocław Philharmonic is at the heart of the Polish music scene.
Founded in 1945 as both a symphony and an opera orchestra, it became the State Opera Orchestra in 1949 and held symphonic concerts sporadically until 1954, when it became an independent symphony orchestra. In 2016, the city of Wrocław (pronounced VRA-Slav) was hailed as the European Capital of Culture, and the orchestra’s performances accompanied the celebrations that season.
The NFM Wrocław Philharmonic regularly performs works commissioned by the National Forum of Music and has a growing international presence presenting classical and romantic masterworks, 20th and 21st century symphonic repertoire, and contemporary Polish composers. The orchestra has worked with all of Poland’s great 20th century composers including Witold Lutosławski, Paweł Mykietyn, Krzysztof Penderecki, Elżbieta Sikora, Stanisław Skrowaczewski, and Agata Zubel. Promoting Polish music is a special focus of the orchestra, which regularly performs in prominent venues in Poland and throughout Europe and the United States.
Program (Subject to Change)
Szymanowski: Concert Overture in E major, Op. 12 [14′]
Lutosławski: Concerto for Orchestra [28′]
Dvořák: Symphony No. 9 in E minor, Op. 95 ‘From the New World’ [40′]
Music motivates at the most primal level.
You instinctually hum a tune in order to get pumped up in the morning, for fuel on the treadmill, to soundtrack your commute, or as the pre-game to a big night out. As much as he treasures his roles as a guitarist, composer, and producer, Cory Wong fashions himself “a hype man,” first and foremost. Living up to this classification, he slings a Stratocaster and hurls “dad jokes” from the stage with the same panache, poise, and power.
Moreover, he consistently translates motivation into seismic six-string transmissions throughout his independent third full-length record, Motivational Music for the Syncopated Soul.
“For me, it’s all about the listener’s experience,” he explains. “I want them to have a visceral response like: ‘I feel better,’ ‘That was really fun,’ or ‘I got to escape for an hour.’ You’ll hear my voice through the guitar, but I’m just a hype man. To uplift audiences with instrumental music that has no singing or lyrics is a fun challenge. I’m trying to solve the riddle. If I can get one person to feel good this way, it’s a success. So, I’m giving you Motivational Music for the Syncopated Soul.”
“The guitar is not just an instrument in the hands of Jacob Johnson – it’s his soul-mate.” – No Depression
Seated Lounge Show:: Limited Tables Available with a Dinner Reservation :: All Other Seating is First Come First Serve General Admission :: Please Call Venue for Dinner Reservations
Live Music – never a cover charge!
“With his dreamy acoustic picking and a voice that runs molasses-thick, old-soul Nicholas Jamerson writes earnest songs that are filled with heart. His songs spin tales of southern gothic drama woven with an intricate emotional framework, underscored with delicate Americana instrumentation and country-folk melodies.
Fresh off of features in ROLLING STONE, BILLBOARD, PARADE, JAZZ GUITAR TODAY, Lady Antebellum guitarist Slim Gambill is making his Asheville debut with his instrumental jazz/rock/jam band project!
Main Stage Seated :: Limited Tables Available with a Dinner Reservation :: All Other Seating is First Come First Serve General Admission :: Please Call Venue for Dinner Reservations
Like its name implies, “The Evolution of Pop” is a visionary musical continuum saluting the icons of the past who paved the way for the Jumbotron-sized pop stars of today. As the musical landscape constantly shifts, “The Evolution of Pop” boasts years of performance experience at the world’s most renowned stadiums and pavillions, leaving international audiences awed and yearning for more. This assembly of superior performers provides hardcore fans a seamless bridge between James Brown’s signature funk; Earth, Wind, and Fire’s energetic soul, the sick choreography of the Black-Eyed Peas, and the “24 karate magic” of Bruno Mars. With a single cue, “The Evolution of Pop” brings together some of America’s most outstanding musicians to offer epic renditions of the most timeless and recognizable pop favorites. “Who’s Bad 20/20” binds music’s past, present, and future to deliver the most mind-blowing tribute to pop music’s infinite canon.
The Peace Center’s Songwriters Concert Series returns! Led by Greenville favorite Edwin McCain and accomplished songwriter Maia Sharp, each concert brings a new guest singer-songwriter to the Upstate for a one-of-a-kind listening room experience in Genevieve’s theater lounge.
Deep River, Asheville’s Premier Country Vocal Group, will pay homage to the Southern California band that started the country rock genre, the Eagles, by telling their story in words and songs, album-by-album, from their debut album in 1972 simply called ‘Eagles’ to their ‘Hell Freezes Over’ album of 1994. The three women who front Deep River will provide all the vocals, and the Band will add a keyboardist for a total of seven pieces in order to create that iconic Eagles sound, and take the audience on an unforgettable American musical journey.
Almost everyone in Hawaii has strummed a ukulele at one time or another. But at the age of 14, Jake Shimabukuro realized that he was doing something a little different with the four-stringed instrument – OK, a lot different.
Shimabukuro’s wholly unique approach to the ukulele started early. As a youngster growing up in Honolulu, Hawaii, Shimabukuro started playing the instrument at the age of four, learning the basics from his mother, Carol, and then developing his craft further by studying the likes of musical masters such as Eddie Kamae, Ohta-San and Peter Moon. As he matured, Shimabukuro also found inspiration from guitar players, drummers, pianists, and singers. Even athletes helped fuel the intensity of his artistic fire.
In 2005, Shimabukuro’s touring career really came to life with a video on YouTube. “I didn’t even know what YouTube was at the time, so I was totally surprised when people started telling me they’d seen a video of me playing ‘While My Guitar Gently Weeps,'” he says. “Before I got a chance to check it out myself, the video had gone viral and a lot of music industry folks seemed to know about it. It was crazy!” Shimabukuro’s deeply beautiful and original take on George Harrison’s love ballad, one which captured colors and moods never associated with the ukulele before, opened the floodgates – now legions of new music lovers had to hear this instrumental marvel – and the 2006 release of Gently Weeps (produced by Mac McAnally), which mixed his own originals with equally adventurous versions of “Ave Maria” and “The Star-Spangled Banner” was an unqualified success.
Like an old-time barn dance in downtown New Orleans, the Bumper Jacksons pull together a vast array of early American traditions into a deliciously high-spirit sound.
Main Stage Seated :: Limited Tables Available with a Dinner Reservation :: All Other Seating is First Come First Serve General Admission :: Please Call Venue for Dinner Reservations
The Perspective Collective presents the world premier of The Pride of Pripyat: tales from the Chernobyl disaster, an opera exploring the lives of everyday people living in the shadow of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster. With a score by Sunny Knable and libretto by Jim Knable, singers Erin Brittain, Rachael Basescu, and Grant Mech bring multiple characters to life in a series of scenes accompanied by pianist Patrick Fink. Presented as part of the Asheville Fringe Arts Festival as a double feature with Biophilia Asheville
A Robert Burns 261st Birthday Celebration Dinner will be held on Saturday, January 25, 2020, at the Country Club of Asheville. The event is sponsored by the Dunkeld and Birnam Committee of Asheville Sister Cities, Inc. (a 501c3 non-profit) which will benefit from the net proceeds of the dinner, optional whisky tasting, and charity raffle & auction.
A formal Robert Burns Dinner Ceremony beginning at 5:30 pm will include a three course meal with Haggis, a piper, poets, dancers and other entertainment. Scottish attire is recommended. Cocktails and other refreshments will be available from a credit card bar. An optional Scotch Whisky Blind Tasting of five single malts will be conducted with a $50 entry fee. Guests may also buy raffle tickets for an assortment of Scottish themed gifts and bid on auction items.
Tickets for the dinner ($100 per person) may be purchased on Eventbrite.com, downloading a registration form from ashevillesistercities.org/burns/, or by sending a check payable to the Asheville Sister Cities, Inc. to 994 Clovertop Lane, Arden, NC 28704. You will receive a follow up letter with additional information.
Edvard Tchivzhel, Conductor
Rimsky-Korsakov: Capriccio Espagnol
Stravinsky: The Firebird Suite
Borodin: Symphony No. 2 (“Heroic Symphony”)
Borodin: Polovtsian Dances from Prince Igor
It’s an array of dazzling colors with Rimsky-Korsakov’s Capriccio Espagnol, followed by the fiery and exotic fantasies of Stravinsky with his Firebird Suite, while Borodin pulls out all the stops with his mighty and wild “Heroic Symphony.”
The 30th Annual Candlemas Concert at St James Episcopal Church in Hendersonville features Elisabeth Von Trapp, from the family whose story inspired the Sound of Music. Von Trapp is known for her hauntingly clear voice and romantic lyrics. The event is followed by an hors d’oeuvres reception.
Jack of the Wood : Sunday-Irish Session
Sundays
1 till who knows when?
Traditional Irish music is kept alive at Jack of the Wood with our unplugged Sunday session.
Jack of the Wood
95 Patton ave
Asheville, NC 28801
(828) 252.5445
Edvard Tchivzhel, Conductor
Rimsky-Korsakov: Capriccio Espagnol
Stravinsky: The Firebird Suite
Borodin: Symphony No. 2 (“Heroic Symphony”)
Borodin: Polovtsian Dances from Prince Igor
It’s an array of dazzling colors with Rimsky-Korsakov’s Capriccio Espagnol, followed by the fiery and exotic fantasies of Stravinsky with his Firebird Suite, while Borodin pulls out all the stops with his mighty and wild “Heroic Symphony.”
UNC Asheville’s annual commemoration of Martin Luther King Jr:
Tuesday, Jan. 28 – Arthur Flowers – Memphis-born blues-based poet, novelist, essayist, and practitioner of literary hoodoo, Arthur Flowers is an associate professor of English at Syracuse University and is former director of the Harlem Writers Guild. His books include Another Good Loving Blues, Mojo Rising: Confessions of a 21st Century Conjureman, and Brer Rabbit Retold.
- Literary Blues and the Hoodoo Way – In the Footsteps of MLK – This performance and lecture by Arthur Flowers will also feature opening music by UNC Asheville’s Afro Music and Dance Ensemble – 7 p.m., Highsmith Student Union Blue Ridge Room.
The world is a vastly different place than it was just a few years ago, and Atmosphere’s seventh album, Mi Vida Local, reflects the ways in which the world, and Atmosphere’s place in it¬, has changed. The idyllic domesticity of their past few records has morphed into anxiety over keeping loved ones safe during turbulent times. Instead of bragging about backstage misadventures it’s about grappling with mortality. The easygoing collaboration between Ant and Slug has started to feel more like the life-or-death intimacy of two men trapped together on a lifeboat.
At times it’s a heavy album (“I might be the last generation of grandparents,” goes a key line from “Virgo”), but it’s far from grim. There are jokes being cracked, joints getting smoked, a little trash talking here and there- after all, it’s still a rap record.
And Atmosphere’s never sounded better.
As the name implies, Mi Vida Local is intensely focused on the place it was created- the southside of Minneapolis- where Slug and Ant work tirelessly in their “beautiful basements”, refining their sound without interruption, save for a handful of friends from the Minneapolis hip-hop community who showed up to contribute. A year of one-on-one collaboration resulting in an album that matches complex subject matter with equally deep beats- ones that show a clear lineage back to the psychedelic funk landmarks from an earlier era where America was going through a post-utopian hangover, and prove that there won’t ever be a time where boom-bap beats don’t sound perfectly of the moment.
Mi Vida Local might be the best album Atmosphere’s ever made. It’s definitely the one they needed to make right now, and one listeners need to hear just as urgently. If it’s sometimes an album about how the fight to find happiness never really ends- even after you get the house and the kids and the artistic freedom to make dad-rap records- it’s also about discovering that there’s happiness to be found just in fighting.
Twenty years after they began releasing records as the Indigo Girls, Amy Ray and Emily Saliers have politely declined the opportunity to slow down with age. With a legacy of releases and countless U.S. and international tours behind them, the Indigo Girls have forged their own way in the music business. Selling over 14 million records, they are still going strong.Amy & Emily are the only duo with top 40 titles on the Billboard 200 in the ’80s, ’90s, ’00s and ’10s.
“Along with Simon & Garfunkel and The Everly Brothers, Amy Ray and Emily Saliers rank at the very top of all-time great duos. The sublime music-making-machine-skewering “Making Promises” is one of their finest rockers.”–The Boston Herald
After signing to Epic Records in 1988, the Indigo Girls released their critically acclaimed eponymous album to thunderous praise; it remained on the Billboard Hot 100 Chart for 35 weeks, earned double platinum status, received a Grammy nomination for “Best New Artist” and won “Best Contemporary Folk Recording.” They were overnight folk icons who continued to live up to the high standards they’d set for themselves: they’ve since released 14 albums (3 platinum and 3 gold), received six Grammy nominations and have won one. Indigo Girls have toured with innumerable star acts including Neil Young, Emmylou Harris, Joan Baez, R.E.M., Sarah MacLachlan, Natalie Merchant, Jewel and Mary Chapin Carpenter.
The duo has balanced their long, successful musical career by supporting numerous social causes–the Indigo Girls don’t just talk the talk; they walk the walk. Having established an intensely dedicated fan base, the duo continues to remain relevant and attract new fans. With their latest release, Beauty Queen Sister, released on IG Recordings distributed by Vanguard Records,Emily Saliers and Amy Ray have secured their spot as one of the most legendary musical acts of this generation.
“Their 14th studio album finds the Indigo Girls operating as powerfully as at any time in theircareer, on a set of uncommonly strong songs performed with the kind of typically understated Nashville polish that affords their signature harmonies the full spotlight.”–The Independent (UK)
In 2015 Indigo Girls released their 14th studio album, One Lost Day, produced by Jordan Brooke Hamlin and mixed by Brian Joseph.
