In recordings as well as live performances, Asheville based band Tina & Her Pony (queer fronted indie Appalachian folk) always strives to provide the listener with a deep oceanic counterpoint balanced with an earthy, time-honored musical approach. It’s an apt metaphor for the dark and the light of life, for the transformation of life’s joys and sorrows into songs that Tina & Her Pony has strived to create since 2010. Playing songs and telling stories from their latest album “Marigolds” (March 2023) as well as even newer songs, this concert will feature Tina’s 4-piece band, which weaves a fascinating web of sound and intention that draws the audience in. Listening to Tina & Her Pony offers a window into an interior landscape that begs to be explored.

Spice up your evening at Half-Mile Farm with globally-influenced Creole cuisine from Sue Zemanick, of Zasu in New Orleans, accompanied by live jazz during cocktail hour featuring Paul Jones. Zasu’s culinary goal is to explore new ways to inspire traditional favorites by allowing fresh ingredients to speak for themselves. At Zasu, you will find a mix of local and non-native ingredients, creating a unique dining experience that is clean and light, yet rich in experience.

Sue was named Executive Chef at Gautreau’s Restaurant in 2005, which led to national recognition – including being named 2013 “Best Chef, South” by the James Beard Foundation and “Top Ten Best New Chef” by Food & Wine Magazine in 2008. She was also a featured guest at many food festivals, such as the South Beach and Charleston Food and Wine Festivals, Sun Valley Vintner’s Festival, and Chef’s Club St. Regis Aspen. She has made regular television appearances, as a judge on Top Chef New Orleans and as a contestant on seasons 3 and 5 of Top Chef Masters. But to this day, her all-time favorite distinction was serving as the 2015 Honorary Muse in New Orleans’ premier all-female Mardi Gras parade, Muses.

Avey Tare

You remember how it was, don’t you, back in the Spring of 2020? Knowing so little about what any of us should do, so many of us crawled inside our quarters to find new obsessions or indulge the familiar ones, unencumbered by anything else we could do. At home in the woods on the eastern edge of Asheville, N.C., Avey Tare took the latter path, sequestering himself in his small home studio to sort the songs he’d written and recorded with friends in the instantly distant before times — Animal Collective’s Time Skiffs, of course, their astonishing document of communal creativity a quarter-century into the enterprise. He often worked there for 12 hours a day, tweaking mixes alone, save the birds and bears and his girlfriend, Madelyn. By Fall, though, it was done, so what next? How else should Avey now occupy himself in his cozy little room? The answer became 7s, his fourth solo album (and first in four years), an enchanting romp through the playground of his head. He wasn’t, however, going to do it alone.

During the first week of January 2021, Avey began making regular drives to his friend Adam McDaniel’s Drop of Sun Studios to give guts and flesh and color to the skeletal demos he’d made at home. They turned first to “Hey Bog,” a tune Avey had been tinkering with since he wrote it to have new material for a rare live performance years earlier. The inquisitive electronic meditation — all tiny percussive pops and surrealist textures at first — slowly morphs into a gem about surrendering cynicism and accepting the world a bit more readily, the call buttressed by trunk-rattling bass and spectral guitar. It feels like a lifetime map for new possibilities, encapsulated in nine absorbing minutes. The plot for 7s, then, was set: trusting, intuitive, exploratory collaboration among friends, after a Winter without it. These songs are like overstuffed jelly jars, cracking so that the sweetness oozes out into unexpected shapes. Still, the sweetness — that is, Avey’s compulsory hooks — remains at the center, the joy inside these Rorschach blots.

If Animal Collective has forever been defined by its charming inscrutability, Avey surrenders to a new intimacy and candor with 7s. Take “The Musical,” a bouncing ball of rubbery synths and wah-wah guitars that contemplates what draws someone to sound and how turning that calling into a profession can alter the source. “I can hear the mountains singing,” he counters with an audible smile wiped across his face, painting a postcard of his home amid one of the United States’ folk hubs, “and I do believe they could do that forever.” Obligations aside, this is a self-renewing love, he realizes, the source as captivating as it was the first time. “Have you ever felt a thing and known that’s how you felt about it all along?” he ends this guileless love song for everything.

Geologist

As Animal Collective’s resident sound manipulator, Brian “Geologist” Weitz has played an integral role in one of the most innovative bands of the 21st century. Weitz’s earliest musical forays were with fellow Animal Collective members Dave “Avey Tare” Portner and Josh “Deakin” Dibb as Auto Mine, a high school indie rock project that predated the formative jam sessions with Noah “Panda Bear” Lennox a couple years later. The quartet formed Animal Collective in NYC in 2000, with Weitz joining Portner and Lennox for live shows and first contributing to the band’s recorded catalog on 2001’s Danse Manatee. He split time in the early 00’s between playing in Animal Collective and working in environmental policy, getting his degree in the latter while studying at the Biosphere 2 Center in Oracle, AZ. After completing an ocean policy fellowship with the US Senate in 2005, he turned his attention to Animal Collective full time.

You can hear his love of sound collage and horror film soundtracks in the band’s creaking-door ambience, and his appreciation for natural soundscapes in their use of field recordings. He’s performed internationally as a solo artist, and released the Live in the Land of the Sky cassette, and the New Psycho Actives Vol.1 split release with Portner. He has scored Coral Morphologic’s short film Man O War, as well as sound installations at Desert Daze in 2017 and Iceland’s List i Ljosi festival in 2018 with visual artist and director Danny Perez. In 2018 he collaborated with artist Kyle Simon on The Sirens, a live performance/art installation at Joshua Tree’s Integratron, in which the duo converted moonlight into sound through Geologist’s modular synthesizer. Weitz’s collaboration with Coral Morphologic, as well as his own background in ocean conservation and environmental policy, played a role in Animal Collective’s latest album, 2018’s Tangerine Reef, an audiovisual collaboration with Coral Morphologic that drew attention to coral reef preservation. He also drew inspiration from his environmental studies while creating the original score to Marnie Ellen Hertzler’s film Crestone, using his time at the Biosphere and the sensory memories of the Sonoran Desert to guide the sounds.

Deakin

Josh “Deakin” Dibb has explored a variety of sounds in his work as part of Animal Collective and in his own solo material—shaping the band’s directional shifts he’s been a part of and consistently contributing a unique flavor to their boundary-breaking career. Growing up in Baltimore with future bandmate Noah “Panda Bear” Lennox, the pair began writing and recording songs together in middle school. In high school, Dibb met Dave “Avey Tare” Portner and Brian “Geologist” Weitz, later joining the pair’s band Automine. By the end of high school, Dibb had connected Lennox to Portner and Weitz and the foursome began to collaborate. By 2000, Dibb was running the band’s record label, Animal, which released their first album Spirit They’re Gone, Spirit They’ve Vanished. He first appeared musically on the band’s 2003 releasesCampfire Songs and Ark; his guitar-centric approach played a pivotal role in the freaked-out rock of 2005’s Feels and the experimental pop of Strawberry Jam in 2007. While sitting out the Merriweather Post Pavilion (2009) album and touring cycle following the sudden death of his father, Dibb stayed involved in studio projects (Water Curses, 2008) and the development, filming, music, and sound design of the band’s first visual album ODDSAC (2010). In 2010, Dibb began playing his first solo shows, worked with Portner to engineer and produce three albums (Avey Tare’s Down There, Tickley Feather’s 123, Prince Rama’s Shadow Temple), and was involved in the band’s collaborative performance with Danny Perez at the Guggenheim, which lead to the 2012 release of Transverse Temporal Gyrus. After a temporary stent away from the band, Dibb returned to begin writing and touring for Centipede Hz (2012) before stepping back again to focus on his solo album Sleep Cycle (2016), a meditative collection of experimental pop songs and his first solo effort since contributing to the band’s Keep cassette mixtape in 2011. Along with mixing and production work on solo albums from Lennox (Young Prayer) and Portner (Down There, Eucalyptus, Conference of Birds EP), and contributing a variety of remixes to artists ranging from M83 and Phoenix to Tinariwen, Steve Spacek, and Goldfrapp, Dibb’s recent projects as part of Animal Collective include 2018’s Tangerine Reef, an audiovisual collaboration with Coral Morphologic that drew attention to coral reef preservation, a 2018 performance at the Music Box Village in New Orleans which inspired the music the band is currently making, and last year’s Bridge to Quiet EP, a selection of improvisations from 2019 and 2020 that the band remixed, collaged and built into songs. Most recently, Dibb and

Weitz scored Marnie Ellen Hertzler’s debut film and documentary Crestone (2021).

All ages

Modelface Comedy brings you the best comedians from all over the country and all your local favorites!

This Saturday we have Gluten-Free Comedy at Ginger’s Revenge

Featuring Dan Carney, Eli Olsberg and more!!!

ages 18+

doors at 6:30, show at 7pm

Tickets $15 advance, $18 day of

With rich harmonies, powerful vocals and an electrifying stage presence, this contemporary gospel group creates an unforgettable and uplifting musical experience that’s gained them viral success, amassing millions of fans and followers from all corners of the globe. Whether performing traditional standards, hits from musical theatre or their own original music, these prolific singers deliver jubilation as they transcend genre and speak to the heart of every listener.

The performance by Trey McLaughlin & the Sounds of Zamar is funded in part by a grant from South Arts in partnership with the National Endowment for the Arts and the North Carolina Arts Council.

Experience the electrifying ‘Unstoppable Voices: A Cabaret of Empowerment.’

Join a dazzling and extraordinary cast they take center stage, celebrating resilience and triumph through the power of music and storytelling. From Broadway classics to contemporary hits, this captivating performance is a tribute to the unstoppable determination and ambition found within musical theatre. Be inspired and uplifted in an unforgettable evening that honors the remarkable talents who’ve shaped our world. ‘Unstoppable Voices’ is not just a show; it’s an empowering experience that will leave you cheering for the indomitable spirit of these voices.

Two years ago Different Strokes! partnered with American Myth Center to create “A Different Myth“, which seeks to amplify stories that center Black voices and characters. After reading through 48 submissions from emerging Black Playwrights, we selected three playwrights as members of our 2022 cohort and have spent the last two years working with them to develop new plays. Two of those plays (Dear God by Lisa Langford, and Juked by Mildred Inez Lewis) will see a full production later this season, but before that happens, we have one more phase. As part of the development process, each playwright has had the opportunity to hear actors read their words and get their feedback but now they are ready to hear from an actual audience about how the work impacts them.  These live, fully cast, staged readings (script in hand) of the plays, allow the audience to engage with the material and provide feedback afterward. Your thoughts and observations as theater enthusiasts will be crucial in shaping the future development of these exciting new plays.

Lee Mills, conductor
Simone Porter, violinist

Program:
Mary D. Watkins: Soul of Rememberance
Philip Glass: Violin Concerto No. 1
Robert Schumann: Symphony No. 2

To learn more about the conductor and guest artist, please visit www.greenvillesymphony.org.

Lee Mills, Conductor
Simone Porter, Violinist
Mary D. Watkins: Soul of Remembrance
Philip Glass: Violin Concerto No. 1
Robert Schumann: Symphony No. 2

Philip Glass and Robert Schumann are composers separated by two centuries.  One, an American from Baltimore whose music defies genre: it’s two parts driving rhythm and one part rich string texture.  You could even say it’s got a hint of rock n’ roll.  Add a true rockstar of the violin, the one and only Simone Porter, and the fear of missing out factor is on another level.

Robert Schumann, best friend of Johannes Brahms and husband of the legendary Clara Schumann was a musical celebrity in 19th century Germany who struggled with mental illness. He found relief and sanctuary in music and the result is some of the most complex and fascinating compositions of the German Romantic period. Despite the composer’s depression, this symphony cuts through the darkness and leaves us feeling hopeful and uplifted.  This energetic and elegant second symphony turns the traditional structure on its head by opening with a quiet first movement. Don’t take it from us—come hear this revolutionary and redemptive work for yourself.

CLICK TO LEARN MORE ABOUT THE CONDUCTOR & GUEST ARTIST

Join Tori the Tortoise, in this Appalachian retelling of Aesop’s “Tortoise & the Hare” as she stands up for her beloved town, Fable Farms, and races a big city hare with even bigger plans. In this musical for all ages, Tori and her friends, Ruben the Rooster and Bea the Bee, must learn to embrace what makes them unique and the importance of community.