Mini-grant applications are available three times during the 2023-2024 school year. You may apply one time during this cycle. Mini-grants must be used within a year after receiving the funding. 

Applications due by:

• November 30, 2023
• January 30, 2024
• March 30, 2024

If you have questions about your eligibility to apply for funding, please email us at [email protected] before submitting your application. We are unable to provide mini-grants to schools located outside of our 23-county service area or to folks who have received a grant from us within the past year. Learn more and apply here!

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!

Wanna hear the best local music ​and​ drink the best local beers? Hop aboard LaZoom’s Purple Bus and rock out with a local band while we take you on a journey to Asheville’s premiere local breweries.

Kick off December with us and some jams from Sunlight Drive!

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.

Theory of a Deadman Skillet Feat. Saint Asonia

Get ready to embrace the spirit of Christmas with Elf: The Musical, a heartwarming and hilarious adaptation of the beloved 2003 holiday film. This enchanting musical follows the journey of Buddy, a human raised by elves at the North Pole who embarks on a journey to New York City to find his real father. Through catchy, uplifting songs and zany comedic antics, Elf: The Musical serves a healthy dose of holiday cheer, laughter, and life lessons about identity, family, and the true meaning of Christmas. It’s a magical, festive spectacle guaranteed to light up the holiday season for all ages!

A talkback with the cast & crew of Elf: The Musical will be held following the performances on December 3rd and 10th.

It is Christmas Eve and Clara and her brother, Fritz, are excited for the evening’s festivities to begin.  Family and friends arrive in Greenville by train and admire the sights and sounds of beautiful Main Street.  Clara’s magician Godfather, Herr Drosselmeyer, arrives and brings gifts for everyone.  For Clara, he has a very special nutcracker.  The celebration continues as all enjoy an evening of laughter and dancing.  As one of the maids joins in on the dancing, she bonks Herr Drosselmeyer on the head in her excitement and he is knocked unconscious.

A magical star enters to guide Herr Drosselmeyer on a beautiful journey of Clara’s future.  After all the guests have left, a lonely maid tidies up the room.  She screams in fright as mice invade from every direction.  The nutcracker doll, now life-sized, comes to save the day with an army of soldiers.  A fierce battle between the mice and soldiers ensues.  The Mouse King has The Nutcracker cornered, but Clara strikes the rodent and saves her Nutcracker who is transformed into a handsome prince. Herr Drosselmeyer’s journey continues with visions of beautiful angels and the well known Mice on Main in downtown Greenville.  The city’s rich culture appears through Spanish, Arabian, Chinese, and Candy dancers as well.

Herr Dosselmeyer’s glimpse into Clara’s future happens upon her Debutante Ball complete with elegant waltzing dancers. The loving Godfather has watched his precious Clara’s coming of age and finds himself on her wedding day.  The grown-up Clara is a beautiful bride and marries her dashing Nutcracker Cavalier.  The magical wedding is one only dreams are made of.  Or is it just a dream?

Music by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky(1840-1893)

The libretto is adapted from E.T.A Hoffmann’s story The Nutcracker and the Mouse King. Choreography by Hernan Justo is based on the original Marius Petipa and Lev Ivanov. Additional choreography by Anita Pacylowski Justo

DJ Nato and DJ TacoShel will be spinning/mixing *LIVE* on Friday 12/1 at the Getaway River Bar in N. Asheville. It’s 80’s night! No cover! DJ TacoShel will be mixing Alternative 80’s and DJ Nato will be spinning vinyl.

Plenty of indoor and outdoor space! Easy parking! Great music!

DJ Nato spinning vinyl 10-11 & 12-1am
DJ TacoShel mixing alternative 80’s 11-12 & 1-2am

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!

It is Christmas Eve and Clara and her brother, Fritz, are excited for the evening’s festivities to begin.  Family and friends arrive in Greenville by train and admire the sights and sounds of beautiful Main Street.  Clara’s magician Godfather, Herr Drosselmeyer, arrives and brings gifts for everyone.  For Clara, he has a very special nutcracker.  The celebration continues as all enjoy an evening of laughter and dancing.  As one of the maids joins in on the dancing, she bonks Herr Drosselmeyer on the head in her excitement and he is knocked unconscious.

A magical star enters to guide Herr Drosselmeyer on a beautiful journey of Clara’s future.  After all the guests have left, a lonely maid tidies up the room.  She screams in fright as mice invade from every direction.  The nutcracker doll, now life-sized, comes to save the day with an army of soldiers.  A fierce battle between the mice and soldiers ensues.  The Mouse King has The Nutcracker cornered, but Clara strikes the rodent and saves her Nutcracker who is transformed into a handsome prince. Herr Drosselmeyer’s journey continues with visions of beautiful angels and the well known Mice on Main in downtown Greenville.  The city’s rich culture appears through Spanish, Arabian, Chinese, and Candy dancers as well.

Herr Dosselmeyer’s glimpse into Clara’s future happens upon her Debutante Ball complete with elegant waltzing dancers. The loving Godfather has watched his precious Clara’s coming of age and finds himself on her wedding day.  The grown-up Clara is a beautiful bride and marries her dashing Nutcracker Cavalier.  The magical wedding is one only dreams are made of.  Or is it just a dream?

Music by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky(1840-1893)

The libretto is adapted from E.T.A Hoffmann’s story The Nutcracker and the Mouse King. Choreography by Hernan Justo is based on the original Marius Petipa and Lev Ivanov. Additional choreography by Anita Pacylowski Justo

Get ready to embrace the spirit of Christmas with Elf: The Musical, a heartwarming and hilarious adaptation of the beloved 2003 holiday film. This enchanting musical follows the journey of Buddy, a human raised by elves at the North Pole who embarks on a journey to New York City to find his real father. Through catchy, uplifting songs and zany comedic antics, Elf: The Musical serves a healthy dose of holiday cheer, laughter, and life lessons about identity, family, and the true meaning of Christmas. It’s a magical, festive spectacle guaranteed to light up the holiday season for all ages!

A talkback with the cast & crew of Elf: The Musical will be held following the performances on December 3rd and 10th.

INDIE Award-winning guitarist and longtime Asheville favorite Robin Bullock celebrates the season with carols and dances spanning over 600 years, drawing from his popular holiday recordings A Guitar for Christmas and Christmas Eve is Here. Internationally recognized as a master Celtic instrumentalist, Robin’s virtuosity on guitar, cittern and mandolin creates an unforgettable Christmas event.
St. Mary’s Episcopal Church
337 Charlotte Street, Asheville 28801
Limited seating! Thank you for reserving in advance.

Pan Harmonia offers donation-based, pay-as-you-can community concerts. All are welcome.

Wanna hear the best local music ​and​ drink the best local beers? Hop aboard LaZoom’s Purple Bus and rock out with a local band while we take you on a journey to Asheville’s premiere local breweries.

This is going to be an ecstatic and rockin’ evening of mantra, kirtan and inspiring sacred song as Seán Johnson and The Wild Lotus Band + David Newman, along with Mira, Gershone Hendelberg and band take the stage for their first double-bill collaboration in Asheville!

Seán Johnson and the Wild Lotus Band give new voice to ancient mantras through dynamic songs that merge conscious lyrics and New Orleans roots, rock, gospel, and world grooves. The band’s acclaimed latest album ‘Mystery,’ was named one of the best albums of the year in Louisiana music by Offbeat Magazine. Their previous album Unity, dedicated to celebrating the threads between the world’s spiritual traditions, debuted #1 on the iTunes World Music Chart and #3 on Billboard. They are a featured artist on Putumayo World Music, and are the first mantra-based band to ever play the New Orleans Jazz Festival. The band includes Seán (vocals and harmonium); Alvin Young (6 string fretless bass & guitar); Gwendolyn Colman (percussion & vocals); Narada Wise (drums) and multi-instrumentalist Chris Rosser.

David Newman is a sacred mantra artist, singer-songwriter, and author and inspirational teacher. David has released numerous acclaimed world music albums, including the #1 iTunes World Music bestseller Love is Awake on which he collaborated with members of Paul Simon’s band. In addition to his mastery of the ancient yogic mantra practice known as kirtan, David’s adventurous musicality, and poetic intimacy as a vocalist and songwriter, bring a unique and exhilarating musical experience to his devoted fan base around the world. “At David Newman’s concert, the event’s volume knob seemed to go from low-level joy to full-on bliss, the kind you feel after climbing a gorgeous mountain or ending a tough run on a strong sprint.” -The Washington Post

All ages are welcome. Doors Open at 6PM. Tickets are: $35 advance online. $40 at the door.

It is Christmas Eve and Clara and her brother, Fritz, are excited for the evening’s festivities to begin.  Family and friends arrive in Greenville by train and admire the sights and sounds of beautiful Main Street.  Clara’s magician Godfather, Herr Drosselmeyer, arrives and brings gifts for everyone.  For Clara, he has a very special nutcracker.  The celebration continues as all enjoy an evening of laughter and dancing.  As one of the maids joins in on the dancing, she bonks Herr Drosselmeyer on the head in her excitement and he is knocked unconscious.

A magical star enters to guide Herr Drosselmeyer on a beautiful journey of Clara’s future.  After all the guests have left, a lonely maid tidies up the room.  She screams in fright as mice invade from every direction.  The nutcracker doll, now life-sized, comes to save the day with an army of soldiers.  A fierce battle between the mice and soldiers ensues.  The Mouse King has The Nutcracker cornered, but Clara strikes the rodent and saves her Nutcracker who is transformed into a handsome prince. Herr Drosselmeyer’s journey continues with visions of beautiful angels and the well known Mice on Main in downtown Greenville.  The city’s rich culture appears through Spanish, Arabian, Chinese, and Candy dancers as well.

Herr Dosselmeyer’s glimpse into Clara’s future happens upon her Debutante Ball complete with elegant waltzing dancers. The loving Godfather has watched his precious Clara’s coming of age and finds himself on her wedding day.  The grown-up Clara is a beautiful bride and marries her dashing Nutcracker Cavalier.  The magical wedding is one only dreams are made of.  Or is it just a dream?

Music by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky(1840-1893)

The libretto is adapted from E.T.A Hoffmann’s story The Nutcracker and the Mouse King. Choreography by Hernan Justo is based on the original Marius Petipa and Lev Ivanov. Additional choreography by Anita Pacylowski Justo

JOHNNY CASH – THE OFFICIAL CONCERT EXPERIENCE brings songs and stories from the “Man in Black” to the stage in a way that audiences haven’t seen or heard before. With video of Johnny from episodes of The Johnny Cash TV Show projected on a screen above the stage, a live band and singers will accompany him in perfect sync. This concert experience will showcase iconic performances from the TV show and highlight the spirit of the legend by revisiting some of his memorable words and anecdotes. Cash will perform some of his biggest hits, including “Folsom Prison Blues,” “Ring of Fire,” and “I Walk the Line,” and share stories of people he met along the way whose causes he championed – the working man from all walks of life. Plus, onstage male and female singers will split vocal duties performing their own takes on Cash hits. The music never stops in this concert event!

Two 55-minute sets with a 20-minute intermission.

The Psycodelics

On his new album In Plain Sight, Neal Francis offers up a body of work both strangely enchanted and painfully self-aware, unfolding in songs sparked from Greek myths and frenzied dreams and late-night drives in the depths of summer delirium. True to its charmed complexity, the singer/songwriter/pianist’s second full-length came to life over the course of a tumultuous year spent living in a possibly haunted church in Chicago. The result: a portrait of profound upheaval and weary resilience, presented in a kaleidoscopic sound that’s endlessly absorbing.

The follow-up to Francis’s 2019 debut Changes—a New Orleans-R&B-leaning effort that landed on best-of-the-year lists from the likes of KCRW, KEXP, and The Current, and saw him hailed as “the reincarnation of Allen Toussaint” by BBC Radio 6—In Plain Sight was written and recorded almost entirely at the church, a now-defunct congregation called St. Peter’s UCC. Despite not identifying as religious, Francis took a music-ministry job at the church in 2017 at the suggestion of a friend. After breaking up with his longtime girlfriend while on tour in fall 2019, he returned to his hometown and found himself with no place to stay, then headed to St. Peter’s and asked to move into the parsonage. “I thought I’d only stay a few months but it turned into over a year, and I knew I had to do something to take advantage of this miraculous gift of a situation,” he says.

Mixed by Grammy Award-winner Dave Fridmann (HAIM, Spoon, The Flaming Lips, Tame Impala), In Plain Sight finds Francis again joining forces with Changes producer and analog obsessive Sergio Rios (a guitarist/engineer known for his work with CeeLo Green and Alicia Keys). Like its predecessor, the album spotlights Francis’s refined yet free-spirited performance on piano, an instrument he took up at the age of four. “From a very early age, I was playing late into the night in a very stream-of-consciousness kind of way,” he says, naming everything from ragtime to gospel soul to The Who among his formative influences. With a prodigy-like gift for piano, Francis sat in with a dozen different blues acts in Chicago clubs as a teenager, and helmed a widely beloved instrumental funk band called The Heard before going solo. Along with earning lavish acclaim (including a glowing review from Bob Lefsetz, who declared: “THIS IS THE FUTURE OF THE MUSIC BUSINESS!”), Changes led to such triumphs as performing live on KCRW’s “Morning Becomes Eclectic,” sharing the stage with members of The Meters at the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival, and touring with such acts as Lee Fields & The Expressions and Black Pumas.

Recorded entirely on tape with his bandmates Kellen Boersma (guitar), Mike Starr (bass), and Collin O’Brien (drums), In Plain Sight bears a lush and dreamlike quality, thanks in large part to Francis’s restless experimentation with a stash of analog synths lent by his friends in his early days at the church. “My sleep schedule flipped and I’d stay up all night working on songs in this very feverish way,” he says. “I just needed so badly to get completely lost in something.” In a move partly inspired by Led Zeppelin’s Houses of the Holy, In Plain Sight takes its title from a track Francis ended up scrapping from the album. “It’s a song about my breakup and the circumstances that led to me living in the church, where I’m owning up to all my problems within my relationships and my sobriety,” says Francis, whose first full-length chronicles his struggles with addiction. “It felt like the right title for this record, since so much of it is about coming to the understanding that I continue to suffer because of those problems. It’s about acknowledging that and putting it out in the open in order to mitigate the suffering and try to work on it, instead of trying to hide everything.”

The opulent opening track to In Plain Sight, “Alameda Apartments” makes for a majestic introduction to the album’s unveiling of Francis’s inner demons. “I started writing that song maybe six years ago, before I got sober,” he says. “I was going through another breakup and getting kicked out of my place, and I had a nightmare about moving into an art-deco apartment that was haunted, where the walls were all shifting around.” A prime showcase for Francis’s piano work, “Alameda Apartments” simulates that dream state in its untethered melodies, luminous grooves, and lyrics that drift from despair to detached curiosity (e.g., “It remains to be seen if the ghosts are all right”). “The craziest thing is that I’d never encountered the name ‘Alameda’ in any time in my life prior to that dream,” says Francis. “It’s bizarre that I even remembered it, especially since you don’t dream very often when you’re getting fucked up.”

On “Problems,” In Plain Sight eases into a brighter and breezier mood, with Francis mining inspiration from early-’70s Sly & the Family Stone and the glistening soft rock of Mirage-era Fleetwood Mac. But in a stark contrast to the track’s radiant synth and rapturous harmonies, “Problems” centers on Francis’s exacting introspection. “It’s about being half-in and half-out of a relationship, and how untenable that is,” he says. “I wrote it at a time when I really couldn’t maintain a relationship, because I had too many issues with myself that needed to be addressed.”

Graced with a smoldering slide-guitar solo from the legendary Derek Trucks, “Can’t Stop the Rain” arrives as the first unabashedly hopeful moment on In Plain Sight. “I wrote that with my buddy David Shaw, who came up with the refrain and this idea that even though life’s going to throw all this shit at you, there’s still so many things to be grateful for,” says Francis. Propelled by the track’s cascading piano lines and wildly soaring vocals, that refrain takes on an unlikely anthemic power as Francis shares a bit of gently expressed encouragement: “You can’t stop the rain/It’s always coming down/It’s always gonna fall/But you’re not gonna drown.”

On the guitar-heavy and glorious “Prometheus,” Francis nods to the Greek myth of the Titan god who stole fire from Mount Olympus and gave it to the humans. As punishment, Prometheus spent eternity chained to a rock as an eagle visited each day to peck out his liver—which then grew back overnight, only to be eaten again the following day in a never ending cycle of torment. “That song came from the lowest ebb of quarantine, when Chicago was literally on fire,” Francis says. “It came to me while I was driving around all these abandoned streets in the middle of the night, and turned into a song about facing my problems with addiction and feeling like I’m chained to this set of compulsions.” Threaded with plain spoken confession (“It’s not in my nature to try to do better”), the track features a sprawling synth arrangement informed by the many hours Francis spent playing the St. Peter’s pipe organ. “I call that section of the song ‘The Pope,’” he says. “It’s this grand, powerful entry that’s sort of sinister, and then it just drops away.”

By the end of his surreal and sometimes eerie experience of living at the church—“I’m convinced that the stairway leading to the choir loft where I used to practice is haunted,” he notes—Francis had found his musicality undeniably elevated. “Because I was forced into this almost monastic existence and was alone so much of the time, I could play as often and as long as I wanted,” he says. “I ended up becoming such a better pianist, a better writer, a better reader of music.” Dedicated to a woman named Lil (the de facto leader of the St. Peter’s congregation), In Plain Sight ultimately reveals the possibility of redemption and transformation even as your world falls apart.

“When I started the process of writing these songs, I was so emotionally out-of-sorts and really kind of hopeless that I’d be able to come up with anything,” says Francis. “But then I sat down and started working, and embraced whatever inspiration came my way. Sometimes it felt like beating my head against a wall, but I tried to trust that it would lead somewhere. The whole thing was like a weird dream—this very strange time of terrible, wonderful isolation.”

In Plain Sight has received critical praise from KCRW (“an unapologetically joyful, electric feel”), Rolling Stone (“Neal Francis is making piano rock cool again”), SPIN (“one of the year’s best releases”), and more. Both radio singles from the album—“Can’t Stop The Rain” and “Problems”—charted on AAA and Americana radio, with “Can’t Stop The Rain” going as high as #3 on the Americana charts. Francis has toured relentlessly to support the album, playing to thousands with sold out headline dates at legendary venues in Chicago, San Francisco, Nashville, Denver, London, and many more.

In November 2022 Francis released the EP Sentimental Garbage (ATO Records) which includes a number of standout tracks recorded during the original album sessions at St. Peter’s. “Sentimental Garbage was the working title of our last LP,” Francis says, “which includes the track of the same name. We ended up calling that record In Plain Sight while removing the title track from the sequence. I knew this was my last chance to slap ‘Sentimental Garbage’ on a record jacket, the thought of which always brought me great joy. It also works because this record is compiled of bittersweet scraps.”