Pat Benatar, Melissa Etheridge among An Appalachian Summer Festival events

From Appalachian State University:

Tickets on sale now for all An Appalachian Summer Festival events: Pat Benatar & Neil Giraldo and Melissa Etheridge, Trombone Shorty & Orleans Avenue, Jerry Douglas Band, “Broadway and Beyond” with Kelli O’Hara and much more!

BOONE, NORTH CAROLINA—For over three decades, Appalachian State University’s annual summer arts celebration, An Appalachian Summer Festival, has offered unique and enriching arts experiences to audiences across the Southeast, combining world-class performing and visual arts programming, and a spectacular mountain location in the heart of the Blue Ridge Mountains. The festival’s 32nd season, to be presented in June 28–Aug. 6, 2016, will feature the best in music, dance, theatre, film and visual arts. The festival has been named one of the “Top 20 Events in the Southeast” by the Southeastern Tourism Society for its commitment to showcasing a vast array of exceptional artistic talent and entertainment.

Tickets:
With ticket prices ranging from $5-$50, as well as several free events, the festival offers unique opportunities for residents and visitors to create arts experiences suited to their individual artistic tastes and budgets. To purchase tickets, call or visit the Schaefer Center box office at 800-841-2787 or 828-262-4046. Tickets can also be purchased online at appsummer.org.

2016 Festival Season
For videos, images and detailed information about each event, visit appsummer.org.

Schaefer Popular Series:

Broadway and Beyond with Tony Award Winner Kelli O’Hara
Saturday, July 9
8 p.m., Schaefer Center for the Performing Arts
Tony Award-winning Broadway star Kelli O’Hara has dazzled audiences and critics alike in the most recent revivals of “The King and I,” “South Pacific,” and “The Pajama Game.” Performing with a trio, Ms. O’Hara takes the stage for an evening of Broadway showstoppers and familiar favorites from the Great American Songbook.

Pat Benatar & Neil Giraldo and Melissa Etheridge
Saturday, July 15
8 p.m., Holmes Convocation Center
This co-headlining show will feature Grammy and Oscar-award winner Melissa Etheridge, with four-time Grammy-winning Benatar, performing with long-time bandmate and husband Neil Giraldo. Performing their classics hits, fans can expect Etheridge’s “Ain’t It Heavy” and “I’m the Only One,” as well as Benatar’s chart topping “Hit Me With Your Best Shot” and “Love Is a Battlefield.”

Pink Martini
Monday, July 25
8 p.m., Schaefer Center for the Performing Arts
Performing a stylish and sophisticated blend of jazz, classical, and old-fashioned pop on concert stages around the world, Pink Martini captures audiences by bringing together unique melodies and rhythms to create an eclectic and modern sound.

Trombone Shorty & Orleans Avenue
Saturday, July 30
8 p.m., Schaefer Center for the Performing Arts
New Orleans native Trombone Shorty is the bandleader and frontman for this hard-edged funk band that employs hip-hop beats, rock dynamics and improvisation in a jazz tradition.

Jerry Douglas Band with special guest Mipso
Saturday, Aug. 6
8 p.m., Schaefer Center for the Performing Arts
Dobro master and 13-time Grammy Award-winner Jerry Douglas is a forward-thinking recording artist whose artistry incorporates elements of bluegrass, country, rock, jazz, blues and Celtic into his distinctive musical vision. Douglas and his band will be joined by Chapel Hill-based Mipso, known for infusing a traditional string band format with three-part harmony and modern influences.

Classical Music Programming:

Broyhill Chamber Ensemble
July 6, 20, and 31
8 p.m., Rosen Concert Hall
Every summer, violinist Gil Morgenstern, Artistic Director of the Broyhill Chamber Ensemble and its international “Reflections Series,” assembles several of the nation’s most exciting and acclaimed chamber musicians for an exquisite concert series embracing a diverse repertoire of chamber music works.

Eastern Festival Orchestra with Gerard Schwarz, Music Director
Sunday, July 10
4 p.m., Schaefer Center for the Performing Arts
Under the direction of Maestro Gerard Schwarz, the Eastern Festival Orchestra returns to the festival for an afternoon of memorable symphonic music featuring soloists Julian Schwarz, cello, and Marco Núñez, first-prize winner of the 2015 Rosen-Schaffel Competition for Young and Emerging Artists.

Rosen-Schaffel Competition for Young and Emerging Artists
Sunday, July 17
1 p.m., Schaefer Center for the Performing Arts
In partnership with the Hayes School of Music, the festival proudly presents the sixth season of the highly acclaimed Rosen-Schaffel Competition for Young & Emerging Artists, featuring our state’s most promising young classical musicians. In the final live round of the competition, a panel of symphony conductors will select a First Place, Second Place and Third Place Winner and the competition audience will select an “Audience Choice Award Winner.”

Theatre Programming:

Reduced Shakespeare Company: “William Shakespeare’s Long Lost First Play”
Thursday, July 7 and Friday, July 8
8 p.m., Valborg Theatre
This production of “William Shakespeare’s Long-Lost First Play” by the acclaimed Reduced Shakespeare Company is a comic misadventure that will feel strangely familiar yet excitingly new. Every famous character and Shakespearean plot device come together in a single story so comically outrageous it’s no wonder the Bard of Avon hid it away.

In/Visible Theatre: “Mauzy”
Friday, July 28 and Saturday, July 29
8 p.m., Valborg Theatre
In/Visible Theatre returns to the festival with its production of “Mauzy,” a play about tale-telling, about songs, about how storytellers can mix so deep into the stories themselves that they never find their way out—out of the story, or out of the mountains, or back to the world of the living.

Dance Programming:

RIOULT Dance NY: “Bach Dances” with live music by the Broyhill Chamber Ensemble
Saturday, July 23
8 p.m., Schaefer Center for the Performing Arts
“Bach Dances” is a series of powerful dances set to Bach masterpieces, characterized by a unity of music, movement, and art. The festival is proud to present an evening of music and dance that blends the artistry of a company at the forefront of contemporary dance today with the prodigiously talented musicians of its resident chamber ensemble.

The Helene & Stephen Weicholz Global Film Series:

Labyrinth of Lies (2014)
Tuesday, June 28
7 p.m., Schaefer Center for the Performing Arts

Difret (2014)
Tuesday, July 5
7 p.m., Schaefer Center for the Performing Arts

The Dinner (2014)
Tuesday, July 12
7 p.m., Schaefer Center for the Performing Arts

Baba Joon (2015)
Tuesday, July 19
7 p.m., Schaefer Center for the Performing Arts

Three Hearts (2014)
Tuesday, July 26
7 p.m., Schaefer Center for the Performing Arts

Tangerines (2013)
Tuesday, Aug. 2
7 p.m., Schaefer Center for the Performing Arts

Young People’s Global Film Series:

Oddball and the Penguins (2015)
Thursday, July 7
1 p.m., Schaefer Center for the Performing Arts

On the Way to School (2013)
Thursday, July 14
1 p.m., Schaefer Center for the Performing Arts

Belle and Sébastian (2013)
Thursday, July 28
1 p.m., Schaefer Center for the Performing Arts

Marie’s Story (2014)
Thursday, Aug. 4
1 p.m., Schaefer Center for the Performing Arts

Visual Arts Programming:

Summer Exhibition Celebration at the Turchin Center
Friday, July 1
6 p.m., Turchin Center for the Visual Arts
Celebrate summer at the Turchin Center and “engage, discover and connect through the arts!” The Summer Exhibition Celebration is an opportunity for art lovers to meet the artists, enjoy refreshments, and spend time with fellow arts patrons, while viewing the featured exhibitions in one of the most exciting venues in town: a collection of six galleries filled with a diverse mix of contemporary art from local, regional, and international artists.

30th Rosen Sculpture Walk
Saturday, July 23
10 a.m., Smith Gallery, Schaefer Center for the Performing Arts
A highlight of every summer festival season, the annual Sculpture Walk offers participants a fascinating journey into the world of contemporary sculpture, through the eyes of the juror. This walking tour, which is free and open to the public, includes stops at each of the ten selected sculptures, providing an opportunity to learn more about each sculpture and to be present for the announcement of the competition’s top awards.

Lunch and Learn Lectures
Wednesdays, July 6, 13, 20, 27 and Aug. 3
Noon, Turchin Center Lecture Hall

Workshops for Kids and Young Adults
Throughout the month of July
Schedule can be found tcva.org/workshops

Special Post-Festival Concert (sponsored by Blue Ridge Electric Membership Corporation):

An Evening with The Avett Brothers
Thursday, Sept. 8
8 p.m., Holmes Convocation Center
With roots in traditional folk and bluegrass, The Avett Brothers’ sound combines a refreshing blend of country, punk, rock and roll, and pop that the “San Francisco Chronicle” describes as having the “heavy sadness of Townes Van Zandt, the light pop concision of Buddy Holly, the tuneful jangle of the Beatles, the raw energy of the Ramones.”

About An Appalachian Summer Festival:
Presented by Appalachian State University’s Office of Arts & Cultural Programs, this annual celebration of the performing and visual arts is held every July in venues across the university campus, and features an eclectic, diverse mix of music, dance, theatre, visual arts and film programming. An Appalachian Summer Festival began in 1984 as a chamber music series, and retains strong roots in classical music, combined with a variety of other programming geared to almost every artistic taste and preference. Celebrating its 32nd season in 2016, the festival has risen in stature to become one of the nation’s most highly respected summer festivals, acclaimed for the breadth and quality of its artistic programming. With an audience of 27,000, the festival has been named one of the “Top Twenty Events in the Southeast” by the Southeast Tourism Society.

Festival Corporate Sponsors:
Westglow Resort and Spa, Blue Ridge Electric Membership Corporation, Northern Trust, McDonald’s of Boone, Mast General Store, Goodnight Brothers, Boone Area Visitors Bureau, Sky Best Communications, Scholars Bookshop at the University Bookstore, Panoramic Hospitality, Holiday Inn Express-Boone, Courtyard by Marriott, Country Inn & Suites, Peabody’s Wine & Beer Merchants, Chetola Resort, Creekside Electronics and Boone Ford-Lincoln.

Festival media sponsors include:
WBTV, WCYB, Charter Media, Our State Magazine, Winston-Salem Journal, Greensboro News & Record, WNC Magazine, High Country Radio, WHKY AM 1290, WDAV 89.9FM, WFDD 88.5FM, WASU 90.5FM and High Country 365.