Unprecedented Community Collaborations

Asheville Amadeus is the Asheville Symphony Orchestra’s week-long festival celebrating the music and life of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.

Featuring internationally renowned pianist Emanuel Ax, several performances will be held March 17-22 in an unprecedented collaboration with more than a dozen local and regional arts and culture organizations, venues and businesses.

The festival culminates with the Asheville Amadeus finale concert at 3 p.m. on Sunday, March 22, with Ax performing two Mozart concertos along with the ASO and Music Director Daniel Meyer at Thomas Wolfe Auditorium. Ax will be joined by pianist Orion Weiss, and the orchestra will also perform works by Schubert and Salieri.

Asheville Amadeus will include chamber music concerts, recitals, opera, educational programs, yoga and even a special beer release in collaboration with community partners. More than 18,000 people – including every second-, third-and fourth-grade public-school student in Asheville City and Buncombe County schools – will have seen an Asheville Amadeus performance by the end of the 2015 school year.

“The opportunity to feature one of the world’s greatest living pianists in Emanuel Ax is, of course, the centerpiece of this extraordinary undertaking,” Meyer said. “I am particularly gratified that Mr. Ax’s residency in Asheville has inspired our community arts partners to also participate in this week-long festival celebrating the genius of Mozart. Nothing like this has ever been mounted in Asheville before, and we hope to showcase what a thriving performing arts culture Asheville enjoys and continues to develop, led by the Asheville Symphony Orchestra.”

Ax is a 7-time Grammy Award winner who regularly performs and records with the top orchestras in the world. His recent recordings include Mendelssohn Trios with Yo-Yo Ma and Itzhak Perlman, Strauss’s Enoch Arden narrated by Patrick Stewart, and discs of two-piano music by Brahms and Rachmaninoff with Yefim Bronfman. Mr. Ax captured public attention in 1974 when he won the first Arthur Rubinstein International Piano Competition in Tel Aviv. Five years later he won the coveted Avery Fisher Prize.

Ax, who chose the Asheville Symphony for the five-day residency, will perform twice while in Asheville. On Friday, March 20, he will play a sold-out recital of solo piano works and also join ASO Concertmaster Jason Posnock, Principal Violist Kara Poorbaugh and Acting Principal Cellist Franklin Keel for Mozart’s G minor Piano Quartet, K. 478.

Ax will perform with the full ASO for the March 22 finale.The program for the finale concert includes Ax performing Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 14 and the composer’s Concerto for Two Pianos. He will play the latter piece with his former student Orion Weiss, whom Ax taught at Juilliard. Weiss was named the Classical Recording Foundation’s Young Artist of the Year in September 2010 and has performed with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, San Francisco Symphony, Philadelphia Orchestra, Pittsburgh Symphony,Toronto Symphony Orchestra, and the New York Philharmonic.

“I am thrilled to join the Asheville Symphony for this unique week of events,” Ax said. “This is an opportunity for a soloist and orchestra to make a real impact, not just on stage but in the community. I’m looking forward to working with Maestro Meyer and the musicians of the Asheville Symphony.”

Thomas Wolfe Auditorium will be transformed for the Asheville Amadeus finale concert with a 30-foot stage extension that will thrust the Asheville Symphony into the midst of the audience, with as many as 124 seats available onstage.

“With the stage thrust deep into Thomas Wolfe Auditorium, this will be a unique opportunity to hear and see two of the world’s finest pianists up close and personal, and a stunning conclusion to a week of special events designed to celebrate the genius of Mozart,” Meyer said.

Highland Brewing Company will host a special pre-festival kickoff party at 7 p.m. on Saturday, March 14, featuring the release of Wolfgang 1756, a commemorative beer in honor of Asheville Amadeus. The event is free.

Other events include the play “Amadeus,” presented by NC Stage and Asheville Community Theatre; a performance of “The Impresario” by Asheville Lyric Opera; “Pianoforte: Homages to Mozart,” a recital held at the Asheville Art Museum; and Mozart Family Concert performances with the Blue Ridge Symphony.

If You Go: Finale concert by the Asheville Symphony, Sunday, March 22, 2015 at 3 p.m. at the Thomas Wolfe Auditorium. Tickets start at $28 ($15 youth). For more information, a full list of events, or to purchase tickets go to ashevilleamadeus.com.