Celebrated violinist Bella Hristova makes her Asheville Symphony Orchestra debut on Saturday, February 13, 2016, when she takes on Beethoven’s beloved Violin Concerto in an ASO Masterworks concert at Thomas Wolfe Auditorium.

Asheville Symphony Music Director Daniel Meyer will conduct concert, which also includes Mendelssohn’s Hebrides Overture and Strauss’ Metamorphosen.

“We’re excited to have Bella Hristova make her ASO debut with Beethoven’s bold and brilliant Violin Concerto,” Meyer said. “A concerto of symphonic proportions, Beethoven’s single entry into the genre remains at the pinnacle of music ever written for the instrument, and this will be an opportunity to hear a great concerto performed by a shooting star.”

Acclaimed for her passionate, powerful performances, beautiful sound, and compelling command of her instrument, Hristova was recently recognized with a prestigious 2013 Avery Fisher Career Grant, given to outstanding instrumentalists and based on excellence alone. The Washington Post’s The Classical Beat has stated she is “a player of impressive power and control.” Her engagements in 2015-16 include the Buffalo Philharmonic, Kansas City Symphony, Delaware Symphony, Vermont Symphony, Erie Philharmonic and Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center.

Hristova is stepping into the ASO concert in place of Stefan Jackiw, who was originally scheduled to perform the Beethoven Violin Concerto. Jackiw had to withdraw, with regret, for personal reasons.

The Mendelssohn and Strauss works will be performed during the first half of the concert.

Mendelssohn’s Hebrides Overture, subtitled “Fingal’s Cave,” musically captures the composer’s visit to and impressions of this special archipelago in Scotland.

Crushed by the demise of Germany and its storied cultural history, Strauss composed an elegiac and deeply stirring work for twenty-three solo musicians called Metamorphosen. With its arching, spun lines of intertwined strings and a wistful nod to the funeral march from Beethoven’s Eroica Symphony, Metamorphosen aches for a bygone era of serious but deeply Romantic music.

Masterworks 4

Beethoven’s Violin Concerto
Daniel Meyer, conductor
Bella Hristova, violin

• Mendelssohn, Hebrides Overture
• Strauss, Metamorphosen
• Beethoven, Violin Concerto

The Asheville Symphony Orchestra performs and promotes symphonic music for the benefit, enjoyment and education of the people of Western North Carolina.

If You Go: Beethoven’s Violin Concerto, Saturday, February 13 at 8 p.m. Thomas Wolfe Auditorium in downtown Asheville. Tickets: $22-$62 (prices vary depending on seating section); reduced youth and student pricing available. Available in person at the U.S. Cellular Center box office at 87 Haywood St. Info/Tickets: Symphony Office, (828) 254-7046, www.ashevillesymphony.org.