2023 Asheville Amadeus Festival

The Asheville Symphony’s Asheville Amadeus Festival is returning May 11-20, 2023, starring banjo superstar Béla Fleck as festival headliner and renowned multi-instrumentalist Kishi Bashi as featured guest artist.

With more than 25 partner organizations offering more than 40 events throughout the 10-day festival, this is the most ambitious Amadeus Festival in Asheville Symphony history.

“Our vision for the Asheville Symphony is to be truly representative of our community,” says Asheville Symphony Executive Director Daniel Crupi. “We are taking steps in realizing that vision through the 2023 Festival, which focuses on the musical roots of our region and celebrates every shade of American music—from bluegrass, jazz, and classical to rock, pop, and folk—plus American theatre, dance, cinema, storytelling and even beer!”

The festival kicks off Thursday, May 11, with the release of an exclusive beer—Das Horner Bier—brewed by Cursus Kĕmē. Das Horner Bier has a special connection to the festival’s namesake, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Brewed from a nearly forgotten recipe, the beer was a known favorite of his: the composer even mentioned this beer in a work from 1782!

On Saturday, May 13, featured guest artist Kishi Bashi takes the stage at Salvage Station with a chamber orchestra of Asheville Symphony musicians for a performance in the Symphony’s ALT ASO series. A renowned multi-instrumentalist, Kishi Bashi has inspired audiences around the world with his unique blend of folk, classical, and cinematic music.

Festival headliner Béla Fleck is participating in a variety of events and performances during his residency. He notes, “I’m so thrilled to be included in the 2023 Asheville Amadeus Festival. Do you think they realize I am a banjo player? Don’t tell them! I’m gonna see if I can sneak my banjo into the orchestra, a string quartet, and play with some wonderful kids!”

Fleck will perform his original work “Night Flight Over Water” with members of Asheville’s Opal String Quartet on Tuesday, May 16, with the Asheville Chamber Music Series at the Wortham Center for the Performing Arts. Youth activities include two Young People’s Concerts, free for all Buncombe County’s fifth-graders, featuring Fleck, the Asheville Symphony Youth Orchestra, and members of the Asheville Symphony.

Fleck will also join Asheville Symphony Orchestra Music Director Darko Butorac for a Symphony Talk at Cursus Kĕmē brewery on Friday, May 19, before taking the stage with the Asheville Symphony for the Festival Finale concert on Saturday, May 20.

The Finale concert—which is also the final Masterworks concert of the Asheville Symphony Orchestra’s current season—explores the many shades of Americana with Fleck’s own “The Imposter” Concerto for banjo and orchestra, Bach’s “Chaconne” (Bach’s compositional style influenced the development of Fleck’s concerto), Ellington and Tizol’s “Caravan,” and Bernstein’s Symphonic Dances from “West Side Story.”

Other highlights of the festival include a conversation with Kishi Bashi and others about minority identity and racism towards Asians in America, presented by Connect Beyond Festival; a LEAF Global Arts Spring Retreat uplifting and honoring First Nations, Indigenous, and LatinX peoples; a series of free music and movement events for babies, toddlers, and young children at area libraries and Asheville Art Museum presented by Kindermusik educator, Yvette Odell; a “Mostly Mozart” evening at the picturesque Parker Concert Hall at Brevard Music Center; and a performance from the Grammy-recognized American Patchwork Quartet at the Wortham Center for the Performing Arts.

The 2023 Asheville Amadeus Festival includes events that are free and open to the public, ticketed general admission, and ticketed by seat. Tickets for all 2023 Asheville Amadeus events are on sale now.

To purchase tickets, visit AshevilleAmadeus.org or call the Asheville Symphony Orchestra at (828) 254-7046.

Dozens of organizations across Western North Carolina have come together to present events in the 2023 Asheville Amadeus Festival, including: Different Strokes Performing Arts Collective, LEAF Global Arts, Cursus Kĕmē, Asheville Community Theatre, Connect Beyond Festival, Salvage Station, Pan Harmonia, Blue Ridge Orchestra, Blue Spiral 1, Asheville Symphony Chorus, Brevard Music Center, Wortham Center for the Performing Arts, Asheville Chamber Music Series, Asheville Symphony Youth Orchestra, Asheville Symphony Guild, Asheville Art Museum, Moogseum, The Asheville Dulcimer Orchestra, Metro Wines, Ballet Conservatory of Asheville, The Blackbird Restaurant, Harrah’s Cherokee Center – Asheville, Skyland/South Buncombe Library, Pack Memorial Library, West Asheville Library, Citizen Vinyl, and the Asheville Symphony Orchestra.

The 2023 Asheville Amadeus Festival is made possible by many generous sponsors, including Platinum Sponsors Explore Asheville, Flow Automotive, Cursus Kĕmē, Dr. John Hazlehurst, Thomas C. Bolton, The Payne Fund, Bill & Nancy Gettys, and Gerald & Nancy Kitch. For a full list of sponsors, visit www.AshevilleAmadeus.org.