BOONE, N.C.—Now in it 33rd season, the 2017 An Appalachian Summer Festival, June 27 – Aug. 5, will feature a variety of attractions in several arts genres, from classical music performed by the Broyhill Chamber Ensemble to dance performed by MOMIX and Charlotte Ballet.

Fans of popular music can sample Broadway songs (Sutton Foster); country (Jennifer Nettles); jazz (Chris Botti); rock (YES); and a mix of many styles (Bruce Hornsby and the Noisemakers). The National Black Theatre Festival presents “Maid’s Door,” which will also be presented in Winston-Salem (July 31 – Aug. 5). Visual art will be on offer, as will films from multiple countries.

Tickets, including a reintroduced “Pick 5” discount package for adults, are now on sale. All events will be on the Appalachian State University campus except for one. The play “Legally Blonde” will be at Lees McRae University in Banner Elk.

The “Pick 5” package enables patrons to purchase five adult tickets in any combination, with the price of each package ticket discounted 10 percent. Festival ticket prices range from $5 to $60. To purchase tickets, call or visit the Schaefer Center box office at 800-841-2787 or 828-262-4046. Tickets also can be purchased online at http://appsummer.org.

The festival’s Schaefer Popular Series will include:

An Evening with Sutton Foster

Saturday, July 8
8 p.m., Schaefer Center for the Performing Arts

Two-time Tony Award-winning actress, singer and dancer Sutton Foster makes her debut on the Schaefer Center stage for a high-spirited evening of songs by Broadway composers and others. Sutton has performed in 11 Broadway shows – most recently the revival of “Violet” – and she originated roles in the Broadway productions of “The Drowsy Chaperone,” “Little Women,” “Young Frankenstein,” and “Shrek The Musical.” She won Tony Awards for her performances in “Anything Goes” and “Thoroughly Modern Millie.”

Jennifer Nettles

Saturday, July 15
8 p.m., Schaefer Center for the Performing Arts

Grammy Award-winning Country superstar Jennifer Nettles has become one of the most admired singer-songwriters in music since winning acclaim in 2004 as the lead vocalist for international duo Sugarland. Nettles has recently released her debut album “Playing With Fire,” which she has been promoting on tour.

Chris Botti

Saturday, July 22
8 p.m., Schaefer Center for the Performing Arts

For over two decades, multi Grammy Award-winning master trumpeter and composer Chris Botti has amassed a variety of honors, including multiple Gold and Platinum albums, to become the nation’s largest-selling instrumental artist.

Bruce Hornsby and the Noisemakers

Thursday, July 27
8 p.m., Schaefer Center for the Performing Arts

Bruce Hornsby will perform with his longtime band, the Noisemakers, and tap into many of the genres that have influenced his music over the years – pop, jazz, bluegrass, country and modern classical.

Yestival: YES with special guests Todd Rundgren and Carl Palmer’s ELP Legacy

Saturday, Aug. 5
8 p.m., Holmes Convocation Center

Inducted into the Rock and Rock Hall of Fame in 2017, YES will visit Appalachian as part of a national tour, treating fans to a set list of greatest hits from all of the band’s nine studio albums up to 1980, and showcasing the storied history of one of the world’s most influential, ground-breaking and respected progressive rock bands.

The festival’s dance programming will feature:

MOMIX: “Opus Cactus”

Friday, July 21
8 p.m., Schaefer Center for the Performing Arts

Known internationally for presenting work of exceptional inventiveness and physical beauty, MOMIX is a company of dancer-illusionists under the direction of Moses Pendleton. “Opus Cactus” will take audiences on a visual and sensory journey through the natural wonders of the American Southwestern desert, bringing the landscape to life with dynamic images of cacti, slithering lizards and fire dancers.

Charlotte Ballet

Saturday, July 29
8 p.m., Schaefer Center for the Performing Arts

The evening will feature the wedding scene from Jean-Pierre Bonnefoux’s “Sleeping Beauty” as well as a pas de deux from George Balanchine’s “Stars and Stripes,” which Patricia McBride staged. McBride, now Charlotte Ballet’s associate artistic director, once starred for New York City Ballet. The performance will also include Alonzo King’s ballet “MAP,” a metaphor for the different paths individuals must choose in life, and Mark Godden’s “Angels in the Architecture,” an ode to the simplicity and grace of the Shaker lifestyle, with music from Aaron Copland’s “Appalachian Spring.”

The festival’s classical music programming will include:

Broyhill Chamber Ensemble

Friday, June 30 and Tuesday, June 25 at 8 p.m.
Sunday, July 16 and Sunday, July 23 at 4 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. This year, the ensemble will perform music by such master composers as Joseph Haydn, Sergei Ivanovich Taneyev, Robert Schumann, Ludwig van Beethoven, Max Reger, Frank Bridge, Antonín Dvořák, Bohuslav Martinů and Johannes Brahms.

Eastern Festival Orchestra with Midori, violin

Sunday, July 9
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 masterworks featuring internationally renowned violinist Midori, and Hunter Bockes, first-prize winner of the 2016 Rosen-Schaffel Competition for Young and Emerging Artists. Midori will solo in Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto, and Bockes will solo in Alexander Glazunov’s Saxophone Concerto.

Rosen-Schaffel Competition for Young and Emerging Artists

Sunday, July 30
1 p.m., Schaefer Center for the Performing Arts

In partnership with the Hayes School of Music, the festival proudly presents the seventh season of the highly acclaimed Rosen-Schaffel Competition for Young & Emerging Artists, which features North Carolina’s most promising young classical musicians. In the final live round of the competition, a panel of symphony conductors will select First Place, Second Place and Third Place winners, and the competition audience will select an “Audience Choice Award Winner.”

The festival’s theatre programming will include:

The National Black Theatre Festival Presents “Maid’s Door”

Thursday, July 13 and Friday, July 14
8 p.m., Valborg Theatre

In this show, which will also be presented during the National Black Theatre Festival in Winston-Salem (July 31 – Aug. 5), a family is pushed to the breaking point as they struggle to save their beloved matriarch from being robbed of a glorious present by ghosts from her past. A journey through the heartbreak of Alzheimer’s disease, “Maid’s Door” is “poignant without being manipulative, and thought-provoking without being preachy…a memorable evening at the theatre,” writes Susan Gilmor in Relish, the Winston-Salem Journal’s entertainment tab.

Theatre Bus Trip to Lees McRae Summer Theatre: “Legally Blonde”

Thursday, Aug. 3
12:30-6 p.m., Banner Elk

An Appalachian Summer Festival patrons will head to Banner Elk for a matinee performance of “Legally Blonde” by the highly acclaimed Lees McRae Summer Theatre. Following the performance, attendees will dine at Puerto Nuevo before heading back to Boone.

The festival’s film programming will include two series.

The Weicholz Global Film Series will include 7 p.m. screenings each Wednesday in the Schaefer Center for the Performing Arts. The lineup of movies, each from a different country, features:

• “The Innocents” (Poland/France) on June 28;
• “Worlds Apart” (Greece) on July 5;
• “Rams” (Iceland) on July 12;
• “I, Daniel Blake” (UK) on July 19;
• “Glory” (Bulgaria) on July 26; and
• “Tanna” (Vanuatu/Australia) on Aug. 2.

The festival’s Young People’s Global Film Series will include 1 p.m. screenings each Tuesday in the Schaefer Center for the Performing Arts. The 2017 lineup includes:

• “My Lucky Elephant” (Thailand) on July 27;
• “Virginia’s Run” (Canada) on July 11;
• “Duma” (South Africa) on July 18;
• “Secrets of War” (Netherlands) on July 25; and
• “Theeb” (Jordan) on Aug. 1.

The festival’s visual arts programming will include:

Summer Exhibition Celebration at the Turchin Center for the Visual Arts

Friday, July 7

6-10p.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 enables art lovers to meet artists, enjoy refreshments, and spend time with fellow arts patrons – all while viewing exhibitions in six galleries that are filled with contemporary art from local, regional, and international artists. Visit https://tcva.appstate.edu for exhibition details.

31st Rosen Sculpture Walk

Saturday, July 22

10 a.m., Smith Gallery, Schaefer Center for the Performing Arts

The Rosen Sculpture Competition & Exhibition is a national juried competition presented annually by the Turchin Center for the Visual Arts. To celebrate the 31st anniversary of this inspiring installation, join competition juror Gregory Elliott on an educational outdoor tour of the 10 selected pieces from this year’s competition. The tour will conclude at the Schaefer Center with an awards reception. An additional work of sculpture will be installed at the Blowing Rock Art and History Museum.

Lunch and Learn Lectures on a variety of topics will be presented at noon in the Turchin Center Lecture Hall on July 5, 12, 19 and 26 and on Aug. 2. See http://tcva.appstate.edu/calendar/super/id/809 for details of the lectures.

Workshops for Kids and Young Adults will be presented throughout July; visit http://www.tcva.org/workshops for schedule details.

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. 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 in recent years.

About Appalachian State University

As a premier public institution, Appalachian State University prepares students to lead purposeful lives. App State is one of 17 campuses in the University of North Carolina System, with a national reputation for innovative teaching and opening access to a high-quality, affordable education for all. The university enrolls more than 21,000 students, has a low student-to-faculty ratio and offers more than 150 undergraduate and 80 graduate majors at its Boone and Hickory campuses and through App State Online. Learn more at https://www.appstate.edu.

What do you think?

Share your feedback on this story.