November 13, 2021 | BMCM+AC {120 College Street} – Presented in conjunction with the 12th annual ReVIEWING conference. Two performances present the wide-ranging works of John Cage: Carl Patrick Bolleia, John Cage Piano/Toy Piano Retrospective: Black Mountain Keyboard | Thomas Moore, solo piano works by John Cage, with a focus on compositions written around 1952 and 1953.

Commission | February 13, 2020 | BMCM+AC {120 College Street} – Grammy-winning Chicago-based percussion ensemble Third Coast Percussion and composer Bana Haffar debuted the newly commissioned Shed for percussion and modular synthesizer. Drawing from the rich legacy of Anni Albers, Haffar engages with the materiality of sound, the essence of cloth, and the symbiosis of the machine and handmade by transposing standard weaving draft notation into musical scores.

Commisioned by BMCM+AC as part of Question Everything! The Women of Black Mountain College.

December 12, 2019 | BMCM+AC {120 College Street} – Gandelsman is the one of the first to record or perform Bach’s complete cello suites on violin. This is Gandelsman’s second initiative towards adapting Bach’s compositions to violin, following his recordings of Bach’s Sonatas and Partitas in 2018. Having worked with incredible masters of various world music traditions, like Bela Fleck, Martin Hayes and Kayhan Kalhor, Gandelsman’s playing of the Suites is equally inspired by folk and fiddling traditions, as it is by historically informed performance.

November 21, 2019 | {120 College Street} – In 2017, Cherokee student leaders assembled a forum for open discussion on what it means for them to be Cherokee in the past, present, and future and how they view their cultural heritage. This new work was created with the words, voices, and vision of the Cherokee Chamber Singers, choral students at Cherokee Central Schools, written by composer William Brittelle. Originally commissioned by the North Carolina Symphony, the BMCM+AC event includes a pre-concert discussion and performance with the Cherokee Singers and music director / pianist Michael Yannette.

November 6, 2019 | {120 College Street} – The Southeast premiere of Aki Onda’s “Reflections and Repercussions,” a multi-media performance exploring the interplay among luminosity, acoustic, architectural, and emotional relationships within the space. Performing with various types of lighting equipment such as theater lights, flashlights, bare light bulb, mirrors and other objects, Onda arranges and rearranges the tools composing the visual and aural as a total environment.

August 1, 2019 | BMCM+AC {120 College Street} – performed Sonatas and Interludes, John Cage’s groundbreaking cycle for prepared piano. The work was composed in 1946–48, shortly after Cage’s introduction to Indian philosophy and the teachings of art historian Ananda K. Coomaraswamy, both of which became major influences on the composer’s later work. Sonatas and Interludes is generally recognized as one of Cage’s most important compositions.

June 28, 2019 – Currently in residence at the Aaron Copland School of Music at Queens College, Gamelan Yowana Sari has recently returned from a tour in Indonesia, performing in Pengosekan, Bali, at the home of the composer I Dewa Ketut Alit. They perform Alit’s work, traditional Balinese arrangements, and a new arrangement of Double Music by BMC composers Lou Harrison and John Cage.

August 24th, 2019 – Transfigurations III, Celebrating 15 Years of Harvest Records presents Flaherty/Corsano Duo at BMCM+AC. Saxophonist Paul Flaherty and drummer Chris Corsano are New England-based musicians dedicated to the promise and purpose of free improvisation. Paul has released over 35 recordings since the late 70’s.

November 7, 2018 | BMCM+AC {120 College Street} – BMCM+AC and UNC Asheville presented the Asheville debut of the eclectic string quartet Brooklyn Rider with the premiere of their new project Healing Modes. The healing properties of music have been recognized from ancient Greek civilization to the field of modern neuroscience and expressed in countless global traditions. The slow movement of Beethoven’s Opus 132, a ‘Song of Holy Thanksgiving From a Convalescent to the Deity in the Lydian mode,’ is among the most profound expressions of healing in the string quartet repertoire. This autumnal masterwork is presented in its entirety alongside five compact new commissions which explore the subject of healing from a wide range of historical and cultures perspectives. Composers include Tyondai Braxton, Reena Esmail, Gabriela Lena Frank, Matana Roberts and recent Pulitzer Prize winner Caroline Shaw.

October 19, 2018 {120 College Street} “The Jacob Lawrence of Jacob Lawrence” by Jace Clayton aka DJ /rupture. Presented in conjunction with African Americans in WNC & Southern Appalachia Conference, The Jacob Lawrence of Jacob Lawrence is a video and performance by Jace Clayton. The video is a hand-drawn animation with texts that form part of the script for the performance. As Clayton and vocalist Arooj Aftab perform, their voices will be transformed and processed live, using the sonic mutations to extend and transform the themes of the source text.

September 8, 2018 (120 College Street) – Performance of original works by vocalist Theo Bleckmann and guitarist Ben Monder. For over 15 years, the Theo Bleckmann & Ben Monder Duo has been touring the U.S., Europe, and Asia creating a unique approach to what might be called “jazz art song”, blurring the boundaries between jazz, classical, ambient, and rock.

March 16 + 17, 2018 | The Wortham Center for the Performing Arts {Downtown, Asheville} – BMCM+AC, in partnership with UNC Asheville, presented the Southeast Premiere of Dance Heginbotham and Maira Kalman’s The Principles of Uncertainty, a new evening-length dance theater work by choreographer John Heginbotham and author/illustrator Maira Kalman. Adapted from Kalman’s New York Times column turned book of the same name and described by the two artists as an “absurdist travelogue,” Principles of Uncertainty marries the nostalgic whimsy of Kalman’s illustrations with Heginbotham’s controlled yet playful choreography to create an evening that explores life, death and everything in between. Heginbotham directs and choreographs the work, while Kalman oversees all elements of design—sets, props, projections and costumes, bringing her 2D illustrations to life on the stage. Kalman is also present on stage, alongside Dance Heginbotham, actor Daniel Pettrow and members of The Knights. Composer Colin Jacobsen—a member of string quartet Brooklyn Rider, chamber ensemble The Knights, and Yo-Yo Ma’s Silk Road Ensemble—serves as Music Director of the project. Principles of Uncertainty premiered August 17, 2017 at Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival followed by a New York Premiere at BAM Next Wave Festival and travelled to Durham, North Carolina after this Southeast Premiere in Asheville.

Related Events Included:
Wednesday, March 14th – Maira Kalman Reading and Book Signing at Malaprops Bookstore for The Principles of Uncertainty (2007) and her new book, Beloved Dog (2017.)
Wednesday, March 14th – Dance Heginbotham Workshop at NC School for the Deaf
Wednesday, March 14th – Dance for PD Masterclass with John Heginbotham
Saturday, March 17th – Coffee + Conversation with John + Maira

February 23, 2018 | BMCM+AC {56 Broadway} – The Tesla Quartet performed selections by composer Hugo Kauder. This special program is presented in collaboration with The Hugo Kauder Society. Kauder was a composer-in-residence at BMC in the summer of 1945. The program included Kauder’s String Quartet 4, a piece performed at BMC in 1945, as well as Bartok’s String Quartet 3 and transcriptions of works by Gesualdo and Ravel by Tesla violinist Ross Snyder. Praised for their “superb capacity to find the inner heart of everything they play, regardless of era, style, or technical demand” (The International Review of Music), the Tesla Quartet brings refinement and prowess to both new and established repertoire. The group was formed at The Juilliard School in 2008 and includes Ross Snyder (violin), Michelle Lie (violin), Edwin Kaplan (viola), and Serafim Smigelskiy (cello).

June 27, 2018 | BMCM+AC {56 Broadway} – Presented in collaboration with the Asheville Percussion Festival, 51’15.657″ for a Speaking Percussionist is Bonnie Whiting’s realization of a solo simultaneous performance of John Cage’s 45′ for a Speaker and 27’10.554″ for a Percussionist. These are vintage pieces: music from the mid-50’s and part of a series of timed works that Cage enjoyed mixing together and referred to in notes and letters as “the ten thousand things.” A culmination of 14 months of work and study, Whiting is the first performer to execute both pieces in their entirety.