![\"\"](\"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/fleck_dorshi.jpg\")
B\u00e9la Fleck, Kishi Bashi<\/p><\/div>\n
Adversity into inspiration<\/b>
\nAsheville Symphony executive director Daniel Crupi has only been in his is new position for about 18 months, but once settled in Asheville, he quickly immersed himself in the planning for this year\u2019s festival. He points to the COVID-19 pandemic as a challenge that would find him sharpening his skills, making him ideally suited to program what he describes as the \u201ccomplex and intricate\u201d enterprise that is this year\u2019s Amadeus Festival.<\/p>\n
Immediately prior to coming to Asheville, Crupi worked as executive director with the Santa Fe Symphony in New Mexico. \u201cEspecially during my final year, creativity and innovation through programming was at the absolute forefront of my mind,\u201d he says. At the time, New Mexico was experiencing a near-total shutdown in the wake of the pandemic. \u201cYou could not gather more than five individuals together without it being constituted a mass gathering,\u201d he explains. \u201cPerforming arts facilities were shuttered until March of \u201821.\u201d<\/p>\n
Crupi rose to the challenge of sustaining the Symphony and providing cultural enrichment for Santa Fe audiences. \u201cI was really interested in finding a path through the pandemic, to keep the musicians in Santa Fe employed and continue the Santa Fe Symphony’s mission rather than shutting down,\u201d he says. With his team working \u201cout of necessity, through sheer force of will and with a lot of creativity,\u201d the Santa Fe Symphony put together a 10-concert virtual series. Crupi says that the experience \u201cforced me to reconsider the position of a symphony orchestra in its community, and broaden my perspective in terms of what was possible for an orchestra.\u201d<\/p>\n
That enterprise prepared Crupi for his next major challenge; building on the success of Asheville\u2019s Amadeus Festival as the event took things to a new level. He says that this year\u2019s event is characterized by collaboration, and has a scope that sets it apart from previous festivals. \u201cIt has all the same core tenets,\u201d he notes, \u201cbut we\u2019ve flipped it on its head in terms of programming and how we’re working with our partners.\u201d<\/p>\n
Different direction<\/b>
\nThe first two Amadeus Festivals stuck close to a Mozart theme, and were almost exclusively centered around classical music. But in the third year of the festival, Crupi\u2019s predecessor David Whitehill shifted away from Mozart, broadening the scope to include a rock music theme. With a program that featured Warren Haynes in collaboration with the Asheville Symphony, the \u201cRock and Rach\u201d (as in Rachmaninoff) theme was a major success.<\/p>\n
Crupi\u2019s approach both followed on from that strategy and, he says, stripped the concept down to some basic principles. \u201cIt\u2019s all about music excellence, innovation and collaboration,\u201d he explains. The Amadeus Festival is \u201cnot just about the Symphony; it’s about elevating the entire arts community, using the Symphony as a pivot point to be able to do that.\u201d He believes that mixing up the variety of artists is at the center of that approach.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn past years, it’s been major classical artists,\u201d Crupi explains. \u201cThe famous pianist Emanuel Ax, Midori on violin. But we had an opportunity to do something really<\/i> different this year.\u201d<\/p>\n
Collaborative concerts<\/b>
\nKicking off with a May 11 gala at Cursus K\u0115m\u0113 that included the release of a themed beer, Das Hornier Bier, the 2023 Asheville Amadeus Festival was organized around what Crupi calls its two anchor performances. Headliner and cross-genre multi-instrumentalist Kishi Bashi joined the ASO (led by musical director Darko Butorac) to open the performance schedule with a concert at Salvage Station on May 13. Acclaimed banjoist and 15-time Grammy Award winner B\u00e9la Fleck appeared with the Opal String Quartet on May 16 for the Amadeus Festival\u2019s grand finale. Fleck\u2019s program included a performance of his The Imposter<\/i> concerto for banjo and orchestra.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I think about musical excellence and collaboration, one of the top people that comes to mind immediately is B\u00e9la Fleck,\u201d says Crupi. \u201cHe has worked with everyone from Chick Corea to Edgar Meyer to Sam Bush.\u201d Crupi believes that Fleck\u2019s musical artistry and collaborative spirit \u201creally speaks to the essence of the festival; he is able to bring a hyper-relevance\u201d to the event.<\/p>\n
Crupi says that the high-profile participation of B\u00e9la Fleck helps connect the Asheville Symphony with the roots music traditions of Western North Carolina, emphasizing that Fleck\u2019s presence offers an \u201cinteresting intersection opportunity\u201d as well. \u201cBecause of his diversity of styles and experiences, B\u00e9la Fleck can work not just with the Symphony but also with our youth orchestra, with the Asheville Chamber Music Series and other fabulous groups that speak to the essence of the festival,\u201d Crupi says.<\/p>\n
Panoply of Partners<\/b>
\nThis year\u2019s Amadeus Festival was far too expansive for one venue. So an assortment of locations was employed to host the full and varied lineup of performances and events. In addition to the Thomas Wolfe Auditorium, festival locations included Salvage Station, the Wortham Center, Citizen Vinyl and other venues.<\/p>\n
Partner organizations for the festival represented a cross-section of Western North Carolina\u2019s cultural and creative communities. This year\u2019s Amadeus Festival\u2019s participants included Brevard Music Center, Junior Appalachian Musicians, Connect Beyond Festival, Ballet Conservatory of Asheville, Different Strokes! Performing Arts collective and many others.<\/p>\n
Crupi readily admits that mounting a festival of this magnitude is a daunting prospect. \u201cThe sheer scope of coordinating 40 events with 25 partners is immensely challenging,\u201d he says, \u201cespecially for a small nonprofit like us.\u201d He notes that the Asheville Symphony staff numbers only nine persons. \u201cAnd that\u2019s an all-time high for the organization.\u201d Crupi says that while some might expect that coordinating the artistic components of the festival would be a challenge, in this case the opposite is true. \u201cBoth B\u00e9la Fleck and Kishi Bashi have been a pleasure to work with,\u201d he says. \u201cThey\u2019re both flexible and amenable to all the wild and crazy ideas we’ve been throwing at them. It\u2019s been a total blast.\u201d<\/p>\n
Festival Futures<\/b>
\nDaniel Crupi says that the Asheville Amadeus Festival is in line with the symphony\u2019s goal of community engagement. It\u2019s of a piece with other initiatives like the free Symphony in the Park concerts in Pack Place, and the ALT ASO chamber orchestra series. The latter embeds the orchestra in community venues that don\u2019t typically host classical music; Crupi lists Highland Brewing, the Asheville Art Museum, High Wire Brewing in the RAD and the Orange Peel as past venues. \u201cIt\u2019s all about getting the orchestra out into the community and engaging people where they’re already comfortable,\u201d he explains, \u201crather than expecting folks to always come to us. And the Amadeus Festival is the culmination of all of that.<\/p>\n
Hybridizing classical music and other forms like Americana can sometimes be an uneasy marriage, but Daniel Crupi believes he knows the secret to making it work. \u201cUltimately,\u201d he says, \u201cit has to start with great music. That\u2019s our guiding principle, and Darko Butorac shares that principle. We\u2019re fortunate to have him as an artistic partner and leader.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ahead of the event, Crupi and his staff were immersed in the details of this year\u2019s Amadeus Festival. But at the same time, they\u2019re already looking toward the next one, scheduled for 2025. \u201cFirst, we’re going to be conducting some robust survey work to gather data about how this year’s festival was received,\u201d he says, \u201cbecause it is so different [from past festivals].\u201d Assuming a positive response and ticket sales that meet projections, he promises that the 2025 Amadeus Festival \u201cwill continue to stretch boundaries.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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