“Resounding Resistance: Folk-Infused Classical Music, 1937-1945”
Sunday, May 4, 2025, from 3:30-5:30 p.m.
Rosen Concert Hall, Broyhill Music Center
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BOONE, N.C. — Appalachian State University's High Country Humanities—with support from North Carolina Humanities and the Watauga Arts Council —is pleased to present a public listening workshop, followed by a free concert. These events will form a two-part program titled “Resounding Resistance: Folk-Infused Classical Music, 1937-1945,” which will take place on Sunday, May 4, 2025, from 3:30-5:30 p.m. at the Rosen Concert Hall in Appalachian's Broyhill Music Center at 813 Rivers Street in Boone. Doors will open at 3:00 p.m.
The listening workshop, sponsored by a Small Project Grant from North Carolina Humanities, celebrates the eightieth anniversary of the “Asheville Concerto” (“Piano Concerto No. 3”) by Béla Bartók (1881-1945), a Hungarian composer who fled Europe during World War II and spent his final summer in Western North Carolina. It will open with two brief TED-style talks by Dr. Darci Gardner and Dr. Jacob Kopcienski, who will explain the history of the piece and its composition. Then, guest collaborative pianists from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill's Department of Music, Mr. Teddy Robie and Mrs. Mimi Solomon, will use two pianos to demonstrate their interpretations of the piece before answering audience questions.
After a fifteen-minute intermission, there will be a free public concert, sponsored by a Grassroots Grant from the Watauga Arts Council. Robie and Solomon will be joined by two guest percussionists, Mr. Colin Hartnett, Principal Timpanist for the North Carolina Symphony, and Mr. Rajesh Prasad, Assistant Principal Percussionist for the North Carolina Symphony. The musicians will perform Bartók’s famous “Sonata for Two Pianos and Percussion.” (The concert program will also include an encore piece, to be announced at a later date on High Country Humanities’ Instagram account and Facebook account.)
This programming is the culmination of a three-part series titled, “Bridging the Divide between Classical Music and Folk Traditions: Béla Bartók’s Legacy,” organized by High Country Humanities with the support of a grant from North Carolina Humanities. The first event in this series, “Bartók: From Opposing Ethnic Cleansing to Inventing Ethnomusicology,” will take place on Tuesday, March 4 from 5:30-7:00 p.m. at the Turchin Center for the Visual Arts. The second event, “Pickin’ Apart Bartók: How to Hear Folk Sounds in Classical Music,” will take place on Wednesday, April 2 from 5:30-7:00 p.m. at the Jones House Cultural Center. All events in this series are free and open to the public, and no ticket or reservation is needed.
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Dr. Darci Gardner
Dr. Darci Gardner is the director of High Country Humanities, an associate professor of French and Francophone studies in the Department of Languages, Literatures and Cultures and an affiliate faculty member in the gender, women’s and sexuality studies program in the Department of Interdisciplinary Studies. She holds a Ph.D. in French with a minor in Italian studies from Stanford University and a B.A. in comparative literature from Vanderbilt University, where she also studied chamber music. She researches Marie Krysinska, a Polish-French pianist, composer and author, and teaches courses on representations of World War II. The title of her talk for this event will be “Edith Bartók, Women Pianists and Jewish Musicians.”
Colin Hartnett
Colin Hartnett is Principal Timpanist for the North Carolina Symphony. He has served as guest principal timpanist with the New York City Ballet and was previously the principal timpanist of the Chattanooga Symphony and Opera. He holds a master’s degree in music from Cleveland State University and a performer’s certificate from Carnegie Mellon University.
Dr. Jacob Kopcienski
Dr. Jacob Kopcienski is an assistant professor of musicology in App State's Hayes School of Music, as well as an affiliate of the Center for Appalachian Studies. He holds a Ph.D. in musicology from Ohio State University and an M.A. from West Virginia University. His research contextualizes LGBTQ music, cultural organizing and communities in Appalachia, the Midwest and the South. Dr. Kopcienski has published in the Journal of the Society for American Music, the Journal of Appalachian Studies and as a staff writer for the website I Care if You Listen. He also holds a B.M. from Bowling Green State University and completed studies in saxophone at the Conservatoire à Rayonnement Régional de Boulogne-Billancourt in France. The title of his talk for this event will be “The Asheville Concerto: Expatriates in Exile.”
Rajesh Prasad
Rajesh Prasad is Assistant Principal Percussionist for the North Carolina Symphony. He has performed with the Chicago Symphony, the Detroit Symphony and the Phoenix Symphony, among others, and has spent many summers performing in the ProMusica Chamber Orchestra. He holds undergraduate and graduate degrees in music from Northwestern University and the Manhattan School of Music, respectively.
Teddy Robie
Teddy Robie is a classical pianist with undergraduate and graduate degrees in piano performance from The Juilliard School. A specialist in chamber music, he recently performed sonatas with violists Jonathan Bagg and Samuel Gold at Duke University and the University of North Carolina Greensboro, as well as trios with violinist Elizabeth Young and cellist Emily Brausa at the Chatter Chamber Music Series in Albuquerque and Santa Fe. He runs a private studio in Cary, is a lecturer in the Music Department at UNC-Chapel Hill and serves as Artistic Advisor to the Board of the Mallarmé Youth Chamber Orchestra.
Mimi Solomon
Mimi Solomon is a classical pianist with a master’s in music from The Juilliard School. She has performed as a soloist with the Shanghai Symphony, the Philharmonia Virtuosi (New York) and the Yale Symphony Orchestra and has been featured on numerous radio and television broadcasts, including France 3 and National Public Radio. She is a lecturer in the Music Department at UNC-Chapel Hill and Co-Artistic Director of the Mallarmé Youth Chamber Orchestra.
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For more information, visit hchumanities.appstate.edu or contact Dr. Darci Gardner, director of High Country Humanities, by email at gardnerdl1@appstate.edu or by phone at (828) 262-2928.
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About High Country Humanities
High Country Humanities at Appalachian State University aims to foster a greater understanding and appreciation of the humanities across the High Country region of North Carolina. The program supports faculty in their scholarly activities, promotes their collaborations with community partners and organizes events that help their expertise reach the wider public. High Country Humanities is an initiative of App State’s College of Arts and Sciences, with support from the Division of Academic Affairs. Learn more at hchumanities.appstate.edu.
Appalachian State University's High Country Humanities—with support from North Carolina Humanities and the Watauga Arts Council —is pleased to present a public listening workshop, followed by a free concert. These events will form a two-part program titled “Resounding Resistance: Folk-Infused Classical Music, 1937-1945,” which will take place on Sunday, May 4, 2025, from 3:30-5:30 p.m. at the Rosen Concert Hall in Appalachian's Broyhill Music Center at 813 Rivers Street in Boone. Doors will open at 3:00 p.m
Appalachian State University's High Country Humanities—with support from North Carolina Humanities and the Watauga Arts Council —is pleased to present a public listening workshop, followed by a free concert. These events will form a two-part program titled “Resounding Resistance: Folk-Infused Classical Music, 1937-1945,” which will take place on Sunday, May 4, 2025, from 3:30-5:30 p.m. at the Rosen Concert Hall in Appalachian's Broyhill Music Center at 813 Rivers Street in Boone. Doors will open at 3:00 p.m.