Appalachian State University

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 a diverse mix of music, dance, theatre, visual arts and film programming.

“The Legend of Buster Neal” tells the story of four generations of African American men and the challenges faced by each generation within the same family. This powerful drama questions the true definition of manhood and examines the meaning of legacy, friendship and fatherhood.

The symposium is geared toward educators, students, and community members and is free and open to the public. The purpose and goal of the Symposium is to provide public and private school teachers, university faculty, students, and community members information and insights about the victims, perpetrators, and consequences of the Nazi Holocaust.

“One of the best jazz bands in New York today” (Forbes) makes its debut at Schaefer Center where they transport the audience to New York speakeasies, Parisian cabarets, and New Orleans jazz halls. Fueled by the belief that classic jazz feeds the heart and soul, the Hot Sardines are on a mission to make old sound new again with their brassy arrangements, rollicking piano melodies and smoky vocals.

Faculty and students from the Hayes School of Music, Milligan College and Wake Forest University will be performing sonatas the SS forced the orchestra to play and pieces by Jewish composers the women performed as an act of spiritual resistance. Free of charge and no tickets required.

Anita Lasker-Wallfisch (London, England), the cellist of the Women’s Orchestra at Auschwitz, will speak about her experiences playing music in a Nazi death camp and her suffering at the hands of the Germans. At the age of 93, she is one of only a couple of survivors of the orchestra still alive today. Free of charge and no tickets required.

Eugenie Mukeshimana will talk about the abuse of music in the 1994 Rwandan genocide, during which Hutu genocidaires killed about 800,000 of their countrywomen and –men in the course of just three months. A native of Rwanda, Mukeshimana, who was in the final stage of a pregnancy at the time, survived the mass killings by hiding under a bed in a home of local perpetrators. Permitted to the U.S. in 2001, she attended college and soon founded and serves as executive director of the Genocide Survivors Support Network, a charitable organization that works with refugees, who are genocide survivors.

Prof. Anna Shternshis (University of Toronto) will shed light on songs -- long believed lost -- by everyday Jews throughout the Soviet Union during the Second World War. In many cases, these songs were the first testimonies of German genocidal killings to emerge anywhere in Eastern Europe. The program includes performances of selected songs such as “Der vekhter in di shtern” (Girls of Chuvashia) and “Ikh lig lebn pulyemyot” (My Machine Gun) by ASU student vocalist Sydra Yarnell accompanied by pianist Prof. Joanne Inkman (WFU).

Czech-Jewish composer Hans Krása reconstructed the opera Brundibár as a prisoner in Terezin and first staged with an all-children’s cast in this Nazi-established ghetto in the fall of 1943. Most performers were later deported and killed in Auschwitz. The program includes performances of selected passages of the opera by ASU student vocalist Sydra Yarnell accompanied by pianist Dr. Joanne Inkman (WFU). After the performance, Ms. Tamar Grinshpon, the daughter of Ela Weissberger (1930-2018), who played the cat in Brundibár as an imprisoned child in Terezin, will speak.

Co-founding member of the Grammy award-winning string band Carolina Chocolate Drops and recipient of the 2017 MacArthur Fellow Genius Grant, Rhiannon Giddens masterfully blends gospel, jazz, blues, and country showcasing her extraordinary emotional range and dazzling vocal prowess. Her solo album Freedom Highway is among NPR Music and Rolling Stone’s best albums of 2017.

This special event showcases eTown, an exciting radio broadcast/podcast heard weekly across the country and worldwide, hosted by radio personalities Helen & Nick Forster. This special live radio show taping will feature a memorable evening of great music along with on-stage interviews with the artists and the presentation of the eChievement Award to an outstanding volunteer who’s made a real difference in their community and beyond. Special musical guests for this eTown live radio show are Josh Ritter and Mandolin Orange.

Emmy and Tony Award-winning actress and singer Kristin Chenoweth makes her debut on the Schaefer Center stage to perform an array of her most memorable songs and Broadway tunes, including music from Wicked, Promises Promises, and Glee.