Eclectic Summer: An Appalachian Summer Festival offers up a variety of artistic endeavors

When Shirley Irek was living in Miami, she and her former husband, Robert Chumbley, landed a gig as duo pianists on a cruise to Africa. They met many people on the trip, including Arnold and Muriel Rosen, two fellow Miami residents who had a summer home in the Boone area.

Chumbley, an alumnus of UNC School of the Arts, eventually became the president and chief executive of the Arts Council of Winston-Salem and Forsyth County, a position he held from 2001 to 2004. He, Irek and the Rosens hit it off. They stayed in touch and eventually met up again when Irek and Chumbley took a summer trip to the mountains of Western North Carolina.

During their visit with the Rosens, which happened about 26 years ago, Irek and Chumbley toured Appalachian State University in Boone. Irek was so impressed, not only with ASU's music facilities but also with the blessedly cooler weather and stunning beauty of the campus' surroundings. Then she made a proposal.

"I remember it like it was yesterday, walking around" she said on the telephone recently from her home in Atlanta. "I said, ‘Gosh, what a gorgeous place for a summer festival.' They said, ‘Oh, that's a great idea.' You say those things. You don't think they're going to happen."

In this case, however, those festival "things" did happen, first in the form of classical concerts and later with more diverse music offerings as well as dance, theater, film and visual art.

The reason: ASU was looking for ways to enhance its summer programs; when Arnold Rosen and Chumbley approached key university administrators about starting a festival there, they reacted favorably to the idea. What would eventually become An Appalachian Summer Festival was born; the 25th festival started yesterday at ASU and will continue there through July 25.

"By creating a quality arts program, a stronger partnership with the local community would result," a brief history of the festival reads. "(And) the campus could begin to attract visitors from outside the immediate community as well," drawn by a slew of other attractions, including rock climbing and river rafting.

Still, festivals come and go like everything else. Not all of them last as long as Appalachian Summer has.

"I never would have imagined this," said Irek, one of a handful of musicians who've performed at Appalachian each year since its inception. "It's so thrilling -- not only that it's lasted but that it's been consistently growing. It has just evolved so much."

Private money, university support and outside artistic expertise have played a role from the beginning: Rosen helped get An Appalachian Summer off the ground by donating generously and getting his friends to do the same. Chumbley began laying the festival's artistic groundwork, initially engaging his musician friends, including pianists from the Chopin Foundation of the United States in Miami, of which he was executive director.

A series of chamber-music concerts was organized, and they were presented from May through September. In short order, however, Appalachian Summer condensed its season and started adding other artistic disciplines to its mix of offerings; these began with the Rosen Sculpture Competition, in 1986, with dance, film and theater coming thereafter. There are also many educational offerings.

A quick glance at this year's lineup illustrates how eclectic the festival has become. During one weekend, for example, patrons will be able to hear the zydeco of Stanley "Buckwheat" Dural Jr. (July 11) next to the classical music of Sarah Chang, a virtuoso violinist who will team up with the Eastern Festival Orchestra in Mendelssohn's Violin Concerto (July 12).

There will also be a series of independent films, two professional-dance concerts and, beginning July 21, three performances by Triad Stage of Greensboro. The Rosen Outdoor Sculpture Competition and Exhibition will take place July 25, awarding an artist a cash prize of $5,000 and a weeklong residency within ASU's Department of Art during the 2009-2010 academic year.

"As the patron pool grew, different patrons had different passions," Irek said, adding that their requests for other events often began with "what about...?"

Organizers weren't afraid to woo some patrons with certain artists.

Gil Morgenstern, a virtuoso violinist, succeeded Chumbley as the festival's artistic director in 1991. The festival's history records a conversation he had with Bill Barbour, a longtime festival supporter, back in the festival's early days, when classical music dominated the festival's offerings.

"Gil said to me, ‘How can we get more locals to come?'" Barbour is quoted as saying in the festival's history. "And I said, kind of in jest, ‘Why don't you book Doc Watson?' Gil said, ‘You know, as a matter of fact, that's exactly what I was thinking.'"

Most summer festivals are not like An Appalachian Summer Festival. They tend to focus on one discipline only: North Carolina's summer festivals, for example, include the Eastern Music Festival in Greensboro, the American Dance Festival in Durham and the N.C. Shakespeare Festival in High Point.

There may be some unique advantages to mixing things up. John Tomlinson is the general manger of Paul Taylor Dance, a company that will be makings its sixth appearance at the festival this summer.

He said that his group usually performs at festivals specializing in dance, for patrons who already know his company well. At Appalachian Summer, however, many patrons see his group for the first time, having been conditioned to give new things a chance.

The multidisciplinary environment has also encouraged experimentation across discipline lines. Morgenstern, who now directs the Broyhill Chamber Ensemble, the festival's anchor ensemble, has led the way in this area, teaming up with everyone from actors to painters and writers.

Where does the festival go from here? In 2008, Appalachian Summer chose to replace its one-artistic-director model with a team of artistic directors, with each focusing on a different discipline. Hank Foreman, ASU's assistant vice chancellor for arts and cultural affairs, said that each of the directors will help illuminate a festival theme.

Next year's will focus on Mexico -- which suits Preston Lane, the festival's artistic partner for theater programming. He has been traveling a lot to Mexico lately, while on break from Triad Stage of Greensboro, where he is the artistic director.

He said he is very excited about the theater he has seen in that country and hopes to present not only "nonverbal" fare such as mime but also a Spanish-language production with subtitles.

In the meantime, however, he is preparing for another thing the festival has become known for, namely workshop productions of works-in-progress. This one will be for his Providence Gap, on July 24, a play that press materials describe as "blending magic, myth and music" in a tale about a boy abandoned at birth.

If all works out, a fully-staged production of Gap will be presented next summer, first in Greensboro and then at the festival. "I'd love to have them see it come full circle," Lane said.

■ Ken Keuffel can be reached at 727-7337 or at kkeuffel@wsjournal.com.

Festival Highlights

An Appalachian Summer Festival began yesterday and will run through July 25 at Appalachian State University in Boone.

Tickets to festival performances range from $5 to $30. Admission to most visual-arts and educational events are free. The festival offers a "Pick 5" pass, which extends a 15-percent discount off of tickets bought in multiples of five. For tickets and information, call 800-841-ARTS (2787) or 828-262-4046 (10 a.m.-5 p.m. Monday-Friday) or visit www.appsummer.org.

Here are some highlights:

• CHAMBER MUSIC: The Broyhill Chamber Ensemble will perform five times in Rosen Concert Hall. Concerts will be today, Wednesday, and July 6, 15 and 20. The works will include Schumann's Piano Quintet (today); Beethoven's String Trio in G Major (July 1); and Brahms' Piano Quintet in F Minor (July 20). As for interdisciplinary programs, these will include Falling Bodies (July 6), first seen at the festival in 2008; it integrates actors and musicians in an imagined meeting of Galileo Galilei and Primo Levi. Changing Keys (July 15) will combine music and words with images of Elma Johnston McKay's paintings of keys.

• SYMPHONIC MUSIC: The Eastern Festival Orchestra of the Eastern Music Festival in Greensboro, with Sarah Chang soloing in Mendelssohn's Violin Concerto, will perform July 12. The ensemble will team up with pianist Horacio Gutierrez in Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 4 (July 19). Both concerts will be in Farthing Auditorium, with Gerard Schwarz conducting.

• DANCE: The dance groups performing in Farthing Auditorium will be Pilobolus (July 7) and Paul Taylor Dance (July 14).

• THEATER: Triad Stage of Greensboro will perform three times in Valborg Theatre, presenting David Mamet's Oleanna (July 21 and 22) and a staged reading of Preston Lane's Providence Gap (July 24). Gap will be developed into a fully staged production that will premiere in Greensboro in July of 2010.

• FILM SERIES: Four films will be screened at the Dragon Fly Theater & Pub, including The Band's Visit (June 29); The Underground Orchestra (July 9); and Vitus (July 13). "Patagonia's Wild and Scenic Environmental Film Festival" will be July 10.

• VISUAL ART: The Rosen Outdoor Sculpture Competition and Exhibition Sculpture Walk will be July 25; one of 10 sculptors who exhibited work on campus for a year will receive the Rosen Award.

• POP ARTISTS: Appearing in Farthing Auditorium will be Melissa Manchester (July 2); Paula Poundstone (July 17); and Joan Baez (July 23).