Salisbury Post is traveling to Tennessee this week to witness the Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival.
This four-day event, held annually since 2002, was named “Best Festival” by Rolling Stone Magazine, calling it “the ultimate over-the-top summer festival.”
Bonnaroo is held on a 700-acre farm in Manchester, 60 miles southeast of Nashville. There are multiple stages of live music. The festival began with a focus on jam bands, but is now more diverse. Scheduled to perform this year: Pearl Jam, Kanye West, Widespread Panic, Metallica, Willie Nelson, The Raconteurs and the Avett Brothers, to name just a few.
Check out our blog site, Salisburypostables.com, during the festival for up-to-the-minute reports.
Dance Dreams
KANNAPOLIS ó Dance Dreams Studio, located in Kannapolis, under the direction of Glenna Wilson, will present its 31st annual recital performance on Sunday, June 15, at South Rowan High School in Landis.
Admission is free to the public and refreshments will be available.
The pre-show at 3:15 p.m. will showcase the award winning solos and duets from the competition teams.
The pre-show will also highlight graduating senior Heather Ellison doing a jazz routine.
At 4 p.m. “A TV Guide to Dance” will be performed.
Dance Dreams will be offering summer classes beginning June 19.
For more information, call 704-933-7170 or go to DanceDreamsStudio.com.
Blue Ridge concerts
OLD FORT ó There will be six Saturdays of free evening concerts at Mountain Gateway Museum and Heritage Center in Old Fort.
David Holt, the Kruger Brothers and Sheila Kay Adams are among the well-known musicians who will perform traditional music at the site’s outdoor amphitheater. The performances are 7 p.m. every Saturday (except July 5) from June 14 to July 26 and are presented as part of Mountain Gateway Museum’s summer series Blue Ridge Traditions.
Also, from 2 to 6 p.m. on the same Saturdays, there will be craft demonstrations, storytellers and hands-on activities. Craft demonstrations and activities will vary each Saturday. For example, June 28 centers on the theme “Sheep to Sweater,” so you can watch individuals spin, weave, knit and crochet. On July 26, you can see farm animals, learn about beekeeping and more.
A schedule of the 7 p.m. concerts follows:
* June 14: David Holt and the Lightning Bolts;
* June 21: Sheila Kay Adams and Balsam Range;
* June 28: The Welch Family and fiddler Bobby Hicks, plus Cherokee Heritage with storyteller Freeman Owle;
* July 12: George Shuffler and Family, Denise O’Sullivan, the New North Carolina Ramblers;
* July 19: The Griggs, Paul Brown and the Toast String Stretchers (At 4 p.m., join a mountain dance workshop with Phil Jamison and Loretta and Lynsey Freeman);
* July 26: Clarence Green with Wayne Martin, the Kruger Brothers.
A weekly schedule will be posted on ncarts.org/free concerts, or call Mountain Gateway Museum at 828-668-9259 for details.
Musical chairs
The Salisbury Symphony Orchestra consists of more than 70 professional musicians. The cost to present a quality full-orchestra concert falls between $30,000 and $40,000 each.
The Salisbury Symphony Orchestra has flourished for more than 40 years because of the support of Rowan County government, foundations, companies, organizations and its enthusiastic audiences.
One of the ways to support the symphony is to sponsor a musician’s chair for a season. The cost of $1,000 goes a long way to help pay for that musician. Some generous citizens have “endowed” a chair; a $10,000 donation to the endowment ensures that the musician who sits in a particular chair will be paid as long as the symphony exists.
Some chairs which are endowed include the assistant concertmaster (endowed by Mr. and Mrs. Charles Wallace), principal second violin (Mr. and Mrs. James M. Norman), principal flute (Mr. and Mrs. Robert L. Cook), principal oboe (Eric P. Slipp), principal horn (Mrs. Allen S. Johnson), horn (Joseph K. Goldman), principal trombone (Bob and Lois Pruehsner), and principal keyboard (Katharine W. Osborne). This season, two more chairs have been endowed.
Mrs. Maynard (Betsy) Rich, who would have liked to learn to play the cello herself, has endowed the principal cello chair in memory of her husband Dr. Maynard “Frosty” Rich and her son, Paul. “They both loved the symphony music, and we all want it to continue,” Betsy Rich said. “What a great time to make this come true, too, with Anne Sellitti, the principal cellist, featured as soloist on one of the concerts this next season.”
The Symphony Guild, completing one of their most successful fund-raising seasons, has chosen to endow a chair in honor of Dr. Jean Owen who has been such an integral part of their success over many years. Owen chose the principal tuba chair, in part because of the talent of Edward Baity Jr. and his loyalty to the Salisbury Symphony and in part because “it reminds me of (husband) Foster. Ed has been a giver to the symphony himself, amazed and inspired by the support of the community. And, he plays a nice tuba!”
If you’re interested in sponsoring or endowing a musician’s chair, contact the symphony office at 704-637-4314 or ljones@catawba.edu.