Serving Boone, Blowing Rock, Banner Elk, and other towns of the North Carolina High Country | Founded 05-05-05

St. John’s Presents Southern Appalachian Chamber Singers September 2

Story by Celeste von Mangan

In the final concert of the St. John’s summer series, the Southern Appalachian Chamber Singers will perform at 5:00 p.m. on Sunday, September 2, at the historic St. John the Baptist Episcopal Church in Valle Crucis. In their repertoire, the chamber singers include 19th century folk hymns and shape note selections from the sacred harp and Christian harmony traditions.

“We’ve had a really great season,” said Reverend Beth Turner, St. John’s summer vicar. “This is the first time I think we’ve become really organized. Jacqueline Bartlett has organized concerts all over the country as well as worldwide. In the first concert, three young harpists were featured; in the second, we had Gamba Consort, where they played musical instruments popular in the 14th and 15th centuries. This is the third and final concert of the series. What is so special about the concerts is the setting is so intimate and the audience gets to speak to the performers. We’ve been pretty full—about 80 people for each concert and the church seats 100.”

Bartlett, a Boone resident and professor of harp at Appalachian State University, is serving as artistic director of the summer concert series. She is a graduate of UNC Greensboro and the North Carolina School of the Arts. Holy Cross Episcopal Church, also in Valle Crucis, is working in conjunction with Bartlett to oversee the concert events.

“We are looking at this last concert as a celebration,” said Turner. “For all the concerts we’ve invited people to bring picnics and they get to mingle with people who are interested in music. There is a myth that St. John’s is closed or that it is only used for the occasional wedding or funeral. It is not open all year because there is no heat for the winter, but it is open from Memorial Day Sunday through Labor Day Sunday. Episcopal services are held but they are less formal ones. There is live music, from a cello to traditional mountain music plus a hammered dulcimer service.”

Joel F. Reed founded the Southern Appalachian Chamber Singers in 1998. The group is comprised mainly of Mars Hill College Choir alumni and music faculty and is based in the Blue Ridge Mountains near Asheville. The choir performs regularly for college events and performs in many off-campus concert series throughout the western North Carolina area.

Concerts and services are meant to be family friendly, and Turner strives to make the events intimate and welcoming to everybody.

St. John’s will be refurbished in the near future, thanks to community support from individuals as well as the Mast General Store providing a grant to help the church.

“A lot of people have been buried there, married there,” said Turner. “Family reunions are held there. People really seem to care about the church. It’s kind of a sweet spot in the valley.”

The suggested donation to attend the concert is $10 for adults, with children under 12 admitted free. St. John the Baptist Episcopal Church is just off of Mast Gap Road.

Call 828-963-4609 for more information.

Want To Go?

Date: Sunday, September 2
Time: 5:00 p.m.
Location: St John the Baptist Episcopal Church, Valle Crucis
Cost: $10 adults/Free for children 12 and under

History of St. John’s

St. John the Baptist Episcopal Church was built in the mid-eighteen hundreds in a fertile valley named Valle Crucis, Latin for Valley of the Cross. It was named such because of the cross formed by three creeks flowing into the valley. Rt. Reverend Levi Silliman Ives, the Second Bishop of North Carolina named the area Valle Crucis after he held services there. He established a mission to spread the Gospel, to teach agriculture and to train clergy for the Diocese. William West Skiles was appointed to oversee the mission farms and livestock. Skiles became a Brother, designed and supervised the construction of St. John’s and the small, rustic church was consecrated in 1862.