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|| High Country Press Newswire

DECEMBER 11, 2008 issue

Avery Arts Council Presents Holiday Heritage Concert Friday

A round of mountain music and dance is the perfect opener for the holiday season, and the Avery County Arts Council has assembled a lineup that will set your toes to tapping. The public is invited to a Holiday Heritage Concert on Friday, December 12, at 7:00 p.m. at the Lees-McRae College Evans Auditorium in Banner Elk. Admission is free.

The event is “a celebration of the homegrown musical gifts of Avery County,” said Avery Arts Council President Freda Greene. “We are proud to live where tradition is held in high regard, and our music heritage is especially rich.”

For the past two years, the arts council has hosted December concerts that showcased bluegrass music. This year the concert will also include dulcimer, clogging, bagpiping and smooth dancing—“because Avery County performers excel at those art forms as well,” Greene said.

The doors open at 6:30 p.m., and attendees can view a display of dulcimers and psalteries handcrafted by Clarence Kenyon. Dulcimer instructor Janis Kenyon will provide background music as a prelude to the concert, and pre-event refreshments will be available for a modest charge.

At 7:00 p.m., the concert gets off to a lively start with Teresa Shadoin’s Mountain Laurel Cloggers. Then the music program takes over with dulcimer by Melanie Koenig, an Elk Park music instructor.

Bluegrass comes in with performances by Lawrence Wiseman and son, fiddler Alan Johnson and brother Kenny Johnson on bass, Gary Trivette on guitar and Jason Burleson on banjo. Wiseman, the venerable 88-year-old fiddler and member of the famous Wiseman clan, was a big favorite at last year’s concert. He returns in company with his son to play and regale the audience with stories of the early years of bluegrass.

The Johnson brothers and their friends Trivette and Burleson are all well known locally for their musical talents, but it’s a rare treat to hear them play together as they are frequently on the road performing with nationally known groups.

The Holiday Heritage Concert is supported in part by funds from the Grassroots Arts Program of the North Carolina Arts Council. For more information, contact the Avery County Arts Council at 828-898-4292 or info@averycountyartscouncil.org.