Metro residents attending the Highlands-Cashiers Chamber Music Festival just over the Georgia line in western North Carolina frequently enjoy seeing and hearing favorite Atlanta musicians in its intimate concert settings.
That should be true yet again at this summer’s 34th edition, running July 5 through Aug. 9, with artists including Atlanta Symphony Orchestra concertmaster David Coucheron and pianist Elizabeth Pridgen, the Atlanta Chamber Players artistic director. But the 27-concert lineup orchestrated by William Ransom of the Emory Chamber Music Society of Atlanta also is unusually strong in international artists making their festival debuts, notably including:
- Russian violinist Roman Kim, who will make his U.S. bow at the fest. Kim's energetic and daring playing garners great responses from fellow musicians and others. Comments about a video of the violinist performing Paganini's "God Save the King" (in which he even uses his teeth to pluck strings) on www.violinist.com include: "Holy @#&%! I'd better get off this computer and start practicing again!" "Alien," and "Holy shiitake mushrooms!"
- The Ariel Quartet, formed in Jerusalem in 1998 and now quartet in residence at the Cincinnati Conservatory. They received the prestigious Cleveland Quartet Award in 2013.
- Andres Cardenes, the Cuban-born violinist who served as Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra concertmaster and has appeared as a soloist with more than 100 orchestras across four continents.
Information: 828-526-9060, www.h-cmusicfestival.org.
ATTRACTION
Southern Museum shows two Medals of Honor
The Southern Museum of Civil War and Locomotive History in Kennesaw recently placed on exhibition a second Medal of Honor connected to the Great Locomotive Chase.
Awarded to Wilson W. Brown, a Union soldier and Andrews Raider, the medal is on display next to the Medal of Honor of fellow Andrews Raider John Scott.
Brown originally was awarded the medal in 1863 for the role he played in seizing the General locomotive on April 12, 1862, as part of a daring bid to destroy the Western & Atlantic Railroad between Atlanta and Chattanooga. The theft kick-started the Great Locomotive Chase.
The medal now on view was issued in 1904 in an updated form to foil counterfeiters.
The Southern Museum has exhibited Scott’s award since 2003.
“To hold in the collection not one, but two of the first Medals of Honor ever awarded is a rare distinction,” curator Jonathan Scott said. “We’re proud to be able to exhibit both of these medals alongside each other and adjacent to the locomotive that their recipients stole in 1862.”
The medals will be displayed through 2015. $7.50, $6.50 seniors, $5.50 ages 4-12. 2829 Cherokee St., Kennesaw (exit 273 on Interstate 75). 770-427-2117, www.southernmuseum.org.
THEATER
Fringe Festival brings 20 shows this week
How to pick from the 20 productions from five states that will be featured during the 4th Atlanta Fringe Festival, June 4-7 at 7 Stages and four other nearby sites?
Just the titles alone sound so intriguing, among them: “Woody vs. Mia vs. Gwyneth vs. Coldplay,” “BBQ or Mildew,” “The Next Year People: A Dust Bowl Comedy” and “Flying Without Feathers.”
Per the festival’s tradition, the 20 shows were selected via random, unjuried lottery — literally pulled out of a hat — so there’s an element of unapologetic happenstance to the undertaking. This year’s productions, including 10 from the metro area, run a gamut from family-friendly cabaret to puppetry and modern dance to aerial acrobatics.
The fest does offer a sampler platter of sorts, a free preview party at 7:30 p.m. June 3 at 7 Stages where every act will perform a three-minute excerpt.
Festival button (required for every patron), $3. Single-show tickets, $10. Passes: six shows, $40; 10 shows, $60; all-access, $99, available from www.brownpapertickets.com.
Information: 678-281-1816, www.AtlantaFringe.org, www.facebook.com/atlantafringe.
Also through June 7, Atlanta Fringe Audio offers free podcasts of storytelling and radio theater submitted by local and national artists at www.atlantafringe.org/fringe-audio.
CLASSICAL MUSIC
Atlanta Youth Wind Symphony playing Carnegie Hall
The Atlanta Youth Wind Symphony (AYWS), conducted by music director Scott Stewart, will appear at New York's Carnegie Hall at 8 p.m. June 6.
George Curran, the former Atlanta Symphony Orchestra bass trombonist who now plays with the New York Philharmonic, will join the youth symphony to perform David Gillingham’s “Vital Signs of Planet Earth,” which was written for him. And National Symphony Orchestra principal timpanist Jauvon Gilliam and Atlanta Symphony Orchestra principal timpanist Mark Yancich will perform James Oliverio’s “Dynasty Double Timpani Concerto.”
Also on the program are works by two Atlanta natives: “Moth” by 24-year-old composer Viet Cuong and “afterlight” by William Pitts.
Comprised of 85 students in grades 9 through 12, the AYWS was founded as a metro honor wind ensemble in 1988. It made its Carnegie Hall debut in 2005.
Tickets, $25: 212-247-7800, carnegiehall.org.
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