Asheville – In March 2024, the Asheville Symphony Orchestra presents its first-ever Artist Residency, celebrating the impact and legacy of the violin. For the inaugural year of this exciting new project, the Asheville Symphony is thrilled to welcome world-renowned violinists Noah Bendix-Balgley and Shanshan Yao as its guest artists in residence.
This first residency will include an entire week of events, many of which are open to the public. The main event, Violin Virtuosi, is part of the symphony’s MASTERWORKS series and will take place on Saturday, March 16, 2024, at the First Baptist Church of Asheville, with performances at both 2:00 p.m. and 8:00 p.m.
World-Renowned Violinist Headline Event
Noah Bendix-Balgley and Shanshan Yao will headline this all-violin, all-concerto program as a husband-and-wife duo. The program will begin with Butterfly Lovers, an iconic Chinese work for violin and orchestra, known for its virtuosic and intertwining melodies. The delicate dance between the two violins continues with Bach’s Double Violin Concerto. Finally, Bendix-Balgley will perform Brahms’s one and only violin concerto, famous for its technically demanding passages and stunning lyricism. Darko Butorac will conduct.
Noah Bendix-Balgley, Asheville Native
Born in Asheville, North Carolina, Noah Bendix-Balgley is the First Concertmaster of the Berlin Philharmonic, widely regarded as one of the greatest orchestras in the world. He tours both as a soloist and as a chamber musician and has won top prizes at prestigious competitions such as the Queen Elisabeth Competition, the Long-Thibaud Competition, and the Postacchini Competition. Bendix-Balgley began playing the violin at age 4 and has since captivated audiences worldwide with his clear and heartfelt sound.
Noah began playing the violin at age 4. At age 9, he played for Lord Yehudi Menuhin. He graduated from the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music and the Munich Hochschule. Noah Bendix-Balgley enjoys a wide-ranging musical life as a violinist. He tours both as a soloist and as a chamber musician. His clear and heartfelt personal sound has reached and moved listeners around the world.
Shanshan Yao
Chinese violinist Shanshan Yao will join her husband, Noah Bendix-Balgley, for this all-violin program. She joined the New York Philharmonic in 2013 and has also performed as a soloist with the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra and the Sendai Philharmonic Orchestra, among others. Yao is a competition winner and holds degrees from the Curtis Institute of Music and the Juilliard School.
Residency Highlights Violin
The Asheville Symphony’s biennial residency initiative aims to honor and explore one musical instrument in collaboration with a preeminent musical artist. Through an exploration of genres, instrumentation, solo performance, and more, this week-long residency offers programmatic content for a wide range of audiences with an emphasis on education. Each residency allows Asheville Symphony audiences to discover new ways to appreciate and understand a musical instrument and its role in an orchestra.
Daily Events, Open to the Public
Starting on March 11th and ending on the 18th, The Asheville Symphony’s Artist Residency: A Celebration of the Violin will feature daily events that are open to the public. These events include the classical concert as part of the Masterworks Series, an ALT ASO performance showcasing the diverse genres of the violin, a solo recital, a historical lecture, and a workshop for strings students in Buncombe County or Asheville City Schools and members of the Asheville Symphony Youth Orchestra. Additionally, there will be a kick-off reception to meet the artists at The Radical Asheville and a benefit at the beautiful Homewood Estate, featuring great food from Celine & Co., custom cocktails, and live music from the Byron Hedgepath Trio. Some of these events are already sold out, so please visit the Asheville Symphony Orchestra’s website for availability.
Whether you are a music student discovering the violin, a music lover curious about how the instrument is employed across genres, or a longtime Symphony patron with a favorite violin concerto, the Artist Residency will deepen your insight and appreciation for this incredible instrument’s place in the musical canon.