Nancy Gould-Aaron
What a celebration! As the final notes of the Highlands-Cashiers Chamber Music Festival’s 45th Anniversary Season fade, I find myself thinking not only about the extraordinary music we shared this summer, but about the remarkable community that has sustained this Festival for 45 seasons.
A milestone like this belongs to all of us.
From our opening concert to the final ovation, this season reminded us why chamber music can feel less like a performance and more like a conversation – one that musicians and audiences enter together.
Our deepest thanks go to the Highlands Chamber Of Commerce/Visit Highlands, NC, Mountain Findings, Cullasaja Women’s Outreach and A.L. Williams for their continued grant support. And to our donors, sponsors and underwriters: your generosity makes possible every note we hear, while introducing new audiences to chamber music and giving longtime friends of the Festival another reason to gather.
This anniversary season gave us so many reasons to applaud. Jeanne Marie and Dan McNellis graciously hosted our Angel Party, while Marie Sharpe welcomed us for a wonderful Legacy Party. Highlands Falls Country Club provided the setting – and an outstanding dinner – for our Gala. And then there was Mary Thompson’s incredible Mountain Music Soiree with violinist David Coucheron, an evening that captured what our Festival does best: bringing exceptional musicians and audiences together in a setting where the distance between them almost disappears.
We are enormously grateful to our venue partners: Old Edwards Farm Pavilion, First Presbyterian Church of Commerce, Albert Carlton-Cashiers Community Library, Highlands Performing Arts Center and The Village Green Commons-Lewis Hall. Each provides its own distinctive home for the music we love.
Special thanks belong to our salon, feast and housing hosts. By opening your homes and tables to our artists and audiences, you create the warmth, hospitality and intimacy that have always distinguished this Festival – and musical experiences that simply cannot happen in a traditional concert hall. Festival artist Richard Bordeaux brought another creative dimension to our 45th season, his visual artistry adding beauty and warmth to this milestone year.
Most of all, thank you to everyone who bought a ticket, attended a concert, opened a home, volunteered, made a gift, sponsored a performance or simply told a friend about the Festival.
Forty-five years in, I’m more certain than ever: it is this extraordinary community that makes the Highlands-Cashiers Plateau such a special place to call home.
Thank you for being part of this joyous milestone season – and for all the seasons still to come.
With heartfelt gratitude.
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