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Rodeo, choirs, bluegrass on tap this weekend

By Bill Moss, Published: May 1, 2013

FLETCHER - The Cinco de Mayo Rodeo and Festival will have something for everyone from noon to 10 p.m. Sunday, May 5, at the WNC Agricultural Center.

Activities include championship bull riding, colorful folk dancers, mariachi music, cultural exhibits and mouth-watering, authentic Mexican cuisine honoring Mexico's culture and tradition. The event takes place in the outdoor show ring.
Tickets at the gate are $20 for adults, $5 children ages 11 to 16 and free for children 10 and under. Adults can save $5 per ticket by purchasing in advance at the following locations until May 4: Davis Arena, WNC Ag Center, 1301 Fanning Bridge Rd., Fletcher, 828-687-1414; Botas El Chino, 925 Smiley's Flea Market, Fletcher, 828-316-1417; Botas El Chino, 1171 A. Spartanburg Highway, Hendersonville, 828-698-7419; Rincon Latino, 34 New Leicester Highway, Suite C, Asheville, 828-250-9272.

Appalachian Fire in concert at UUFH
Appalachian Fire Bluegrass Band will be in concert at 7 p.m. Saturday, May 4 at the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship in Hendersonville.
The group has played at venues from feed stores to restaurants to festivals in Western North Carolina.
Doors will open at 6:30; the concert gets underway a half-hour later. During intermission, refreshments will be available. A donation of $15 is suggested.
The UUFH sanctuary is located on Kanuga Road at Price Street. For information, call 828-693-3157 or visit www.uufh-nc.org.

Carolina Concert Choir

Carolina Concert Choir presents its spring concert, a lighter, secular program, at 7:30 p.m. on May 3, and 3 p.m. May 4 in the sanctuary of St. James Episcopal Church. The first half of the program features madrigals by the Renaissance English composer Thomas Morley, Schumann's "A Gypsy's Life" and Brahms' "Song of Fate" which will be sung in English.
The second half of the program will feature excerpts from Randall Thompson's "Frostiana" with poetry by Robert Frost, three Beatles' songs ("Michelle," "When I'm Sixty-Four," "Yesterday"), and patriotic songs, spirituals, and folk songs, including Sally Lamb McCune's haunting setting of "America the Beautiful" dedicated to the victims of 9/11 which will move and inspire the audience.
Tickets may be purchased at the Hendersonville Visitors' Center, The Winkled Egg (Flat Rock), Laurel Park Wine Market, the office of St. James Episcopal Church, from CCC members, or on-line at CarolinaConcertChoir.org. Call Dr. Lynn Moore at 828 891-8416 for more information.


Choral Evensong
The Choir of St. James Episcopal Church will sing Choral Evensong at 3 p.m. Sunday, May 5, with the Rev. Joel G. Hafer officiating. The choir will sing Magnificat and Nunc dimittis in Eb by Charles Wood, Anglican chant by Thomas Norris, and Prayers and Responses by Richard Ayleward. Anthems will be "If ye Love Me" by Thomas Tallis and "Antiphon (Let All the World in Ev'ry Corner Sing)" by Vaughan Williams.
The service will be followed by an organ recital by Brennan Szafron, organist/choirmaster at Church of the Advent in Spartanburg. Before coming to Spartanburg, Szafron was the assistant organist and choirmaster of Christ Episcopal Church, Grosse Pointe, Mich., with whom he toured France and Switzerland in the summer of 2003. He was also a student at the University of Michigan, where he received a Doctor of Musical Arts degree in organ performance, studying with Robert Glasgow. Other degrees include a Master of Music degree from Yale University, where his teachers were Thomas Murray and Martin Jean, and a Bachelor of Music degree, with distinction, from the University of Alberta, where his teachers were Jacobus Kloppers and Marnie Giesbrecht. At the age of 21, he became a Fellow of the Royal Canadian College of Organists.
Szafron will be playing the Bach Toccata in E Major (BWV 566), the Widor Scherzo from Symphony IV, the Sowerby Fanfare, and other works by Sweelinck, Bonnet, and Gerald Bales. The service and recital will be followed by a candlelight reception in the Parish Hall.
For further information, contact Director of Music Brad Gee at St. James Church at 828-694-6925 or Brad@stjamesepiscopal.com.

Celebration of jewelry making at BRCC May 3
The 21st Annual Arida Arts Symposium at Blue Ridge Community College will honor Marilyn Bailey, jewelry maker, on Friday, May 3, at Blue Ridge Community College Henderson County Campus.
After earning a bachelor of fine arts degree from Northern Michigan University, Bailey studied with Richard Thomas at Cranbrook Academy of Art, where she earned a master of fine arts degree in metalsmithing.
At Cranbrook she had two years of intensive training, studying the structure of metal and how it moves. She learned to begin with a flat sheet of metal and hammer it gradually, turning the metal into three-dimensional forms.
Today, Marilyn hammers each individual piece of jewelry from sheets of silver or gold, using either the speculum or anticlastic raising techniques. She tries each design on herself and works to get the form just right to grace and enhance a woman's beauty.
Bailey will present a master class from 9:30 to 11:30 a.m. in Patton Building, Room 150. A reception will be held from 5:30 to 6:45 p.m. in Thomas Auditorium Gallery followed by the evening presentation from 7 to 8 p.m., Thomas Auditorium
Reservations are encouraged for the evening performance and may be made by calling 828-694-1735
All events are funded by the Gamil T. Arida Endowment Fund through Blue Ridge Community College Educational Foundation and are free to the public.