The Asheville Symphony’s biennial festival blends music, art, foodways and more in a celebration of narrative through community.
This celebration of music and the arts runs April 30 – May 10, 2025, with the theme “The Art of Storytelling,” exploring the power of music, theatre, art, and foodways to inspire, connect, and captivate.
Headliners Chris Thile and Time For Three
Co-headlining the festival are Grammy Award-winning mandolinist, composer, and MacArthur “Genius Grant” recipient Chris Thile, and the Grammy- and Emmy-winning ensemble Time For Three (TF3), renowned for their genre-blending virtuosity.
Chris Thile is a mandolinist, singer, songwriter, composer, and recipient of the prestigious MacArthur Fellow “Genius Grant,” described by The Guardian as “that rare being: an all-round musician,” and hailed by NPR as a “genre-defying musical genius.” Thile is a founding member of the highly influential string bands Punch Brothers and Nickel Creek, and has collaborated with countless luminaries from Yo-Yo Ma to Fiona Apple to Brad Mehldau. For four years, he hosted “Live from Here with Chris Thile” (successor to A Prairie Home Companion).
With his broad outlook, Thile creates a distinctly American canon and a new musical aesthetic for performers and audiences alike, giving the listener, according to The New York Times, “one joyous arc, with the linear melody and vertical harmony blurring into a single web of gossamer beauty.”
Time for Three (TF3)—comprising violinists Charles Yang and Nick Kendall and bassist Ranaan Meyer—defy conventions with their genre-bending excellence. Their captivating sound merges eras, styles, and traditions across Western music genres, including classical music, Americana, and singer-songwriter styles.
The ensemble has worked closely with such artists as Chris Brubeck and Pulitzer Prize winners William Bolcom and Jennifer…
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