It was March 14 at Asheville’s Wortham Center for the Performing Arts . The Rosie Herrera Dance Theatre of Miami was in the middle of a weeklong residency and three-show run when the Coronavirus pandemic ground everything to a halt. “They did two performances at reduced capacity and by the third performance, we had to close,” recalled Rae Geoffrey, the center’s executive director. “I don’t think anyone expected it would be this long of a shutdown,” she said. “So we were kind of scrambling to see

Four live music venues in Asheville have joined a new national effort to lobby Congress for more financial help while they remain closed because of the Coronavirus. The National Independent Venue Association is a coalition of more than 800 clubs around the country, including the Orange Peel, the Odditorium, the Grey Eagle and Asheville Music Hall.

Kira Bursky certainly didn’t ask for a disruption like the Coronavirus. But as she talks about her latest video project , she sounds almost giddy about the effect of self-isolation. Bursky said she’s mapping digital projections onto her drawings and turning these hybrids into short YouTube videos. And these represent just some of the new art people in this region say they wouldn’t otherwise be making if not for the time afforded by pandemic. “One of the coolest things is finally having this

Before the Coronavirus sent everyone home, Angel Olsen estimates spending about nine months every year on the road, away from Asheville, performing her music all over the world. It makes the Coronavirus-caused cancellation all the more disappointing of her April 17 concert at Harrah's Cherokee Center in Asheville—part of an entire U.S. headlining tour wiped out by the pandemic. It would have been Olsen's largest home show to date. “I’ve been up until now pretty protective of overplaying

Cynthia McDermott is tall, tattooed and muscular, and that visual is all the more more striking when you see her on stage with a tiny mandolin, singing her custom mashup of early jazz, hip-hop and contemporary R&B. “I wanted to find a way to make older jazz and swing more relevant to a wider audience and also to myself,” she said. McDermott’s band is the Pimps of Pompe and, before the Coronavirus wiped out every public function, they had a March 31 show planned to celebrate their self-titled

Two weekends ago, when music and theatrical performances everywhere began to topple like dominoes, Katie Jones, the artistic director of Asheville’s Magnetic Theatre , spoke with the cast and crew about to premiere the play “Traitor.” “It was late Thursday night, and this particular group had been through their dress rehearsal,” Jones said. “They’ve done a whole production’s worth of work and I thought ‘OK, if we don’t do this production now, we’re never gonna get to do it.’” Opening night was

Melissa Hyman is a cellist and Ryan Furstenberg a guitarist, who write and record music as The Moon and You from their home in West Asheville. For the married couple and countless musicians here and everywhere, March 13 was their Black Friday. “I was realizing we were gonna need to cancel everything,” Hyman said.

Blake Ellege is a musician and vocalist in Brevard who counts nine bands he performs in. He remembers getting a call last Thursday warning the Coronavirus could threaten some upcoming shows. “I kid you not, literally, five minutes later, the same colleague notified me that two of my gigs that week had been canceled,” Ellege said. Five hours later, another call—more canceled shows. An hour after that, one of Ellege’s side hustles—spending two months every spring as an Easter Bunny mascot at the

UPDATED: 4pm March 16 While the Coronavirus outbreak has compelled many artists, venues and arts organizations to postpone and cancel events, a handful are continuing—for now—with events as planned. Here's a roundup of cancellations, followed by events moving forward. This is an ongoing and developing story, and BPR will update and revise this information as needed:

It’s a Monday afternoon, and John West is rehearsing a wind and brass ensemble at Western Carolina University . West had already been teaching here about 15 years when most of these students were born. “Clarinet section, can you give me more on those 16th notes there?” he asks his students. “Just a little early on that last leg. Deee-dahh, da-da-deee-dahhh . Wait for that, alright?” On the eve of his retirement, after 35 years at the university, West said his job has evolved beyond teaching and