Thursday June 19, 2003 Online Since 1996 Vol. 77 No. 52

The Appalachian | News
An Appalachian Summer Festival By Kevin DeLury
Staff Writer

Special to The Appalachian
Parsons Dance Company is a part of this year’s An Appalachian Summer Festival. They will perform in Farthing Auditorium July 23 at 8 p.m.
    An Appalachian Summer Festival kicks off its 19th year June 27.
    The festival will continue throughout the month of July, showcasing musicians, actors, dancers and artists from all of the country. Utilizing nine different venues across Appalachian State University’s campus, the event is a huge undertaking headed up by the university’s Office of Cultural Affairs.
    Originally, the festival started as a common desire of seasonal residents and the university to have an arts festival held over the summer. Since then, An Appalachian Summer Festival has gone on to be named one of the “Top 20 Events in the Southeast” by the Southeast Tourist Society.
   “It’s really been huge,” said Denise Ringler, Director of Marketing for the Office of Cultural Affairs. “I think when Appalachian Summer started, it had a reputation as being something that Floridians do. The out-of-towners would come in the summer and wanted something looking like a big-city art series and created Appalachian Summer.”
   But over the years as An Appalachian Summer Festival has become more firmly rooted, the ownership has transferred more to the community.”
    That transfer has made for a much wider array of people in attendance at the festival.
    “It’s really now truly eclectic,” Ringler said. “The audience that you see here is seasonal residents, but it’s also the local community.”
    One member of the Appalachian community who will be performing this year is recently resigned Chancellor Francis T. Borkowski.
    Borkowski will play the clarinet with the Broyhill Chamber Ensemble July 1 alongside his wife Kay, who plays the flute.
    Borkowski will also conduct the original chamber orchestra setting of “Appalachian Spring” on July 9.
    Another interesting aspect of An Appalachian Summer Festival is a showcase of “Work in Progress Artists.”
    The idea started four years ago with the inspiration of festival Artistic Director Gil Morgenstern. The “Work in Progress” series gives artists a unique opportunity for collaboration and the conception of new pieces.
    “Gil’s idea was to bring the musicians up on stage with the dancers and have them work together to inspire each other and influence each other,” Ringler said. “And what’s so interesting about that is when you’re creating a new work and having artists from different disciplines each interpreting the new work or bringing life to it, you have this really amazing process where there’s a creative flow; you have playwrights influencing actors and actors influencing dancers, so there’s this cross-fertilization that happens.”
    The series also allows the audience to give their response to the work, whether positive or negative.
    “The audience will respond in whatever way they want and then the artists involved take that input and use that to improve the work, the goal being to premier that work in New York,” Ringler said.
    In the past four years, two of the works birthed at An Appalachian Summer Festival have gone on to New York: “The Scrimshaw Violin” premiered in December 2001, and “The Art of the Fugitive” premiered in January 2003.
    The festival will end July 26 with fireworks and an outdoor concert by country singer Lee Ann Womack.
    For more information on performers, performance times and tickets, call 800-841-ARTS (2787) or visit An Appalachian Summer Festival’s Web site at: www.appsummer.org. 		 
 
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