20% of all ticket sales will go to Hurricane Helene relief
Fiddles, guitars, banjos, and clogging take center stage at the Montgomery Museum’s Cultural Crossroads in Traditional Music and Dance concert, featuring regional heritage artists representing old-time, bluegrass, and dance at the Moss Arts Center at Virginia Tech Wednesday, Nov. 6, at 7 p.m.
The concert program aims to enlighten audiences about the various cultural influences in Appalachian music. This concert will feature a multicultural perspective and emphasis on its roots and early influences from African American, Indigenous First people, Japanese, Hispanic/Latino, and Western European cultures.
The concert will feature 12 diverse performing artists including the New Ballard’s Branch Bogtrotters, The Lua Project, Mist on the Mountain, Kazuhiro Inaba, Earl White Band, Jarrett Wildcatt, Jack Hinshelwood, Phil Jamison, Green Grass Cloggers, Jacob Wright, Dr. Dena Jennings, and Victor Dowdy with an introduction by The Crooked Road Director, Tyler Hughes.
Many of the performers hail from regions across Appalachia including Southwest Virginia, Western North Carolina, and Eastern Tennessee. 20% of all ticket sale proceeds will be donated to Mountain Ways, a non-profit organization dedicated to bringing the hospitality and values of the Appalachian region to those facing natural disasters and tragedies. Supporting the Montgomery Museum and traditional Appalachian arts will help serve and support victims of flooding from Hurricane Helene.
In conjunction with the Cultural Crossroads in Traditional Music and Dance concert, the Montgomery Museum of Art and History will host a special workshop by Dr. Dena Jennings at the Moss Arts Center Cube at 2 p.m. Nov. 6. Jennings, a physician, president of the Board of the Virginia Commission for the Arts, and an accomplished artist known for creating and playing unique gourd instruments, will present Traditions and Transformation: Black Appalachia. This engaging presentation will explore the rich cultural significance of Black Appalachian music, highlighting the transformative role of traditional gourd instruments in the region’s musical heritage. The workshop is free and open to the public.
This celebration of traditional arts is made possible in part by many grantor agencies including the Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation, National Endowment for the Arts, Virginia Commission for the Arts, The Crooked Road, Virginia Humanities, International Bluegrass Music Association, and The Japan Foundation, New York. Other local sponsors include Stateson Homes, Friends of the Blue Ridge, Shelter Alternatives, David Reemsnyder, the Edward Via College of Osteopathic Medicine, and many more.
To purchase tickets, visit https://www.montgomerymuseum.org/, call the Moss Arts Center Box Office at (540) 231-5300, or visit the Montgomery Museum at 4 East Main St., Christiansburg, VA 24073.
Montgomery Museum of Art and History
