Rising Stars Returns Tuesday August 25

The sounds of summer can take on many forms: the hum of cicadas in the afternoon sun, the cheerful warbling of a songbird, the echo of distant music drifting through an open window. It’s the blissful feeling of having nowhere else to be — savoring the present moment, with an air of nostalgia for the past.

For violinist Anant Malpani, that feeling is woven into the music he’s selected for his Aug. 25 Rising Stars concert at the Asheville Art Museum, presented by Asheville Chamber Music Series. The Rising Stars concert series showcases promising young North Carolina musicians.

“I really wanted to create a program that evokes summertime, at least to me, in some way,” he said. “It’s such a beautiful venue, with such large panoramic views of downtown Asheville. I just wanted to bring that sense of the season inside.”

At 22, Malpani is himself in a kind of summer — between one stage of his life and the next. In 2025, he graduated from University of North Carolina Chapel Hill with degrees in economics and music, serving as concertmaster of the UNC Symphony. Now, he is pursuing a master’s degree at the Royal College of Music in London.

He started playing violin at 5, but it was around age 9 that he discovered his passion for chamber music. “There’s just such a sensitivity in chamber music — of having to really deeply listen and anticipate what other people are going to do,” he said. “You have to be prepared to adapt to obstacles in a split second and trust in other musicians to do the same.”

For the Rising Stars concert, Malpani will be joined by pianist Christopher Tavernier. The two are performing together for the first time, bringing four works spanning more than a century of music to the museum’s galleries.

The program opens with Augusta Read Thomas’ “Caprice” for solo violin, a contemporary work written in 2005 that incorporates elements of jazz into its classical framework. Malpani said the piece’s openness gives him room to explore how those two musical worlds can meet.

“Interestingly, it was written as a wedding present for violinist Rachel Barton Pine and her husband, but it’s not, to me, what you’d expect from a wedding present. It seems to carry a lot of angst,” he explained. “Personally, I almost interpret that as looking back at the past — jumping up and down the fingerboard, trying to find your way — and the joy of letting it go.”

The program continues with Francis Poulenc’s “Sonata for Violin and Piano,” written during World War II and dedicated to Spanish poet Federico García Lorca, who was killed at the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War. Malpani sees the piece as a work of conflict and loss, but also one of remembrance and beauty.

“ There’s this balance of peace in between moments of conflict — these moments of war and tragedy that feel very heavy, next to passages that evoke, through everything, still enjoying time with the people you love. It evokes a strong sense of nostalgia, because I feel like he's reminiscing on what he enjoyed about being around those that he’s lost.”

William Grant Still’s “Summerland” follows, bringing another American voice into the program. An African American composer, Still incorporated elements of jazz into his work, creating an interesting contrast with Thomas’ contemporary use of the genre. For Malpani, including both Thomas and Still was also a deliberate way to highlight composers whose voices have historically been underrepresented in the classical canon.

The concert concludes with César Franck’s “Sonata in A Major for Violin and Piano,” a beloved work of the violin repertoire — and one Malpani simply loves to play.

“It’s probably one of the most remarkable sonatas written for violin,” he said. “It just feels like a party. Every movement is a banger.”

In fact, he added, “the last movement feels, to me, like you're sitting by the river on a nice, not-too-warm summer day, enjoying a drink — the sun on your skin, the wind in your hair.”

That is, perhaps, the best gift of the summer season: The permission to linger and soak in the present moment. To notice the warmth of the sun, the movement of the water, the music coming from somewhere nearby. And to remember those moments of the past.

“I guess that’s what I’m hoping that people will walk away with,” Malpani said. A few hours to slow down and let summer memories surface.

IF YOU GO

What: Rising Stars Performance with Anant Malpani & Christopher Tavernier, presented by Asheville Chamber Music Series

When: Tuesday, Aug. 25 at 6 p.m.

Where: Asheville Art Museum, 2 N. Pack Square, downtown Asheville

Tickets: $18, Buy Now