What makes a place feel like a home?
Maybe it's the people we gather with. The traditions we return to each year. A familiar melody, a favorite landscape, or the feeling of belonging somewhere.
The holidays have a way of bringing these things to mind.
Here, Together is an outdoor violin concert exploring our connections to people, places, and the natural world through the holiday music that has brought us all together for generations. Violinist and Wild Notes founder Dr. Amanda Guilfoyle will perform traditional holiday melodies while inviting listeners to consider what makes a place feel like home—and what holds us together.
Finding Home in the Living World
Why explore belonging through music in a botanical garden?
When we think about home, we often think of a house, a town, or the people waiting for us at the end of the day. But home is also something we experience through our relationships with the world around us.
Here in the Southern Appalachians, the forest's plants and animals are connected in countless ways. Trees offer shelter to birds and insects, and fallen leaves nourish the soil. Beneath our feet, roots and fungi participate in complex relationships that help sustain the living community. No living thing exists entirely on its own.
Our own lives are shaped by relationships, too. The people we love, the places we return to, and the traditions we share all help create our sense of belonging.
Holiday music offers a beautiful way to explore this connection. Melodies passed from one generation to the next can carry memories of people and places, even as our lives change. A song can remind us of somewhere we've been, someone we miss, or a moment we shared.
At Here, Together, we'll listen for these connections in the music and in the garden. We'll consider how the living world creates places of shelter and belonging, and how we might become more attentive to the places and communities that sustain us.
Perhaps home isn't just somewhere we live, but something we help create through the relationships we nurture.
What to expect
This approximately 30-minute concert is designed to be a peaceful, welcoming experience for listeners of all ages.
Amanda will perform a selection of holiday music on solo violin, sharing short reflections between pieces that connect the melodies to the garden around us.
Whether you're gathering with family for Thanksgiving, visiting Asheville for the weekend, or simply looking for a quiet way to begin the holiday season, you're welcome to join us.
Here, together.
About Us
About Wild Notes Foundation
Wild Notes Foundation creates free, place-responsive classical music experiences in parks, preserves, and wild places.
Rather than treating nature as scenery for a concert, Wild Notes uses music as a way to deepen attention to the places where we gather—their sounds, seasons, wildlife, stories, and ecological relationships.
Through performances, experiences, and educational programming, Wild Notes invites people of all ages to listen more closely, notice more deeply, and build meaningful relationships with the living world.
About the Garden
About Wild Notes Foundation
The Asheville Botanical Garden is an independent nonprofit dedicated to the study and preservation of native plants of the Southern Appalachians.
Visitors are encouraged to explore the garden before or after the concert, observe its beautiful native plant communities, and consider making a donation to support its ongoing work. The garden receives no public funding and depends on community support.
Please familiarize yourself with the garden rules before visiting. Help us care for this special place by staying on designated paths, respecting the plants and wildlife, and leaving no trace.
This performance is presented by Wild Notes Foundation with permission by the Asheville Botanical Garden.