What you and Elizabeth are doing for all of us who love chamber music
is a treasure we cherish... Margie D.

• 1999 Flutist Kate Steinbeck visualized bringing friends together for a couple of weeks each summer to play exquisite chamber works in remarkable settings of the Carolinas.
• 2000 Steinbeck invited cellist Elizabeth Austin and violist Andrew Levin to form an ensemble.
• August 1, 2001 As Bartram’s Trio, Steinbeck, Austin and Levin presented 4 concerts – two each in North and South Carolina -- and inaugurated a music festival. They named the burgeoning festival Keowee to honor the original inhabitants of this Carolina region. Keowee or Kuwâhiyi, the correct form in Tsalagi, the Cherokee language, was one of the largest and most important settlements of the Cherokee nation and the main village of the lower Cherokee. In the 1960’s this land was flooded to create Lake Keowee; the settlement site now lies under water.
• 2002 Keowee presented two different programs over two weeks – six concerts in all - and pianist Dewitt Tipton joined the roster. A Sunday afternoon concert was established in Pretty Place Chapel near Cedar Mountain, NC, offering an inspiring chamber music experience in an incredibly beautiful natural setting.
• 2003 Kate Steinbeck and Elizabeth Austin began co-directing the festival and presented the first guest artists, members of The Countryside Trio of Virginia.
• 2004 Keowee presented its first children’s concert, KEOWEE for KIDS!
• December 8, 2004 Keowee Chamber Music Festival was granted its 501(c3) nonprofit status.
• 2005 Keowee presented critically acclaimed performances and the NC/SC premiere of Andrea Clearfield’s Three Songs after Poems by Pablo Neruda with guest artist Fred Bretschger of the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra and narrator Salvadoran Tito Amaya along with Kate Steinbeck. Read Review
• Invited to be ensemble-in-residence at the Reuter Center in 2006, NC Center for Creative Retirement, Keowee presented its first public open rehearsal, a free event to welcome the public into the realm of chamber music.
• 2006 Programming was expanded to include five children’s concerts, two open rehearsals – all admission free events --and Acoustic Dessert, a late evening gallery concert pairing the visual arts with live performance. Keowee was awarded grants from the Susanne Marcus Collins Foundation and the SC Arts Commission to support children’s programming and community outreach efforts.
• Fall 2006 Keowee extended its offerings with concerts in September and October: A Slice of Music and Art at the Wedge Gallery in Asheville and Recollections in the Cathedral of All Souls, Biltmore Village, Asheville

Keowee Chamber Music Festival’s 8th season takes place, June 3-15, 2008. Keowee continues to champion excellence and diversity in programming and seeks to bring new audiences to chamber music.

Roster of Musicians 2001-2006
Kate Steinbeck, flute
Alicia Chapman, oboe
Cara Jenkins, oboe
Jennifer Merrill, horn
Bradley Howard, tenor
Amy Brucksch, guitar
Corine Brouwer, violin
Ginger Kowal, violin
Linda Plaut, violin*+
Leslie Warlick, violin
Andrew Levin, viola
Lisa Zweben, viola
Elizabeth Austin, cello
Tim Holley, cello*
Fred Bretschger, bass*
Judy Bevans, piano*+
Dewitt Tipton, piano
Byron Hedgepeth, percussion
Tito Amaya, narrator

*Guest artists
+The Countryside Trio of Virginia

Past Festival Programs