Message from Founder & Producing Artistic Director, Christopher Dolman

Welcome to the 2023 Lake Lure Music Festival (LLMF).  This summer we are bringing the highly acclaimed and award-winning bluegrass band Appalachian Road Show to the lake at Rumbling Bald on Lake Lure. This celebrated group has been exciting audiences and fans as they help tell the rich history of bluegrass music and its ties to Appalachia. Building on the success of our A Night on Broadway and A Evening of Mozart + concerts in the summer of 2022, we are continuing to produce distinct and extraordinary music for our audiences. 

While it was the beauty of Western Carolina that originally brought my wife, Cathi, and I to the area, it has been the people we’ve met and gotten to know and their dedication to the betterment of our community through volunteering, charitable giving, service to foundations and community boards that has inspired us and led us to put down roots in Lake Lure and create the festival.

No venture in the arts gets done without the enormous effort of countless people, many who are donating their time and resources to bring you our concerts.  They rarely get the recognition they deserve and so I would ask you to click the link of our LLMF Festival Committee and read the names of all our amazing members, your friends and neighbors, who have worked hundreds of hours to produce the Festival. 

I also would like to thank the Lake Lure Community Education Foundation for partnering with us and being our presenting sponsor, as well as our sponsors, community partners, Town of Lake Lure, Hickory Nut Chamber and our venues and their staffs who have also been essential to the success of our programs.  Please take a look at our Sponsorship page and other areas of our site and note the generosity of our community.

We look forward to your joining us on Saturday, June 10, 2023, for an exceptional night of music, on the beautiful shores of Lake Lure at Rumbling Bald on Lake Lure Pavilion. With an eye towards the future, it is the goal of the LLMF to produce unique concerts with diverse artists and musical styles, while continuing our strong commitment to support organizations such as the LLCA that benefit and enhance the lives of those living in the Hickory Nut Gorge.  

Critics have praised clarinetist Mark Nuccio for both his solo and chamber appearances,  describing him as “the evening’s highlight”, full of “mystery and insight” and “shaping his phrases beautifully with a rich, expressive tone.” (NY Times)

Mr. Nuccio is currently the Principal Clarinetist of the Houston Symphony since 2016.  Prior to that, he was a member of the New York Philharmonic having joined in 1999 as Associate Principal and Solo  E-flat Clarinetist. During Nuccio’s 17 years in the NYP, he served as Acting Principal Clarinet for four years from 2009-2013. Prior to his service with the Philharmonic, he has held positions with orchestras in Pittsburgh, Denver, Savannah, and Florida working with distinguished conductors such as Lorin Maazel, Kurt Masur, Mariss Jansons, Riccardo Muti, Zubin Mehta, Erich Leinsdorf, Claudio Abbado, Riccardo Chailly, André Previn, Christoph von Dohnányi, Valero Gergiev, Charles Dutoit, Gustavo Dudamel, Esa Pekka Salonen, Michael Tilson Thomas, Alan Gilbert, Andres Orozco Estrada, and Juraj Valcuha. Additionally, Mr. Nuccio has toured extensively with the Houston Symphony, the New York Philharmonic and the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra and in numerous countries, recorded with all three orchestras, and performed regularly with the Philharmonic on the award-winning series, Live from Lincoln Center, broadcast on PBS. Recent highlights include the Philharmonic’s historic and newsworthy visits to North Korea and Vietnam.

An active solo and chamber musician, Mr. Nuccio has been featured with various orchestras in the United States and made multiple appearances as a featured performer at the International Clarinet Association conventions. He made his subscription solo debut with the Houston Symphony in 2018 with several other appearances since then including his most recent March, 2022 concerto.  Nuccio’s subscription solo debut with the New York Philharmonic was Feb. 10, 2010 and then returned to perform the Copland Concerto with the NY Philharmonic under the baton of Alan Gilbert in June of 2013. Other highlights include a New York recital debut at Carnegie Hall in 2001 and his Japanese recital debut in 2002. He continues to regularly perform recitals in  Asia and Europe as well as across the United States and in New York, at Merkin Concert Hall, 92nd Street Y, Carnegie Hall, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Mr. Nuccio is on the faculty at Brevard Music Center and also participates in the chamber music series at the Strings Music Festival in Steamboat Springs, Colorado, performs at Festival Napa Valley, and recently helped to create and became the Artistic Director at the newly formed music festival called the Lake Lure Music Festival in Lake Lure, NC.  In 2023, will perform and teach for the first time in the Sarasota Music Festival.

As a studio musician, Mr. Nuccio is featured on numerous movie soundtracks, including Failure To Launch, The Last Holiday, The Rookie, The Score, Intolerable Cruelty, Alamo, Pooh’s Heffalump, Hitch, The Manchurian Candidate, as well as various television commercials, Super Bowl music and the Master’s Golf Tournament. He has also performed on the Late Show with David Letterman and on the 2003 Grammy Awards. His own debut album featuring the clarinet quintets of Mozart and Brahms, Opening Night, was released in November 2006.

A Colorado native, Mr. Nuccio was awarded the “Distinguished Alumni Award” from his alma mater, the University of Northern Colorado. He also holds a master’s degree from Northwestern University where he studied with renowned pedagogue Robert Marcellus. 

Beyond his active performing schedule, Mr. Nuccio is committed to training the next generation of musicians and currently serves as music faculty for University of Miami’s Frost School of Music in Coral Gables, FL.  He also teaches masterclasses in the U.S. and abroad.  His focus as a teacher and pedagogue was further illustrated in his published book called “The Audition Method, volume 1”, an in-depth study of some of the most visible excerpts in the repertoire used in winning an orchestral clarinet position.  This is now become a series that, in the near future, “The Audition Method” will include additional books... Clarinet volume 2, Violin, Flute and French Horn…all a part of Nuccio’s creation with partner and former student, Benjamin Baron.  The other instruments will be authored by leading performing and teaching orchestral artists on the applicable instrument around the United States, each within the same style of in-depth presentation. This will help the young student better understand each excerpt and with exercises included for each! 

Mark Nuccio is a performing artist/clinician for Buffet Music Group and a D’Addario Advising Artist & Clinician.