UNC Asheville will kick off its spring concert season with two midday performances in January. Both will be held in UNC Asheville's Lipinsky Auditorium. The concerts are free and open to the public.

Multi-instrumentalist and psychotherapist Richard Hite will perform at 12:45 p.m. Wednesday, Jan. 20. Hite uses gongs, conch shells and animal horns to create a unique sound, which he argues can be healing in its effect. Hite, former director of alternative health care at Christus St. John Hospital in Clear Lake, Texas, has worked to bring alternative health care into mainstream medicine for more than 20 years through methods such as therapeutic music and yoga.

Cellist Franklin Keel and pianist Daniel Weiser will be in concert at 12:45 p.m. Wednesday, Jan. 27. The duo will perform movements from great Romantic Cello Sonatas by Mendelssohn and Rachmaninoff, while varying the program with Le Grand Tango by Piazzolla and a jazzy "Baroque in Blue" by Claude Bolling.

For more information, call UNC Asheville’s Music Department at 828/251-6432, or visit www.unca.edu/music.