Jill Gardner was in seventh grade when she wrote in a school assignment, “I believe that opera will become a very important passion in my life.” She had just seen her first opera, The Marriage of Figaro, at Piedmont Opera in Winston-Salem. Looking back now, those words seem prophetic. Jill and her husband, Jake, are both renowned professional opera singers — Jake is a bass baritone; Jill is a lyric spinto. They met at Tri-Cities Opera in Binghamton, New York — the same company that captured Jake’s attention at 18 years old — and later moved to Kernersville, not far from Jill’s hometown and Piedmont Opera, where they have since performed several times. These days, they travel all over the country, performing in everything from Tosca to La Traviata to A Streetcar Named Desire. “We are really each other’s severest critics,” Jake says. “But also,” Jill adds, “our most abiding support.”
Why does this Haywood County town have some of the cleanest water in the state? It’s the result of the community’s efforts to keep the forests in its watershed pristine.
The spectacular views in North Carolina’s High Country aren’t just inspiration for writers, painters, and sculptors. Those landscapes — the rugged gray face of Grandfather Mountain, the vibrant fall leaves, the deep green meadows — are brushstrokes on Earth’s own canvas.
The sprawling vineyards and wide-open skies that stretch for miles across seven North Carolina counties offer relaxing getaways — not to mention some of the state’s finest wines — for Sunday drivers aching to escape the rush of city life.
Nothing lasts forever — and that’s what makes many of our cherished moments so special.
