BMC’s continuity of purpose has been aided by the continuity of its direction. BMC has had only four Artistic Directors. James Christian Pfohl began the enterprise in Charlotte in 1936, and then in 1945 moved it to Brevard where it was renamed the Brevard Music Center. Henry Janiec of Converse College succeeded Pfohl in 1964, and in 33 years as director developed an outstanding regional summer teaching institute with a particularly strong operatic program. David Effron of Indiana University was Artistic Director from 1997 to 2007, during which time BMC further strengthened its orchestral program, drew more students from across the nation and internationally, and began a new chamber music program alongside the orchestral and operatic programs. Beginning last season Keith Lockhart, the noted conductor of the Boston Pops Orchestra and the Utah Symphony, has taken over the direction.
Evidence of the growing status of BMC can be found in two statistical measures. Only one student out of each five applicants was accepted this year. The accepted students came from forty-one states and ten foreign countries. The 245 students in the college division and the 176 students in the high school division are truly an exceptional group of young musicians.
This is the tenth consecutive year that I have attended the opening orchestral concert of the Brevard Music Center’s seven-week season. Each year, I am amazed at how quickly the Brevard Music Center Orchestra develops a sense of tight ensemble, and June 26 of this year was no exception. Two-thirds of the BMC Orchestra are college division students, the other one-third are faculty. For people not used to performing together as an ensemble, these musicians from all over rise to high standards in an extremely short time. Their quality is a tribute to the conservatories and universities, and especially to these individual students, their drive and dedication.
Violinists of the Transylvania Symphony Orchestra
rehearsing at the Brevard Music Center
The seven weeks are jam-packed with concerts. In addition to the BMC Orchestra, concerts will feature all-student ensembles: the Brevard Sinfonia (college age), the Transylvania Symphony Orchestra (high school), the Transylvania Symphonic Band (high school wind and percussion) and I Solisti di Brevard (high school string players). The season contains seventeen ticketed concerts at the Whittington-Pfohl Auditorium (an outdoor venue with permanent seating under a roof) and eleven chamber music concerts at the acoustically fine Porter Center of Brevard College. In addition, the beautiful 180-acre campus is home to numerous free events.
The string ensemble entitled I Solisti di Brevard has a name modeled after the famous Italian chamber orchestra I Solisti Veneti, founded in Padua in 1959 by Claudio Scimone and famed for its performance of Italian and other baroque music. The players are chosen after the first few weeks, and their concert (this year scheduled at the Porter Center on Monday, August 3) is one that I always look forward to. These young people play with obvious joy, and their zest makes the performance doubly enjoyable.
While the public performances are subordinate to Brevard Music Center’s educational mission, BMC provides some of the finest musical performances of the entire year in Western North Carolina. Even if the season did not include outstanding conductors (Lockhart, Effron and Janiec) and famous guest artists (William Preucil, Andrés Diaz, Roberto Diaz and Olga Kern), these concerts, or at least some of them, should be on your “must attend” list. The website is http://www.brevardmusic.org/
© 2009 Edward C. McIrvine
Arts Spectrum column #440
July 3, 2009
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