Brevard Music Festival turns 75


While the heat of summertime sends many folks to the cool tides of the closest ocean, the Brevard Music Center is set to make some (sound)waves of its own during its annual music festival, running Friday, June 24 through Sunday, August 7. This year, renowned cellist Yo-Yo Ma returns to Brevard, in an August 7 event with the Brevard Music Center orchestra.

The institute’s 75th anniversary season will present more than 80 concerts, allowing world-class professionals and students alike the opportunity to perform an eclectic repertoire of pieces. With a program of orchestral and piano works from various eras, opera stagings and even a little Sinatra, the diverse performances throughout the upcoming summer evenings should appear as refreshing to a music lover as a dip in the sea.

Three quarters of a century is quite a landmark for the music center, which currently educates more than 400 students from ages 14 to 29, and the scope of the new season’s program reflects a celebratory and ambitious mood from all involved.
Make a note to attend the free pre-performance lectures, given an hour before each orchestra concert, and don’t delay getting your tickets to the most wide-ranging series of musical events you’re likely to find this summer. It might even top that trip to the beach.

— Erik Freitas

Festival highlights:

June 26 – Brahms’ Symphony No. 2 & Rachmaninov’s Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini (with Fabio Bidini, piano)

Whittington-Pfohl Auditorium, 3 p.m.

Tickets: $15-35

July 3 – Pendergrast Family Patriotic Pops, with Transylvania Symphonic Band and Brevard Community Band

Whittington-Pfohl Auditorium, 2 p.m.

Tickets: $15-35

July 7 – Verdi’s La Traviata

Scott Concert Hall at the Porter Center, Brevard College, 7:30 p.m.

Tickets: $25-35

(Additional performances also; see website)

July 12 – Vega Quartet: music of Haydn, Bartók and Beethoven

Scott Concert Hall at the Porter Center, Brevard College, 7:30 p.m.

Tickets: $25

July 22 – Mahler’s Symphony no. 3, with mezzo-soprano soloist Susan Platts

Whittington-Pfohl Auditorium, 7:30 p.m.

Tickets: $15-40

August 1 – Michael Feinstein: The Sinatra Project

Whittington-Pfohl Auditorium, 7:30 p.m.

Tickets: $25-50

August 4 – Donizetti’s L’Elisir d’Amore

Scott Concert Hall at the Porter Center, Brevard College, 7:30 p.m.

Tickets: $25-35

(Additional performances also; see website)

August 7 – Yo-Yo Ma with Brevard Music Center Orchestra

Whittington-Pfohl Auditorium, 3 p.m.

Tickets: $75-125

To purchase tickets or for more information, visit http://www.brevardmusic.org. To contact the box office, call (828) 862-2105.

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