“We pay homage to guys who build and design skyscrapers, but we don’t always remember guys who cleared the land and made a place for the shining city of the future,” writes Lawrence Toppman in Monday’s (5/16) Charlotte Observer (North Carolina). “Today I pay homage to a man I never met… and a pioneer without whom the Charlotte Symphony Orchestra might not be what it is today:” conductor Jacques Brourman, who led the Charlotte Symphony from 1967 to 1976 and died this winter at the age of 84. “The orchestra took its first steps toward professionalism under him, hiring its first full-time contract musicians. He began to incorporate members of the Charlotte Youth Symphony into the orchestra for certain concerts … and increased the number of run-out concerts around the region, especially for children.” Brourman “stepped into an uncertain situation half a century ago…Under him, the budget grew seven-fold.” Prior to his time in Charlotte, Brourman founded Idaho’s Sun Valley Music Festival and “set the Boise Philharmonic on a professional course.”
Posted May 17, 2016
