“Conductor Keith Lockhart opened the Brevard Music Center’s 80th anniversary summer festival the weekend of June 24-26 with performances by pianist Jean-Yves Thibaudet and singer-songwriter Amy Grant,” writes Paul Hyde in Tuesday’s (7/5) Citizen-Times (Asheville, N.C.). “Lockhart, a Furman University graduate, is celebrating his ninth year as artistic director of the festival. The peripatetic Lockhart also is conductor of the Boston Pops and … principal conductor of the BBC Concert Orchestra. His association with Brevard extends back to 1974 and 1975 when he attended the center as a student, studying piano and clarinet. ‘It was a transformative experience and now, over 40 years later, it’s a thrill to be part of our students’ transformative experiences,’ Lockhart said…. The summer festival continues through Aug. 7.” Highlights include Robert Moody, a Brevard Music Center alumnus, leading Rusty Air in Carolina by fellow BMC alum Mason Bates, about Bates’s experience at Brevard Music Center. JoAnn Falletta will lead programs featuring Copland’s Symphony No. 3, Bernstein’s Serenade with violinist Robert McDuffie, and Dvorák’s Symphony No. 9. The season concludes with Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 and Vaughan Williams’ Serenade to Music. A separate article in Classical Voice America reports on the festival’s new acoustic shell.
Posted July 8, 2016
