World Premiere, Electric Cello, Tony-Winning Opera and More Coming Up at Brevard Music Center

The 81st season of the Brevard Music Center's (BMC) Summer Festival continues to dazzle with an extraordinary schedule of July events, highlighted by classical favorites, a magnetic performance with electric cello, a world premiere piano concerto by a Grammy Award-winning composer, a Tony Award-winning "Broadway opera," and Keith Lockhart's final appearances of the 2017 season.

"The music and magic of our summer festival continues throughout July with a captivating array of performances and artists," says Brevard Music Center President & CEO Mark Weinstein. "First there was Beethoven, Stravinsky, Lee Ann Womack, and Ricky Skaggs...then 'Patriotic Pops,' Brahms, 'E.T. in Concert,' and 'The Marriage of Figaro'...but there's much more to come! More then ever before, BMC offers something for everyone, plus a beautiful lakeside venue and campus that inspires our audiences and our artists. Experience Brevard Music Center this summer...we promise you'll come back for more!"

On Wednesday, July 26 at 7:30 p.m., BMC presents Vivaldi's much beloved "The Four Seasons" at Whittington-Pfohl Auditorium (WPA). BMC faculty member William Preucil-one of the world's leading concertmasters-performs the four famous violin concerti, each giving musical expression to a season of the year.

On Thursday, July 27 at 7:30 p.m. and Saturday, July 29 at 2:00 p.m., the opera "Street Scene" comes to Brevard in a fully staged production at the Porter Center (Brevard College). Imagine this "street scene": a tenement street in the Lower East Side of New York (circa 1930's) amid a melting pot of nationalities and characters. Sung in English with supertitles, this enjoyable Broadway hit and Tony Award winner for best original score makes its debut at BMC as an integral part of the Kurt Weill Festival. BMC Director of Opera Dean Anthony serves as stage director, with BMC alumnus Robert Moody leading the BMC BrevardFestival Orchestra. "Street Scene" is funded in part by the Kurt Weill Foundation for Music, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the National Endowment for the Arts.

On Friday, July 28 at 7:30 p.m., BMC Artistic Director Keith Lockhart leads the Brevard Music Center Orchestra and the celebrated cellist Johannes Moser in a performance of Dvorák's Cello Concerto in B Minor. The evening's program also includes Janá?ek's famous "The Cunning Little Vixen Suite" and Mozart's "Prague" Symphony.

On Saturday, July 29, at 7:30 p.m., Maestro Lockhart returns for his final performance of the 81st season in Rimsky-Korsakov's exquisite "Scheherazade." Johannes Moser also revisits WPA's center stage in Chapela's electric cello concerto, "Magnetar." Witness a fascinating "Meeting Magnetar" electric cello demonstration with Moser at vimeo.com/31477229.

On Sunday, July 30 at 3:00 p.m., BMC Resident Conductor Ken Lam (also Music Director of the Charleston Symphony) leads BMC's Sinfonia in Profokiev's romantic suite, "Romeo and Juliet," at Whittington-Pfohl Auditorium. This special matinee program also features the world premiere of Grammy-winning composer and BMC faculty member Robert Livingston Aldridge's Piano Concerto No. 2, performed by pianist Jihye Chang (also a member of BMC's renowned faculty).

Additional highlights of the 2017 Brevard Music Center's Summer Festival include more classical favorites by Dvorák and Tchaikovsky; the dramatic season finale, "Verdi Requiem," led by JoAnn Falletta and featuring approximately three hundred musicians and singers on the WPA stage; the acclaimed Asian Youth Orchestra with Sarah Chang; and a special Eclipse Weekend @ BMC with Lyle Lovett and His Large Band, the iconic movies "Apollo 13" and "2001: A Space Odyssey," and a Total Eclipse of the Sun fundraiser. BMC also has on-site accommodations available throughout Eclipse Weekend; visit brevardmusic.org/eclipse for more information.

Tickets to Brevard Music Center's Summer Festival start at only $15. Lawn seating is free for children under 17 (with a paying adult) and students 18 and older (with a valid ID). All guest artists, programs, and dates are subject to change.

The BMC Box Office remains open for all ticket sales throughout the summer season.WPA Box Office hours are Monday-Wednesday, 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.; Thursday-Saturday, 10:00 a.m. to intermission; and Sunday, 10:00 a.m. to intermission. Box Office hours at the Porter Center (Brevard College Campus) are two hours prior to the start of the performance through intermission.

For more information about the 2017 Festival Season and to purchase tickets, visit the Box Office at 349 Andante Lane (Brevard, NC), call (828) 862-2105, or order seats online at brevardmusic.org. Group discounts of up to 25% are also available for parties of 10 or more.

Led by Artistic Director and alumnus Keith Lockhart, also Principal Conductor of the Boston Pops and BBC Concert Orchestra, Brevard Music Center stands as one of the country's premier summer training programs and music festivals. Over ten weeks and among 40,000 attendees, the next generation of musicians gather in the captivating Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina to perform great musical works alongside distinguished faculty and many of the most celebrated names in music. For more information on BMC, visit brevardmusic.org, call (828) 862-2100, "like" the Brevard Music Center on Facebook, follow @brevardmusic on Twitter, stream season highlights via SoundCloud, and visit the Brevard Music Center YouTube channel for performance videos from previous festival seasons.