Brevard Music Center And Blue Ridge Public Radio Announce Live Opening Night Broadcast

Brevard Music Center (BMC) and Blue Ridge Public Radio (BPR) announce the live broadcast of Opening Night! on Friday, June 24, 2022. The performance opens Brevard Music Center's core symphonic programming for the 2022 Summer Festival Season, and through this exciting and new partnership with BPR may be heard by audiences across Western North Carolina on BPR News, BPR Classic and online at bpr.org.

This will be the first live broadcast from BMC's campus in more than a decade and the first ever Opening Night! broadcast. Led by BMC Resident Conductor Ken Lam, Opening Night! features Mussorgsky's showpiece Pictures at an Exhibition, Respighi's tone poem Fountains of Rome, and the vibrant pianist Conrad Tao. Recognized by The New York Times as an artist of "probing intellect and open-hearted vision," Brevard favorite Tao returns to the stage at BMC to perform Rachmaninoff's stunning Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini. Opening Night! takes place Friday, June 24 at 7:30 p.m. in Whittington-Pfohl

Auditorium on campus at Brevard Music Center. The live broadcast program on BPR begins at 7:00 p.m. on June 24 with insider interviews and information. Tickets are priced from $24 and may be purchased by calling 828-862-2105 or online at brevardmusic.org/tickets. The 2022 Summer Festival Season is sponsored by Jacquelyn and Bruce Rogow; Opening Night! is sponsored by Christina and Rich Jacobs.

Blue Ridge Public Radio has long believed that the performing arts in Western North Carolina are integral to making our region unique. This is why it is so important to me as I begin my tenure as BPR's next GM and CEO to partner with the Brevard Music Center to bring world class programming from our very own backyard to everyone in our listening area. Here's to a bright future of BPR and BMC collaborations!

-Jeffrey Pope, GM and CEO, Blue Ridge Public Radio

BMC Artistic Director and alumnus Keith Lockhart-Principal Conductor of the Boston Pops for more than 25 years-provides artistic leadership for the ten-week summer music festival featuring more than eighty performances and events spanning a multitude of genres and musical tastes. Brevard Music Center is proud to introduce the first Legendary Artist Series programs with superstar violinist Joshua Bell. Other season highlights include masterpieces like Stravinsky's Firebird, Rimsky-Korsakov's Scheherazade, Bizet's opera Carmen, Berlioz' Symphonie fantastique, Beethoven's Archduke Trio, the traditional Patriotic Pops on July 4, plus contemporary favorites including Star Wars: A New Hope (film + live orchestra), Steep Canyon Rangers, and ABBA The Concert. The 2022 Summer Festival includes a full roster of symphony concerts, fully-staged opera productions, chamber music programs in BMC's new state-of-the art facility, Parker Concert Hall, plus BMC Presents concerts with celebrity performances and the sounds of American jazz, banjo with Béla Fleck, and bluegrass guitar performances, with the American Voices Festival within a Festival woven throughout.

Subscriptions to the 2022 Summer Festival are still available, contact the BMC Box Office at 828-862-2105 or boxoffice@brevardmusic.org. For a complete 2022 Summer Festival schedule including dates, times, and locations of all performances and events, please visit brevardmusic.org/tickets.