'West Side Story' Film To Screen At Brevard Music Center With Live Symphony Orchestra

Brevard Music Center (BMC) will screen the classic American movie musical West Side Story with a full symphony orchestra on Saturday, July 14 at 8:30 PM at Whittington-Pfohl Auditorium. Conducting the Brevard Sinfonia in Leonard Bernstein's reverent and iconic score will be BMC alumnus Jayce Ogren. Patrons can enjoy a 7:30 PM pre-concert discussion, Bernstein & Justice, held in conjunction with Transylvania's Project Empathy and presented by Joseph Horowitz, a former New York Times music critic, pioneer in thematic interdisciplinary classical music programming, and one of the most prominent and widely published authorities on American music. To learn more about the 2018 Leonard Bernstein Festival, which is supported in part by a grant awarded by the National Endowment for the Arts, please visit brevardmusic.org/bernstein or call (828) 862-2105.

"West Side Story is beloved by generations of movie-goers," said Brevard Music Center President & CEO Mark Weinstein. "We're delighted to bring this classic back to the big-screen in a truly unique way by having our full symphony orchestra perform Bernstein's score in Whittington-Pfohl Auditorium. Popcorn will be in abundance, so bring the entire family and enjoy a truly memorable evening of entertainment!"

West Side Story is part of the 2018 Leonard Bernstein Festival-BMC's season long "festival within a festival" featuring a myriad of performances and special events saluting the centennial of celebrated American composer Leonard Bernstein. Released in 1961, West Side Story is the cinematic adaptation of the Broadway musical of the same name with music by Leonard Bernstein and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim. The film was directed by Robert Wise and Jerome Robbins and won ten Academy Awards.

The 2018 Brevard Summer Music Festival-running now through August 18-also features a full schedule of captivating performances including the operas La Cenerentola (Cinderella) and Candide; pianist Conrad Tao performing Beethoven; a Klezmer Concerto with Berlin Philharmonic Concertmaster and Asheville-native Noah Bendix-Balgley; New York City's WQXR Young Artists Showcase with Robert Sherman; the Season Finale: Bernstein's Mass, and Grammy award-winning artist Béla Fleck, who will bring his inaugural Blue Ridge Banjo Camp and a special finale concert to BMC in August.

Tickets to the 2018 Summer Music Festival start at only $20 and almost 50% of all performances are free. Seating at Whittington-Pfohl Auditorium - BMC's 1800-seat, open-air auditorium - is free for children under 17* with a paying adult, and students 18 and older* with a valid ID (*some exclusions apply, including the Season Finale and BMC Presents performances). For tickets to Brevard Music Center's 2018 Summer Music Festival, visit BREVARDMUSIC.ORG, call (828) 862-2105, or visit the Brevard Music Center Box Office at 349 Andante Lane.

Founded 82 years ago, the Brevard Music Center stands as one of this country's premier summer classical music training programs and festivals. Each year, 500 gifted students (ages 14 through post college) come to the Music Center from across the United States and around the world to study with a distinguished faculty and renowned guest artists.

Each summer, students participate in a vigorous program of instruction and performance led by BMC Artistic Director and alumnus Keith Lockhart, the Principal Conductor of the Boston Pops and Chief Guest Conductor of the BBC Concert Orchestra in London. Brevard's hallmark is the powerful sense of community that re-emerges every June through August as faculty and students present more than 80 remarkable concerts to summer audiences totaling over 40,000.

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.

To post a comment, you must register and login.