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The history of the Brevard Orchestra
Association is tightly intertwined with the stories of two orchestras, both of which bear the name of
our charming town nestled in the mountains of western North Carolina.
The Brevard Chamber
Orchestra (BCO), founded in 1976 by Jackson Parkhurst, was to become a highly successful effort to
increase the accessibility of classical music in a community already rich in musical traditions.
But its early years were humble, with three or four concerts a year in churches, schools and other
adapted venues.
The Brevard Chamber
Orchestra Association was established in 1977 to provide formal support to the
orchestra, complementing a small and loyal corps of professional musicians that refused compensation for
the first concert to help ensure the survival of the burgeoning musical group. A “Friends”
organization subsequently assumed responsibility for providing food to rehearsing orchestra members,
coordinating special events, ushering, doing mailings, supporting an office and other assistance.
The Orchestra thrived
under the successive batons of Virginia Tillotson (1981) and Vance Reese (2002). By
2003 it had grown from a chamber ensemble to a full symphonic orchestra, having been named
Orchestra in Residence at Brevard College, where a five concert season was presented annually at the
Paul Porter Center for
the Performing Arts — one of the premier performance venues in the southeast. Unfortunately, due
to a complicated set of events and circumstances, the BCO ceased operating that year.
Undeterred, the Brevard
Chamber Orchestra Association continued, concentrating its efforts on development of the outreach
programs initiated during the orchestra’s latter years: Music in the Schools and an
after-school string program for elementary school children. A subsequent offshoot of the
after-school program was the Transylvania Youth String Program, a fledgling youth orchestra.
Our story might now be
complete, were it not for Emerson Head, a music educator and professional musician. Head,
formerly a faculty member and performer at the Brevard Music Center, returned to Brevard in 2005 with
the desire to spearhead another local symphony orchestra—not a resurrection of the BCO, but a new
ensemble with a larger base of community musicians. The Association, impressed by Head’s zeal,
supported his plan. It also took advantage of the opportunity to start doing business as the Brevard
Orchestra Association, a name more accurately reflecting the organization’s mission.
In the fall of 2005, the Brevard
Philharmonic was born, with Head at the podium. In its first season, the new, mostly
volunteer, orchestra quickly drew audiences nearly equaling those of the BCO at its peak. Unfortunately, due to physical problems,
Emerson Head resigned after only two seasons as Music Director. Donald Portnoy
was appointed Artistic Director and Conductor in the summer of 2007, setting out
an ambitious program for the 2007-2008 season.
And so our journey
continues: an orchestra, school outreach program, youth string ensemble and string instructional program—all
headed toward a bright future of fostering classical music and the performing arts in our vibrant
community of Brevard..
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