Sigma Alpha Iota

diamond jubilee Brevard Music Center Celebrates 75 Years T he Brevard Music Center in western North Carolina, supported by SAI for more than 40 years, celebrated its diamond anniversary season this summer. Founded as a summer camp at NC's Davidson College in 1936 and relocated to Brevard, North Carolina, in 1944, the Brevard Music Center hosts more than 400 gifted students, ages 14 through 29, to perform and to study with members of a distinguished artist faculty and perform great musical works at a high artistic level. As all members of the community reside on campus, learning occurs constantly and is manifest through intensive practice and rehearsal and a challenging concert schedule. The students, diverse in age and background, share the virtues of creativity, self-discipline, a sense of teamwork and a superior work ethic over a seven-week session. All students work closely with faculty, and many have the opportunity to rehearse and perform alongside their mentors. The professional musicians who serve as faculty devote their entire summer to teaching and performing. They are joined by other professional artists and teachers who come to Brevard Music Center to work for shorter periods, to inspire students through private teaching, master classes and performance. The board of trustees and employees embrace a creative, open and participative culture of disciplined thought and action in order to provide the human and financial resources required to constantly improve all aspects of the learning community. The campus is set on 180 wooded acres, engendering a sense of serenity and freedom from distraction while it promotes artistic achievement. In the summer of 1936, James Christian Pfohl — grandfather of Gamma Omicron initiate Dorothy Knowles — started the Davidson Music School for Boys at Davidson College in North Carolina. Thirty students and eight faculty members participated in a program of rehearsals, private lessons, recreation, and faculty performances and lectures. The six-week program provided Sunday afternoon concerts for Charlotte-area audiences. Pfohl began looking for the perfect setting for his "well-balanced program of outdoor recreation and instruction in music and art" and in 1944 moved the summer music camp to its current location just outside the town of Brevard in Transylvania County, where it became the coeducational Transylvania Students perform at the Brevard Music Center. Music Camp. Enrollment flourished, curriculum expanded, opera was performed, and the number of concerts increased. The annual summer festival began in 1946 when faculty and internationally renowned guest artists gave master classes and performances at the conclusion of the summer's educational session, paving the way for the festival and music camp to be named the Brevard Music Center in 1955. Apocryphal Bassoon T he Music Center holds several world records, the most impressive of which was the construction of the World's Largest Bassoon and a stunning performance with it at BMC. Faculty Members Darlene Jussilla and Greg Newton gathered their students and made a large double reed out of a spare drain pipe and some plywood sheets pirated from the opera scene shop. They attached the reed to a plumbing fixture in the Whittington-Pfohl Auditorium guest artist room and activated it with a large air compressor normally used to paint opera sets. Then, by alternately opening and closing manhole covers on Andante Lane and Probart Street, they were able to perform a remarkable rendition of "Rocked in the Cradle of the Deep." All was going well until the performance was interrupted by a National Forest Service Survey crew who had been working nearby and detected what they interpreted as a small earthquake. – Portraits and Memories: A Celebration of 75 Years Current Artistic Director and SAI National Arts Associate Keith Lockhart In 1964, Henry Janiec succeeded Pfohl as the Artistic Director. Having previously conducted at Tanglewood, the Chautauqua Institute, and the Charlotte Opera, Janiec was Dean of the School of Music at Converse College in Spartanburg, SC, while directing the Music Center. He led the center for more than thirty years, through the 60th anniversary season in 1996. In 1965, the center's resident opera company was established. In 1996, it was rechristened the Janiec Opera Company. Music Center alumnus and SAI National Arts Associate David Effron became the next Artistic Director in 1997. A conductor and educator, Effron has made numerous national and international conducting appearances, was Artistic Director of the Central City Opera (CO), conducted the New York City Opera, and has taught at the Curtis Institute of Music, the Eastman School of Music, and Indiana University's Jacobs School of Music. BREVARD continued on page 18 sai-national.org FALL 2011 PAN PIPES 17

• Cover