If you intend to be one of classical music’s next great players, you don’t spend your summers flipping burgers or hanging out by the pool. You commit to an intensive multi-week summer music institute where you put in long days rehearsing a packed repertoire and performing with the world’s best musicians and conductors. North Carolina is host to two of the country’s most prestigious summer music festivals, and in the coming weeks, WDAV 89.9 Classical Public Radio will broadcast live from both the Eastern Music Festival in Greensboro, N.C., led by Artistic Director Gerard Schwarz, and the Brevard Music Center in Brevard, N.C., directed by the charismatic Boston Pops conductor Keith Lockhart.

“This is the next generation of classical music stars,” says WDAV General Manager Benjamin K. Roe, “led by the finest teachers, composers and conductors in the world. And in our own backyard! These are two of the most celebrated locations in the country for aspiring musicians, and we’re proud to be broadcasting from these great institutions for the very first time. It’s a fitting summertime follow up to our live broadcasts from Spoleto.”
Now in its 48th season, the Eastern Music Festival (EMF) takes place at historic Guilford College in Greensboro, N.C. WDAV will broadcast from the college’s Bonner Center for Community Learning Thursday through Saturday, July 16 – 18. From 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Thursday and Friday and 8 a.m. to noon on Saturday, WDAV will feature performances from the festival and interviews with its students, professional instructors and conductors. Hosts Jennifer Foster and Frank Dominguez will chat with such festival luminaries as EMF and Seattle Symphony music director Gerard Schwarz and Bright Sheng, one of the foremost composers of our time and composer-in-residence this summer at EMF. The intensive and far-reaching musical activities at EMF, including chamber concerts, faculty and student recitals, and the innovative “two orchestra” student-training program will also be the focus of WDAV’s acclaimed Saturday afternoon (3-5 p.m.) live-performance series Carolina Live, now available for on-demand listening.
Tucked away in the mountains of Western North Carolina, the Brevard Music Center is another classical music proving ground for aspiring musicians. The Center is led by Artistic Director Keith Lockhart, who also conducts the Boston Pops Orchestra and the Utah Symphony. “As an alumnus of Brevard Music Center, I can testify personally to the profound impact this place can have on a young musician,” Lockhart observes. “Life decisions are made here.”
During the week of July 20-26, WDAV’s listeners will hear music, features, and interviews direct from the picturesque Brevard campus, leading up to the Festival’s “WDAV Weekend.” On Friday, July 24 at 7 p.m., WDAV will present a live broadcast of Keith Lockhart conducting the Transylvania Symphony Orchestra – one of BMC’s acclaimed student ensembles – in an all-American program featuring Gershwin’s An American in Paris, the beautiful Adagio for Strings by Samuel Barber and Aaron Copland’s moving and timeless Lincoln Portrait, narrated by WDAV program Director Frank Dominguez. The concert will be hosted from stage by WDAV’s Jennifer Foster.
Frank and Jennifer will be back on Sunday, July 26 at 3:00 p.m. for another WDAV full-length live concert broadcast: The Three Maestros, featuring the Brevard Music Center’s three living Music Directors: Harry Janiec, David Effron, and Keith Lockhart. The program features Strauss: Don Juan, Op. 20; Shostakovich: Symphony No. 6 and Tchaikovsky, Symphony No. 6, “The Pathetique.”
Listen When You Like
WDAV listeners will certainly want to hear all of these stirring performances as they happen – live – via their radios at 89.9 FM, their iPhones via the Public Radio Tuner or via live streaming from their computers at www.wdav.org. The WDAV website will feature slideshows, podcasts and on-demand mp3 recordings of all the summer festival concerts and interviews – accessible anytime, anywhere. Look for the “Festivals” tab at www.wdav.org. During WDAV’s summer festival residencies, fans can receive regular updates from WDAV by subscribing to its blog and friending WDAV on Facebook – both easily done from the WDAV website homepage. Listeners can also follow WDAV on Twitter at www.twitter.com/wdav.
About Eastern Music Festival
Now in its 48th year, the Eastern Music Festival & School is recognized for its prodigious contributions to the field of American music and its commitment to nurturing talented American and international youth through a collaborative learning process. The program brings together a cross-section of America’s most sought-after artists with pre-professional students in a five-week schedule of 100 concerts and music-related events. Music Director Gerard Schwarz heads a distinguished list of participating artists scheduled for 2009, including Peter Serkin, Sarah Chang, Horacio Gutiérrez, Nadja Salerno Sonnenberg and Xavier Phillips. To learn more about the 2009 EMF concert schedule and to purchase tickets, visit www.easternmusicfestival.org.
About Brevard Music Center
For 73 years, Brevard Music Center has given students the opportunity to better understand and prepare themselves for the professional world of music. Founded in 1936, BMC has since matured into one of this country’s finest summer institutes and festivals. Located in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Western North Carolina, BMC welcomes to its 150-acre campus each year students, ages 14 and older, and 60 distinguished faculty artists for an intensive seven-week program of study and performance. Learn more and purchase tickets at www.brevardmusic.org.
About WDAV 89.9 Classical Public Radio
Celebrating its 31st year on the air, WDAV 89.9 is a listener-supported public radio service of Davidson College. WDAV serves a 22-county region centered in the Charlotte, NC metro area and ranging from Rock Hill, SC to Galax, VA. Listeners receive the highest quality classical-music programming, as well as promotions spotlighting the activities of regional arts organizations and artists of all disciplines. To listen to WDAV live online 24 hours a day, visit www.wdav.org.