JULY 22, 2009 – WDAV 89.9 Classical Public Radio is logging quite a few miles this summer in pursuit of the best classical music being made at the Carolinas’ summer music festivals. In May, WDAV took its listeners to Charleston for all 17 days of Spoleto Festival USA. Last week, WDAV spent time at Greensboro’s Eastern Music Festival. This weekend, the 37-foot long WDAV Broadcast RV, affectionately known to staffers as “Camper Van Beethoven,” makes a stop at the picturesque Brevard Music Festival in the mountains of western North Carolina.

WDAV’s on-air and online coverage from Brevard includes two live broadcasts directed by Keith Lockhart, Artistic Advisor and Principal Conductor at Brevard in the summers and known around the world as the charismatic conductor of the Boston Pops. On Friday, July 24 at 7 p.m., WDAV presents a live broadcast of Lockhart conducting the Transylvania Symphony Orchestra – one of Brevard’s acclaimed student ensembles. The all-American program features the Violin Concerto by the Brevard Festival’s composer-in-residence William Aldridge, as well as 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 are back on Sunday, July 26 at 3:00 p.m. for another WDAV full-length live concert broadcast – this time of Lockhart, Effron and Janiec: TOGETHER!, which features the Brevard Music Center’s three living Music Directors, Keith Lockhart, David Effron and Henry Janiec. On the program are Janiec leading the Brevard Music Center Orchestra in Richard Strauss’ tone poem Don Juan, Effron conducting the Symphony No. 6 by Dmitri Shostakovich, and Lockhart conducting the Russian master Tchaikovsky’s “Pathetique” Symphony No. 6.
“It’s both fitting and an honor that WDAV – a listener-supported service of Davidson College – should present the first-ever broadcast from the Brevard Music Center…” notes General Manager Benjamin K. Roe. “…since the idea of Brevard as a summer music institute was born in Davidson 73 summers ago. Now we’re coming to Brevard to do as Keith Lockhart suggests: to ‘dig deeper into the rhythms of this place.’ We’ll share the experience with listeners across the Carolinas on 89.9 FM and around the globe via wdav.org.”
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 features slideshows, podcasts and on-demand mp3 recordings of all the Summer Music 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 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 by James Christian Pfohl in 1936, the summer band camp for boys began on the Davidson College campus. It moved permanently to Brevard in 1944. 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.
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 original 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.