By Laura Sperry

Note: This is the final part in a series on bands in Transylvania County. 

The Brevard Music Center (BMC) has been an iconic part of Transylvania County for over eight decades. The internationally renowned performing arts educational center has grown from its original roots as a summer camp for boys to include the expansive variety of music-related events and programs they host today.

Located on 100 acres, the site was first a boy’s camp called Camp Transylvania. Early brochures show boys from age 9 to 18 camping and learning about living in the elements at the lake-centered facility. Early campers lived a rustic lifestyle that included large platform-supported tents for housing. The camp operated from 1919-1940 before closing.

The site sat undeveloped for a few years before it was rented by 24-year-old James Christian Pfohl. Pfohl was from the Charlotte, NC area and had a history with orchestras as the conductor of the Charlotte Symphony Orchestra and the Jacksonville (FL) Symphony Orchestra. In his youth he attended a music summer camp in Michigan in 1929, and later when he earned a music faculty position at Davidson College, he remembered that summer fondly and wished to create a similar program in his native North Carolina.

In 1943 Pfohl founded the Davidson Music School for Boys, which was an intensive summer learning program on the campus of Davidson College. It was soon clear that the urban setting was less than ideal for his vision, and he sought out a more natural setting.

Pfohl had vacationed in the western North Carolina mountains and when he visited to inspect the current BMC site as a potential location for his summer program, he knew it was the right place and stopped looking at any other options. He later reminisced about seeing the entrance stone pillars with the view of the lake for the first time and feeling a sense of certainty about his choice.

The Transylvania Music Camp, as it was first called, opened in 1944 and after the first summer season was a success, Pfohl and his business partners bought the site outright. Within a couple of years, they realized that their current financial model wasn’t sustainable. With support from some invested community members, the camp reorganized to become a nonprofit organization, The Brevard Music Foundation, led by Mrs. Nancy Carrier, the owner of Rockbrook Camp for Girls.

Carrier suggested initiating a three-day festival in the summer to boost interest in the educational and performance facility. The summer festival has since grown and continues to this day. During this same era, Ecusta Corporation owner Harry Straus also contributed funds to the institution, and an auditorium was named in his honor. By 1955 the name “Brevard Music Center” was adopted.

Dr. James C. Pfohl was the artistic director for the BMC from its inception until 1964. The Whittington-Pfohl auditorium was named in his honor, as it combined the last names of both of his parents. Upon Pfohl’s retirement, a dynamic new artistic director took the reins. Maestro Henry Janiec, an assistant professor of Music at Converse College, began his tenure at BMC and simultaneously the organizational affiliation switched to Converse College rather than Davidson College. This shift also allowed the expansion of the BMC’s offerings to include college-course credited sessions for those students.

Janiec introduced opera to BMC. Prior to his directorship, chamber music and symphonic music had been the only options. The inclusion of opera expanded the season even more, and when Janiec retired in 1996, the Janiec Opera Company was named in his honor, and John Richards McCrae became the opera director.

The organization continued to evolve and saw the need for more oversight of operations and finances, and so the first president, John S. Candler, was appointed in 1993 and served until 2010. The artistic and music directorship shifted when David Effron took the role in 1997 and served until 2007. Effron was known for his focus on quality education and hiring the most effective and prestigious musicians and educators from higher educational institutions and ensembles such as the New York Philharmonic, the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Chicago Symphony, The Julliard School, The Curtis Institute, and Indiana University.

In 2007 Keith Lockhart was appointed as the next artistic director and remains so as of the present. He had been the conductor of the Boston Pops and a camper at BMC who has a deep love of Brevard. In 2013 a new president and CEO, Mark Weinstein, helped to keep the organization on course financially and operationally. The current president of BMC is Jason Posnock, who served as the vice-president and artistic officer prior to this appointment in 2023.

The BMC has hosted many notable performers through the years, such as Joshua Bell, Yo-Yo Ma, Benny Goodman, Bela Fleck, Tony Bennett, Andy Williams, and Victor Borge.

Musical styles and programs that are now highlighted at BMC include the jazz institute, banjo camp with Bela Fleck, classical guitar with Bryan Sutton, low brass seminar, flute seminar, and high school musical theater. Regional music festivals and workshops also find a home at this dynamic center. Orchestra, opera, chamber music, and specialty events are also still a standard part of the many musical offerings at this diverse and creative center in the heart of Brevard and Transylvania County.

Photographs and information for this column are provided by the Rowell Bosse North Carolina Room, Transylvania County Library. This article was written by Local History Librarian Laura Sperry. Sources available upon request.