Brevard Music Center Summer Festival

June 11-August 20, 2022 

Don't miss one of the top summer music festivals in the country - with concerts under the stars in a beautiful mountain setting! Each summer, the Brevard Music Center presents a big variety of 100+ events and performances during a 10+ week span while students from around the world gather at their campus. In 2022, Brevard Music Center is presenting the first full season in two years with a dazzling array of concerts and events. The BMC Summer Festival includes an exceptional line-up of orchestra, chamber music, opera, bluegrass, and jazz performances from June through August. BMC Artistic Director and alumnus Keith Lockhart—Principal Conductor of the Boston Pops for more than 25 years—provides artistic leadership for the ten-week summer music festival.

As one of the country's top summer music schools, the Center's 500 gifted young musicians perform alongside an artist faculty from world-renowned orchestras and universities - plus some well-known headliners. Concerts are held at multiple venues on campus and in Brevard. Their campus is about 34 miles southwest of downtown Asheville.

Concerts are held in Whittington-Pfohl Auditorium, Western North Carolina’s most beautiful outdoor concert hall, and in Brevard Music Center’s stunning new indoor concert venue, Parker Concert Hall. All operas are staged nearby at the Porter Center on the Brevard College campus and complemented by English supertitles above the stage. Arrive early to picnic by the lake or on the lawn adjacent to the Whittington-Pfohl Auditorium during a show. Bring your food or buy snacks, beer, hard cider and more at the concessions stand.

The 2022 Summer Festival begins with Opening Night! on June 24th with pianist Conrad Tao in Rachmaninoff’s Paganini Variations and Mussorgsky’s showpiece, Pictures at an Exhibition. In July, Grammy Award-winning violinist Joshua Bell joins BMC Artistic Director Keith Lockhart to star in the first Legendary Artist Series with an epic performance of Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto. 

Perennial audience favorite Patriotic Pops returns on July 4th featuring inspirational American music, traditional Sousa marches, and Tchaikovsky’s 1812 Overture complete with the sounds of live cannon! 

Here's just a sampling of their season:

2022 Opening Week: June 23 - June 28

• Thursday, June 23: Opera’s Greatest Hits
• Friday, June 24: Opening Night! Pictures at an Exhibition with Conrad Tao
• Saturday, June 25: ABBA The Concert
• Sunday, June 26: The Firebird with Maya Anjali Buchanan
• Monday, June 27: The Trout Quintet
• Tuesday, June 28: Steep Canyon Rangers

Get your tickets now for favorites like ABBA The Concert, Stravinsky’s Firebird, Patriotic Pops, Star Wars: A New Hope in Concert (live orchestra + full film), Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue, Bizet’s opera Carmen, Rimsky-Korsakov’s Scheherazade, Robert Earl Keen’s Farewell Tour, Berlioz’ Symphonie Fantastique, Mahler’s 3rd, or Béla Fleck’s banjo concert. With performances almost every day through the summer, the 2022 BMC Summer Festival includes an exceptional line-up of more than 80 symphonies, opera, chamber music, pops, jazz, country, and bluegrass concerts. 

Opera
Three fully staged operas include Bizet’s Carmen, Mozart’s Abduction from the Seraglio, and Leigh-Wasserman’s Man of La Mancha - plus a recital of Opera’s Greatest Hits and a very special Evening of Cole Porter. All operas are staged at the Porter Center (on the Brevard College campus) and complemented by English supertitles above the stage.

Cedar MountaiSubscription and Ticket Information

Tickets to Brevard Music Center’s Summer Festival are on sale, priced from $24 for lawn tickets; subscriptions are still available. We recommend covered, reserved seating in case of rain–note that concerts take place rain or shine! Lawn seating is free for children under 17 with a paying adult. See ticketing policies on brevardmusic.org/tickets for complete details. Popular concerts may sell out, so be sure to plan for the music you love and purchase tickets in advance. Parking is free.

For tickets and complete concert schedule, visit brevardmusic.org/tickets.

Brevard Music Center is one of the few organizations of its kind that owns and operates its own physical facilities. The BMC campus encompasses more than 150 buildings spread over 180 beautiful mountainside acres in the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina.

Arrive early to picnic by the lake. Or picnic on the lawn adjacent to the Whittington-Pfohl Auditorium during a show. Bring your food or buy snacks, beer, hard cider and more at their concessions stand.

From Asheville: Allow 45 minutes to drive. GPS: 349 Andante Ln, Brevard. Take I-26 E to the Asheville Airport exit, #40. Turn right off the exit onto Highway 280 and drive 16 miles into Brevard. As you approach downtown Brevard, you will see directional signs to the Music Center. For their complete schedule, go to their website.