History

BMC: The First Thirty Years

by Thomas W. Joiner

Chapter 2

When the campers arrived for the 1946 session of the Transylvania Music School-Camp, they found substantial improvements to the grounds and facilities. The dining hall kitchen was modernized with the installation of a new gas range and an electric dishwashing machine. A model sewage disposal system was constructed under the direct supervision of the North Carolina State Department of Health. Other additions included an office building for the camp directors, a huge stage in the Summer Theatre Auditorium, two harp studios, several student practice shelters, and some new piano studios. The interior of the lodge was redecorated and a beautifully designed stone bridge was constructed over the dam at the entrance. The opening concert of the camp featured the seventy-piece Concert Band under the direction of Major J. B. O'Neal. Attendance at the performance approached three hundred people. Among other concerts presented during the seven-week session was The Mikado, produced by Earl Berg, continuing the tradition of Gilbert and Sullivan operettas with a resident cast of students and professionals.

The first annual Brevard Music Festival was held August 9-11, 1946, at the end of the camp season, featuring guest artists Carroll Glenn, violinist; Selma Kaye, soprano; and Mario Berini, tenor. Pfohl assembled the Brevard Little Symphony by drawing from area colleges and symphonies—Davidson College, the University of North Carolina, Queens College, Duke University, the University of Georgia, and the Charlotte Symphony. Through special friends Pfohl also attracted musicians from the National Symphony, the Julliard School of Music, Eastman School of Music, Michigan State University, the University of Arkansas, the University of Michigan, and Ohio Wesleyan University. Dorothy Bird Taylor (violinist), later to become the wife of faculty member Ignatius Gennusa (clarinetist), was largely responsible for recruiting the contingent from the National Symphony. A Transylvania Times reviewer said of the opening concert, "A large factor in the success of the concert was the surprising work of the orchestra. The ensemble was outstanding, and to attain this in such a short amount of time is a remarkable achievement. Mr. Pfohl is to be congratulated for his work in making a unit of soloist and orchestra and for making no concessions to tempi." These faculty and symphony musicians received only travel expenses to Brevard and food and lodging while in residence. The Brevard Little Symphony was the first orchestra at Brevard comprised of professional musicians, designed by Pfohl to offer polished performances of major repertoire and soloists of international acclaim. This orchestra served as the springboard for attracting national recognition to the camp and festival. The dedication and perseverance of these symphony musicians, many of whom returned summer after summer, should never be forgotten.

The Brevard Festival Association, headed by Mrs. Henry Carrier, launched an extensive membership campaign to raise the funds necessary for the festival. Three thousand folders with applications for membership were sent to prospective supporters in Transylvania and adjoining counties. F, S. Best, chairman of the membership committee, organized a complete canvas of the town and county. Approximately four thousand dollars was needed to assemble the musicians and hire the guest artists. Three types of membership were offered: active members, five to ten dollars; contributing members, ten to twenty-five dollars; and patron, fifty dollars and up. Admission to the festival was by membership only and the number was limited to five hundred. The slim souvenir booklet listed among the corporate sponsors: Ecusta Paper Company of Pisgah Forest (the company which printed the camp programs free charge for years to come), Asheville Mica Company of Biltmore, Southern Record Corporation of Charlotte, Beacon Manufacturing of Swannanoa, American Enka Corporation of Enka, Jack Berger Music Company of Charlotte, and Champion Paper and Fiber Company of Canton.

Overflowing audiences attended the four festival concerts. Carroll Glenn, America's foremost female violinist, from Chester, South Carolina, received an overwhelming reception at the first concert on Friday night. Ralph Ramsey, treasurer the Festival Association, announced during intermission that the festival would become an annual event due to the financial and musical success of the 1946 festival. A large crowd of Transylvania children and boys and girls from various camps near Brevard attended a young people's concert. This innovative concert was broadcast over radio stations in Asheville, Charlotte, and Spartanburg. Saturday evening the Brevard Little Symphony received acclaim for the presentation of an all-contemporary program. Each composition was written by a living American composer, three of whom, Edwin Gerschefski, H. Merrills Lewis, and Charles G. Vardell, Jr., were from the South. The final concert on Sunday afternoon featured two singers from the Chicago Opera, Selma Kaye and Mario Berini, in arias and duets. Both of these artists responded with encores after tumultuous applause by the audience.

The Brevard Music Festival claimed as its heritage the tradition of the music festivals held for years in Europe, and later in the United States. As a result of the successful events of the 1946 festival, the following season (1947) was extended to two weeks. The festival provided a most unusual opportunity for cooperation and friendship between the artist-musicians who presented the programs and a still larger group of music lovers who heard them. Built upon this strong foundation, the future of the festival was assured. The concerts served as a source of enduring vacation pleasure for music lovers who journeyed to Brevard. They also encouraged creative activity, musical education, and the appreciation of music in those who lived in western North Carolina and throughout the country.


FIRST ANNUAL BREVARD MUSIC FESTIVAL
August 9-11, 1946
 
The Brevard Little Symphony
James Christian Pfohl, conductor
 
Friday Evening, August 9
National Anthem
Overture "The Hebrides," Op. 26Mendelssohn
Symphony #4 in A Major, Op. 90Mendelssohn
Midsummer Night's Dream, Op. 90 Mendelssohn
Concerto in E minor for Violin & Orchestra, Op. 64Mendelssohn
Carroll Glenn, violinist
 
 
Saturday Afternoon, August 10
Young People's Concert
John A. Holliday, narrator
National Anthem
Overture to OberonCarl Maria von Weber
America the Beautiful (a participation song which
  the children are to sing with the orchestra)
To a Wild RoseEdward McDowell
Le CoucouAnton Arensky
The Little FaunsGabriel Pierne
The MosquitoPaul White
Cripple CreekLamar Stringfield
Tales from Vienna WoodsJohann Strauss
 
Saturday Evening, August 10
Program by Contemporary American Composers
National Anthem
Fanfare, Fugato, FinaleEdwin Gerschefski
Little Symphony No. 1, Op. 31Cecil Effinger
Five MiniaturesPaul White
Two Preludes on Southern Folk-Hymn TunesH. Merrills Lewis
Joe Clark Steps OutCharles G. Vardell, Jr.
 
Sunday Afternoon, August 11
Operatic Program
National Anthem
Overture to OberonCarl Maria von Weber
"Voi lo sapete" from Cavalleria RusticanaPietro Mascagni
"Pace, Pace mio dio" from La Forza del DestinoGuiseppe Verdi
Selma Kaye, soprano
First Suite from CarmenGeorges Bizet
"Where'er You Walk" from SemeleG. F. Handel
"Paradiso" from L'AfricanaGiacomo Meyerbeer
Mario Berini, tenor
"Parigi, o cara, noi Lasceremo" from La TraviataGuiseppe Verdi
Selma Kaye, soprano
Mario Berini, tenor


The Music School-Camp opened in 1947 with renewed interest and post-war enthusiasm. Twenty-five prominent music educators and a student body of 150 attended from points as far north as Connecticut, as far south as Florida. The camp continued to foster and promote the fine arts for the purpose of helping young people understand their society and become intelligent, talented citizens. The cooperative teamwork between faculty, staff, and students contributed generously to that philosophy, combining carefully scheduled periods of practice, performance training, a lot of fun, and exercise. "Cultural gifts and attainments may be a source of real pleasure and happiness, a recreation and comfort to one's real self and to others," stated the camp's founder. The curriculum included two large bands, a symphony orchestra, and a chorus of sixty voices. The daily schedule contained five-and-a-half hours of intensive musical training, with periods of relaxation and wholesome physical exercise.

In preparing for the second Brevard Music Festival, Pfohl selected an orchestra roster from more than 130 applications from all over the country. Romine G. Hamilton served as concertmaster of the Brevard Little Symphony for the second season, and performed often as soloist and recitalist during the camp season. He had made his orchestral debut as concertmaster of the National High School Orchestra at Interlochen in 1928. His additional posts included the University of Michigan Little Symphony (conducted by Thor Johnson), and the Wheeling and Charleston (West Virginia) Symphonies. In 1947 Hamilton was head of the string division at Ohio Wesleyan University. Other notable members of the Festival Orchestra included Norman Lamb, principal viola, and John Mack (of the Cleveland Orchestra), principal oboe.

As the opening of the Festival approached, the Festival Association had raised half of the eight thousand-dollar budget and had sold three hundred memberships. Practically every radio station in North and South Carolina and several in Virginia and Tennessee broadcast spot announcements advertising the festival. These messages stimulated considerable interest throughout the South, giving Brevard recognition as a musical center. For the opening concert, the stage of the converted gymnasium was decorated with balsam boughs and vases of North Carolina gladiolas among the footlights. The balsam and pine permeated the shed and the night voices of the mountains sounded their own symphony in the grass, trees, and bushes bordering the site. Occasionally during concerts, gentle rain fell on the open-sided auditorium, but the audiences of six hundred to eight hundred music lovers sat snugly protected inside. The acoustical shell of unfinished wood and the wooden floor, beams, and ceiling gave the orchestra sound an unusually warm and mellow quality.

Soloist for the all-Beethoven opening concert was the young Eugene Istomin, performing the G Major Piano Concerto. Other soloists for the two weekends of concerts included Brevard-born contralto Adelaide Van Wey; soprano Nan Merriman, a last-minute replacement for the ill Frances Yeend; Patricia Travers, a nineteen-year-old violinist returning from a successful European tour; soprano Edna Phillips, who had recently sung with Toscanini; and Metropolitan Opera baritone Julius Huehn. Pfohl included a second annual contemporary program featuring works by Aaron Copland and Benjamin Britten. The concert concluded with the suite Pageant of P. T. Barnum by Douglas Moore as a tribute to Mrs. Carrier, president of the Festival Association and granddaughter of P. T. Barnum. The Saturday afternoon Young People's Concerts featured fourteen-year-old violinist Raymond Page, a camper from Atlanta.

Again, the sixty-eight-piece Brevard Festival Orchestra served as the backbone of the two-week festival. Pfohl rehearsed his orchestra as a unit, spending only one week for each set of weekend performances. He selected such works as Beethoven's Symphony No. 2, Dvorak's Symphony, Powell's "Natchez-on-the-Hill," Bergsma's Paul Bunyan Suite, Liszt's Les Preludes, and Brahms's Variations on a Theme of Haydn.

They come in informal clothes for the rehearsals and gather in groups in far off corners of the grounds for individual practice. But at night both men and women are garbed in spotless white and there is nothing of the summer vacation spirit in their playing. The brass and woodwind sections are particularly fine and play with finesse. The three programs heard last week showed an amazing finish and artistry in their presentation. With little time at his disposal, Pfohl achieved polished results with richly embellished, colorful nuances and remarkably diversified style.
- from the Washington Star, Sunday, August 24, 1947

Apart from its musical value, the Brevard Music Festival was a monument to the cooperative spirit of music-loving North Carolinians. The festival was the first step in the establishment of a southern, summer music center, a natural outcome of the flourishing music camp. The business world of Brevard and neighboring cities continued to support the undertaking wholeheartedly. Expenses had a way of being paid tactfully, as when the elaborate programs for the festival were printed free of charge. F. S. Best, ticket chairman, said, "We were gratified that such a large number of tickets were sold to out-of-town people. It proves that Brevard and the festival have been discovered by the people of the musical world, and assures the permanency of the Music Association." Newsreel photographers from Towne Topic Film Company took moving pictures during the weekend concerts for the Carolina Newsreel Company, the group that supplied news for all newsreel film companies. Among the outstanding music critics in residence at Brevard were Thor Johnson, conductor of the Cincinnati Symphony, and Helen Knox Spain, music and art critic of the Atlanta Journal.

At the conclusion of four summers of camp and two successful festivals, James Christian Pfohl had reason to be satisfied and proud of his accomplishments. Unfortunately, his original business partners wanted to buy him out at 100 percent profit and run the camp as a recreational camp for boys. They apparently looked forward to making some profit on the original investment, but Pfohl continually expanded the facilities, faculty, and musical organizations when money became available. Pfohl recalled, "I'll never know why, but I thank God I said to them, 'I want thirty days to buy you out at 100 percent profit.' They said I couldn't do it, but I left that meeting with a paper signed by the three men." Pfohl returned to Davidson to begin the school year. For the next thirty days he scampered after football practice to Charlotte, Winston-Salem, and Greensboro trying to raise gifts of money for his non-profit educational institution. On the twenty-eighth day, Pfohl flew to Washington to visit Mrs. Hattie Strong of the Strong Foundation. "Aunt Hattie," as Pfohl fondly remembered, "taught me how to play Cribbage. She used her sterling silver board to play Cribbage with four presidents. Hattie was a great woman."

With money from the Strong Foundation in hand, or in promissory notes, Pfohl called his bank in Davidson, knowing the impossibility of having the money in the Brevard bank in time for the fast-approaching deadline. The Davidson banker called the Brevard bank and told them the money was raised to pay off Pfohl's three partners. The three men were making plans with their new recreational director for the new boys' camp when news arrived that they were being bought out.

Pfohl certainly did not raise the necessary funds single-handedly. After the 1947 season concluded, members of the Festival Association felt a re-organization was necessary in order to combine the assets and direction of the Transylvania Music School-Camp and the Brevard Music Festival. Thus, the Brevard Music Foundation came into existence. "The Foundation," said Mrs. Carrier, "has many decided advantages. In the first place, it will remove any suspicion of the profit motive and will insure the stability of the enterprise. Also, in many parts of the country, organizations similar to the camp and its companion undertaking, the festival, are operated by Foundations. The word 'foundation' is very apt and forcible. We want to put a good, solid foundation of local interest and money under these joint undertakings, for then we know they will continue to grow in scope and worth."

Ralph H. Ramsey, Jr., vice-chairman of the Foundation, announced to the Transylvania Times in late October of 1947 that the Brevard Music Foundation agreed to pay the former owners a total of $39,500 for the Transylvania Music Camp property, and that he and his associates hoped to raise an additional $24,500 by public subscription. With the phrase, "Make Music School-Camp Belong to Brevard!" as the slogan and rallying cry, the finance committee of the Foundation launched a campaign to pay off all indebtedness of the camp property. The foundation purchased stock amounting to $29,500. It paid to Frank Morgan, Robert Neal, and F. L. Jackson $8,250 each for their one-fourth interest, and Pfohl agreed to relinquish his one-fourth interest for $4,500. Harry S. Straus, president of Ecusta Paper Company, readily made a contribution of $10,000, and pledged to raise an additional $10,000 if the foundation obtained the same amount. Hattie Strong of Winston-Salem, whom Pfohl had visited, donated $5,000, a similar sum was borrowed from the local bank, and various individuals loaned another $5,000.

Trustees of the Foundation requested directors of the Transylvania Music Festival Association to surrender their charter and become a committee of the Foundation. Although the function of the group, organizing and running the festival, did not change, it became actively identified with the Foundation and subject to its control. The trustees adopted the following classification of donors:

Founders$5,000 and up
Charter Members$1,000-$5,000
Charter Patrons$500-$1,000
Charter Sponsors$250-$500
Charter Contributors$100-$250

All donors in these classifications were honored by having their names placed on a permanent marker at a suitable place in the camp. Commenting on the Foundation, Ramsey said, "It would be hard indeed to overestimate the worth, both from a cultural and economic standpoint, of such a distinctive asset. Plans are to place the needs and possibilities of the camp before all the civic clubs and other groups in Brevard. With a full understanding of the enterprise, I feel that we shall readily enlist the support of all such bodies, which would, within itself, go far toward making the campaign the instant and overwhelming success it should be." The list of Brevard business patrons, even during the 1947 season, had grown tremendously: Austin's Studio, Champagne Paper Company, Ecusta Paper Company, Long's Drug Store, MacFie's Drug Store, Schulman's Department Store, Southern Dairies, A & P, the Transylvania Times, Transylvania Trust Company, and Verner's Drug Store.

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