[00:00:09.760] 
[music]

[00:00:09.820] 
It started in 1936.

[00:00:14.080] 
Twenty-four year old James Christian Pfohl

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 created a summer music camp for boys

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 at Davidson College.

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Pfohl had attended the Interlochen
 National

[00:00:23.520] 
 Music Camp in Michigan when he was seventeen,

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 and he wanted to build something similar
 in his

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 native North Carolina.

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At Davidson, students played in band

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 and took private lessons.

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The camp lasted seven summers there.

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Its most famous alumnus was

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 a tuba player named Jesse Helms,

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 who left music for another line of work.

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After one summer at Queen's College in

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 Charlotte, the camp moved to Brevard.

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Sixty boys and forty girls

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 enrolled in 1944.

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 The first season was so successful that

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Pfohl and three partners purchased the
 camp

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 site out right before the 1945 season.

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For the 1946 season, Pfohl came

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 up with the idea of a three day festival of

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 concerts to come at the end of the
 summer.

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Over the years, the festival grew in
 size,

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 scope, and reputation.

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By 1949, concerts

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 were being broadcast over national
 radio.

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By the 1950s, Pfohl began to

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 attract guest artists of international
 reputation,

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 a practice that continues to the present
 day.

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[music]

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The name "Brevard Music Center"

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 was adopted in 1955.

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Perhaps the high point in Pfohl's tenure

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 was the appearance of the Transylvania
 Symphony Orchestra

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on the White House lawn in 1961.

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In 1965, Henry Janiec,

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 of Converse College, came to Brevard

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 as the new artistic director.

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This was the beginning of the continuing
 association

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 between Converse and the Music Center.

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Janiec expanded the festival to last all
 summer.

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He brought opera to Brevard and he
 continued

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 to invite important composers to campus.

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The present format of the Brevard Music
 Center

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 was largely established by Henry Janiec. 

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In 1993, John Campbell,

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 a business leader with strong ties to
 Brevard,

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 was named first president of the Music Center.

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The new structure relieved Janiec of many

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 financial and management decisions and

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 allowed him to focus on music.

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Janiec retired after the 1996 season.

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Succeeded as artistic director by David
 Effron,

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who had studied piano at Brevard

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 for two summers in the 1950s.

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Effron's experience as an educator at

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 the Curtis Institute, at the Eastman
 School,

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 and at Indiana University, made him a
 perfect fit.

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[music]

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Each summer, four hundred gifted students

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 come to the Brevard Music Center.

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Brevard fills an important role in their lives.

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At home, they may feel isolated

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 because of their gifts.

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They may or may not have the support of
 their parents

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 or other family members.

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Their commitment to music requires a
 fantastic

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 investment of time and effort from a
 very early age,

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so they do not enjoy the same social
 lives

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 as their peers.

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Brevard provides superior professional

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 training for these gifted young
 musicians.

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More importantly, Brevard provides

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 them with a community of their own.

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It is a home away from home

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in which they know they are valued and
 their gifts are respected.

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Here they feel safe

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 and confident and normal.

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Not all of Brevard students go on to

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 become professional musicians.

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Some become doctors, attorneys,

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 business people, or public servants.

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However, nearly all of them become
 achievers

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 as adults because they have been
 achievers as young people.

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Brevard students will shape the future in

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 positive ways.

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They can do amazing things now

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 and will do even more amazing things
 tomorrow.

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They are the best of us.

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[music slowly fades]