In 2007, Keith Lockhart succeeded David Effron as Artistic Director of the Brevard Music Center Summer Institute and Festival. Lockhart’s appointment solidified an already special relationship with BMC; having attended as a teenager for two summers (1974, 1975), Lockhart was first featured as a guest conductor in 1996 and had since returned numerous times. He continues to serve as the Conductor of The Boston Pops Orchestra, and is Chief Guest Conductor of the BBC Concert Orchestra in London, having served for eight years as its Principal Conductor.
Keith Lockhart has conducted nearly every major orchestra in North America, as well as the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, the NHK Symphony in Tokyo, and the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra. In October 2012, he made his London Philharmonic debut in Royal Albert Hall. In the opera pit, Maestro Lockhart has conducted productions with the Atlanta Opera, Washington Opera, Boston Lyric Opera, and Utah Opera. Recent highlights included debut appearances with the Czech Philharmonic, the Orchestra dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia in Rome, the Vienna Radio Symphony, and the Hong Kong Philharmonic. The 2017-2018 season saw Lockhart make his French debut with the Orchestre Nationale de Lille, and his Norwegian debut with the Stavanger Symphony Orchestra. Upcoming engagements include an ongoing relationship with the Czech Philharmonic, and returns to orchestras in Japan, Hong Kong, and Taiwan, as well as a debut with the Tonkuenstler Orchestra of Vienna. He also recently completed a recording of the Bernstein Serenade with violinist Anne Akiko Meyers and the London Symphony Orchestra.
In February 1995, Lockhart was named the 20th conductor of the Boston Pops Orchestra since its founding in 1885, succeeding John Williams and Arthur Fiedler. Now in his 24th season, he has conducted over 2000 concerts and made 80 television shows, including 38 new programs for PBS’s Evening at Pops, and the annual July Fourth spectacular, broadcast nationally for many years. The Boston Pops’ 2002 July Fourth broadcast was Emmy-nominated, and the Evening at Pops telecast of “Fiddlers Three” won the 2002 ASCAP-Deems Taylor Award. He has led the orchestra on four overseas tours of Japan and Korea, and 45 national tours in the US, reaching more than 150 cities in 38 states (including performances at Carnegie Hall, Radio City Music Hall, and sports arenas across the country) and extending to the pre-game show of Super Bowl XXXVI at the Louisiana Superdome in New Orleans. Since November 2004, he and the Boston Pops have released six self-produced recordings: 2017’s Lights, Camera…Music! Six Decades of John Williams, A Boston Pops Christmas – Live from Symphony Hall, Sleigh Ride, America, Oscar & Tony, and The Red Sox Album. Keith Lockhart and the Boston Pops Orchestra have also recorded eight albums with RCA Victor – Runnin’ Wild: Keith Lockhart and The Boston Pops Orchestra Play Glenn Miller, American Visions, the Grammy-nominated The Celtic Album, Holiday Pops, A Splash of Pops, Encore!, the Latin Grammy-nominated The Latin Album, and My Favorite Things: A Richard Rodgers Celebration.
Highlights of his tenure as the seventh Principal Conductor of the BBC Concert Orchestra (2010-2017) include critically acclaimed North American tours (2010/2011 and 2012/2013, and 2014/2015), conducting annual performances at The Proms, and celebrating the orchestra’s 60th year in 2012. In June of that same year, Keith Lockhart conducted the orchestra during Queen Elizabeth II’s gala Diamond Jubilee Concert, which was broadcast around the world.
In 2009, Keith Lockhart concluded eleven seasons as Music Director of the Utah Symphony. He led that orchestra through the complete symphonic works of Gustav Mahler, brought them to Europe on tour for the first time in two decades, and directed multiple appearances at the 2002 Olympic Winter Games. He stood at the front of that organization’s historic merger with the Utah Opera to create the first-ever joint administrative arts entity of the Utah Symphony and Opera. Under his baton, the Utah Symphony released its first recording in two decades, Symphonic Dances, in April 2006, garnered an Emmy award for a “Salute to Symphony” regional broadcast, and performed in a national PBS broadcast of Vaughn Williams’ oratorio Hodie.
Keith Lockhart served as Music Director of the Cincinnati Chamber Orchestra for seven years, completing his tenure in 1999. During his leadership, the orchestra doubled its number of performances, released recordings, and developed a reputation for innovative and accessible programming. Maestro Lockhart also served as Associate Conductor of both the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra and the Cincinnati Pops Orchestra from 1990 to 1995.
Born in Poughkeepsie, NY, Maestro Lockhart began his musical studies on piano at the age of 7, and holds degrees from Furman University and Carnegie Mellon University, and also holds honorary doctorates from the Boston Conservatory, Boston University, Northeastern University, Furman University, and Carnegie Mellon University, among others. He was the 2006 recipient of the Bob Hope Patriot Award from the Congressional Medal of Honor Society, and was a recipient of the 2017 Commonwealth Award, Massachusetts highest cultural honor.
More information is available at: https://www.bso.org/keith-lockhart
Charles Vernon began his orchestral career in 1971 as bass trombone with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra. He also held positions with the San Francisco Symphony and the Philadelphia Orchestra, before joining the Chicago Symphony Orchestra in 1986.
A native of Asheville, Vernon spent 15 summers at BMC—as a Counselor and Assistant Dean, and then on the faculty for 11 years. He attended Brevard College and Georgia State University, where he studied with William “Bill” Hill, and at Arizona State University with Gail Wilson. Other teachers included Arnold Jacobs and Edward Kleinhammer, former tuba and bass trombone of the CSO, respectively. Vernon has been on the faculties of Catholic University, Brevard Music Center, Philadelphia College of Performing Arts, Roosevelt University, Curtis Institute of Music and Northwestern University. Currently professor of trombone at DePaul University, he also makes many solo and teaching appearances around the world.”
David Jackson, Professor of Trombone at the University of Michigan School of Music, enjoys an active career as a performer and teacher. He is a recognized and ardent supporter of new music who has commissioned and premiered numerous compositions for the trombone. His most recently premiered The Slide Shows for Jazz Trombone, Classical Trombone, and Orchestra by Vincent Gardner, and Monuments for Trombone and Strings by Adolphus Hailstork.
Mr. Jackson has been a guest performer with numerous orchestras, including the Detroit Symphony, Pittsburgh Symphony, Dallas Symphony, Chicago Symphony, Fort Worth Symphony, Grand Rapids Symphony, as well as the Michigan Opera Theatre and the Cabrillo Music Festival. He is a member of the Detroit Chamber Winds.
In demand as a guest clinician and performer, Mr. Jackson has presented numerous guest recitals and masterclasses at institutions including the Juilliard School, Yale University, UCLA, University of Minnesota, the Cincinnati College-Conservatory as well as the conservatories of Shanghai and Beijing. His former students occupy performing and teaching positions around the world.
Mr. Jackson is a recipient of the 2022 Sphinx MPower Grant and has been on the faculties of Baylor University, Eastern Michigan University, the University of Toledo, the Interlochen Arts Camp and the Idyllwild ChamberFest. He spends his summers teaching and performing at the Brevard Music Festival.
David Jackson is an S.E. Shires Artist and Clinician.
Orlando, Florida native Scott Hartman joined the Charlotte Symphony Orchestra as Principal Bass Trombone in September 2014. In demand throughout the country, Scott has performed in the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Boston Symphony Orchestra, Cleveland Orchestra, Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, Grant Park Music Festival Orchestra, Naples Philharmonic, Alabama Symphony Orchestra, Arizona MusicFest Orchestra, Charleston Symphony, West Virginia Symphony Orchestra, and Richmond Symphony, as well as contemporary music group Ensemble Dal Niente. He is the bass trombone faculty at Brevard Music Center and the low brass instructor at Davidson College.
Prior to joining the CSO, Scott was the Bass Trombonist of the Civic Orchestra of Chicago. He studied with Charles Vernon and Mark Fisher at DePaul University and he is an alumnus of the Tanglewood Music Center, Music Academy of the West, National Repertory Orchestra, Brevard Music Center, and Bar Harbor Brass. Hartman won both International Trombone Association Bass Trombone Competitions – the Edward Kleinhammer Orchestral Bass Trombone Competition and the Donald Yaxley Solo Bass Trombone Competition. He is also a medal winner at the Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition as a member of the brass quintet Lincoln Chamber Brass. Scott was guest faculty at Eastern Music Festival and has presented recitals and masterclasses throughout the country.
Aubrey Foard is the principal tubist of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, a position he has held since 2018. He also serves as Lecturer of Tuba and Euphonium at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) and as Artist Faculty at the Brevard Music Center. Mr. Foard was most recently principal tubist of the Charlotte Symphony, serving in that position from 2012 until 2018. He has previously held principal tuba positions in the Santa Barbara, West Virginia, Canton, Youngstown and Albany Symphonies, as well as with the Britt Festival Orchestra. He has performed as a guest musician with several other orchestras, including the Los Angeles Philharmonic, The Cleveland Orchestra, the Utah Symphony, the Houston Symphony, the North Carolina Symphony, the Seattle Symphony, the Minnesota Orchestra, the Louisville Orchestra, Arizona MusicFest and as Acting Principal Tubist with the San Diego Symphony.
Mr. Foard’s solo performances have been broadcast on National Public Radio’s “Performance Today,” and on WQXR New York, KUHF Houston and KDB Santa Barbara. As a soloist, he has performed with the West Virginia Symphony, the Spoleto Festival USA Orchestra, the Music Academy of the West Orchestra and on multiple occasions with the Charlotte Symphony. He is a past multiple prizewinner of the Minnesota Orchestra’s WAMSO solo competition. An avid proponent of new music for the tuba, Mr. Foard has commissioned a Tuba Concerto by American composer Mark Petering; the solo part is available for free download on IMSLP. The first movement was premiered by the Charlotte Symphony in 2018 and the full work was premiered in February, 2020 with the The US Army Orchestra and Mr. Foard as soloist.
Mr. Foard’s students at UCLA have achieved numerous accomplishments, including winning fellowships to music festivals, performing with professional orchestras, performing on major motion picture soundtracks and winning concerto competitions. He previously taught at the University of North Carolina Charlotte and at West Virginia State University. Mr. Foard has presented master classes and recitals worldwide, most recently at the International Women’s Brass Conference, Florida State University, the US Army Tuba Euphonium Workshop, and Taiwan TubaMania. He is a founding faculty member and Executive Director of Back to School Tune-Up with the Pros, an online summer boot camp for tuba students that allows for continuing education during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Mr. Foard is a graduate of The Colburn School’s Conservatory of Music, Rice University and the Cleveland Institute of Music. His teachers include Norman Pearson, Fritz Kaenzig, Mark Lawrence, David Kirk, Ron Bishop, and Alan Baer.
Aubrey Foard is a Buffet Crampon performing artist, representing the Melton Meinl Weston line of instruments.
