Brevard Music Center Orchestra and Chorus
Keith Lockhart, conductor
Yo-Yo Ma, cello
Reginald Smith, Jr., baritone
David Gresham, chorus master
WILLIAM WALTON Belshazzar’s Feast
ANTONIN DVOŘÁK Cello Concerto
Legendary cellist Yo-Yo Ma joins the Brevard Music Center Orchestra for our season finale.
Conducted by Keith Lockhart, the program features Dvořák’s radiant Cello Concerto and Walton’s electrifying Belshazzar’s Feast—bringing instrumental and vocal forces on stage together in a powerful celebration of orchestral and choral grandeur.
Keith Lockhart
Conductor
Keith Lockhart is Conductor of the Boston Pops and has been Artistic Director of the Brevard Music Center Summer Institute and Festival since 2007. Lockhart’s appointment solidified an already special relationship with BMC, having attended as a teenager for two summers.
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Keith Lockhart is Conductor of the Boston Pops and has been Artistic Director of the Brevard Music Center Summer Institute and Festival since 2007.
Lockhart’s appointment at Brevard solidified an already special relationship with BMC, having attended as a teenager for two summers (1974, 1975). Now in his 31st season, Keith has served as Conductor of the Boston Pops since 1995, a tenure that includes over 2500 performances, nearly 50 national tours to more than 150 cities, and five international tours. He and the Pops have made eighty television shows. The annual July 4 Boston Pops Fireworks Spectacular draws a live audience of over half a million with millions more who watch on television or live webcast.
As Principal Conductor of the BBC Concert Orchestra from 2010-2018, Keith led acclaimed North American tours, annual performances at The Proms, a celebration of the orchestra’s 60th year, as well as a concert to honor Queen Elizabeth II’s Diamond Jubilee. Keith was also Music Director of the Utah Symphony (1998-2009), Music Director of the Cincinnati Chamber Orchestra (1992-1999), and Associate Conductor of both the Cincinnati Symphony and Cincinnati Pops Orchestras (1990-1995). Keith Lockhart has conducted nearly every major orchestra in North America, as well as the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, London Symphony Orchestra, London Philharmonic, Orchestra dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia in Rome, Vienna Radio Symphony, Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, the NHK Symphony in Tokyo, Hong Kong Philharmonic, and the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra. In the opera pit, Keith has conducted productions with the Opera Companies of Atlanta, Washington, Boston Lyric, and Utah. Recent engagements have included returns to The Cleveland Orchestra, the Czech Philharmonic, the Vienna Tonkuenstler Orchestra, the Buffalo Philharmonic, and The Orchestra Japan for its 10th Anniversary Gala Concert in Suntory Hall, Tokyo.
Born in Poughkeepsie, NY, he began his musical studies on piano at the age of seven, and holds degrees from Furman University and Carnegie Mellon University; Keith 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.
Yo-Yo Ma
Cello
Yo-Yo Ma’s multi-faceted career is testament to his belief in culture’s power to generate trust and understanding. Whether performing new or familiar works for cello,...
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Yo-Yo Ma’s multi-faceted career is testament to his belief in culture’s power to generate trust and understanding.
Whether performing new or familiar works for cello, bringing communities together to explore culture’s role in society, or engaging unexpected musical forms, Yo-Yo strives to foster connections that stimulate the imagination and reinforce our humanity.
Most recently, Yo-Yo began Our Common Nature, a cultural journey to celebrate the ways that nature can reunite us in pursuit of a shared future. Our Common Nature follows the Bach Project, a 36-community, six-continent tour of J. S. Bach’s cello suites paired with local cultural programming. Both endeavors reflect Yo-Yo’s lifelong commitment to stretching the boundaries of genre and tradition to understand how music helps us to imagine and build a stronger society.
Yo-Yo Ma was born in 1955 to Chinese parents living in Paris, where he began studying the cello with his father at age four. When he was seven, he moved with his family to New York City, where he continued his cello studies before pursuing a liberal arts education.
Yo-Yo has recorded more than 120 albums, is the winner of 20 Grammy Awards, and has performed for nine American presidents, most recently on the occasion of President Biden’s inauguration. He has received numerous awards, including the National Medal of the Arts, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, and the Birgit Nilsson Prize. He has been a UN Messenger of Peace since 2006 and was recognized as one of TIME magazine’s 100 Most Influential People of 2020.
Reginald Smith, Jr.
Baritone
Reginald Smith, Jr., is a GRAMMY and Emmy Award-winning baritone, lauded as a “passionate performer” (The New York Times) with a voice that is “electric,...
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Reginald Smith, Jr., is a GRAMMY and Emmy Award-winning baritone, lauded as a “passionate performer” (The New York Times) with a voice that is “electric, hall-filling” (The Baltimore Sun), and “one of the most exciting baritone sounds to come along in years” (Opera News).
Smith’s 2025-2026 season featured his Carnegie Hall debut in Carlisle Floyd’s The Pilgrimage as well as house and role debuts at Seattle Opera as the Pirate King in Gilbert and Sullivan’s The Pirates of Penzance; at Minnesota Opera as Tonio in Leoncavallo’s Pagliacci; and with the Oakland Symphony in his first Verdi Requiem. He appeared at the Houston Grand Opera for his role debut as Peter in Hänsel und Gretel and in the title role in Mendelssohn’s Elijah with the Windsor Symphony Orchestra. In concert, he returned to the Phoenix and Dallas Symphony Orchestras for special holiday performances.
In recent seasons, Smith made debuts with the Washington National Opera, Baltimore Symphony, and Sacramento Philharmonic. Throughout his operatic career, Smith has performed with leading companies worldwide, including the Metropolitan Opera—where he won a 2021 GRAMMY Award for Best Opera Recording for his house debut in 2019—as well as the Dallas Opera and Hong Kong Opera.
Born in Atlanta, Smith is a Grand Finals winner of the 2015 Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions and a graduate of the Houston Grand Opera Studio, among many other accolades.
David Gresham
Chorus Master
David Gresham serves as Director of Choral Activities at Brevard College. He is a frequent guest clinician with choirs of all age ranges, and he enjoys helping singers work toward a vibrant and healthy vocal tone while exploring the musical demands of choral literature.
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David Gresham serves as Director of Choral Activities at Brevard College. During his tenure, he has greatly increased participation in the choirs and has overseen a significant influx of voice majors at the College.
He is a frequent guest clinician with choirs of all age ranges, and he enjoys helping singers work toward a vibrant and healthy vocal tone while exploring the musical demands of choral literature. In Brevard, he also serves as Artistic Director and Conductor of the Transylvania Choral Society, Minister of Music at the Lutheran Church of the Good Shepherd, and chorus master with the Brevard Music Center. Dr. Gresham has composed, edited, and arranged several pieces for choir. In addition to his conducting and composing, Dr. Gresham is an active singer and studio teacher.