T.W. Holley: “He or BMC can't put the students on the 'consumer's hot seat' when daring to make visionary programming decisions.”

[Prof. Timothy W. Holley]

The Brevard Music Center is located in the Blue Ridge Mountains, in North Carolina. Its current season runs from June 24 to August 7, 2011. On June 15, 2011 AfriClassical posted: “I would like to respectfully urge the Brevard Music Center to program a significant number of works by Black composers.”

Prof. Timothy W. Holley, a cellist and Professor of Music at North Carolina Central University, sends the latest comment:

“While the letter from Bruce Murray voices the best of educational intentions, I'm not convinced that he really gets the point. He or BMC can't put the students on the 'consumer's hot seat' when daring to make visionary programming decisions. Either they see the need to broaden their students horizons and dare to do it...or they are merely perpetuating the pre-Civil Rights Movement white folks' stance of a benignly ignorant neglect of the African-American contribution to the concert music tradition...please take note of the fact that I didn't refer to it as the 'Classical' tradition. I hope that BMC doesn't wish to do that.

Let the agitation continue!! Thanks.

Tim Holley