Our Purpose
For 50 years, the mission of the Brasstown Concert Association has been to provide people of its rural and geographically isolated mountain area with the opportunity to enjoy live, high-quality professional performances of music, dance, and drama — and to enrich arts programs in local schools.
BCA believes in the power of music to build and sustain communities by bringing people of diverse backgrounds and views together in celebration that forges unity.
Through recessions and a global pandemic, BCA has presented concerts continuously for 51 years. We have hosted performers from across the U.S., including New York, California, Boston, as well as from London, Ireland, France, Spain, Germany, Mongolia, the Netherlands, Denmark, Czechoslovakia, Japan, Russia, and more.
Our History
Brasstown Concert Association, a 501c3 organization, was founded in 1973 by George & Rosemarie Kelischek (instrument makers), Dr. James and Isabel Carley (instrumental and choral music), Lynn Gault (theater), and John Ramsey (John C. Campbell Folk School).
George Kelischek’s Mountain Collegium, a gathering of musicians at the Kelischek Workshop for Historical Instruments, brought early and classical music to Brasstown for a week each summer. The founders recognized that while the area was rich in traditional mountain music, it lacked access to professional-level performances. Residents had to travel to Asheville, Brevard, Chattanooga, or Atlanta to experience high-caliber concerts — yet Brasstown had the beauty and audience interest to attract musicians.
To fund the seasons, BCA pioneered the practice of selling season tickets — a novel idea in the region. During the first two seasons, there was no piano, so George Kelischek successfully solicited funds from the Levi Strauss Company. The $10,000 donation enabled the purchase of a used piano and folding chairs. To aid fundraising, the piano’s keys were “sold,” and audiences were told performers would only use the keys that had been purchased!
BCA was incorporated in 1974. Today, funding continues to come from season ticket sales, door ticket sales, grants from public and private organizations, and individual and corporate donations. In 2019 a new Kawai grand piano was purchased through once again "selling" keys and generous donations.
Our Legacy
Brasstown Concert Association has spent more than five decades ensuring that rural communities in Western North Carolina have access to world-class performances in music, dance, and drama.
Our legacy is one of resilience, innovation, and cultural enrichment — growing from a grassroots effort into a cornerstone of the regional arts scene. We’ve built a tradition of artistic excellence and community connection that has inspired generations and continues to thrive today.
Through the years, BCA has been a launchpad and a welcoming stage for artists from across the globe, serving not just as a presenter of music but as a builder of cultural bridges.
Our Venue
BCA and the John C. Campbell Folk School have enjoyed a long and mutually supportive relationship. The Folk School generously provides BCA with a concert venue, and in return, BCA enables the school’s music and dance programs to use the grand piano we the new Kawai grand piano purchased in 2019.
Our concerts are held in the Community Room in the Keith House, an intimate setting where performers and audiences connect in ways that larger venues cannot offer. It’s wood and stone construction have created a sought-after space where musicians perform. After each concert, audiences have the rare opportunity to meet and speak informally with the artists — no waiting at the stage door!
Our Programs & Performances
BCA presents a musical kaleidoscope of periods, styles, and centuries — Medieval, Renaissance, Baroque, Classical, Jazz, choral, opera, and folk music from Appalachia and around the world.
Performances have included instruments both rare and familiar: psalteries, sackbuts, lutes, viols, recorders, harpsichords, and more modern strings, brass, woodwinds, folk instruments like bagpipes and banjos — and of course, our grand piano.
This rich variety ensures that each season offers something new while honoring the timeless beauty of music and its ability to connect people across distance and difference.
