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Begun in 1932, the Asheville Civic Music Association’s (ACMA’s)plan was to “to bring better music to Asheville”, according to an article in the Asheville Citizen Times. ACMA joined what was already a successful organized audience movement in which an Association membership collected in advance of the season guaranteed its members a specific number of nationally known, high quality performances in Asheville each season. Since artists were booked only when the membership money was collected locally, there was no financial risk borne by the Civic Music Association. All seating was general admission and for decades, there was a waiting list to purchase memberships in the ACMA.
With the start of the 1961-62 season, Asheville Civic Music terminated its affiliation with Civic Music Service and formed an alliance with Community Concerts, Inc., a division of Columbia Artists, which had emerged as the new leader in the field of organized audiences. Under this arrangement, any available artist, regardless of management affiliation, could be booked by local organizations through Columbia Artists’ booking service. The Asheville Civic Music Association still a membership organization then changed its name to the Asheville Community Concert Association (ACCA).
The 1998-1999 season saw major changes in the organization's policies. For the first time in its history, in an effort to increase its audience and offer patrons flexibility in attending concerts, the ACCA discontinued memberships, introduced season subscriptions and also ticket sales to individual concerts. Seating for performances changed from general admission to reserved seating in order to guarantee subscribers their preferred seat for each concert. Also, in 1999, the Asheville Community Concert Association made a formal split with Community Concerts, occasioning the change to our current name of Asheville Bravo Concerts.
This independence has allowed us to deal directly with various artists’ agencies in order to continue bring the finest musical, dance and opera programs to Asheville and our region. Today, as we enter our 75th season (2006-07), Bravo remains committed to its original mission of presenting the best the world has to offer, right here in Western North Carolina!