The orchestra hired its first business manager and placed an emphasis on stipends and scholarships which allowed the students twelve-hour days devoted to practising, rehearsing and performing in concerts. In addition to the classical concerts, they also began giving concerts which depended heavily on pops programming in open meadows, city streets, shopping centers and parks. In 1985, the orchestra performed at the Kennedy Center in a concert celebrating the 20th anniversary of the National Endowment for the Arts in a varied program of 20th-century music that included Billy Taylor playing his own Jazz Suite for Piano and Orchestra, Joel Hoffman's serial piece Between Ten, and Aaron Copland's A Lincoln Portrait. National Repertory Orchestra, 1986-1993 By the mid-1980s, the orchestra's ambitions had grown beyond the point where it could be sustained by the small town of Evergreen. The increasingly peripatetic performances at Evergreen led to the Denver Post calling them "the guerilla orchestra" because they never knew where they would be playing next. According to Richard Zellner who served as the orchestra's Executive Director from 1982 until 2000, "we were a festival looking for a place to happen." In 1986, the orchestra changed its name to the National Repertory Orchestra, drew up new articles of incorporation, and accepted an offer by Keystone Resort, in Keystone, Colorado to take up residency there. The orchestra provided an entertainment draw for the resort and the resort provided room and board for the musicians, a performing tent, and marketing services, all of which allowed the orchestra to halve its expenses. In 1988, the NRO was the only American orchestra invited to perform at the Seoul Olympics and then extended its tour to Taiwan and Japan. National Repertory Orchestra, 1993-present The orchestra, conducted by Gilbert Levine, performed in Denver to mark Pope John Paul II's visit for World Youth Day in 1993. That same year it had relocated to Breckenridge, Colorado following the town's invitation to become part of its summer Breckenridge Music Festival. Since that time, the Riverwalk Center, a 750-seat facility on the shores of the Blue River, has been the NRO's main performance base. Program The NRO is a non-profit organization supported by private and corporate sponsorships as well as grants from the National Endowment for the Arts. Each year the orchestra's 88 members, who all attend on fellowships, are chosen from auditions by approximately 900 young musicians between the ages of 18