Caramoor’s Founder Brings an Idea to Life | #RosenHouseMonday

It’s the countdown to the Caramoor Gala and the beginning of the 78th summer season… and there is a sense of anticipation in the air! In honor of the start of the season, we wanted to share a document from the archives that offers a glimpse into the early planning for what would eventually become the Caramoor we know and love today.

In this letter from August 1937, Lucie writes to another woman “Minnie” (this may be Minnie Untermeyer or Minnie Guggenheimer, both were Lucie’s acquaintances and both had a keen interest in high-quality music performance), following up on an earlier brainstorming phone call “at least we were both thinking of a thing very dear to us, the Orchestra.”

As Lucie writes, “We always had in Westchester a music-loving little group… It is possible that this little group might now be willing to go farther.. so that we could sometimes hear a fine orchestra in one of the beautiful gardens here, as I have heard Opera outdoors on a private estate in Nice, or try some experiments in programs that would be later valuable for the same orchestra to use before the larger audience in the City. We have resident musicians… who could help us produce quite simply some lovely, and some new things, in the informal atmosphere of summer for a specially interested and sympathetic audience.”

With this message, Lucie gives insight into her early thoughts: how summer would be an ideal time for concerts in Westchester, how a garden setting suits fine music, and how the informality of an outdoor country venue lends itself to experimentation by performers. Before the Rosens’ building campaign was finished at Caramoor, and long before the first concerts on the site, the idea of outdoor concerts was taking shape for Lucie Rosen… Please join us to experience the power of performance in an outdoor setting this summer.