Mokoomba
2024-08-16 19:00 - 21:00 (America/New_York)
Get ready to be captivated by Mokoomba, the sensational six-piece band hailing from Zimbabwe. With their Afrofusion sound blending traditional rhythms and contemporary Zamrock, Mokoomba is a musical force that has gained global acclaim since their groundbreaking album Rising Tide in 2012. With songs from their latest album TUSONA and led by the mesmerizing vocals of Mathias Muzaza, this concert promises a night of electrifying beats, driving rhythms, and unmatched harmonies that will keep you dancing on our open field. Don’t miss out on the party as Mokoomba takes you on a musical journey from Zimbabwe, across Africa, and beyond.

“This is joyful dance music for a hot summer’s night.” — Songlines

Know Before You Go

The Venue: Friends FieldA large open lawn adjacent to Concessions and restrooms, Friends Field is used for many programs throughout the summer. Food and drinks are allowed (and encouraged!) – just remember to throw out or recycle before you leave. Note that there is no built-in seating on Friends Field, so please bring your own chairs and/or blankets.

Summer Season Shuttle / Take the FREE shuttle from Metro North’s Katonah train station to and from Caramoor! The shuttle runs before and after every summer afternoon and evening concert. There is no RSVP to get on the shuttle, it will be there when you arrive (in the parking lot side of the station). If it’s not there, it’s just making the loop and should be back within 5–10 minutes. The shuttle will start running 2.5 hours before the concert, and 30 minutes after the concert ends.

Rain or Shine / All events at Caramoor take place rain or shine. In the event of bad weather, this Friends Field concert will move under the fully covered Venetian Theater tent. This is a large tent with open sides and seating already provided. You will no longer need to bring your own seating to this concert in this scenario.

Make the Most of Your Time at Caramoor

Explore the Rosen House from 5:00pm–6:30pm / Select rooms of the Rosen House are free to explore during our Open House hours. No RSVP is required; feel free to attend and discover more about Caramoor’s history and founders.

have questions? visit the q&a page

Learn More About Mokoomba
Mokoomba sings in many different local languages. Their songs are in Tonga, Luvale, Shona, Nyanja and even Lingala used in “Makolo” when they team up with Congolese singer Desolo B. The album also features horns by Nobert Wonkyi Arthur (trumpet), Bernard Gyamfi (trombone), and Emmanuel Arthur (sax) from Ghanaian highlife outfit Santrofi.

Mokoomba is one of Zimbabwe’s most popular bands, playing with such icons as Hugh Masekela, Baba Maal, and the Talking Head’s Tina Weymouth and Chris Franz. They’ve rocked legendary rooms and stages worldwide, from NYC’s Apollo Theater and The Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., to London’s 100 Club and Amsterdam’s Melkweg, to WOMAD, WOMEX, and SXSW, sealing their reputation as one of Africa’s best young live bands.

Visit their website.

Caramoor is proud to be a grantee of ArtsWestchester with funding made possible by Westchester County government with the support of County Executive George Latimer.

All concerts made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature.

Afternoon Tea
2024-09-06 13:00 - 17:00
Afternoon Tea was one of the English traditions Lucie Rosen, founder of Caramoor, enjoyed during her time living in England in the early 1910s. She kept up the practice of inviting friends and guests to tea for many years, using the time for conversation and for planning concerts and other social events.

Tea is served in the Music Room, a unique opportunity for you to relax with friends and family in a breathtaking historic setting, featuring a large portrait of Lucie herself. The service includes a variety of tea sandwiches, scones with créme fraiche and preserves, delicious desserts, and a selection of fragrant teas. Please scroll down to see the menus we offer!

Self-Guided Rosen House Tours (included with ticket) / Following the tea, you will also have a chance to visit select rooms of the Rosen House starting at 2:00pm, until 3:30pm. The rooms showcase fine examples of decorative arts from Europe and China including jade, porcelain, and textiles that the Rosens admired and collected.

Docent-Guided Rosen House Tours (additional fees may apply) / Preceding the tea, docent-led tours are available by appointment only; they tend to fill up quickly, so be sure to book in advance by calling the Box Office at 914.232.1252. Advance Registration Required. Docent-led tours are free for Members and Children 18 & Under.

Menu

Adult Menu

Upon Arrival

Cranberry-Orange Scone with Crème Fraiche and Jam

Tea Sandwiches

Curried Chicken Salad and Arugula on a Mini Brioche Bun

Roasted Tomato, Ricotta, and Avocado on Crostini Toast

Smoked Salmon, Chive Cream Cheese, and Capers on Rye Bread

Cucumber and Mint Cream Cheese on Black Bread

Roast Beef, Onion Jam, and Cheddar Cheese on White Bread

Teas

Ceylon Waltz Black Tea

Earl Grey Moonlight Sonata Black Tea

Raspberry-Pomegranate Iced Tea

Desserts

An Assortment of Seasonal Desserts

Children’s Menu (suitable for ages 4–12)

Upon Arrival

Cranberry-Orange Scone with Crème Fraiche and Jam

Tea Sandwiches

Roast Beef and Cheddar on Wheat

Ham and Swiss on Rye

Turkey and American Cheese on Rye

Mozzarella and Tomato on Mini Brioche Buns

Peanut Butter and Jelly on White Bread

Teas

Ceylon Waltz Black Tea

Earl Grey Moonlight Sonata Black Tea

Raspberry-Pomegranate Iced Tea

Desserts

An Assortment of Seasonal Desserts

Dietary Restrictions: With advance notice at the time of booking, we are able to accommodate the following dietary restrictions: vegetarian, vegan, dairy-free, and gluten-free. Please let us know if you have any severe allergies and we will do our best to accommodate. Please note, all foods are prepared off-site therefore we cannot provide day-of requests.

Vegetarian Menu

Upon Arrival

Cranberry-Orange Scone with Crème Fraiche and Jam

Tea Sandwiches

Roasted Tomato, Avocado, and Ricotta on Crostini Toasts

Cucumber and Mint Cream Cheese on Black Bread

Fresh Mozzarella, Pesto, and Arugula on Whole Grain Bread

Hummus and Roasted Veggies on Rye Bread

Curried Vegetarian “Chicken” Salad and Arugula on Mini Brioche Bun

Teas

Ceylon Waltz Black Tea

Earl Grey Moonlight Sonata Black Tea

Raspberry-Pomegranate Iced Tea

Desserts

An Assortment of Seasonal Desserts

Vegan Menu

Upon Arrival

Vegan Scone with Jam

Tea Sandwiches

Cucumber and Mint Vegan Cream Cheese on Black Bread

Hummus and Roasted Veggies on Rye Bread

Avocado, Roasted Tomato, and “Ricotta” on Crostini Toast

Vegan “Chicken Salad” and Arugula on Whole Wheat Bread

Vegan Mozzarella, Tomato, and Arugula with Balsamic Vinaigrette on Crostini Toast

*uses nut-based cheese substitutes

Teas

Ceylon Waltz Black Tea

Earl Grey Moonlight Sonata Black Tea

Raspberry-Pomegranate Iced Tea

Desserts

Dark Chocolate Dipped Strawberry

An Assortment of Vegan Dessert Bites

Gluten-Free Menu

Upon Arrival

Gluten Free Scone with Crème Fraiche and Jam

Tea Sandwiches

Roasted Tomato, Avocado, and Ricotta on Gluten Free Bread

Cucumber and Mint Cream Cheese on Gluten Free Bread

Curried Chicken Salad and Arugula on Gluten Free Bread

Smoked Salmon, Chive Cream Cheese, and Capers on Gluten Free Bread

Roast Beef, Onion Jam, and Cheddar Cheese, on Gluten Free Bread

Teas

Ceylon Waltz Black Tea

Earl Grey Moonlight Sonata Black Tea

Raspberry-Pomegranate Iced Tea

Desserts

An Assortment of Gluten Free Desserts

Dairy-Free Menu

Upon Arrival

Dairy-Free Scone with Jam

Tea Sandwiches

Curried Chicken Salad and Arugula on Dairy Free Bread

Avocado, Roasted Tomato, and “Ricotta” on Crostini Toast

Smoked Salmon, Vegan Cream Cheese, Capers, Rye Bread

Cucumber and Mint Vegan Cream Cheese on Black Bread

Roast Beef, Onion Jam, Dairy Free Cheddar Cheese, Dairy Free White Bread

*Uses Nut-Based Cheeses

Teas

Ceylon Waltz Black Tea

Earl Grey Moonlight Sonata Black Tea

Raspberry-Pomegranate Iced Tea

Desserts

An Assortment of Dairy Free Dessert Bites

Health & SafetyWe’re committed to maintaining the health and safety of our audience, artists, and staff, while ensuring that every visit to Caramoor is comfortable and enjoyable. Click below for up-to-date health and safety policies as well as information on how we’re playing our part.

Learn more

Afternoon Tea
2024-09-13 13:00 - 17:00, 2024-09-20 13:00 - 17:00
Afternoon Tea was one of the English traditions Lucie Rosen, founder of Caramoor, enjoyed during her time living in England in the early 1910s. She kept up the practice of inviting friends and guests to tea for many years, using the time for conversation and for planning concerts and other social events.

Tea is served in the Music Room, a unique opportunity for you to relax with friends and family in a breathtaking historic setting, featuring a large portrait of Lucie herself. The service includes a variety of tea sandwiches, scones with créme fraiche and preserves, delicious desserts, and a selection of fragrant teas. Please scroll down to see the menus we offer!

Self-Guided Rosen House Tours (included with ticket) / Following the tea, you will also have a chance to visit select rooms of the Rosen House starting at 2:00pm, until 3:30pm. The rooms showcase fine examples of decorative arts from Europe and China including jade, porcelain, and textiles that the Rosens admired and collected.

New Special Viewing Opportunity: Lucie’s Fashion & Accessories!

Following the tea, guests will be able to view special items from Lucie Rosen’s wardrobe! During the Self-Guided Open House, stop by the Theremin Room where a member of the Rosen House team will show off one of Lucie’s garments and some of her fashionable accessories. These items are not regularly on view, so this is a rare chance to peek inside the closet of a unique woman of style.

Docent-Guided Rosen House Tours (additional fees may apply) / Preceding the tea, docent-led tours are available by appointment only; they tend to fill up quickly, so be sure to book in advance by calling the Box Office at 914.232.1252. Advance Registration Required. Docent-led tours are free for Members and Children 18 & Under. Special Opportunity: Don’t forget to exit through the Rosen House following the tea to see special items from Lucie’s closet on view for the Open House!

Menu

Adult Menu

Upon Arrival

Cranberry-Orange Scone with Crème Fraiche and Jam

Tea Sandwiches

Curried Chicken Salad and Arugula on a Mini Brioche Bun

Roasted Tomato, Ricotta, and Avocado on Crostini Toast

Smoked Salmon, Chive Cream Cheese, and Capers on Rye Bread

Cucumber and Mint Cream Cheese on Black Bread

Roast Beef, Onion Jam, and Cheddar Cheese on White Bread

Teas

Ceylon Waltz Black Tea

Earl Grey Moonlight Sonata Black Tea

Raspberry-Pomegranate Iced Tea

Desserts

An Assortment of Seasonal Desserts

Children’s Menu (suitable for ages 4–12)

Upon Arrival

Cranberry-Orange Scone with Crème Fraiche and Jam

Tea Sandwiches

Roast Beef and Cheddar on Wheat

Ham and Swiss on Rye

Turkey and American Cheese on Rye

Mozzarella and Tomato on Mini Brioche Buns

Peanut Butter and Jelly on White Bread

Teas

Ceylon Waltz Black Tea

Earl Grey Moonlight Sonata Black Tea

Raspberry-Pomegranate Iced Tea

Desserts

An Assortment of Seasonal Desserts

Dietary Restrictions: With advance notice at the time of booking, we are able to accommodate the following dietary restrictions: vegetarian, vegan, dairy-free, and gluten-free. Please let us know if you have any severe allergies and we will do our best to accommodate. Please note, all foods are prepared off-site therefore we cannot provide day-of requests.

Vegetarian Menu

Upon Arrival

Cranberry-Orange Scone with Crème Fraiche and Jam

Tea Sandwiches

Roasted Tomato, Avocado, and Ricotta on Crostini Toasts

Cucumber and Mint Cream Cheese on Black Bread

Fresh Mozzarella, Pesto, and Arugula on Whole Grain Bread

Hummus and Roasted Veggies on Rye Bread

Curried Vegetarian “Chicken” Salad and Arugula on Mini Brioche Bun

Teas

Ceylon Waltz Black Tea

Earl Grey Moonlight Sonata Black Tea

Raspberry-Pomegranate Iced Tea

Desserts

An Assortment of Seasonal Desserts

Vegan Menu

Upon Arrival

Vegan Scone with Jam

Tea Sandwiches

Cucumber and Mint Vegan Cream Cheese on Black Bread

Hummus and Roasted Veggies on Rye Bread

Avocado, Roasted Tomato, and “Ricotta” on Crostini Toast

Vegan “Chicken Salad” and Arugula on Whole Wheat Bread

Vegan Mozzarella, Tomato, and Arugula with Balsamic Vinaigrette on Crostini Toast

*uses nut-based cheese substitutes

Teas

Ceylon Waltz Black Tea

Earl Grey Moonlight Sonata Black Tea

Raspberry-Pomegranate Iced Tea

Desserts

Dark Chocolate Dipped Strawberry

An Assortment of Vegan Dessert Bites

Gluten-Free Menu

Upon Arrival

Gluten Free Scone with Crème Fraiche and Jam

Tea Sandwiches

Roasted Tomato, Avocado, and Ricotta on Gluten Free Bread

Cucumber and Mint Cream Cheese on Gluten Free Bread

Curried Chicken Salad and Arugula on Gluten Free Bread

Smoked Salmon, Chive Cream Cheese, and Capers on Gluten Free Bread

Roast Beef, Onion Jam, and Cheddar Cheese, on Gluten Free Bread

Teas

Ceylon Waltz Black Tea

Earl Grey Moonlight Sonata Black Tea

Raspberry-Pomegranate Iced Tea

Desserts

An Assortment of Gluten Free Desserts

Dairy-Free Menu

Upon Arrival

Dairy-Free Scone with Jam

Tea Sandwiches

Curried Chicken Salad and Arugula on Dairy Free Bread

Avocado, Roasted Tomato, and “Ricotta” on Crostini Toast

Smoked Salmon, Vegan Cream Cheese, Capers, Rye Bread

Cucumber and Mint Vegan Cream Cheese on Black Bread

Roast Beef, Onion Jam, Dairy Free Cheddar Cheese, Dairy Free White Bread

*Uses Nut-Based Cheeses

Teas

Ceylon Waltz Black Tea

Earl Grey Moonlight Sonata Black Tea

Raspberry-Pomegranate Iced Tea

Desserts

An Assortment of Dairy Free Dessert Bites

Health & SafetyWe’re committed to maintaining the health and safety of our audience, artists, and staff, while ensuring that every visit to Caramoor is comfortable and enjoyable. Click below for up-to-date health and safety policies as well as information on how we’re playing our part.

Learn more

Herb Fair | Julia Whitney Barnes Workshop
2024-09-14 10:00 - 11:30
Introduction to Cyanotype Printing Technique

We are honored to welcome Julia Whitney Barnes to the Herb Fair & Market again this year. In addition to exhibiting her work at the Rosen House during the Fair, she will be selling her signed prints, signing her book, “Planting Utopia”, and offering an exciting workshop.

The workshop will start with the basics of how to make a cyanotype print by mixing chemistry, coating paper and/or fabric, and developing the print using the sun. We will cover how to print using fresh and pressed plants, printing with three-dimensional objects (string, plastic bags, glass jars, jewelry, etc.), printing with paper cutouts, and how to create and print with photographic negatives. This medium is infinite in ways to combine techniques during the creation of the print and after it has been printed. The workshop does not require any previous experience in cyanotype.

Artist and educator Julia Whitney Barnes approaches cyanotype (sometimes considered a printmaking technique, sometimes a photographic technique) as someone painting with light. She is interested in creating objects that feel both beautiful and mysterious. Each of her cyanotype paintings recalls something familiar yet slightly outside of time. Given that sunlight starts the exposure process with cyanotype chemistry, she carefully arranges elaborate compositions at night and utilizes long exposures under natural or UV light to create the final prints. She manipulates physical impressions of plants grown in her Hudson Valley garden and other nearby areas, along with intricate negatives that are created as digital renderings or photographs printed in reverse onto transparencies.

Please note: The cost of the workshop includes all essential materials and the $10 admission fee to the Herb Fair & Market. Therefore, if you purchase a workshop ticket, there is no need to buy a separate admission ticket. Very limited spaces available, so sign up early!

Julia Whitney Barnes is an artist living in the Hudson Valley who works in a variety of media from cyanotypes, watercolor, oil paintings, ceramic sculptures, murals, and site-specific installations. She has exhibited widely in the United States and internationally. She was awarded fellowships from New York State Council Arts, Arts Mid-Hudson, Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, Abbey Memorial Fund for Mural Painting/National Academy of Fine Arts, and the Gowanus Public Art Initiative, among others.

Born in Newbury, VT, Julia Whitney Barnes spent two decades in Brooklyn, before moving to Poughkeepsie, NY in 2015. She received her BFA from Parsons School of Design and her MFA from Hunter College. Whitney Barnes has created site-specific installations at the Albany International Airport/Shaker Heritage Society, Albany, NY; Brookfield Place/Winter Garden, New York, NY; Arts Brookfield, Brooklyn, NY, the Wilderstein Sculpture Biennial, Rhinebeck, NY; The Trolley Barn/Fall K*ll Creative Works, Poughkeepsie, NY; GlenLily Grounds, Newburgh, NY; ArtsWestchester, White Plains, NY; Gowanus Public Arts Initiative, Brooklyn, NY; Space All Over/Fjellerup Bund i Bund & Grund, Fjellerup, Denmark; Lower Manhattan Cultural Council/Sirovitch Senior Center, New York, NY; Brooklyn School of Inquiry, Brooklyn, NY; New York City Department of Transportation, New York, NY; and Figment Sculpture Garden, Governors Island, NY and among other locations.

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afternoon tea at the herb fair

Herb Fair & Market
2024-09-14 10:00 - 16:00
For 73 years, the Herb Fair has celebrated the many ways that herbs enrich our lives and promoted the knowledge and use of herbs through educational programs, research, and community engagement. This one-day event will feature an extraordinary roster of makers and artisans as well as an extensive program of demonstrations, talks, and workshops from leading herb experts. We hope you will join us in celebrating 73 years of the Herb Fair’s legacy, uniting herb enthusiasts, artisans, and families in a shared appreciation for nature’s gifts on September 14, 10:00am – 4:00pm. Rain Date: Sunday, September 15

Fair Highlights

Afternoon Tea in the Rosen House / For $70 per person, enjoy a variety of tea sandwiches, scones with créme fraiche and preserves, delicious desserts, and a selection of fragrant teas by Harney & Sons Fine Teas. Special guest Michael Harney, master tea buyer and blender of Harney & Sons for more than 25 years, will join us for this unique experience. This will take place from 2:00pm–4:00pm.

Rosen House / Enjoy free Open House access to the Rosen House from 10:00am–1:45pm. Drop in to view select rooms and plenty of treasures! Listed on the National Register of Historic Places, the Rosen House at Caramoor is a work of living history. The Mediterranean-style House was built during the period between 1929 and 1939 by Walter Rosen, a Berlin-born, Harvard and New York School of Law-educated international banker specializing in railroads, and Lucie Bigelow Dodge Rosen, an independent, spirited, and highly intelligent member of a prominent New York City family.

Marketplace Treasures / Shop a diverse marketplace featuring fresh herbs, artisanal products, and herbal delights. Discover unique wares for the home, garden, and table, along with herb-infused gourmet foods from more than 30 local and national makers and artisans. Click here to see the complete list of participants.

Herb Table / Take in the bountiful Herb Table featuring a selection of dried and fresh-cut herbs and fragrant handmade items with experts on hand to answer your gardening questions!

Baked Goods / Peruse a variety of herb-infused baked goods with an extensive selection of cookies plus savory cornbreads, tea cakes, muffins, and mini loaves.

Lovage Soup / Enjoy the Herb Fair’s signature Lovage Soup made with fresh herbs from the Herb Garden. The savory soup is made with potatoes, leeks, and broth flavored with lovage, an aromatic herb resembling celery but stronger and sweeter.

Educational Workshops / Engage in hands-on workshops and hourly presentations in the speaker’s tent led by renowned herbalists, artists, and horticulturalists. Learn about herbs’ versatility and their potential for enhancing health and creativity.

Enriching Activities / Delight in activities for the entire family, including a craft table for kids hosted by the Rye Arts Center where participants can make magic wands with a beautiful butterfly top and ribbons.

Marketplace Participants

Julia Whitney BarnesPlatformJane D’ArensbourgSage CacaoCocoa Tree ChocolatesExalted AlchemyDancing Spirits

Rajiv SurendraBattle Hill ForgePetalune HerbalsThe Cozy Tea CartOlga JoanCustodian StudioMalfatti Glass

Sixteen SistersChurchtown DairyoHHoThe New SavantBracken Fern StudiosClay Story

Workshops

Julia Whitney Barnes | Introduction to Cyanotype Printing Technique

We are honored to welcome Julia Whitney Barnes to the Herb Fair & Market again this year. In addition to exhibiting her work at the Rosen House during the Fair, she will be selling her signed prints, signing her book, “Planting Utopia”, and offering an exciting workshop.

Julia Whitney Barnes is an artist living in the Hudson Valley who works in a variety of media from cyanotypes, watercolor, oil paintings, ceramic sculptures, murals, and site-specific installations. She has exhibited widely in the United States and internationally. She was awarded fellowships from New York State Council Arts, Arts Mid-Hudson, Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, Abbey Memorial Fund for Mural Painting/National Academy of Fine Arts, and the Gowanus Public Art Initiative, among others.

Workshop / $127

tickets to the workshop

Laena McCarthy | Fruit and Herb Jam Making Workshop | 12:00pm

Laena McCarthy, founder of Anarchy in a Jar and author of Jam On: The Craft of Canning Fruit, will lead a fun hands-on class on fruit and herb jam making.

Founder and CEO Laena McCarthy started Anarchy in a Jar in 2009, cooking in the wee hours of the morning, making jam in restaurant kitchens, borrowed through the kindness and generosity of her community. Anarchy in a Jar is not a commodity, it’s built around people growing, making, and sustaining real food ecosystems.

An international career in science support and academia ignited her interest in food, and she learned creative recipes from people she met around the world for preserved foods that were both tasty and healing. Laena landed back in NYC and decided to make her passion for preservation into a business.

Workshop / $70

tickets to the workshop

Boxed Lunch Pre-Order / $22

Pre-order a delicious boxed lunch featuring local and fresh ingredients for $22. Choose from a savory balsamic grilled chicken on herbed panini or a vegetarian option with hummus and roasted vegetables. Click here to purchase the lunch.

OPTIONSBalsamic Grilled Chicken with Red Pepper & Basil Hummus and Farm Greens on Herbed Panini / Miss Vickie’s Chips / Green Grapes / Rosemary Lemon Shortbread–OR–Hummus & Roasted Vegetables with Red Pepper & Basil Hummus, Tomato, Zucchini, Squash, Arugula, and Parsley on Herbed Panini / Miss Vickie’s Chips / Green Grapes / Rosemary Lemon Shortbread

In the Rosen House

Afternoon Tea in The Rosen House / 2:00pm–4:00pm

Afternoon Tea was one of the English traditions Lucie Rosen, founder of Caramoor, enjoyed during her time living in England in the early 1910s. She kept up the practice of inviting friends and guests to tea for many years, using the time for conversation and for planning concerts and other social events.

Tea is served in the Music Room, a unique opportunity to relax with friends and family in a breathtaking historic setting, featuring a large portrait of Lucie herself. The service includes a variety of tea sandwiches, scones with créme fraiche and preserves, delicious desserts, and a selection of fragrant teas by Harney & Sons Fine Teas. Special guest Michael Harney, master tea buyer and blender of Harney & Sons for more than 25 years, will join us for this unique experience.

$70 per person

tickets to afternoon tea

Free Rosen House Tours from 10:00am–2:00pm

Listed on the National Register of Historic Places, the Rosen House at Caramoor is a work of living history. The Mediterranean-style House was built during the period between 1929 and 1939 by Walter Rosen, a Berlin-born, Harvard and New York School of Law-educated international banker specializing in railroads, and Lucie Bigelow Dodge Rosen, an independent, spirited, and highly intelligent member of a prominent New York City family.

Filled with examples of fine and decorative Asian and Renaissance art, the House offers a number of treasures, including complete 18th-century rooms, originally from private villas and chateaux in Italy, France, and England.

Free Presentations

The Art of Herbal Medicine / 11:00am

Dawn Petter, Owner, Petalune Herbals

Herbalism is the oldest form of medicine and every culture has its version. Discover how to incorporate culinary herbs and other botanicals into remedies and foods using a wide range of creative methods from this traditional approach.

Spilling the Tea / 12:00pm

Michael Harney, Master Tea Buyer and Blender, Harney & Sons

Drawing on his decades of travel and tasting, Mike Harney will talk about tea and some herbals, its traditions, its history, and a bit of plant science. He will try to leave you with a smile. Just like a good cup of tea.

Flower Arrangements From Your Own Garden / 1:00pm

Dana Warlock, Hedgerow Flower Farm + Studio

Raised in Colorado and Alaska, Dana Worlock is the creative force behind Hedgerow Flower Farm + Studio. She maintains a floral design studio and farm on her property in Pound Ridge, NY. Dana will demonstrate how to utilize the plant material from your garden to make a beautiful flower arrangement.

Yarrow and its Many Benefits / 2:00pm

Jean-David Derreumaux, Medicinal Plant Grower, Churchtown Dairy

Jean-David currently grows medicinal plants on a 3-acre healing garden setting in the beautiful context of Churchtown Dairy. Aside from making its own products, Churchtown Dairy provides high-quality biodynamic plant material for several herbal companies and makes plant extracts for the Uriel pharmacy.

The Herbal Nature of Honey / 3:00pm

D. J. Haverkamp, Beekeeper, Bedford Bee Honeybee Service

​D. J. tends over 150 colonies of honey bees in Westchester County. He will share some life lessons he’s learned from the bees while exploring including flavinoids (the complex chemical compounds found in herbs and honey) in one’s diet.

Rye Arts Center Children’s Program

We are pleased to welcome The Rye Arts Center back to the Herb Fair & Market this year. The Rye Arts Center is hosting a kid’s activity table where participants can make magic wands with a beautiful butterfly top and ribbons.

Butterflies are pollinators and are the focus of the Center’s fundraiser “Rye’s Above” which showcases stunning hand-painted butterflies from various local artists while raising funds to support local educational programs in the region. For more information on the Rye’s Above program, click here.

​The Rye Arts Center’s mission is to inspire life-long enthusiasm and participation in the arts through best-in-class artistic offerings and educational programs.

Herb Fair | Fruit and Herb Jam Making Workshop
2024-09-14 12:00 - 13:00
Hosted by Anarchy in a Jar Founder Laena McCarthy

In this demonstration-based class, you’ll learn the simple steps of homemade jam, from cooking and jelling to processing and sealing.

We’ll also cover the tools and tricks of preservation, such as safety and shelf-life, as well as sugar-free methods and canning history. You’ll get recipes, and tips and can make them along if you choose.

Laena McCarthy, founder of Anarchy in a Jar and author of Jam On: The Craft of Canning Fruit published by Penguin Random House, will lead you through this fun hands-on class!

Skill level: beginner; but those with jam skills are welcome to join and learn some new tricks. You’ll walk away with the ability to:

source and select ingredients

cook and preserve fruit, while maximizing flavor

fill and process jars for shelf-stable jam

share your homemade jar of jam with friends!

About Laena McCarthy

Founder and CEO Laena McCarthy started Anarchy in a Jar in 2009, cooking in the wee hours of the morning, making jam in restaurant kitchens, borrowed through the kindness and generosity of her community. Anarchy in a Jar is not a commodity, it’s built around people growing, making, and sustaining real food ecosystems.

An international career in science support and academia ignited her interest in food, and she learned creative recipes from people she met around the world for preserved foods that were both tasty and healing. Laena landed back in NYC and decided to make her passion for preservation into a business.

With help from her team of tasters, fellow food makers, and fans, she grew the business into a food experience powerhouse, where she teaches people to stir their eclectic experience and passion for eating into elixirs of the jar.

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afternoon tea at the herb fair

Afternoon Tea at the Herb Fair
2024-09-14 14:00 - 16:00
This special Afternoon Tea is a part of the 73rd Annual Herb Fair. Admission to the Herb Fair is included in your tea ticket.

Afternoon Tea was one of the English traditions Lucie Rosen, founder of Caramoor, enjoyed during her time living in England in the early 1910s. She kept up the practice of inviting friends and guests to tea for many years, using the time for conversation and for planning concerts and other social events.

Tea is served in the Music Room, a unique opportunity to relax with friends and family in a breathtaking historic setting, featuring a large portrait of Lucie herself. The service includes a variety of tea sandwiches, scones with créme fraiche and preserves, delicious desserts, and a selection of fragrant teas by Harney & Sons Fine Teas. Please scroll down to see the menus we offer!

Special guest Michael Harney, master tea buyer and blender of Harney & Sons for more than 25 years, will join us for this unique experience.

Afternoon Tea Menu

Upon Arrival

Cranberry Orange Scone with Créme Fraîche & Jam

Tea Sandwiches

Roast Beef & Cheddar Cheese with Rosemary Onion Jam on White Bread

Smoked Salmon with Chive Cream Cheese & Capers on Rye Bread

Mint Cream Cheese & Cucumber on Pumpernickel Bread

Tarragon Chicken Salad on Mini Brioche Buns

Roasted Tomato, Ricotta & Basil on a Crostini Toasts

Teas

Assorted Teas by Harney & Sons Fine Teas

Desserts

Chocolate Covered Strawberries

Lemon Bars

Assorted Cookies

Dietary Restrictions: With advance notice at the time of booking, we are able to accommodate the following dietary restrictions: vegetarian, vegan, dairy-free, and gluten-free. Please let us know if you have any severe allergies and we will do our best to accommodate. Please note, all foods are prepared off-site therefore we cannot provide day-of requests.

** For those that are gluten-free, sandwiches will be placed on a variety of gluten-free breads and rolls with the same fillings. Desserts with gluten will be replaced with gluten-free desserts.

Vegetarian Menu

Upon Arrival

Cranberry-Orange Scone with Crème Fraiche and Jam

Tea Sandwiches

Roasted Tomato, Ricotta & Basil on a Crostini Toasts

Cucumber and Mint Cream Cheese on Black Bread

Fresh Mozzarella, Basil Pesto, and Arugula on Whole Wheat Bread

Hummus and Roasted Veggies on Rye Bread

Tarragon “Chicken” Salad on Mini Brioche Buns

Teas

Assorted Teas by Harney & Sons Fine Teas

Desserts

Chocolate Covered Strawberries

Lemon Bars

Assorted Cookies

Vegan Menu

Upon Arrival

Vegan Scone with Jam

Tea Sandwiches

Cucumber and Mint Vegan Cream Cheese on Black Bread

Hummus and Roasted Veggies on Rye Bread

Roasted Tomato, Basil, and “Ricotta” on Crostini Toast

Vegan Tarragon “Chicken Salad” on Dairy-Free Bread

Vegan Mozzarella, Vegan Pesto, and Arugula on Dairy-Free Bread

*uses nut-based cheese substitutes

Teas

Assorted Teas by Harney & Sons Fine Teas

Desserts

Dark Chocolate Dipped Strawberry

An Assortment of Vegan Dessert Bites

Dairy-Free Menu

Upon Arrival

Dairy-Free Scone with Jam

Tea Sandwiches

Tarragon Chicken Salad on Dairy Free Bread

Roasted Tomato, Basil, and “Ricotta” on Crostini Toast

Smoked Salmon, Dairy-Free Chive Cream Cheese, Capers on Rye Bread

Cucumber and Mint Vegan Cream Cheese on Black Bread

Roast Beef, Rosemary Onion Jam, Dairy Free Cheddar Cheese on Dairy Free White Bread

*Uses Nut-Based Cheeses

Teas

Assorted Teas by Harney & Sons Fine Teas

Desserts

Dark Chocolate Covered Strawberry

An Assortment of Dairy-Free Dessert Bites

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julia whitney barnes workshop

Fruit and Herb Jam Making Workshop

People of Earth
2024-09-29 15:00 - 18:00
Grounds open at 1:00pm for family activities!

Please bring your own seating for this Concert on the Lawn.

Immerse yourself in a kaleidoscope of music as People of Earth, an electrifying ensemble of global musicians, takes the stage. From the pulsating rhythms of Cuba to the soulful melodies of Brazil, their music transcends borders, unites cultures, and spreads joy, making the world a better place. The 13-member collective is filled with some of the highest caliber musicians NYC has to offer, with members hailing from seven countries, including Cuba, Puerto Rico, Colombia, Greece, Canada, Haiti, Switzerland, and the United States. No matter where you’re from or what language you speak, People of Earth will get you up on your feet and dancing.

Pre-Concert Family Activities

From 1:00pm–3:00pm, join us at craft tables provided by Katonah Museum of Art and For the People and Kids.

Concessions

Our concessions tent will be open starting at 1:00pm with treats such as empanadas, grilled Mexican corn salad, chicken burrito bowls, apple cider donuts, tres leches, ice cream, Mexican hot chocolate, apple cider, Mexican Coca-Cola, and much much more!

The Rosen House

Explore the Rosen House from 1:00pm–3:00pm / Select rooms of the Rosen House are free to explore during our Open House hours. No RSVP is required; feel free to attend and discover more about Caramoor’s history and founders.

Know Before You Go

The Venue: Friends FieldA large open lawn adjacent to Concessions and restrooms, Friends Field is used for many programs throughout the summer and early fall. Food and drinks are allowed (and encouraged!) – just remember to throw out or recycle before you leave. Note that there is no built-in seating on Friends Field, so please bring your own chairs and/or blankets.

Rain or Shine / All events at Caramoor take place rain or shine. In the event of bad weather, this Friends Field concert will move under the fully covered Venetian Theater tent. This is a large tent with open sides and seating already provided. You will no longer need to bring your own seating to this concert in this scenario.

Learn More About People of Earth
Since first exploding onto New York’s cutting-edge Latin and tropical music scene, People of Earth has become one of the city’s most exciting emerging bands. The 13-member collective is filled with some of the highest caliber musicians the city has to offer, whose combined credits include GRAMMY® wins, jazz masters Paquito d’Rivera, Arturo O’Farrill, and Miguel Zenon, Broadway shows, and classical phenoms Danil Trifonov and Yuja Wang, to name but a few.

With members hailing from seven countries, including Cuba, Puerto Rico, Colombia, Greece, Canada, Haiti, Switzerland and the United States, People of Earth, or P.o.E. as they are often monikered, has built up a strong following in their home city, delivering their spicy blend of styles and rhythms from the Caribbean and beyond at their residencies at Rockwood Music Hall, DROM and The Django.

With their powerhouse lineup of congas, timbales, drum-set, electric bass, piano, synthesizer, two trumpets, two trombones, and three singers, P.o.E. uses their original sound and groove to cast a wide net that ensnares and engages veteran salsa dancers and neophytes alike. The band’s repertoire consists of original compositions as well as original arrangements of select standards, and P.o.E’s singers effortlessly switch from Spanish to English to Portuguese to Creole as they perform what they’ve coined “A.T.M.” or American Timba Music, a style with deep roots in Cuban timba (many of the band members have played with the top timba bands in Cuba), but with an unmistakable flavor brewed in the musical and cultural melting pot of sound only possible in a city as diverse as New York. No matter where you’re from or what language you speak People of Earth will get you up on your feet and in the groove or die trying.

Despite their short time together as a band, P.o.E. has already performed at The Kennedy Center in Washington D.C., Disney Hall in L.A., Kimmel Center in Philadelphia, and at Carnegie Hall Citywide. In 2019, the band collaborated with renowned Nuyorican folkloric dancer Julia Gutiérrez-Rivera in Majestad Negra, an eight-minute work for dance, drums, and vocals.

In 2021, P.o.E. partnered with phenom conductor Teddy Abrams to commission MacArthur Genius Fellow Dafnis Prieto to compose a concerto for the band and string orchestra. With the help of a New Music USA creator grant as well as workshop residencies at Kaufman Music Center and San Fransisco Conservatory, the band pushed the project to reach resounding success, performing Prieto’s Tentacíon with the Louisville Orchestra, New World Symphony in Miami, and Britt Festival Orchestra in Jacksonville, Oregon as well as a 40-minute theatrical children’s adaption performed with the Los Angeles Philharmonic.

Since day one, People of Earth has made education a cornerstone of their mission. P.o.E. has performed children’s concerts for 92Y, World Cafe Live, Louisville Orchestra, and Britt Festival, and has visited schools throughout New York City in partnership with the Afro Latin Jazz Alliance. In 2019 P.o.E. performed for 4,000 summer campers at the Mann Center in Philadelphia (their most energetic audience to date). P.o.E. has presented lectures and residencies at University of Pennsylvania, San Francisco Conservatory, and Queensborough College.

People of Earth’s self-titled debut album offers nine tracks that captures the unique blend of influences, explorations, and experimentations that has defined the band’s sound thus far. Cuban cowbell rhythms ebb and flow next to neo-soul synth patches while swirling piano montunos collide with kick-snare downbeat funk rhythms. The album consists of seven original compositions by band members Victor Pablo, Gabriel Globus-Hoenich, Ivan Llanes, Joana Obieta and Ayamey Bell (who has since departed the band), as well as two arrangements; Djavan’s “Te Devoro” and Leonard Bernstein’s “Mambo” from West Side Story, both arranged by Globus-Hoenich. Lauded Bahian singer Marcos Costa, formerly of Ilê Aiyê, is a special guest on “Te Devoro,” while virtuoso British trumpeter Bryan Davis joins for “Mambo” fun.

The album burns from the first moment to the last, beginning with Pablo’s “Chiki,” a timba-songo style song that has been the band’s set-opener for good reason; it hooks you in from the start and pulls you on your feet. The following track, “Shoulda Known Better,” is a Globus-Hoenich/Bell examination of seduction set to hard-core Cuban timba rhythms with lyrics completely in English. Singer Llanes is featured on his composition “La Mejor Mujer,” which offers a welcomed cool-down to the hard hitting energy of the previous number. Pablo’s haunting lament, “Piloto,” follows sung by Bell and features guest plena musicians recorded in Puerto Rico.

Later in the album we hear Obieta’s “Wolf Mother,” another English song, this time mixing elements of soul, hip-hop and rock with traditional danzón and bolero. All three singers are featured on Pablo’s “Un Ratito,” equal parts electro-rumba-rap and hip shaking timba. Bell closes out the album with Globus-Hoenich’s “La Coda,” a timba burner filled with tongue and cheek musical metaphors and double meanings about the relentless search for love, with a coro that professes: “Te doy mi clave pa seducirte, mi piano pa’ descargar, y los metales para la boda, te coje en la coda”- I give you my claves to seduce you, my piano to jam, the brass for the wedding, I’ll get you in the end.

P.o.E began laying these tracks down in 2019 and continued recording remotely from across the country and world during the COVID pandemic. The resulting nine tracks are a powerful collective statement of creativity, ambition, talent, and unrelenting desire to open minds and move behinds. Salsero or not, Spanish speaker or not, make no mistake: People of Earth has landed and is here to stay.

For more information, visit their website.

Marc-André Hamelin, piano
2024-10-06 15:00 - 17:00
Caramoor is thrilled to welcome back renowned Canadian pianist and composer Marc-André Hamelin to open our Music Room season. Hamelin is known worldwide for his unrivaled blend of consummate musicianship and brilliant technique in the great works of the established repertoire, as well as for his intrepid exploration of the rarities of the 19th, 20th, and 21st centuries. An exclusive recording artist for Hyperion, his more than 70 albums, including some of his own compositions, continue to garner critical acclaim. Don’t miss this opportunity to hear this spectacular artist in our intimate venue.

Program

Joseph Haydn: Sonata in D Major, Hob.XVI:37Ludwig van Beethoven: Sonata in C Major, Op. 2, No. 3Nikolai Medtner: Improvisation in B flat minor (in variation form), Op. 31, No. 1Medtner: Danza festiva, Op. 38, No. 3Sergei Rachmaninoff: Etude-Tableau, Op. 39 no.5Rachmaninoff: Piano Sonata No. 2, Op. 36 (1931 version)

“A performer of near-superhuman technical prowess.” — The New York Times

About the Music
In our mind’s eye, we often perceive composers as standing in relief to their historical contexts, rather than fully embedded members of their contemporary creative communities. This program highlights four renowned artists and their relationships to each other: Joseph Haydn as mentor to Ludwig van Beethoven, and Sergei Rachmaninoff as friend and champion of Nikolay Medtner. Through their works, we also get a bird’s eye view of the evolution and expansion of the piano sonata from its early establishment in the classical era to its sprawling mature form, as well as three shorter character pieces that communicate specific moods.

By 1780, Joseph Haydn had worked for the Esterházy family for nearly 20 years, having established an enviable rapport with the remarkable collection of musicians in the orchestra he wrote for and led as part of his duties. The position granted Haydn the luxury of creative freedom afforded to him by their skills, and the opportunity to cross paths with many other talented individuals in Vienna. Among them were the sisters Katharina and Marianna Auenbrugger whose musical abilities were also recognized by Leopold Mozart, father of Wolfgang Amadeus. The Piano Sonata in D Major, Hob. XVI:37 was one in a collection of six that Haydn wrote and dedicated to the Auenbruggers, noting to his publisher, “their way of playing, and their close attention to the music, are equal to those of the great masters. Both deserve to become known everywhere in Europe through the public newspapers.” Haydn had a particular gift for infusing his music with winking mischief and good humor, and we hear that in spades in the ebullient opening movement of the sonata that highlights the agility of the performer with rapid-fire scales zooming around the keyboard. The unusual slow movement is notable for its brevity, a small and regal jewel with a stately essence in sharp contrast to what came before and will come after, a sprightly Finale that concludes the work.

Twelve years later, in 1792, as France convulsed in revolution, Haydn was making his way back to Vienna from London where he had spent an 18-month period as a visiting celebrity. Stopping in Bonn, he met a 21-year-old firebrand named Ludwig van Beethoven and agreed to take him as a composition student. By November, Beethoven had moved to Vienna, but tensions between master and student soon developed. Haydn’s teaching style and Beethoven’s independent streak clashed, and their formal time together ended the following year. Beethoven’s pupil, Ferdinand Ries, would later write, “Haydn desired that Beethoven should write on the title pages of his first works, ‘pupil of Haydn’s.’ Beethoven did not want to do so because, although as he said he had some lessons from Haydn, he had never learned anything from him.” Despite Beethoven’s acerbic recollection, he did feel gratitude for what mentorship he did gain from Haydn – things like a deeper understanding of musical proportion and professional advice. When it came time to publish the first mature set of three piano sonatas as his opus 2, he movingly dedicated them to Haydn. In the Sonata Op. 2, No. 3, we hear a characteristic that both Haydn and Beethoven shared, which was the eternal pursuit of innovation and a desire to push the boundaries of musical form and structure. Here, Beethoven penned a sonata of longer and broader scope than was typical at the time. It opens almost unassumingly with a quickly oscillating figure followed by silence, as if peeking around the stage curtain, before launching into an exploration of bravura pianism riffing inventively on the main themes introduced at the beginning. The slow movement follows, showcasing Beethoven’s ability to write beautifully moving melodies laden with raw emotion. In the third movement, Beethoven once again shows how much variation he can squeeze out of groupings of three notes and contrasts the detached texture of the outer sections with an inner Trio that transforms the three notes into flowing ribbons of sound. The work ends with a vivacious finale in rondo form where main and contrasting themes are alternated.

Though Nikolay Medtner abandoned aspirations to become a concert pianist, the instrument was ever present in his life as a composer. He produced numerous large-scale works for the piano, such as the three concertos and 14 sonatas, in addition to a plethora of collected smaller atmospheric and character pieces. Among those were the Three Morceaux, Op. 31, and the Forgotten Melodies, Op. 38. The former was dedicated to the memory of a brilliant young composer, Alexei Stanchinsky, who had also studied at the Moscow Conservatory and died under tragic circumstances at the age of 26. Opening with a mournful melody accompanied by a gentle bassline, ebbing, and flowing with feeling, the Improvisation quickly leans into a series of brief variations on the opening theme. Though the notes are fully captured in the pages of the music and not spontaneously imagined like a true improvisation, the piece exudes an impulsive and breathtakingly virtuosic spirit of invention illustrative of the title. Similarly harnessing the fleeting, Medtner’s three cycles of Forgotten Melodies were constructed by using fragments of melodies that had been written down in notebooks and abandoned. The vibrant Danza Festiva is one of the most popular pieces in the cycle and may have been inspired by a Flemish painting depicting a festival. Distinctive features of this work are its commencing chords that may be evoking village bells or a dance band tuning – both of which are invitations to gather and dance, and the lively, sometimes syncopated, propelling rhythms.

Unfortunately, despite his talents Medtner struggled to get consistent opportunities. However, he found encouragement and support in his friendship with Sergei Rachmaninoff, who used his own fame and influence to secure performance tours or give direct financial assistance to Medtner. Both shared a conviction to write music firmly rooted in traditional forms that maintained a connection to the post-Romantic world, shrugging off the influences of the modernist, experimental, and avant-garde works being written by their contemporaries. They would also both ultimately choose to flee revolutionary Russia, with Medtner settling in England and Rachmaninoff in the United States.

Before the loss of his country, Rachmaninoff wrestled with personal loss, including the deaths of two individuals from his student days at the Moscow Conservatory, his teacher, Sergei Taneyev, and classmate, Alexander Scriabin, within two months of each other in 1915. The Etude-tableau (study pictures) Op. 39, No. 5 was written while preparing to give a memorial recital for the latter. It is an expression of wrought, raw, and restless feeling, and may have been inspired by Scriabin’s Poème Tragique. A work that straddles Rachmaninoff’s Russian and American periods is the Piano Sonata No. 2, which was premiered in its original version in 1913, but revised by the composer in 1931. Throughout his career, Rachmaninoff suffered from a persistent anxiety over audience reception of his works, even writing to Medtner that he monitored the amount of coughing in the hall to judge what they liked and disliked. Feeling that the original version was too dense, he significantly pruned what he thought were superfluous sections. Regardless of the changes, both versions maintain three distinctive characteristics pertaining to structure, disposition, and memory. First, the three movements, though distinct from each other, share recurring thematic material derived from the initial downward tumble at the head of the piece. In the slow movement, it appears as a jarring insertion, in the final movement it functions as a launching off point, creating an arc back to the opening. The sonata also shows us a slightly different side of Rachmaninoff. Here, the sweeping grandiosity heard in the Piano Concerto No. 3, written just six years earlier, is cast in a more intimate mood. A critic observed, “there is a certain inner reserve, severity and introspection.” Finally, the sonata is freighted with the sound of profound nostalgia. “All my life,” Rachmaninoff reminisced, “I have taken pleasure in the differing moods and music of gladly chiming and mournfully tolling bells.” Throughout the entirety of the sonata, chords evoking the sounds of various bells echo across its landscape, culminating in a resoundingly triumphant full peal.

— Kathryn Bacasmot

Kathryn Bacasmot is an independent writer about music.

About Marc-André Hamelin
Pianist Marc-André Hamelin, a “performer of near-superhuman technical prowess” (The New York Times), is known worldwide for his unrivaled blend of consummate musicianship. He continues to amass praise for his brilliant technique in the great works of the repertoire, and for his intrepid exploration of the rarities of the 19th, 20th, and 21st centuries. He regularly performs around the globe with the leading orchestras and conductors of our time, and gives recitals at major concert venues and festivals worldwide.

Hamelin’s 2024-25 season begins with recitals in Asia at the Beijing Concert Hall, Xi’an Concert Hall, Seoul Arts Center, and in duo recitals with Charles Richard-Hamelin in Tokyo, Yokohama, and Fukuoka with later solo recitals in Gulangyu, Chengdu, and the Shanghai Symphony Hall. European highlights include recitals in Warsaw, Ascona, Copenhagen, Toulouse, Cremona, Florence, Budapest, Detmold, Nijmegen, Herrenhausen, Ruhr, Hamburg’s Elbphilharmonie, and London’s Wigmore Hall. Orchestral appearances include the RTVE Madrid, Bruckner Orchester Linz, and Prague Radio Symphony. He will return to São Paulo State Symphony Orchestra for a recital and concerti touring with the orchestra later to the Bogotá International Classical Music Festival.

In North America he returns to Carnegie Hall for Beethoven Piano Concerto No. 5 with the Orchestra of St. Luke’s with Bernard Labadie. Further orchestral appearances include the Cleveland Orchestra, Montreal Symphony, Atlanta Symphony, National Arts Center Orchestra in Ottawa and the orchestra of Quebec, Toledo, Amarillo, and a complete Beethoven Concerti Cycle with the Edmonton Symphony. Recital highlights include Caramoor, San Francisco Performances, Music Toronto, Boston’s Isabel Stewart Gardner Museum, and the University of Georgia Presents. He also tours with the Dover Quartet in a program that features his own Piano Quintet.

Summer 2024 included recitals at the Schubertiade, Deutschlandsberg, Banff Center, Vivace Festival, a duo recital with Charles Richard-Hamelin at Ottawa Chamberfest, and Liszt Piano Concertos 1 and 2 with Yannick Nezet-Seguin and the Orchestre Metropolitain at Festival de Lanaudiere and Domaine Forget.

An exclusive recording artist for Hyperion Records, Hamelin has released 89 albums to date, with notable recordings of a broad range of solo, orchestral, and chamber repertoire. In October, Hamelin releases his recording of Beethoven’s imposing Piano Sonata in B flat major, ‘Hammerklavier,’ Op. 106, coupled with the earlier Piano Sonata in C Major, Op. 2, No. 3. In 2025, he releases MixTape, featuring 20th-century music.

Featuring nine original pieces, Hamelin’s 2024 album New Piano Works is a survey of some of his own recent works, exhibiting his formidable skill as a composer-pianist whose music imaginatively and virtuosically taps into his musical forebears. “His previous offerings of his own music were rich, but his latest self-portrait album is on another level,” wrote The New York Times, one of many outlets that wrote glowing reviews. It was Hamelin’s first album of all original compositions since Études (2010). In 2023, Hyperion released Hamelin’s recording of Fauré’s Nocturnes & Barcarolles, with the four-hand Dolly suite, played with his wife, Cathy Fuller. A double album of C.P.E. Bach’s Sonatas & Rondos was released in 2022, and another of William Bolcom’s Complete Rags. Both received wide critical acclaim and chart success.

Hamelin has composed music throughout his career, most of which is published by Edition Peters, including his Études and Toccata on L’homme armé, the latter commissioned by the Van Cliburn Foundation. Hamelin performed the Toccata along with music by C.P.E. Bach and Bolcom in an NPR Tiny Desk concert in 2023. His latest compositions include a piano quintet, which he premiered in 2022 with the Dover Quartet, and the solo piano works Hexensabbat and Mazurka, the latter commissioned by the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C., where the composer presented the first performance in spring 2024.

Hamelin makes his home in the Boston area with his wife, Cathy Fuller, a producer and host at Classical WCRB. Born in Montreal, he is the recipient of a Lifetime Achievement Award from the German Record Critics’ Association, and over 20 of its quarterly awards. He has also received seven Juno Awards, 12 Grammy nominations, and the 2018 Jean Gimbel Lane Prize in Piano Performance from Northwestern University’s Bienen School of Music. In December 2020, he was awarded the Paul de Hueck and Norman Walford Career Achievement Award for Keyboard Artistry from the Ontario Arts Foundation. Hamelin is an Officer of the Order of Canada, a Chevalier de l’Ordre national du Québec, and a member of the Royal Society of Canada.

marcandrehamelin.com

Amythyst Kiah
2024-10-18 19:30 - 21:30
Tennessee-raised singer, songwriter, and musician Amythyst Kiah brings her powerful voice, and her band, to the Music Room, promising an experience steeped in raw emotion. Kiah’s evocative storytelling, coupled with her soul-drenched voice and masterful guitar and banjo skills, has earned her recognition as one of the most compelling voices in contemporary roots music. Prepare to be moved by her rare and undeniable talent as she takes you on a musical journey unlike any other.

“A masterful blend of lonesome folk and neo-blues.” — Rolling Stone

Learn More About Amythyst Kiah
The Rounder Records from Amythyst Kiah, Wary + Strange marks the glorious collision of two vastly different worlds: the iconoclastic alt-rock that first sparked her musical passion, and the roots/old-time-music scene where she’s found breakout success in recent years, including recognition from Rolling Stone as “one of Americana’s great up-and-coming secrets.” Along with tapping into the vibrant musicality she honed in part through her studies in East Tennessee State University’s Bluegrass, Old Time, Country Music program, the Chattanooga-bred singer/songwriter expands on the uncompromising artistry she’s displayed as a member of Our Native Daughters—an all-women-of-color supergroup whose Kiah-penned standout “Black Myself” earned a GRAMMY nomination for Best American Roots Song and won Song of the Year at the Folk Alliance International Awards.

Produced by Tony Berg (Phoebe Bridgers, Amos Lee, Andrew Bird) and made with esteemed musicians like Blake Mills, Wary + Strange arrives as a deeply immersive body of work, endlessly redefining the limits of roots music in its inventive rhythms and textures. With an unforgettable voice that’s both unfettered and exquisitely controlled, Kiah gracefully interlaces potent vulnerability and personal revelation, ultimately offering a raw yet nuanced examination of grief, alienation, and the hard-won triumph of total self-acceptance.

For more information, visit her website.

Chuck Leavell
2024-10-19 19:30 - 21:30
Join Caramoor for an evening of music and conversation with Chuck Leavell to benefit the Mianus River Gorge and Caramoor. Chuck Leavell is widely regarded as one of the greatest piano players in rock and roll history. He is known for his longtime work as a member and musical director of The Rolling Stones, as well as for his time with the Allman Brothers Band. In addition to his work on stage, he has a long-standing interest in land and tree conservation and is a respected advocate for environmental preservation. The performance features Chuck on a Steinway piano in a moderated conversation, during which he’ll play songs and share stories about his musical career and conservationist passions.

Tickets /

Tickets are available at various price points:

Platinum Package / $2,500 per person / Pre- concert dinner, cocktails, and photo with Chuck Leavell, premium concert seating, post-performance reception

Gold Package / $500 per person / Prime concert seating, post-performance reception, and photo-op with the artist.

Supporter Package / $250 per person / Select concert seating.

Please contact events@caramoor.org for more details or for help with purchasing tickets.

Ticket purchases are tax-deductible, as provided by law. A contribution letter will be mailed. Caramoor Center for Music and the Arts is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization. Please note that payment for tickets may not be made through a donor-advised fund. Ticket purchases do not count toward Membership. Contributions are tax-deductible, as provided by law.

Le Consort
2024-10-20 15:00 - 17:00
Join the musicians of Le Consort on a musical journey into the enchanting subtleties of the English Baroque as influenced by Italian Masterworks. Let yourself be seduced by English charm with a glimpse of Italian virtuosity, including some of Vivaldi and Corelli’s biggest hits! This concert will delight and surprise with plenty of familiar music alongside some genuine discoveries.

Artists

Theotime Langlois de Swarte, violinSophie de Bardonneche, violinHanna Salzenstein, celloJustin Taylor, harpsichord

Program

FROM NAPLES TO LONDONNicola Matteis Jr.: Alla FantasiaJohn Eccles: The Mad LoverNicola Matteis: Suite in C minor; Diverse bizarrie sopra la vecchia sarabanda o pur ciacconaAntonio Vivaldi: Trio Sonata in G Minor Op. 1, No. 1 Arcangelo Corelli: Violin Sonata in D Minor, Op. 5, No. 12 (“La Folia”)Francesco Maria Veracini: Sonata for Violin in A Major, Op. 1, No. 7Henry Purcell: Ground for Harpsichord: “Here the Deities”; Sonata No. 6 in Four Parts in G Minor, Z. 807 (“Chacony”) Miss Philharmonica: Sonata Sesta in G MajorJ. S. Bach: Concerto for Harpsichord in D Major, BWV 972: LarghettoAntonio Vivaldi: Trio Sonata in D Minor, RV 63 (Variations on “La Folia”)

“It’s all so fresh. Historically informed performance worn so naturally, and works known so intimately, that these musical stories could have come from Le Consort’s own pens and souls.” — Gramophone

About the Music
This program begins with the Fantasia con discretione, by Nicola Matteis Junior, the son of the Nicola Matteis. This very meditative poetic and introspective piece may be one of the finest for solo violin from the Baroque period.

The Mad Lover began life around 1616 as a comedy by the prolific and versatile English dramatist John Fletcher. Eccles provided the score, in which he included an abundance of instrumental pieces, such as this ground. The descending tetrachord forms a relentless, repetitive motif, one which sticks in one’s memory with a touching immediacy.

Nicola Matteis, a Neapolitan violinist of genius, brought to England an Italian lyricism and virtuosity, creating an eccentric type of Anglo-Italian melancholy. The Sarabanda Amorosa, Preludio in C Solfaut Andamento and Bore are very little movements full of characters, creating a bewildering variety of moods. The diverse bizzarie sopra la vecchia o pur sarabanda is based on a saraband-style ground base, with a set of variations for the violins in C major in a very joyful atmosphere.

Antonio Vivaldi’s talents are beyond question: he has achieved lasting fame as one of the most inventive, prolific and virtuosic composers of the baroque period. The sonata in G minor is the very first work that Vivaldi published, when he was 23 years old. Its five sections mingle elements of the sonata da chiesa (Preludio Grave and Adagio) with dances (Allemanda, Capriccio, Gavotta). Vivaldi first plunges us into the intensely contemplative atmosphere of a Venetian church, then surprises us with dance movements in which the violins vie with each other in virtuosity.

The immensely famed Corelli became a model for his contemporaries, with a strong influence on the composers of his own time and on succeeding generations as well. The Violin sonata Op. 5, No. 12 comprises virtuosic variations on the popular ground bass in triple time known by its Spanish name La Folia – alluding to the ‘frenzy’ of the dance.

Francesco Maria Veracini was born in Florence and led a tremendous life travelling across Europe. This finale from the violin sonata in A Major, written in the high register of the baroque violin, is very challenging.

INTERMISSION

The greatest genius of the late 17th century in London was undoubtedly Henry Purcell. We will perform the version for harpsichord, written by Purcell himself, of the famous song “Here the Deities.” Purcell was present on all fronts: at a time when both the form and the instrument already belonged to a fast-disappearing world, he wrote the last fantasias for viols in the great English tradition. At the same time, he did not conceal his interest in the violin and the Italian sonata. Purcell had his Sonnata’s of III Parts printed at his own expense in 1683. It was a significant risk for the youthful composer, still only 24 years old. And his tragedy was to have remained misunderstood: the 1683 collection and the one of 1697 published by his widow after his death sold so badly that Frances Purcell was forced to remainder them, without being able to sell off her stock. Purcell, so beloved for his operas, had bad luck with his sonatas. Yet from the very beginnings of our ensemble we have performed the Sonata VI. This Sonata, built on a ground that repeats itself tirelessly, is a compendium of Purcell’s genius, which questions the human soul in its most intimate aspects. By its emotional intensity, this extraordinary work reminds us of the death of Dido by the same composer.

We are very happy to present in this program Miss Philarmonica, a mysterious woman composer who pseudonymously published sonatas in a highly personal style tinged with Italian colouring and English mournfulness. We were the very first to record her Sonata Sesta in G Major and to bring this long-forgotten composer to life!

The Andante BWV 974 was originally written by the venetian composer Marcello for oboe and orchestra. Johann Sebastian Bach discovered the score and decided to transcribe it for his own instrument, the harpsichord. The Sonata No. 12, La Follia, by Vivaldi is a masterpiece of the trio sonata repertoire, irresistible in its sheer momentum. The variations are built up impressively: by turns slow and fast, introspective and passionately fiery, they unfold organically with stylistic mastery, taking performers and listeners alike on a journey from intimacy to virtuosity.

Notes copyright 2024 by Sophie de Bardonnèche

About Le Consort
Le Consort, a leading Baroque chamber ensemble, comprises four young musicians who interpret the trio sonata repertoire with enthusiasm, sincerity, and modernity. The group’s mission is to bring together compelling musical personalities in the service of chamber music from the repertoire of the 17th and 18th centuries. From Corelli to Vivaldi, from Purcell to Couperin, the dialogue between the two violins and the basso continuo displays a wealth of contrasts between vocality, sensuality, and virtuosity. Le Consort takes this genre, the quintessence of Baroque chamber music, and interprets it with a personal, dynamic, and colorful language.

With a core which has remained constant since their founding in 2016, Le Consort performances approach a level of musical integration typically found in long-standing string quartets. In 2017 they claimed First Prize and the Audience Prize at the Loire Valley International Early Music Competition, chaired by William Christie. Their most recent recording, Philarmonica, was praised by Gramophone: “Historically informed performance worn so naturally, and works known so intimately, that these musical stories could have come from Le Consort’s own pens and souls.” Their previous recordings, including OPUS 1 (featuring the unpublished sonatas of Jean-François Dandrieu), and Specchio Veneziano (trio sonatas of Vivaldi alongside music of his less familiar contemporary, Giovanni Reali), have earned numerous awards and extensive critical acclaim.

In October 2024, Le Consort returns to North America for concerts in California, Michigan, Florida, New York, Pennsylvania, and Ottawa, Canada. The ensemble has performed extensively throughout Europe, including at Radio France Auditorium and Louvre Auditorium (Paris); the Dijon Opera; the Deauville Easter Festival; the Arsenal in Metz; the MA Festival Brugge and in Antwerp de Singel (Belgium); the Pau Casals Foundation (Spain); and at the Misteria Paschalia Festival in Krakow (Poland). They have also been featured on numerous broadcasts on France 3, France Musique, France Inter, and Radio Classique.

Le Consort is in residence at the Banque de France, the Singer-Polignac Foundation, and the Abbaye de Royaumont.

Le Consort appears by arrangement with David Rowe Artists.

davidroweartists.com

leconsort.com

Julie Benko
2024-10-25 19:30 - 21:30
Step into the enchanting world of cabaret with Broadway’s Julie Benko as your guide! Join us for a fabulous evening filled with spellbinding melodies and unique arrangements of songs from Broadway musicals and the Great American Songbook, along with a dash of old-world glamour. Benko’s captivating voice and magnetic stage presence will whisk you away on a journey through the timeless allure of cabaret. Hailed as the 2022 New York Times Breakout Star for Theater for her standby role as Fanny Brice in Funny Girl (she later held the starring role), she joins forces with jazz pianist and husband Jason Yeager.

At this 25th annual event, Caramoor proudly honors Adela and Lawrence Elow for their dedication to preserving and sustaining the Great American Songbook canon. Over the years, the Elows have been steadfast Caramoor supporters, providing funding for upgraded lighting in the historic Music Room and creating the Adela and Lawrence Elow Fund for the Great American Songbook: 1900–1960. Since 1999, their visionary contributions have helped bring today’s best interpreters of these timeless songs to Caramoor’s Music Room through this annual Cabaret Benefit. To make a contribution in their honor, please do so here and mention their name in the dedication.

Please note, as this is a Benefit Event, there are no refunds or ticket exchanges. If you are unable to use your tickets, they will be converted to a contribution in support of Caramoor’s American Songbook programming.

All but $50 per ticket is tax-deductible. Caramoor Center for Music and the Arts is a 501 (c) (3) non-profit organization. Federal Tax ID: 13-5643627. Ticket purchases do not count toward membership. No refunds. Contributions are tax-deductible as provided by law. Payment for tickets may not be made through a donor-advised fund. Caramoor encourages all prospective donors to seek the assistance of personal, legal, and financial advisors in matters relating to their gifts and the resulting tax and estate planning consequences.

Learn More About Julie Benko
Julie Benko is an actor, singer, and writer based in New York City. She recently marched her band out on Broadway as Fanny Brice in Funny Girl, skyrocketing to fame and joining the annals of theatrical lore for her sensational understudy-to-star trajectory in the show. Between her tenure as the standby, alternate, and full-time Fanny, she played the role over 180 times (1 in every 3 performances!) and received numerous accolades for her interpretation, including Theatre World’s Dorothy Loudon Award for Excellence in the Theatre. She was named the 2022 Breakout Star for Theater by the New York Times, included in Variety’s 10 Broadway Stars to Watch in 2023, honored as one of 40 Under 40 for Crain’s New York Business, hailed by CBS Mornings as “Broadway’s breakout star,” and profiled in numerous national media outlets such as the New York Times and Time. In the fall of 2023, she originated her first role on Broadway, playing Ruth in the long-gestating Barry Manilow/Bruce Sussman musical Harmony. She has played leading roles in off-Broadway and regional productions across the nation, including the title role in Jane Eyre (streaming details to be announced soon!), Girl in Once, and many more. She will make her film debut in the upcoming full-length feature “Caravan.” Check out her full theatrical résumé here.

Julie has released three studio albums: Christmas With You and Hand in Hand (both on Club44 Records) and Introducing Julie Benko. All were collaborations with her pianist-composer spouse Jason Yeager. She has headlined sold-out shows at such storied New York City clubs as the Café Carlyle, Birdland, and 54 Below, as well as San Francisco’s famed Venetian Room at the Fairmont Hotel, Los Angeles’ Catalina Club, and many other prestigious venues around the country. She has performed as a guest soloist at Carnegie Hall and with numerous symphonies across America. She won the Gold Medal and the Johnny Mercer Award in the national American Traditions Vocal Competition, and holds a BFA in Drama and an MFA in Acting (yes, both!) from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts.

As a writer, Julie has worked across mediums. In 2020, she wrote, directed, and starred in her first short, “The Newlywed’s Guide to Physical Intimacy,” a heartwarming comedy which follows a Hasidic Jewish couple on their wedding night. The film has since won praise in numerous international festivals. Her first full-length play, “The District,” set in New Orleans’ legal red light district prior to World War I, was named a semifinalist at the 2022 Eugene O’Neill National Playwrights Conference.

She can often be found making music with Jason, picking up languages on DuoLingo (she’s on a streak of over 1,300 days!), or snuggling with her rescue cat, Thelonious Monk (aka Monkey). Incredibly, Julie has never even had one audition for any version of Law and Order. Is she even a NY actor?

To keep up with Julie, follow her on Instagram/TikTok @JujujulieBee, join her mailing list, or check the UPCOMING page to catch her wherever she may be performing next!

Evnin Rising Stars I
2024-11-02 15:00 - 17:00
Young artists from Caramoor’s Evnin Rising Stars mentoring program perform in a pair of afternoon concerts for which the program’s Artistic Director, cellist Marcy Rosen, is joined by distinguished artists Todd Phillips, violin, and Daniel Phillips, viola. These concerts are the capstone of a weeklong residency at Caramoor in which these young musicians participate in workshops, reading sessions, and ensemble rehearsals, culminating in live performances with their mentors. Since 1992, this program has identified some of the finest musicians of the next generation and helped them cross the threshold from their student years into the early stages of a professional career.Free Tickets for Ages 18 and Under.

Tickets for Sunday’s Performance at 3:00pm.

Artists

Artistic DirectorMarcy Rosen, cello

Distinguished ArtistsTodd Phillips, violinDaniel Phillips, viola

Rising StarsCherry Choi Tung Yeung, violinStephen Kim, violinGeneva Lewis, violinCara Pogossian, violaLuther Warren, violaZachary Mowitz, celloChase Park, celloEvren Ozel, piano

Program

Ludwig van Beethoven: Quintet for Strings in C Minor, Op. 104Bela Bartok: String Quartet No. 2Johannes Brahms: Piano Quintet in F Minor, Op. 34

Learn more aboutthe evnin rising stars program

About the Music
Collaboration at the Core of Chamber Music

“You laugh a lot more in chamber music rehearsals,” according to cellist Chase Park, a returnee this year from the 2023 Evnin Rising Stars mentoring program. “There’s something about delving into a project with other people and being surprised in a good way by the results … That’s really a special feeling.”

That is exactly the atmosphere that Marcy Rosen, the program’s Artistic Director, creates during the weeklong residency at Caramoor. Each Fall she invites about eight early career musicians to work with distinguished artists/mentors. The end goal is to give stellar performances in the two culminating concerts, and essential to this success is collegiality, collaboration, and building personal relationships.

“Just hanging out with people, you start telling stories and getting to know each other, and I think a lot of the inspiration just comes from having that together time,” Rosen says. The collaborative atmosphere allows for all performers to take part in artistic and interpretive decisions during rehearsals. “I don’t try to be the boss. I try to be a good colleague. It sounds a little hokey to talk about honestly because the process is so natural,” Rosen says. Park agrees: “If someone has an idea, we will listen and try to support it. Caramoor gives us the space and the freedom to experiment,” he shares.

Just as collaboration was an essential part of the rehearsal process for today’s program, so too was it essential in the genesis and success of the works for the three composers. For each work, the composers engaged their peers for advice and feedback that would dramatically shape the final form of the work.

LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVENQuintet for Strings in C Minor, Op. 104

Beethoven’s Quintet for Strings in C Minor, Op. 104 from 1817 began its life as a piano trio, which he published as Op. 1, No. 3, in 1795. According to one account, the three piano trios premiered at a small party hosted by Prince Lichnowsky (the dedicatee of Op. 1), attended by Beethoven’s teacher, Joseph Haydn. Having established his fame as a piano virtuoso, Beethoven had a lot of expectations to live up to in his debut publication. After hearing the three piano trios, Haydn told Beethoven that although he personally admired the work, he felt Beethoven should not publish the third in C minor because the public would not understand or accept it. Beethoven, of course, could not be told, and he published the work anyway to mixed reviews.

In an important key for Beethoven (sometimes described as his “C-minor mood”), the work has a direct lineage to the Sturm und Drang works of 1760s from Haydn and Mozart. Something of a flash in the pan for the Classical composers, these works full of “storm and stress” often proved too difficult or enigmatic for their audiences. Indeed, Haydn specifically developed a “public style” for music that was full of irony and humor after leaving the employ of Prince Esterhazy and going to London, where he achieved a new level of success. It was likely with this pragmatic view of public taste that Haydn warned Beethoven that his Op. 1 Piano Trio in C Minor was unlikely to succeed. By the time he came back to the composition and arranged it for string quintet in 1817, he had seen major success with other works in C minor including his “Pathetique” Piano Sonata and his Fifth Symphony.

It is likely that audiences’ expectations for Beethoven’s brooding C-minor mood had shifted in the interim. Still, as a quintet, Beethoven’s work is arguably more successful artistically. Overall, the unified string timbre makes the work more cohesive, whereas the trio in many ways feels like a (radical) Beethoven piano sonata with some intermittent string accompaniment: in the trio version, the piano takes the lead throughout and demarcates the structure. As a quintet, the unison moments stand out more and the performing forces feel less at odds with each other. Dramatic ornamentation like descending lines in the first movement become more contextual and effective, like a stormy inner world and not antagonistic interjections. Orchestral effects like the pizzicato variation in the second movement also become more noticeable without the piano. The staggered entrances at end of the menuet section of the third movement highlight the interaction of all the musicians as relatively equal. That Beethoven came back to his Piano Trio, and rearranged it for strings some 22 years later, not only indicates how special it was to him (it was his first publication after all), but also raises the question of whether he had a change of heart about Haydn’s well-meaning advice from so many years before.

BÉLA BARTÓKString Quartet No. 2

Bartók’s String Quartet No. 2 represented the composer’s return to composition after negative responses from the public. With his First Violin Concerto of 1908, Bartók started turning away from fin-de-siècle style of Strauss (one of his heroes) and the idealism of Romanticism. Instead, he became preoccupied with what he called the “grotesque.” (So it is easy to imagine why audiences may have responded less enthusiastically to his works.) Taking a break from composition, Bartók renewed his focus on collecting folk music from around the world, taking trips to collect North African, Arab, Magyar, Rumanian, and Slavic music, and publishing several books of transcriptions. By collaborating with folk musicians and analyzing their music, Bartók found confirmation of many of his more radical musical idioms in the indigenous musical styles, which emboldened his fascination with the grotesque and led to his String Quartet No. 2.

What Bartók took from various folk musics amounted to a set of principles for melody, harmony, rhythm, and meter, paying special attention to the ways these traditions diverged from the ideals of the Western classical tradition, which Bartók associated with, at best, Romantic idealism and, at worst, a lot of pretension. His preference, what he called “grotesque,” was for a kind of gritty realism and authenticity absent social pretense. The three movements of String Quartet No. 2 narrate this contrast. With a searching lyricism of late Romantic music, the Moderato first movement builds lush, though deeply chromatic, melodies into powerful emotive climaxes that are easily felt despite the harmonic complexity. The second movement, the most substantial of the three, is fast paced and driving, featuring harmonically stagnant drones, as well as melodies with narrow ranges and chromatic ornaments — all features he specifically observed in North African music. The final movement returns the slow chromatic harmonies of the first movement, but now the mood is markedly more somber and deflating. Writ large, the work thus seems to narrate an emotional journey from curious idealism to invigorating realism that leads to sober disillusionment. By collaborating with folk musicians who he inherently respected as equals, Bartók renewed his commitment to his own aesthetic ideals, ultimately becoming one of the leading composers of the 20th century.

JOHANNES BRAHMS Piano Quintet in F Minor, Op. 34

Just like Beethoven’s Quintet, Brahms’s Op. 34 went through different instrumentations. And unlike Beethoven, Brahms took the criticism of his musical collaborators to heart. The work started as a String Quintet with two cellos, but violinist Joseph Joachim found it too serious, leading Brahms to arrange it as piano sonata only to have Clara Schumann tell him to go back to a string ensemble. Completed in 1862, the Piano Quintet shows Brahms truly stepping into his own identity as a composer.

The 1850s were a whirlwind time for the young composer. He met the Schumanns in 1853 at the age of 20 and was declared by Robert to be no less than the messiah of music. He published an essay opposing the so-called “New German School” of Liszt and Wagner (who advocated for program music). After receiving harsh public criticism for the essay, Brahms abandoned much of German musical life, playing concerts mostly to make money and composing very few works. Still harboring some disdain for the public in the 1860s, Brahms began focusing on smaller, private genres of chamber music, composing tightly wrought, organically unified works that mark the period scholars refer to as his “first maturity.” After the response to his essay, Brahms remained tightlipped in public on matters of musical aesthetics. But he was heralded by critics, especially Eduard Hanslick, as the champion of so-called “absolute music” — music that developed through inherently musical elements and musical logic.

In his Piano Quintet, Brahms demonstrates his masterful abilities with thematic transformation (when a composer refigures a theme in different guises while remaining audibly recognizable), as well-taught motivic development (when a composer grows and varies small motives overtime to propel the music forward). The first movement introduces a gorgeous folk-like melody at the beginning in union with the first violin, cello, and piano. Throughout the movement, Brahms transforms this theme, shifting from minor to major and playing with the rhythmic accent by displacing the natural stress of the melody onto different beats.

In the slow second movement, Brahms makes a deceptively simple musical idea from the beginning unifying element by organically developing its constituent motives, allowing them to grow into moments of deeply felt drama. The Scherzo third movement contrasts a dotted, march-style rhythm with a rolling triplet 6/8 Trio. (The Trio’s melody also recalls the characteristic opening upward leap from the main theme of the first movement.)

In the final movement, Brahms subjected the square, tuneful second theme introduced by the cello almost immediately to variation techniques in different accompaniment styles, and then brought it back in full thematic transformation in the climactic 6/8 section toward the end.

Formal analysis aside, Brahms’s compositional approach gives listeners a sense that the music grows organically from its own germinal seeds into lush, sophisticated complexity. Taking the advice of both Clara Schumann and Joseph Joachim to render the work as a piano quintet in its final form, the orchestral quality supports its symphonic grandeur and seriousness even in this smaller ensemble.

— Eric Lubarsky

Eric Lubarsky works at Carnegie Hall as a managing editor, where he oversees publishing projects for the Hall’s educational and social impact programs and creates program books for main stage presentations and free concerts around New York City. He holds a PhD in musicology from the Eastman School of Music, and his research focused on performance revivals, concert life, and the 20th-century early music movement.

About the Distinguished Artists
Marcy Rosen, Artistic Director and cello

Marcy Rosen, cellist, has established herself as one of the most important and respected artists of our day. Los Angeles Times music critic Herbert Glass has called her “one of the intimate art’s abiding treasures” and The New Yorker Magazine deemed her “a New York legend of the cello.” She has performed in recital and with orchestras throughout Canada, England, France, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, South America, Switzerland, and throughout the United States. Sought after for her riveting and informative master classes, she has been a guest of the Curtis Institute of Music, the New England Conservatory, the San Francisco Conservatory, the Central Conservatory in Beijing, the Seoul Arts Center in Korea, and the Cartagena International Music Festival in Colombia.

Rosen was a founding member of the Mendelssohn String Quartet, which toured worldwide for 31 years. Since 1986, she has served as Artistic Director of Chesapeake Music in Maryland. Since first attending the Marlboro Music Festival in 1975, she has participated in 25 Musicians from Marlboro tours, including concerts celebrating the 40th, 50th, and 60th anniversaries of the festival.

A graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music, Rosen is currently a professor of cello at the Aaron Copland School of Music at Queens College, while also serving as Artistic Director of the Chamber Music Live concert series. She is on the faculty at the Mannes College of Music in New York City.

Daniel Phillips, viola

Violinist Daniel Phillips is co-founder of the Orion String Quartet which gave its last concert in April 2024, presented by the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln after an illustrious 37-year career.

A graduate of The Juilliard School, his major teachers were his father Eugene Phillips, Ivan Galamian, Sally Thomas, Nathan Milstein, Sandor Végh, and George Neikrug.

Since winning the 1976 Young Concert Artists Competition, he has performed as a soloist with many orchestras, including the Pittsburgh, Houston, New Jersey, Phoenix, and San Antonio symphonies. He appears regularly at the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival, St. Lawrence String Quartet Seminar, Heifetz Institute, Chesapeake Music Festival, the International Musicians Seminar in England, and Music from Angel Fire, where he is co-artistic director. He was a member of the renowned Bach Aria Group and has toured and recorded in a string quartet for Sony with Gidon Kremer, Kim Kashkashian, and Yo-Yo Ma.

A judge in the 2022 Leipzig Bach Competition 2018 Seoul International Violin Competition, and the 2023 World Bartok Competition and the 2024 Prague Spring Competition, Phillips is a professor at the Aaron Copland School of Music at Queens College and on the faculties of the Bard College Conservatory, and The Juilliard School.

He lives with his wife, flutist Tara Helen O’Connor, and their two dachshunds on Manhattan’s Upper West Side.

About the Rising Stars

Cherry Choi Tung Yeung, violin

Violinist Cherry Choi Tung Yeung was born and raised in Hong Kong. Having won her first job at one of the major orchestras in the United States at the age of 21, she is now the Associate Principal Second Violin of the San Diego Symphony Orchestra.

Yeung has performed with the New York Philharmonic, San Diego Symphony, Hong Kong Academy, New World and Princeton Symphony Orchestras, Symphony in C, and New Jersey Festival Orchestra. She served as Concertmaster of The Juilliard School Orchestra and the Curtis Symphony Orchestra, where she was awarded the loan of a fine Giovanni Battista Guadagnini violin. She led the orchestra in the 2020 Curtis on Tour and performed in world renowned venues including Carnegie Hall.

Yeung has been an artist of the prestigious Marlboro Music Festival since 2022. She has won numerous prizes including first prize at the Hudson Valley Philharmonic String Competition, prompting engagements with the Hudson Valley Philharmonic and the Orchestra Sinfonica Rossini di Pesaro in Italy. Her other awards include second prize of the Juilliard Violin Concerto Competition, winner of the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts Concerto Competition, second prize of the Alice and Eleonore Schoenfeld International String Competition, and first prize of the Hong Kong Youth String Competition. In 2018, she was named a New York Philharmonic Global Academy Zarin Mehta Fellow, and she was the youngest finalist of both the Philadelphia Orchestra and Pittsburgh Symphony Associate Concertmaster Audition.

Yeung plays on a 1768 Pietro Giovanni Mantegazza.

Stephen Kim, violin

Winner of top prizes at the 2019 Queen Elisabeth, 2018 Premio Paganini, and 2016 Sendai international violin competitions, Stephen Kim has established international recognition as a leading artist of his generation, performing with orchestras and ensembles throughout Europe, the United States, and Asia.

A passionate chamber musician, Kim has performed with Isabelle Faust, Christian Tetzlaff, Tabea Zimmermann, Antoine Tamestit, Gary Hoffmann, Jörg Widmann, and musicians from the Chamber Orchestra of Europe, among others. He has recently performed recitals and chamber music at Wigmore Hall, Konzerthaus Berlin, and Seoul Arts Center, and at the Marlboro, Kronberg, Seoul, Krzyżowa, Ravinia, Kingston, and Verbier festivals.

Also an avid performer of contemporary music, Kim stunned the Belgian audience at the Queen Elisabeth Competition with his performance by heart of the final-round commissioned work, Kimmo Hakola’s Fidl. He also performed Steven Mackey’s Beautiful Passing concerto in its New York premiere at Carnegie Hall. His album, Till Dawn, released by Sony Classical in 2021, features various works by Korean composer Shinuh Lee and includes two new pieces, the second violin sonata and first caprice for solo violin, both dedicated to him.

Kim studied at the Curtis Institute of Music with Shmuel Ashkenasi, Joseph Silverstein, and Aaron Rosand, at The Juilliard School with Hyo Kang, and at the Kronberg Academy with Antje Weithaas in Germany.

Geneva Lewis, violin

American/New Zealand violinist Geneva Lewis has forged a reputation as a musician of consummate artistry whose performances speak from and to the heart and who has been lauded for the “remarkable mastery of her instrument” (CVNC) and hailed as “clearly one to watch” (Musical America).

Named a BBC New Generation Artist (2022-24), Lewis is also the recipient of a 2022 Borletti-Buitoni Trust Award and a 2021 Avery Fisher Career Grant. She was also Grand Prize winner of the 2020 Concert Artists Guild Competition, winner of the Kronberg Academy’s Prince of Hesse Prize (2021), Musical America’s New Artist of the Month (June 2021), a Performance Today Young Artist in Residence and a YCAT Concordia Artist.

In 2023, Lewis made her BBC Proms debut with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales and Jaime Martin. Her 2024-25 season includes debuts with the Orquestra Filarmonica de Minas Gerais, Indianapolis Symphony, Des Moines Symphony, Atlanta Symphony, The Florida Orchestra, Scottish Chamber Orchestra, and Vancouver Symphony.

Lewis received her Artist Diploma from the New England Conservatory as the recipient of the Charlotte F. Rabb Presidential Scholarship, studying with Miriam Fried. She also studied with Professor Mihaela Martin in the Professional Studies Program at the Kronberg Academy. Prior to that, she studied with Aimée Kreston at the Colburn School of Performing Arts.

She currently performs on a composite violin by Giovanni Battista Guadagnini, c. 1776 generously on loan from a charitable trust.

Cara Pogossian, viola

Armenian-American violist Cara Pogossian is an avid chamber musician and has attended numerous summer festivals, including the Marlboro Festival, Ravinia Steans Music Institute, and Taos School of Music. In 2022, Pogossian was the winner of the Borromeo String Quartet Guest Artist Award, and her quartet was selected as a 2022-23 Honors Ensemble at the New England Conservatory. She has also toured with the Curtis Institute, performing Schubert’s Cello Quintet in various U.S. cities with Ida Kavafian and Peter Wiley. She is the newly-appointed Principal Violist of the Portland Symphony Orchestra, and has appeared as a guest artist with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Boston Symphony Orchestra, and Boston Pops Orchestra.

Pogossian is lucky to have an entire family of musicians with whom she frequently performs. During the pandemic, the Pogossian/Manouelian Clarinet Quintet collaborated with composers Timo Andres, Ian Krouse, Artashes Kartalyan, and Aida Shirazi, premiering each of their works in a series of online concerts.

She is a recent graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music, where she studied with Hsin-Yun Huang and Misha Amory, and is currently continuing her graduate studies with Kim Kashkashian at the New England Conservatory of Music.

Luther Warren, viola

Violinist and violist Luther Warren enjoys a varied career as a chamber musician and educator. As a performer, he has appeared at such festivals as Ravinia, Yellow Barn, Four Seasons, the Perlman Music Program, Prussia Cove Open Chamber Music, Olympic Music Festival, Menuhin Festival Gstaad, Norfolk, and Taos. He has collaborated with esteemed artists including Itzhak Perlman, Kim Kashkashian, Donald Weilerstein, Miriam Fried, Daniel Phillips, Steven Tenenbom, and, as a frequent substitute violist, the Borromeo String Quartet, among others.

Warren has a keen interest in new music and has worked with composers Steven Mackey, Billy Childs, Gabriella Smith, Joan Tower, Ethan Chaves, and others to present new and recent works. Warren is a founding member of ensemble132, a chamber music collective presenting original arrangements of familiar works together with standard repertoire. He also performs regularly with the LA-based contemporary chamber orchestra Delirium Musicum.

As an educator, Warren has served as chamber music faculty for the Heifetz International Music Institute and violin and viola instructor for Merrimack College, Thayer Academy, and the Performing Arts Center of MetroWest. He has presented masterclasses and residencies at East Carolina University, Queens College, and Texas Christian University, and maintains an active private studio. He is a doctoral student at the New England Conservatory where he has studied with Kim Kashkashian, Donald Weilerstein, and Miriam Fried. Additional mentors have included Erin Keefe and Mimi Zweig.

Zachary Mowitz, cello

A native of Princeton, N.J., cellist Zachary Mowitz made his solo debut with the Philadelphia Orchestra in July 2018. An artist who wears many hats, Mowitz co-founded ensemble132, Nodality Music, and Trio St. Bernard — the 2018 Gold Prize winner of the Chesapeake Chamber Music Competition. He has performed with the New York Philharmonic, the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Indianapolis Symphony, and has played as Guest Principal Cello with the Colorado Music Festival Orchestra and Princeton Symphony Orchestra. In the summers of 2022 and 2023, he appeared at the Marlboro Music Festival. He recently joined the Los Angeles Philharmonic.

Having collaborated with artists such as Itzhak Perlman, Donald Weilerstein, Hsin-Yun Huang, Jonathan Biss, Ida Kavafian, and Peter Wiley, Mowitz has an intense passion for chamber music. He has appeared throughout the United States, visiting halls such as the Kimmel Center, Carnegie Hall, Alice Tully Hall, Columbia University’s Miller Theater, and Johns Hopkins’ Shriver Hall. He is also a member of the Sakura Cello Quintet and Philadelphia’s Gamut Bach Ensemble.

Mowitz attended the Curtis Institute of Music, Royal College of Music, and Queen Elisabeth Music Chapel, where he worked with Peter Wiley, Carter Brey, Richard Lester, and Gary Hoffman. He was awarded First Prize in the 2020 World Bach Competition. Last season he was an Associated Artist at the Queen Elisabeth Music Chapel and co-taught a class at the Curtis Institute on music and climate justice. In his spare time, he enjoys exploring the endless world of podcasts and tossing a frisbee.

Chase Park, cello

Cellist Chase Park, winner of the 2021 Juilliard Cello competition, is a multifaceted performer who enjoys collaborating in a variety of traditional and avant-garde settings. As a chamber musician, he has collaborated and performed with esteemed artists such as Mitsuko Uchido, Jonathan Biss, Scott St. John, Samuel Rhodes, Anthony McGill, Carmit Zori, Schmid, Pamela Frank, and Itzhak Perlman, among others.

Performances with Curtis on Tour brought him to international stages in Athens, Paris, Kempten, Teulada, and Berlin, launching his international reputation. In 2021 he made his Alice Tully Hall debut performing the Haydn Cello Concerto in D Major with the Juillard Chamber Orchestra. His love for chamber music has resulted in fellowships at the Perlman Music Program (“Littles”) and Chamber Music Workshop, Ravinia Steans Institute, the Marlboro Music Festival, and the Valley of the Moon Festival. He is a member of Sejong Soloists, which brought him to Asia to collaborate with artists such as Phillipe Quint, Joyce Di Donato, and Tod Machover.

Park is passionate about historical performance and championing lesser-known solo works in the cello repertoire, and he employs multiple art disciplines to better convey this music to larger audiences. Adapting cello music to film is one way he believes he can make the abstract nature of music accessible to those with little or no exposure to classical music.

Evren Ozel, piano

American pianist Evren Ozel is known for his “refined restraint” (Third Coast Review), blending virtuosic technique with insightful interpretations. A 2023 Avery Fisher Career Grant recipient, he also holds a 2022 Salon de Virtuosi Career Grant and is represented by Concert Artists Guild as a winner of their 2021 Victor Elmaleh Competition.

Ozel made his debut with the Minnesota Orchestra at age 11 and has since performed with the Cleveland Orchestra, Jacksonville Symphony, and The Orchestra Now at Bard College, under conductors such as Jahja Ling and Leon Botstein. His first album, featuring Mozart Concertos with the ORF Radio Symphony of Vienna and conductor Howard Griffiths, will be released in 2025 on Alpha Classics.

His 2024-25 season includes solo recitals for La Jolla Music Society, Capital Region Classical, and Cal Performances. He has previously performed for the Harvard Musical Association, Schubert Club, and The Gilmore.

An accomplished chamber musician, Ozel has collaborated with artists like David Finckel, Wu Han, and Stella Chen, and has performed at the Marlboro Festival. He is currently a Bowers Program Artist with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center and will tour with Musicians from Marlboro in 2024-25.

Ozel is based in Boston and is pursuing an Artist Diploma at the New England Conservatory under Wha Kyung Byun, with mentorship from Jonathan Biss, Imogen Cooper, and Mitsuko Uchida.

Evnin Rising Stars II
2024-11-03 15:00 - 17:00
Young artists from Caramoor’s Evnin Rising Stars mentoring program perform in a pair of afternoon concerts for which the program’s Artistic Director, cellist Marcy Rosen, is joined by distinguished artists Todd Phillips, violin, and Daniel Phillips, viola. These concerts are the capstone of a weeklong residency at Caramoor in which these young musicians participate in workshops, reading sessions, and ensemble rehearsals, culminating in live performances with their mentors. Since 1992, this program has identified some of the finest musicians of the next generation and helped them cross the threshold from their student years into the early stages of a professional career.Free Tickets for Ages 18 and Under.

Tickets for Saturday’s Performance at 3:00pm.

Artists

Artistic DirectorMarcy Rosen, cello

Distinguished ArtistsTodd Phillips, violinDaniel Phillips, viola

Rising StarsCherry Choi Tung Yeung, violinStephen Kim, violinGeneva Lewis, violinCara Pogossian, violaLuther Warren, violaZachary Mowitz, celloChase Park, celloEvren Ozel, piano

Program

W.A. Mozart: Piano Quartet in E-Flat Major, K. 493Krzysztof Penderecki: Trio for Violin, Viola, and CelloJohannes Brahms: Sextet No. 2 in G Major, Op. 36

Learn more aboutthe evnin rising stars program

About the Music
On the Rise: Highest-Caliber Performers Meet Highest-Caliber Music

“The level of playing and the sheer instrumental ability of everybody involved is just amazing,” explains Marcy Rosen, Artistic Director of the Evnin Rising Stars program at Caramoor. “And these young people are already out there having amazing careers. They all have a real special character that will take them far. It’s a real treat to be able to do this.” For more than 30 years, Caramoor has hosted early career musicians for a weeklong mentorship residency with invited distinguished artists. Along with Rosen, this season’s mentors are violinist Todd Phillips and violist Daniel Philips.

The results for participants have been transformational, taking them to a higher level of performance. As cellist Chase Park, who returns for his second year in the program, puts it, “I learned so much from being at Caramoor last year. Really, it changed my world working with the two guest artists, Edgar Meyer and Shmuel Ashkenasi … It just set a whole new bar for me.” Although the mentors offer a guiding hand to the Rising Stars, the benefits are reciprocal. “I feel very happy to have the chance to mentor and showcase these amazing young people who keep me interested and continuing to play at the top of my ability,” Rosen shares.

For audiences today, such professional caliber performances and sophisticated music is what chamber music is about. But that was not always the case. Over the 19th century, chamber music slowly transformed from music for amateurs to play at home to music for professionals to perform on concert stages. Expectations about the quality of the music went up in turn. In the late 18th century, chamber music was relegated to enjoyable entertainment for potential sheet-music buyers, but by the end of the 19th century, it had been elevated to the pinnacle of sophisticated music of the highest order.

In choosing today’s program, Rosen says she aimed for quality works that would showcase each individual performer’s abilities. The resulting concert promises to be an afternoon of superlative music from professionals taking their performance to a new level. But also, the three composers on this afternoon’s program made chamber music a vehicle for taking their art to a higher level and propelling the genre upward as a result.

WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZARTPiano Quartet in E-Flat Major

When Mozart composed his Piano Quartet in E-Flat Major in 1786, he was experiencing his greatest personal success and his most productive years. Having moved to Vienna, he was busy developing his reputation by playing concertos and conducting as well as giving private concerts. At the same time, he had completed his six string quartets dedicated to Joseph Haydn, published as Op. 10. His Op. 10 print saw phenomenal sales, after which he began working on a bevy of chamber pieces that were meant not necessarily for public performance but rather for publication and sale to the domestic market, including K. 493.

Although Mozart likely had amateur performers making music in their homes in mind for this work, he did not let that constrain his artistic vision (in fact his publisher Franz Anton Hoffmeister rejected his earlier and now more famous G-Minor Piano Quartet K. 478 as too difficult and unsellable). Each of the three movements shows an expansive view of form. The first movement features a short stately first theme followed by a much longer, almost operatic, second theme. This second theme practically provides all the material for the development section, as Mozart introduces contrapuntal textures and harmonic shift in an expanded section compared to Classical era norms.

The aria-like second movement begins with the piano and strings responding to each other in question-and-answer phrases before moving into the development section (something often omitted in Classical era slow movements) where the strings introduce chromaticism in slow descending scales.

In the final movement, Mozart takes the work to a whole new level. The piano takes on a new leading role in the ensemble, and the overall approach starts to suggest the ritornello-concerto structure he revolutionized: Drawing on the Baroque concerto grosso, the pianist performs virtuosic episodes between full ensemble moments. As the movement progresses, Mozart introduces modulations to minor keys and truly dramatic, ominous chromaticism that his late symphonies are known for. Despite any expectations of a private performance by amateurs, Mozart brought the grandeur of the large public genres for which he was becoming increasingly famous into the domestic realm.

KRZYSZTOF PENDERECKITrio for Violin, Viola, and Cello

Completed in 1991, Krzysztof Penderecki’s Trio for Violin, Viola, and Cello was his first foray into chamber music since his String Quartet No. 2 of 1968. Between those two dates, the world and the man had changed drastically. Penderecki became one of the most recognizable composers of the midcentury avant-garde with his deeply evocative orchestral work Threnody for the Victims of Hiroshima (1961). Despite his success as the face of the avant-garde, he became quickly suspicious of its institutionalization and its dogmas. As early as the 1960s he began experimenting with Renaissance polyphony, slowly releasing his avant-garde aesthetic until the mid 1970s when he turned toward what he called his Romantic style. But he did not stop there. By the end of the next decade, Penderecki started to reconcile the totality of his artistic expression in a style he called “synthesis,” wherein he attempted to integrate both his Romanticism (and more broadly, his traditionalism) with the avant-garde discoveries of his early career.

From his point of view, Penderecki returned to traditional forms not because he was attempting to kowtow to audience tastes or market demands. (He was avowedly against populism, and even more so felt that mass culture had relativized high and low art to a point of spiritual bankruptcy.) Rather his traditionalism was a path to explore new ways of making music outside of the Utopian ideology of his youth. And chamber music, he felt, offered him an especially unique vehicle for discovery:

“Today, after passing through a lesson in late Romanticism and utilizing the possibilities of the postmodernist thinking, I see my artistic ideal in claritas. I am returning to chamber music, for I realize that more can be said in a hushed voice condensed in the sound of three or four instruments.”

Indeed, with Trio for Violin, Viola, and Cello, Penderecki achieved the remarkable synthesis of his many faces. The work is cast in two movements. The first is free and expansive, opening with a cadenza for each instrument before moving through alternating fast and slow sections that, according to musicoiogist Ray Robinson, develop cellular motives from the cadenzas. The second movement combines fugue with elements of sonata form. The opening viola subject, which dovetails the end of the first movement, is a composite of three motives from the cadenzas. The movement continues in a contrapuntal manner but opens to a development section following an extended cello solo. The motivic materials continue to develop and evolve, and Penderecki integrates some extended techniques in the bowing to reach a point of saturation, after which the opening material returns as a clear recapitulation.

Thus, in broad strokes, the work is a prelude and fugue, a classic pairing of the dual beauty of expressive freedom and rational order. This traditional form allowed Penderecki to take his music to a new level, synthesizing his various stylistic idioms and also the dual sides of his artistic personality: the intrepid freedom of the avant-garde seeking a new path forward and the thoughtful contemplative traditionalist seeking order and balance.

JOHANNES BRAHMS Sextet No. 2 in G Major, Op. 36By the middle of the 1860s when Brahms composed his Sextet No. 2 in G Major, Op. 36 (1864–5), chamber music was rapidly becoming associated with professional performances, and it was also becoming more commonly programmed on public stages. Throughout this transitional period, chamber music remained in liminal space, always carrying with it some connotation of domesticity and intimacy, most famously in salon concerts. These were themselves a literal hybrid of two spheres: they were concerts given in domestic homes (albeit large homes of wealthier members of society) that included a small and select audience from the host’s social circles, but increasingly, the performers were professionals hired for the concert.

Although chamber music concerts were on the rise, Brahms particularly favored the genre at this point in his career as the antithesis of the large public genres. His reputation had suffered public skewering in the press after he published an essay criticizing the aesthetic philosophy of Liszt and Wagner, who argued music should express extramusical narratives. The notably self-conscious composer turned to chamber music and its perceived (if not wholly realistic) privacy and intimacy as an outlet.

The perceived intimacy and privacy of chamber music also allowed the composer to wear his heart on his sleeve more freely, and in the first movement of the Sextet in G Major, he did just that. A few years earlier, Brahms abruptly ended his secret engagement to the soprano Agathe von Siebold when he received a disappointing critical response to his D Minor Piano Concerto in Leipzig. After the relationship ended, Brahms continued to write works, mostly songs, that included references to Agathe in the form of a five-note motive that spelled out her name A-G-A-B-A (in the German system, B natural is spelled with an H). In the exposition of the first movement, Brahms placed Agathe’s theme in the highest register as an exasperated climax, imbuing the work with deep personal meaning. Although he never revealed the specific meaning, the prominent violin and cello solos throughout the movement and the recuring oscillating half-step motive are all suggestive of a secret narrative about the relationship.

The remaining movements too seem to convey scenic moments and emotional journeys. The Scherzo second movement, for example, features rustic peasant dances reminiscent of the countryside, which Brahms loved. In the Adagio, a set of variations on a theme, the initial theme is immediately catapulted into tumult with chromatic lines and a modulation to minor key, but following these first two variations, Brahms proceeds through a tour of music history — a Baroque fugue, a Mozartian classical variation, and finally a pastorale — that may well narrate a journey through struggle leading to idyllic calm. In the last movement, Brahms attempts to reconcile dual styles: the first fiddle-like driving 16th notes, and the second, a rolling triplet melody. As the movement unfolds, the themes’ emotional quality flips, the initially anxious 16th notes become a calm reprieve after high-note dramatics from the triplet melody. Even though Brahms championed so-called absolute music, he used musical styles and features to convey narrative elements, including personal tribulations from his life. By capitalizing on chamber music’s connotations of privacy and intimacy (even as it became more public), Brahms was able to achieve a new level of musical and personal expression.

— Eric Lubarsky

Eric Lubarsky works at Carnegie Hall as a managing editor, where he oversees publishing projects for the Hall’s educational and social impact programs and creates program books for main stage presentations and free concerts around New York City. He holds a PhD in musicology from the Eastman School of Music, and his research focused on performance revivals, concert life, and the 20th-century early music movement.

About the Distinguished Artists
Marcy Rosen, Artistic Director and cello

Marcy Rosen, cellist, has established herself as one of the most important and respected artists of our day. Los Angeles Times music critic Herbert Glass has called her “one of the intimate art’s abiding treasures” and The New Yorker Magazine deemed her “a New York legend of the cello.” She has performed in recital and with orchestras throughout Canada, England, France, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, South America, Switzerland, and throughout the United States. Sought after for her riveting and informative master classes, she has been a guest of the Curtis Institute of Music, the New England Conservatory, the San Francisco Conservatory, the Central Conservatory in Beijing, the Seoul Arts Center in Korea, and the Cartagena International Music Festival in Colombia.

Rosen was a founding member of the Mendelssohn String Quartet, which toured worldwide for 31 years. Since 1986, she has served as Artistic Director of Chesapeake Music in Maryland. Since first attending the Marlboro Music Festival in 1975, she has participated in 25 Musicians from Marlboro tours, including concerts celebrating the 40th, 50th, and 60th anniversaries of the festival.

A graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music, Rosen is currently a professor of cello at the Aaron Copland School of Music at Queens College, while also serving as Artistic Director of the Chamber Music Live concert series. She is on the faculty at the Mannes College of Music in New York City.

Daniel Phillips, viola

Violinist Daniel Phillips is co-founder of the Orion String Quartet which gave its last concert in April 2024, presented by the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln after an illustrious 37-year career.

A graduate of The Juilliard School, his major teachers were his father Eugene Phillips, Ivan Galamian, Sally Thomas, Nathan Milstein, Sandor Végh, and George Neikrug.

Since winning the 1976 Young Concert Artists Competition, he has performed as a soloist with many orchestras, including the Pittsburgh, Houston, New Jersey, Phoenix, and San Antonio symphonies. He appears regularly at the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival, St. Lawrence String Quartet Seminar, Heifetz Institute, Chesapeake Music Festival, the International Musicians Seminar in England, and Music from Angel Fire, where he is co-artistic director. He was a member of the renowned Bach Aria Group and has toured and recorded in a string quartet for Sony with Gidon Kremer, Kim Kashkashian, and Yo-Yo Ma.

A judge in the 2022 Leipzig Bach Competition 2018 Seoul International Violin Competition, and the 2023 World Bartok Competition and the 2024 Prague Spring Competition, Phillips is a professor at the Aaron Copland School of Music at Queens College and on the faculties of the Bard College Conservatory, and The Juilliard School.

He lives with his wife, flutist Tara Helen O’Connor, and their two dachshunds on Manhattan’s Upper West Side.

About the Rising Stars

Cherry Choi Tung Yeung, violin

Violinist Cherry Choi Tung Yeung was born and raised in Hong Kong. Having won her first job at one of the major orchestras in the United States at the age of 21, she is now the Associate Principal Second Violin of the San Diego Symphony Orchestra.

Yeung has performed with the New York Philharmonic, San Diego Symphony, Hong Kong Academy, New World and Princeton Symphony Orchestras, Symphony in C, and New Jersey Festival Orchestra. She served as Concertmaster of The Juilliard School Orchestra and the Curtis Symphony Orchestra, where she was awarded the loan of a fine Giovanni Battista Guadagnini violin. She led the orchestra in the 2020 Curtis on Tour and performed in world renowned venues including Carnegie Hall.

Yeung has been an artist of the prestigious Marlboro Music Festival since 2022. She has won numerous prizes including first prize at the Hudson Valley Philharmonic String Competition, prompting engagements with the Hudson Valley Philharmonic and the Orchestra Sinfonica Rossini di Pesaro in Italy. Her other awards include second prize of the Juilliard Violin Concerto Competition, winner of the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts Concerto Competition, second prize of the Alice and Eleonore Schoenfeld International String Competition, and first prize of the Hong Kong Youth String Competition. In 2018, she was named a New York Philharmonic Global Academy Zarin Mehta Fellow, and she was the youngest finalist of both the Philadelphia Orchestra and Pittsburgh Symphony Associate Concertmaster Audition.

Yeung plays on a 1768 Pietro Giovanni Mantegazza.

Stephen Kim, violin

Winner of top prizes at the 2019 Queen Elisabeth, 2018 Premio Paganini, and 2016 Sendai international violin competitions, Stephen Kim has established international recognition as a leading artist of his generation, performing with orchestras and ensembles throughout Europe, the United States, and Asia.

A passionate chamber musician, Kim has performed with Isabelle Faust, Christian Tetzlaff, Tabea Zimmermann, Antoine Tamestit, Gary Hoffmann, Jörg Widmann, and musicians from the Chamber Orchestra of Europe, among others. He has recently performed recitals and chamber music at Wigmore Hall, Konzerthaus Berlin, and Seoul Arts Center, and at the Marlboro, Kronberg, Seoul, Krzyżowa, Ravinia, Kingston, and Verbier festivals.

Also an avid performer of contemporary music, Kim stunned the Belgian audience at the Queen Elisabeth Competition with his performance by heart of the final-round commissioned work, Kimmo Hakola’s Fidl. He also performed Steven Mackey’s Beautiful Passingconcerto in its New York premiere at Carnegie Hall. His album, Till Dawn, released by Sony Classical in 2021, features various works by Korean composer Shinuh Lee and includes two new pieces, the second violin sonata and first caprice for solo violin, both dedicated to him.

Kim studied at the Curtis Institute of Music with Shmuel Ashkenasi, Joseph Silverstein, and Aaron Rosand, at The Juilliard School with Hyo Kang, and at the Kronberg Academy with Antje Weithaas in Germany.

Geneva Lewis, violin

American/New Zealand violinist Geneva Lewis has forged a reputation as a musician of consummate artistry whose performances speak from and to the heart and who has been lauded for the “remarkable mastery of her instrument” (CVNC) and hailed as “clearly one to watch” (Musical America).

Named a BBC New Generation Artist (2022-24), Lewis is also the recipient of a 2022 Borletti-Buitoni Trust Award and a 2021 Avery Fisher Career Grant. She was also Grand Prize winner of the 2020 Concert Artists Guild Competition, winner of the Kronberg Academy’s Prince of Hesse Prize (2021), Musical America’s New Artist of the Month (June 2021), a Performance Today Young Artist in Residence and a YCAT Concordia Artist.

In 2023, Lewis made her BBC Proms debut with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales and Jaime Martin. Her 2024-25 season includes debuts with the Orquestra Filarmonica de Minas Gerais, Indianapolis Symphony, Des Moines Symphony, Atlanta Symphony, The Florida Orchestra, Scottish Chamber Orchestra, and Vancouver Symphony.

Lewis received her Artist Diploma from the New England Conservatory as the recipient of the Charlotte F. Rabb Presidential Scholarship, studying with Miriam Fried. She also studied with Professor Mihaela Martin in the Professional Studies Program at the Kronberg Academy. Prior to that, she studied with Aimée Kreston at the Colburn School of Performing Arts.

She currently performs on a composite violin by Giovanni Battista Guadagnini, c. 1776 generously on loan from a charitable trust.

Cara Pogossian, viola

Armenian-American violist Cara Pogossian is an avid chamber musician and has attended numerous summer festivals, including the Marlboro Festival, Ravinia Steans Music Institute, and Taos School of Music. In 2022, Pogossian was the winner of the Borromeo String Quartet Guest Artist Award, and her quartet was selected as a 2022-23 Honors Ensemble at the New England Conservatory. She has also toured with the Curtis Institute, performing Schubert’s Cello Quintet in various U.S. cities with Ida Kavafian and Peter Wiley. She is the newly-appointed Principal Violist of the Portland Symphony Orchestra, and has appeared as a guest artist with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Boston Symphony Orchestra, and Boston Pops Orchestra.

Pogossian is lucky to have an entire family of musicians with whom she frequently performs. During the pandemic, the Pogossian/Manouelian Clarinet Quintet collaborated with composers Timo Andres, Ian Krouse, Artashes Kartalyan, and Aida Shirazi, premiering each of their works in a series of online concerts.

She is a recent graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music, where she studied with Hsin-Yun Huang and Misha Amory, and is currently continuing her graduate studies with Kim Kashkashian at the New England Conservatory of Music.

Luther Warren, viola

Violinist and violist Luther Warren enjoys a varied career as a chamber musician and educator. As a performer, he has appeared at such festivals as Ravinia, Yellow Barn, Four Seasons, the Perlman Music Program, Prussia Cove Open Chamber Music, Olympic Music Festival, Menuhin Festival Gstaad, Norfolk, and Taos. He has collaborated with esteemed artists including Itzhak Perlman, Kim Kashkashian, Donald Weilerstein, Miriam Fried, Daniel Phillips, Steven Tenenbom, and, as a frequent substitute violist, the Borromeo String Quartet, among others.

Warren has a keen interest in new music and has worked with composers Steven Mackey, Billy Childs, Gabriella Smith, Joan Tower, Ethan Chaves, and others to present new and recent works. Warren is a founding member of ensemble132, a chamber music collective presenting original arrangements of familiar works together with standard repertoire. He also performs regularly with the LA-based contemporary chamber orchestra Delirium Musicum.

As an educator, Warren has served as chamber music faculty for the Heifetz International Music Institute and violin and viola instructor for Merrimack College, Thayer Academy, and the Performing Arts Center of MetroWest. He has presented masterclasses and residencies at East Carolina University, Queens College, and Texas Christian University, and maintains an active private studio. He is a doctoral student at the New England Conservatory where he has studied with Kim Kashkashian, Donald Weilerstein, and Miriam Fried. Additional mentors have included Erin Keefe and Mimi Zweig.

Zachary Mowitz, cello

A native of Princeton, N.J., cellist Zachary Mowitz made his solo debut with the Philadelphia Orchestra in July 2018. An artist who wears many hats, Mowitz co-founded ensemble132, Nodality Music, and Trio St. Bernard — the 2018 Gold Prize winner of the Chesapeake Chamber Music Competition. He has performed with the New York Philharmonic, the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Indianapolis Symphony, and has played as Guest Principal Cello with the Colorado Music Festival Orchestra and Princeton Symphony Orchestra. In the summers of 2022 and 2023, he appeared at the Marlboro Music Festival. He recently joined the Los Angeles Philharmonic.

Having collaborated with artists such as Itzhak Perlman, Donald Weilerstein, Hsin-Yun Huang, Jonathan Biss, Ida Kavafian, and Peter Wiley, Mowitz has an intense passion for chamber music. He has appeared throughout the United States, visiting halls such as the Kimmel Center, Carnegie Hall, Alice Tully Hall, Columbia University’s Miller Theater, and Johns Hopkins’ Shriver Hall. He is also a member of the Sakura Cello Quintet and Philadelphia’s Gamut Bach Ensemble.

Mowitz attended the Curtis Institute of Music, Royal College of Music, and Queen Elisabeth Music Chapel, where he worked with Peter Wiley, Carter Brey, Richard Lester, and Gary Hoffman. He was awarded First Prize in the 2020 World Bach Competition. Last season he was an Associated Artist at the Queen Elisabeth Music Chapel and co-taught a class at the Curtis Institute on music and climate justice. In his spare time, he enjoys exploring the endless world of podcasts and tossing a frisbee.

Chase Park, cello

Cellist Chase Park, winner of the 2021 Juilliard Cello competition, is a multifaceted performer who enjoys collaborating in a variety of traditional and avant-garde settings. As a chamber musician, he has collaborated and performed with esteemed artists such as Mitsuko Uchido, Jonathan Biss, Scott St. John, Samuel Rhodes, Anthony McGill, Carmit Zori, Schmid, Pamela Frank, and Itzhak Perlman, among others.

Performances with Curtis on Tour brought him to international stages in Athens, Paris, Kempten, Teulada, and Berlin, launching his international reputation. In 2021 he made his Alice Tully Hall debut performing the Haydn Cello Concerto in D Major with the Juillard Chamber Orchestra. His love for chamber music has resulted in fellowships at the Perlman Music Program (“Littles”) and Chamber Music Workshop, Ravinia Steans Institute, the Marlboro Music Festival, and the Valley of the Moon Festival. He is a member of Sejong Soloists, which brought him to Asia to collaborate with artists such as Phillipe Quint, Joyce Di Donato, and Tod Machover.

Park is passionate about historical performance and championing lesser-known solo works in the cello repertoire, and he employs multiple art disciplines to better convey this music to larger audiences. Adapting cello music to film is one way he believes he can make the abstract nature of music accessible to those with little or no exposure to classical music.

Evren Ozel, piano

American pianist Evren Ozel is known for his “refined restraint” (Third Coast Review), blending virtuosic technique with insightful interpretations. A 2023 Avery Fisher Career Grant recipient, he also holds a 2022 Salon de Virtuosi Career Grant and is represented by Concert Artists Guild as a winner of their 2021 Victor Elmaleh Competition.

Ozel made his debut with the Minnesota Orchestra at age 11 and has since performed with the Cleveland Orchestra, Jacksonville Symphony, and The Orchestra Now at Bard College, under conductors such as Jahja Ling and Leon Botstein. His first album, featuring Mozart Concertos with the ORF Radio Symphony of Vienna and conductor Howard Griffiths, will be released in 2025 on Alpha Classics.

His 2024-25 season includes solo recitals for La Jolla Music Society, Capital Region Classical, and Cal Performances. He has previously performed for the Harvard Musical Association, Schubert Club, and The Gilmore.

An accomplished chamber musician, Ozel has collaborated with artists like David Finckel, Wu Han, and Stella Chen, and has performed at the Marlboro Festival. He is currently a Bowers Program Artist with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center and will tour with Musicians from Marlboro in 2024-25.

Ozel is based in Boston and is pursuing an Artist Diploma at the New England Conservatory under Wha Kyung Byun, with mentorship from Jonathan Biss, Imogen Cooper, and Mitsuko Uchida.

Abdullah Ibrahim Trio
2024-11-08 19:30 - 21:30
Embark on a mesmerizing journey into the heart of jazz with the legendary Abdullah Ibrahim! Formerly and affectionately known as Dollar Brand, Ibrahim was born in the vibrant streets of Cape Town in 1934, and in his 90 years of living, has carved out a legacy as one of Africa’s and the world’s most illustrious jazz icons. Prepare to be captivated as his fingers command the keys, weaving a tapestry of sounds that seamlessly blend traditional African rhythms with the improvisation of jazz. A beacon of hope and change, Ibrahim has used his music as a powerful tool for social justice and unity, inspiring countless souls along the way. Join us as he and his trio take center stage!

Learn More About Abdullah Ibrahim
Abdullah Ibrahim, South Africa’s most distinguished pianist and a world-respected master musician, was born in 1934 in Cape Town and baptized Adolph Johannes Brand. His early musical memories were of traditional African Khoi-san songs and the Christian hymns, gospel tunes and spirituals that he heard from his grandmother, who was pianist for the local African Methodist Episcopalian church, and his mother, who led the choir. The Cape Town of his childhood was a melting-pot of cultural influences, and the young Dollar Brand, as he became known, was exposed to American jazz, township jive, CapeMalay music, as well as to classical music. Out of this blend of the secular and the religious, the traditional and the modern, developed the distinctive style, harmonies and musical vocabulary that are inimitably his own.

He began piano lessons at the age of seven and made his professional debut at fifteen, playing and later recording with such local groups as the Tuxedo Slickers. He was in the forefront of playing bebop with a Cape Town flavour and 1958 saw the formation of the Dollar Brand Trio. His groundbreaking septet the Jazz Epistles, formed in 1959 (with saxophonist Kippie Moeketsi, trumpeter Hugh Masekela, trombonist Jonas Gwanga, bassist Johnny Gertze and drummer Makaya Ntshoko), recorded the first jazz album by South African musicians. That same year, he met and first performed with vocalist Sathima Bea Benjamin; they were to marry six years later.

After the notorious Sharpeville massacre of 1960, mixed-race bands and audiences were defying the increasingly strict apartheid laws, and jazz symbolized resistance, so the government closed a number of clubs and harassed the musicians. Some members of the Jazz Epistles went to England with the musical King Kong and stayed in exile. These were difficult times in which to sustain musical development in South Africa. In 1962, with Nelson Mandela imprisoned and the ANC banned, Dollar Brand and Sathima Bea Benjamin left the country, joined later by the other trio members Gertze and Ntshoko, and took up a three-year contract at the Club Africana in Zürich. There, in 1963, Sathima persuaded Duke Ellington to listen to them play, which led to a recording session in Paris – Duke Ellington presents the Dollar Brand Trio – and invitations to perform at key European festivals, and on television and radio during the next two years.

In 1965, the now married couple moved to New York. After appearing that year at the Newport Jazz Festival and Carnegie Hall, Dollar Brand was called upon in 1966 to substitute as leader of the Ellington Orchestra in five concerts. Then followed a six-month tour with the Elvin Jones Quartet. In 1967 he received a Rockefeller Foundation grant to attend the Juilliard School of Music. Being in the USA also afforded him the opportunity to interact with many progressive musicians, including Don Cherry, Ornette Coleman, John Coltrane, Pharaoh Sanders, Cecil Taylor and Archie Shepp.

The year 1968 was a turning point. Searching for spiritual harmony in an increasingly fractured life, Dollar Brand went back to Cape Town, where he converted to Islam, taking the name Abdullah Ibrahim, and in 1970 he made a pilgrimage to Mecca. Music and martial arts further reinforced the spiritual discipline he found. After a couple of years based in Swaziland, where he founded a music school, Abdullah and his young family returned in 1973 to Cape Town, though he still toured internationally with his own large and small groups. In 1974 he recorded “Mannenberg – ‘Is where it’s happening’”, which soon became an unofficial national anthem for black South Africans. After the Soweto student uprising, in 1976, he organized an illegal ANC benefit concert; before long, he and his family left for America, to settle once again in New York.

Determined to manage his own affairs in America, he founded with Sathima, the record company Ekapa in 1981. The 1980s saw him involved with a range of artistic projects that depended on his music: Garth Fagan’s ballet Prelude (first performed 1981), the Kalahari Liberation Opera (Vienna, 1982), and in 1983 a musical, Cape Town, South Africa, featuring the septet he formed that year, Ekaya. In 1987, he played a memorial concert for Marcus Garvey in London’s Westminster Cathedral, and the following year he played at the concert in Central Park, New York, commemorating the seventieth birthday of Nelson Mandela.In 1990 Mandela, freed from prison, invited him to come home to South Africa. The fraught emotions of reacclimatizing there are reflected in Mantra Modes (1991), the first recording with South African musicians since 1976, and in Knysna Blue (1993). He memorably performed at Mandela’s inauguration in 1994.

Abdullah Ibrahim has been the subject of several documentaries: for instance, Chris Austin’s 1986 BBC film A Brother with Perfect Timing, and A Struggle for Love, by Ciro Cappellari (2004). He has also composed scores for film, including the award-winning soundtrack for Claire Denis’s Chocolat (1988), as well as for No Fear, No Die (1990) and Idrissa Ouedraogo’s Tilai (1990), and he was featured in the 2002 production Amandla: A Revolution in Four-Part Harmony.

For more than a quarter-century, he has toured the world extensively, appearing at major concert halls, clubs and festivals, giving sell-out performances, as a solo artist or with other renowned artists (notably, Max Roach, Carlos Ward, and Randy Weston). His collaborations with classical orchestras have resulted in acclaimed recordings, such as African Suite (1999, with members of the European Union Youth Orchestra) and the Munich Radio Philharmonic orchestra symphonic version, “African Symphony” (2001), which also featured the trio and the NDR Jazz Big Band..

Abdullah Ibrahim celebrated his seventieth birthday in October 2004, which occasion was marked by the release of two CDs by Enja Records (the Munich-based label with whom he has recorded for three decades): the compilation A Celebration, and Re:Brahim, his music remixed. His discography runs to well over a hundred album creditsWhen not touring, he now divides his time between Cape Town and New York. In addition to composing and performing, he has started a South African production company, Masingita (Miracle), and established a music academy, M7, offering courses in seven disciplines to educate young minds and bodies. Most recently, in 2006, he spearheaded the historic creation (backed by the South African Ministry of Arts and Culture) of the Cape Town Jazz Orchestra, an eighteen-piece big band, which is set to further strengthen the standing of South African music on the global stage.

A martial arts Black Belt with a lifelong interest in zen philosophy, he takes every opportunity to visit his master in private trips to Japan. In 2003 he performed charity concerts at temples in Kyoto and Shizuoka, the proceeds going to the M7 academy.Abdullah Ibrahim remains at his zenith, as a musician and a tireless initiator of new projects. In his own words: “Some do it because they have to do it. We do it because we want to….so we do not require much sleep… so we have to do it.”The recipient of many awards and honorary doctorates, spiritually strong as both teacher and disciple, Professor Abdullah Ibrahim is a true inheritor of the ancestral name SENZO.

For more information, visit his website.

This concert was made possible, in part, thanks to the generous support of The Peckham Family Foundation.

Terra String Quartet
2024-11-17 15:00 - 17:00
The Terra String Quartet launches its year-long Caramoor residency with three well-loved chamber music masterpieces. A prizewinner at the 2023 Melbourne and Osaka International Chamber Music Competitions, Terra is a vibrant young ensemble committed to infusing the string quartet with equal parts passion, vitality, and humor. Over three concerts throughout the year, Terra shines the spotlight on Benjamin Britten’s three string quartets, which hold a special place in the chamber music repertoire for their innovation, expression, and enduring legacy.Free Tickets for Ages 18 and Under.Tickets for Terra String Quartet’s Spring Season performance on Sunday, May 4.

Artists

Terra String QuartetHarriet Langley, violinAmelia Dietrich, violinChih-Ta Chen, violaAudrey Chen, cello

Program

W. A. Mozart: String Quartet in D Minor, K. 421Benjamin Britten: String Quartet No. 1 in D Major, Op. 25Felix Mendelssohn: String Quartet in F Minor, Op. 80

About the Music
WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART String Quartet in D Minor, K. 421In 1782 Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was attempting to make a name for himself in Vienna, working as a freelance composer and performer after he resigned from the court of Archbishop Hieronymous Colloredo of Salzburg a year earlier. (He felt the position stultified his creative impulses, especially his desire to compose secular music as opposed to the music for religious services, which took up most of his time at that court.) His days as a famous child prodigy were well behind him and he had to prove to the fickle Viennese that he had gained maturity in his music-making. To do so, the young Mozart looked to the music of Franz Josef Haydn, at the time considered to be the composer of renown, to help him further refine his compositional technique. In particular, Mozart admired how Haydn was able to incorporate elements of counterpoint (often referred to as the “learned” style) into textures that outwardly appealed to popular taste. Haydn’s 1781 set of six string quartets, published as his Op. 33 and advertised as being written in a “new and entirely special” style, served as a catalyst for Mozart. He voraciously studied them and modeled six of his own string quartets, written between 1782-1785, on these works.

This project famously caused Mozart to struggle more with his compositional process than he was normally accustomed to. Until this time Mozart was known for formulating works in his head and seamlessly recording them on paper, but proof of his struggle comes from studying manuscript copies where one sees many corrections mainly due to Mozart attempting to implement Haydn’s innovative combination of counterpoint and popular Galant style. These growing pains proved to be crucial to Mozart growing into his mature style; upon hearing some of these new quartets, Haydn remarked to Mozart’s father Leopold, “Before God and as an honest man I tell you that your son is the greatest composer known to me either in person or by name. He has taste and, what is more, the most profound knowledge of composition.”

Upon publication, Mozart decided to dedicate these quartets to Haydn, expressing his respect for the elder statesman in this letter:

To my dear friend Haydn:

A father, having resolved to send his sons into the great world, finds it advisable to entrust them to the protection and guidance of a highly celebrated man, the more so since this man, by a stroke of luck, is his best friend. – Here, then, celebrated man and my dearest friend, are my six sons. – Truly, they are the fruit of a long and laborious effort, but the hope, strengthened by several of my friends, that this effort would, at least in some small measure, be rewarded, encourages and comforts me that one day, these children may be a source of consolation to me. – You yourself, dearest friend, during your last sojourn in this capital, expressed to me your satisfaction with these works. – This, your approval, encourages me more than anything else, and thus I entrust them to your care, and hope that they are not wholly unworthy of your favor. – Do but receive them kindly, and be their father, guide, and friend! From this moment on I cede to you all my rights over them: I pray you to be indulgent to their mistakes, which a father’s partial eye may have overlooked, and despite this, to cloak them in the mantle of your generosity which they value so highly. From the bottom of my heart I am, dearest friend,

Your most sincere friend,

W. A. Mozart

The String Quartet in D Minor, K. 421, was the second in the set and was composed in 1783. The first movement is one of the most compact in Mozart’s output, exploring the development of shorter motives in a sonata form movement (a hat tip to Haydn) as opposed to the longer melodies found in many of his other works. As the contrapuntal writing is in the foreground, along with Mozart’s decision to write in a minor key, this movement evokes elements of Baroque style. The second movement has a more lyrical bent, mostly in F Major with a touch of anguish in the middle. The third movement, a minuet and trio, was reported by Mozart’s wife Constanze to have been written while she was giving birth to their first son Raimund Leopold. Given this supposed correspondence to these events, one can’t help but hear the pains of labor in the intense D minor minuet broken momentarily by a trio that seems too happy, possibly depicting Mozart’s attempts to comfort Constanze. The last movement is an homage to Haydn, a theme and variations movement that takes many rhythmic and metric elements from the last movement of Haydn’s String Quartet in G Major, Op. 33 No. 5.

BENJAMIN BRITTEN String Quartet No. 1 in D Major, Op. 25Benjamin Britten set sail for North America in April 1939, a pacifist and conscientious objector hoping to find shelter from the looming war in Europe. While on the continent (he also spent time in Canada) he explored the idea of permanently relocating to the U.S. as he was actively seeking out new professional opportunities elevating him to a new level of compositional maturity. He also found new personal maturity; his relationship with the tenor Peter Pears, who accompanied him on this journey, fully blossomed into a romantic partnership while they were on holiday in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Many of Britten’s most important works were composed during his North American period, including Les Illuminations and the Violin Concerto.

Britten had written many works for string quartet in his younger days, with his first String Quartet in F written in 1928 when he was only 14. He would write five more works for quartet that would serve as youthful precursors to what he would call his String Quartet No. 1 in D major, Op. 25, written near the end of his North American sojourn in 1941 when he was in Escondido, CA staying with his friends Ethel Bartlett and Rae Robertson. The work was commissioned by Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge, the doyenne of musical patrons of the 20th century, who had also commissioned Bela Bartok’s String Quartet No. 5 and Arnold Schoenberg’s String Quartet No. 4.

The work is in four movements, being one of the sole examples in Britten’s output to adhere to the traditional plan. Musicologist Peter Evans states that Britten channels formal innovations explored by Beethoven in his String Quartet in Bb Major, Op. 130, especially in the first movement where what at first seems like a slow introduction turns out to be a major formal element revisited during the course of the movement. In her review of the premiere of the quartet given by the Coolidge Quartet, critic Isabel Morse Jones wrote that “Britten wanted to bring the music to consciousness mysteriously, as from another world.” After a relatively brief second movement scherzo we find ourselves back in a sound world unique to Britten in the third movement, described by Jones in her review as “In Memoriam for a Lost World.” While composing this quartet, Britten rediscovered the English poet George Crabbe, who, like Britten, was born in Aldeburgh. From the collection of Crabbe’s poems that Peter Pears discovered in an antiquarian bookshop came the inspiration for Britten’s opera Peter Grimes, and the music found in the String Quartet No. 1, especially in the third movement, can be seen as precursors to the music found in the opera. The fourth movement, according to Evans, is where Britten pays homage to Haydn in using development of motifs to humorous effect.

FELIX MENDELSSOHN String Quartet No. 6 in F Minor, Op. 80While the first two works on this recital come from pivotal moments in Mozart’s and Britten’s search for a mature style, Felix Mendelssohn’s last complete major work was the String Quartet in F Minor, Op. 80, written two months before his death and widely seen as a reaction to the untimely death of his sister Fanny. The last five years of Mendelssohn’s life were hectic ones. During this ttime,he was constantly traveling between Leipzig, Berlin and London. Mendelssohn was instrumental in founding the Leipzig Conservatory in 1843 and was deeply involved in the administration of the school along with serving on its faculty. He was also the music director of the Leipzig Gewandhaus, a position he held from 1835 onwards. In Berlin, Mendelssohn served as Kapellmeister to Friedrich Wilhelm IV. Mendelssohn was highly in demand in London; along with playing concerts as a piano soloist he fell into favor with Queen Victoria and was known to accompany her in performances of his lieder and other works during private gatherings at Buckingham Palace. Juggling all these duties, along with raising five children with his wife Cecile, understandably led to the consequence of Mendelssohn being severely overworked.

Upon returning from England in 1847, he learned of Fanny’s sudden passing after she suffered a stroke during a rehearsal of her brother’s cantata Die erste Walpurgisnacht for one of her Sunday musicales. He was still in transit making a stop in Frankfurt and was unable to attend the funeral. Too heartbroken to continue to Berlin to pay his respects, he was convinced to travel to Switzerland with his wife Cécile and brother Paul for an extended sojourn to both mourn his sister as well as take some much-needed rest. For a while he was too grief-stricken to compose and took to painting watercolors as his sole creative outlet. After a few months he did start writing music again, and in his diary he started sketching the scherzo movement of the F minor quartet.

The Opus 80 work signified a major turning point in Mendelssohn’s compositional style. The long melodic lines and light scherzo character found in much of his music, including his last set of Opus 44 string quartets, gives way to jagged and disjointed music ripe with raw emotional expression, serving the purpose of Mendelssohn processing his grief over the loss of his beloved sister. The first movement opens with dramatic tremolo figures, with the first violin outlining the intensely expressive interval of a diminished fourth that, according to musicologist R. Larry Todd, ties all four movements together. The second movement scherzo is worlds away from the fairy world of his incidental music to A Midsummer Night’s Dream, evoking instead the sarcastic and menacing tone of the analogous movement of Ludwig van Beethoven’s String Quartet in F minor, Op. 95; it is no coincidence that Mendelssohn’s choice of key matches that of Beethoven’s “Serioso.” The third movement provides a moment of respite from the intensity of the first two, albeit in a reflective mood of prolonged sadness possibly inspired by the slow movement of Beethoven’s String Quartet in F major, Op. 59 No. 1. Frenetic energy returns in the last movement, driving towards a climactic cry of anguish.

In September of 1847, Mendelssohn finally summoned the courage to visit Berlin. According to his nephew, the stress of seeing Fanny’s undisturbed rooms and visiting her grave “destroyed all the good effects produced by the journey to Switzerland.” He returned to Leipzig unable to fulfill conducting obligations at the Gewandhaus. In late October, he suffered a series of strokes and died on 4 November. He was buried shortly afterwards next to Fanny in the cemetery of Dreifaltigkeitskirche in Berlin.

— Daniel Doña

Daniel Doña is a violist on the faculty at the Boston University College of Fine Arts School of Music, He is a member of the Arneis String Quartet.

About Terra String Quartet

Prizewinners at the 2023 Melbourne International Chamber Music Competition and 2023 Osaka International Chamber Music Competition, the Terra String Quartet is a vibrant young international ensemble based in New York City. They are composed of graduates of The Juilliard School, The New England Conservatory, Harvard University, and the Curtis Institute of Music. Praised for their “remarkable maturity and musicality” and “superb ensemble playing” (Hyde Park Herald, Chicago), these four musicians hail from across the globe and, through their unique individuality as artists, are committed to infusing the string quartet with equal parts passion, spontaneity, and humor.

TSQ has performed at numerous festivals and venues across the world, with recent concerts at Capital Region Classical, Rockport Music, First Mondays at Jordan Hall, Guarneri Hall, Chamber Music Raleigh, and the Emilia-Romagna Festival in Italy. TSQ is deeply invested in education and community work, having been the 2023-24 Project Music Heals Us Arts Leadership Ensemble and the inaugural Four Seasons Chamber Music Festival’s Professional Fellowship Quartet at East Carolina University. They are currently the 2024-25 Fellowship Ensemble-in-Residence at the Yale School of Music, where they coach Yale College undergraduate chamber groups and receive mentorship from the members of the Brentano Quartet. Other mentors include Ara Gregorian, Marcy Rosen, Hye-Jin Kim, Daniel Avshalomov, Natasha Brofsky, Catherine Cho, and Calvin Wiersma.

TSQ is the recipient of the Silver medal at the 2023 Melbourne International Chamber Music Competition, Bronze medal at the 2023 Osaka International Chamber Music Competition, and the Grand Prize and Gold Medal at the 2022 Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition. They were also awarded the Christine and David Anderson Career Development Prize at the 2022 Banff International String Quartet Competition. In their spare time, they enjoy playing games like Mahjong together and learning about instruments and bows.

Harriet Langley, violin
Korean-Australian violinist Harriet Langley received her education from New England Conservatory, Chapelle Musicale Reine Elisabeth, and The Juilliard School. An accomplished soloist, she has performed with ensembles including the London Chamber Orchestra, the Verbier Festival Orchestra, the Vienna Chamber Orchestra, Sinfonia Varsovia, the Reno Philharmonic, the Gyeonggi Philharmonic of Korea, and the Orchestre National de Belgique. Harriet has also performed at the Seiji Ozawa Academy, Ravinia’s Steans Music Institute, YellowBarn, and the International Musicians Seminar at Prussia Cove. Other than music, Harriet enjoys reading, going to museums, and she has a passion for perfumes and teas.

Amelia Dietrich, violin
Violinist Amelia Dietrich earned her Bachelor of Music from The Colburn Conservatory in Los Angeles under the teaching of Robert Lipsett, and her Master’s degree from The Juilliard School studying with Ida Kavafian. She grew up studying in North Carolina with her long-time mentor, Ara Gregorian. Amelia has concertized in chamber series across the US, Europe, and Australia, including Alice Tully Hall’s Wednesdays at One, National Sawdust, The Guggenheim, the Four Seasons Chamber Music Festival, the ClasClas Chamber Festival in Spain, and the Moritzburg Festival in Germany. Beyond her performance career, Amelia has a passion for pedagogy and mentoring young musicians. She is a mentor and chamber music coach with the New York Youth Symphony, maintains a private teaching studio in New York City, and teaches at Suzuki on the Island- a school in Manhasset, NY. She enjoys running, is an avid cook, and has a passion for fashion and interior design.

Chih-Ta Chen, viola
Violist Chih-Ta Chen, from Kaohsiung, Taiwan, is the winner of the 2022 Chimei Arts Award and the 2018 Borromeo String Quartet Guest Artist Award. His passion lies in chamber music, and he has been featured at Music@Menlo, Kneisel Hall Chamber Music Festival, Taos School of Music, Amelia Island Chamber Music Festival, and the Four Seasons Chamber Music Festival. Currently, Chen holds the Jean J. Sterne and Edwin B. Garrigues Fellowship as a student at the Curtis Institute of Music, studying under Roberto Diaz, Hsin-Yun Huang, Ed Gazouleas and Misha Amory. Previously, he attended the New England Conservatory and Tainan National University of the Arts and studied with Mai Motobuchi, Yong-Zhan Chen, and I-Chen Wang. In his free time, he loves playing badminton and spending time with his two-year-old gray cat, Cheetah.

Audrey Chen, cello
Washington state native and cellist Audrey Chen has concertized with the Seattle Symphony and the Harvard-Radcliffe Orchestra and has been featured as a guest with the Jupiter Chamber Players, Parker Quartet, Argus Quartet, and Borromeo Quartet. An avid chamber musician, she has performed at festivals across the country, including Yellowbarn, Olympic Music Festival, Music@Menlo, Ravinia Steans Music Institute, Four Seasons Chamber Music, Perlman Music Program, and Tanglewood Music Center. A graduate of the Harvard/NEC dual degree program, Audrey received her B.A. from Harvard University and an M.M. from the New England Conservatory, where her teachers included Laurence Lesser and Lluis Claret. Currently, she is a doctoral candidate at the CUNY Graduate Center under Marcy Rosen, and she also teaches chamber music at CUNY Hunter College. Audrey was named a 2022 recipient of the prestigious Paul and Daisy Soros Fellowship for New Americans. Outside of music, she enjoys watching films, cooking/baking, and making greeting cards.

Benefit Dinner
2024-12-07 17:00 - 20:00
You are invited to a special pre-concert dinner on Saturday, December 7 in Caramoor’s Formal Dining Room.

Your ticket gets you special access to an unforgettable evening and directly supports Caramoor’s mission to ensure that everyone in our community can lead an art-filled life. Attendees will be treated to outstanding wines, including 2007 Taittinger and NV Krug Champagnes, 1978 Aldo Conterno Barolo, and 1983 Château Lafite Rothschild, and Provencal specialties prepared by Chef Jared Sippal of L’Ostal.

Following dinner, enjoy an intimate performance with Bonny Light Horseman. A rare opportunity to experience three acclaimed musicians —Anaïs Mitchell, Eric D. Johnson, and Josh Kaufman—up close in an exclusive setting in Caramoor’s exquisite Rosen House. Their blend of traditional and contemporary folk music, weaving together elements of Americana, indie rock, and Celtic influences, will transport you to a world where past and present converge.

Tickets

Tickets are $2,500 per person, inclusive of premium seating in the concert. Tickets may be purchased directly on the website or by contacting the Special Events Office at events@caramoor.org or (914) 232-1492. All but $300 is tax-deductible. Seating is limited to 50 guests.

Caramoor Center for Music and the Arts is a 501 (c) (3) non-profit organization. Federal Tax ID: 13-5643627. Ticket purchases do not count toward membership. No refunds. Contributions are tax-deductible as provided by law. Payment for tickets may not be made through a donor-advised fund. Caramoor encourages all prospective donors to seek the assistance of personal, legal, and financial advisors in matters relating to their gifts and the resulting tax and estate planning consequences.

Bonny Light Horseman
2024-12-07 20:00 - 22:00
Folk supergroup Bonny Light Horseman takes the stage at Caramoor for an elevated evening of contemporary folk music. These three acclaimed musicians — Anaïs Mitchell, Eric D. Johnson, and Josh Kaufman — have crafted an exquisite blend of traditional and contemporary folk music, weaving together elements of Americana, indie rock, and Celtic influences, creating a mesmerizing blend of old and new. Their complex harmonies, rich instrumentation, and evocative storytelling will transfix and transport you to a world where past and present converge.

All are invited to post-show reception. Dinner and concert ticket options are available. Contact events@caramoor.org for details.

All but $70 per ticket is tax-deductible, as provided by law. A contribution letter will be mailed. Caramoor Center for Music and the Arts is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization. Please note that payment for tickets may not be made through a donor-advised fund. Ticket purchases do not count toward Membership. Contributions are tax-deductible, as provided by law.

Please note, as this is a Benefit Event, there are no refunds or ticket exchanges. If you are unable to use your tickets, they will be converted to a contribution in support of Caramoor’s programming.

“Their voices fit together so perfectly it’s possible at last to believe in such a star-crossed fantasy.” — Pitchfork

Learn More About Bonny Light Horseman
Bonny Light Horseman joins the Jagjaguwar family ready to embrace life’s wonderful, abundant chaos. Confident and generous, their lead single “When I Was Younger” kicks off the band’s most vulnerable and bounteous era to date.

Over the years, Bonny Light Horseman has accumulated many miles on the collective odometer of life. The band’s core trio – Anaïs Mitchell, Eric D. Johnson, and Josh Kaufman – has amassed an incomparable collected resume. Mitchell is a celebrated solo artist as well as the playwright and songwriter behind the hit Broadway musical Hadestown, which notched eight Tony Awards and a Grammy for Best Musical Theater Album. Johnson is best known as the mind behind beloved indie mainstays Fruit Bats, as a longtime collaborator with The Shins, and as a film score composer. And Kaufman is a multi-hyphenate extraordinaire: songwriter, producer, and position player, having recorded and performed with artists ranging from Bob Weir to The War on Drugs to Taylor Swift, Hiss Golden Messenger and The Hold Steady. As a group, Bonny Light Horseman’s debut album received a Grammy nomination for Best Folk Album, and the track “Deep in Love” was nominated for Best American Roots Performance.

More important than any of this, though, they’ve also lived a big ol’ messy and tangled up pile of life, and all that living permeates their music with the wisdom, humor, and depth that underlies the accolades. Theirs is the stuff that defines folk music as a genre: love and loss, hope and sorrow, community and family, change and time. The Big Stuff, with the stakes sky high.

At the center of Bonny Light Horseman is, always, the singular combination of three powerful and tender artists, artists who expertly dodge superlatives but are quick to acknowledge that their bond makes each one better, braver and more vulnerable than they’d be on their own. Nowhere is this more apparent than in the force of their voices together, which work with complete trust in one another through the gentlest moments and the most ruthless wails.

“When I Was Younger” is one such wail, revolutionary for its open reckoning with motherhood, maturation, and all of the things polite society doesn’t say out loud. In the song, Mitchell and Johnson’s honeyed voices meet and transform into a two-headed beast formed from pent-up emotion; its roar is necessary, beautiful and scary. Recorded at Levis (pronounced: “leh-viss”) Corner House, a century-old watering hole in Ballydehob, County Cork, “When I Was Younger” also features the sound of the pub’s crowd. Their inclusion – the coughs, the cars, chorus of shouts – articulate all that life being lived inside and outside of art.

As they round the corner toward a new album, Bonny Light Horseman arrive with a distinct sense of grace, and a reminder that life is most lived when things aren’t so perfect.

For more information, please visit their website.

“If you’re a fan of folk or traditional music, or any melodic acoustic music at all, for that matter, this record will capture you in an entirely new way. While it taps into specific time periods, it’s timeless, and it’s a majestic, but never too heavy, journey through musical and historical moments.” — Paste Magazine

Trio Mediæval & Catalina Vicens, organetto
2024-12-08 15:00 - 17:00
With crystalline voices that have captivated audiences worldwide, Grammy-nominated vocal group Trio Mediæval will beguile you with Scandinavian traditional folk songs and hymns, English medieval Carols, and contemporary music written for them, all infused with the group’s signature blend of chant, folksong, and improvisation. The Trio is beautifully accompanied by Catalina Vicens on the hand-blown organetto and percussion. Step into a realm where ancient chants intertwine with celestial harmonies, creating a tapestry of sound that transcends time itself.

Artists

Anna Maria FrimanLinn Andrea FuglsethJorunn Lovise HusanCatalina Vicens, organetto

Program

YULEThe celebration of Yule in Northern Europe harks back to a transition from ancient Pagan Germanic culture to the more formal spirituality of the newer Christian rite. In this program the two traditions sit side by side, creating a matrix where acappella voices meet the medieval organetto in a synthesis of secular and sacred.

About the Music
A Northern Heritage

The celebration of Yule in Northern Europe harks back to a transition from ancient Pagan Germanic culture to the more formal spirituality of the newer Christian rite. Christmas, as we mostly now call it, gave us hymns, processions and chants; Yule meant a vibrant pre-Christian secularity, with feasting and dancing, decorating the house with holly, ivy and mistletoe as a tribute to the gods of earth and air. We now happily enjoy fusing elements of both traditions into the Christmas we know today. Much of the music in this program dates from an earlier time when churches may have been decorated with Christmas greenery, and carols sung round a burning Yule log.

There’s no knowing how the earliest Christmas songs were created, but the first ones must have been passed on orally until someone wrote them down. Writing, then later printing, set the songs free, and some travelled all over Europe, adopted by singers who then made their own versions. New songs were made, but many ancient ones survived the centuries, each new performer passing on their own memories of a song to the next generation. Alongside this oral tradition more formal manuscript collections were created in church and cloister as clerics composed new chants for their own communities. These historical processes are intertwined throughout this program, which is very much a product of the Trio Mediæval aesthetic; there are medieval compositions from England and arrangements of North European music by Tone Krohn and by the Trio themselves.

There is a special focus on the Norwegian folk tradition (Josefines julesalme, Lussinatti lange, Frå Betlehem eit gjetord gjeng) and the less well-known Christmas hymns of the Swedish-speaking communities in Ukraine (En jungfru födde ett barn idag) and Estonia (In dulci jubilo, En stjärna gick på himlen fram, Världens frälsare kom här) which was ruled by Sweden for some 400 years until the early 18th century. There were still Swedish speakers in Estonian coastal communities in the early 20th century, when composer and folksong collector Cyrillus Kreek and his Swedish contemporary Olof Andersson collected many old melodies that might otherwise have been forgotten, such as those from Nuckö and Stora Rågö. Derived both from the Lutheran Hymnal and old secular songs, the hymn tunes were originally sung heterophonically – everyone singing freely together, the more skilful singers varying and ornamenting the melody. Both these and the traditional carols existed simply as tunes and texts, which offer a perfect template for colourful contemporary arrangements, giving a new focus to an oral tradition that stretches way back into the past.

The original inspiration for Trio Mediæval dates from Linn Andrea Fuglseth’s revelatory encounter with English medieval carols while a student in London at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama, and the Trio has had a close connection with English music ever since. There are five 15th century English compositions in this program, including Linn Andrea’s own arrangement of the Coventry Carol. The German-speaking countries, well-springs of many Christmas songs that found their way Northwards, sit alongside these in arrangements by Linn Andrea Fuglseth and Anna Maria Friman. Between the carols, and sometimes weaving improvisations within them, is the organetto of Catalina Vicens. This exquisite instrument, powered by one hand and played by the other, was the instrument of choice for many of those composers who sang the first Christmas carols.

– John Potter

About the Artists

Trio Mediæval
Hailed as a “fascinating journey with music of timeless beauty”, Trio Mediæval’s highly acclaimed first disc “Words of the Angel” (2001) launched the group into the elite circles of early music ensembles and introduced them to a broad international audience.

Formed in 1997, Trio Mediæval consists of founder members Linn Andrea Fuglseth and Anna Maria Friman, and Jorunn Lovise Husan who joined the group in 2018.

A typical Trio Mediæval programme combines their many varied strands of musical exploration: historically informed performance of medieval sacred music, folk music (adapted and arranged by members of the group); contemporary Nordic jazz; specially commissioned works; improvisation with or without instruments. Attracted by the Grammy nominated trio’s unique sound, composers and performers have stood in line to work with the group, resulting in commissions and premieres of works by Helena Tulve, Tõnu Kõrvits, Anders Jormin, Tord Gustavsen, Mats Eilertsen, Trygve Seim, Anna Clyne, Gavin Bryars, Ivan Moody, Sungji Hong and Andrew Smith, among many others. A 2005 collaboration with the Ensemble Musikfabrik in Cologne featured the work Shelter by Julia Wolfe, Michael Gordon and David Lang of the New York-based Bang on a Can composers’ collective. More recently the trio has collaborated with musicians and orchestras such as Arve Henriksen, John Potter, Sinikka Langeland Ensemble, Mats Eilertsen Trio, Bang on a Can All-Stars, the Norwegian Chamber Orchestra, Norwegian Radio Orchestra, Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra and Stavanger Symphony Orchestra.

Trio Mediæval has toured extensively in Europe and USA, and has visited Japan, Hong Kong, Macau, South Korea, and most recently, Australia. The trio has been invited to appear on the most prestigious stages in the world, including Wigmore Hall, the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, Vienna Konzerthaus, Carnegie Hall and the Kennedy Center. After releasing seven recordings on ECM Records between 2001 and 2017, the trio began a collaboration with Morten Lindberg and the 2L label in Norway, with new releases planned for 2021 and 2022.

Catalina Vicens
Praised by the international press as one of the most interesting musicians in the field of early music, Catalina Vicens’ dynamism and approach to historically informed performance and musicological research has led her to become one of the most versatile and sought-after historical keyboard performers and teachers of her generation.

Having specialized in performing on antique keyboard instruments (ranging from the 15th to the early 19th centuries), she has been invited to play on the oldest playable harpsichord in the world, featured in her recording “Il Cembalo di Partenope” (Diapason d’Or); the 15th-century gothic organ of St. Andreas in Ostönnen (one of the oldest and best-preserved organs in the world), as well as in a large number of prestigious collections in the UK, Europe, Japan and USA. She is also recognized for her work with medieval and renaissance keyboards, working alongside specialized instrument builders in the ‘reconstruction’ of new prototypes based on historical sources, and for her work alongside composers to give a new life to historical instruments.

In 2021, Vicens has been named curator of the Tagliavini Collection in Italy, one of the largest historical keyboard collections in Europe, and artistic director of Museo San Colombano in Bologna, as successor of the late Liuwe Tamminga, one of the leading experts of the Italian organ repertoire together with Maestro Luigi Ferdinando Tagliavini.

Catalina is also harpsichord/research lecturer at the Royal Conservatory of Brussels (Belgium). She has been invited as Visting Professor of Harpsichord at Oberlin Conservatory (USA) and to teach master-classes at the Longy School of Music Cambridge, the Flint Antique Harpsichords Collection (USA), the Horniman Museum (UK), the Universität der Künste Berlin and the Folkwang Universität der Künste Essen (Germany), and teaches regularly at the Early Music Academy in Lunenburg (Canada), Early Music Course at Burg Fürsteneck and the International Portative Organ Festival (Germany), which she curates since 2011. She’s been invited as jury member at the Jurow International Harpsichord Competition, Mechelen Harpsichord Competition , the Dulwich Historical Keyboard Competition and the Wanda Landowska Competition Poznań.

Vicens performs and records regularly as a member of ensembles of medieval, renaissance, baroque and contemporary music in Europe, North America. In 2013 she founded ensemble Servir Antico, with whom she aims to shed light on the less-known repertoire and intellectual heritage of the humanistic period (13th-16th century) while using the concert stage to share with the audience the voices of these visionaries of the past, but also committed to using it for amplifying new voices.

Catalina Vicens, a native of Chile, started her international career at an early age. By age 20 she had already played in the main concert-halls of more than ten countries in North and South America, including the Teatro Colón de Buenos Aires Argentina, the Kimmel Center in Philadelphia and the Teatro Municipal do São Paulo. She studied modern piano at the Instituto de Música de la P. Universidad Católica de Chile, harpsichord at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, at the Musikhochschule Freiburg, and at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis as well as medieval keyboards in the latter, and contemporary music performance at the Musik Akademie Basel. She is Ph.D. candidate at Leiden University / Orpheus Institute Ghent.

Anna Maria Friman
For the last twenty-five years Friman has been working as a freelance singer both in chamber music ensembles and as a soloist with choirs and orchestras (such as the Gavin Bryars Ensemble, Hille Perl & Sirius Viols, Göteborg Baroque, Ensemble Serikon, Latvian Radio Choir, Ricercar Consort and Stuttgart Bach Orchestra). In 2018 she started Friman-Ambrosini-Vicens trio with Marco Ambrosini (nyckelharpa) and Catalina Vicens (organetto) and in 2020 the Swedish group Renaissance AND with Nora Roll (viola da gamba) and Dohyo Sol (lute) was founded. Most of her ensemble engagements over the last fifteen years have included performers from different musical styles, crossing borders between folk, improvisation, contemporary, medieval and renaissance music.

With her regular groups Trio Mediæval and Alternative History Quartet she has performed and given radio broadcasts throughout Europe, USA, Mexico, Canada, Hong Kong, South Korea, Japan and Australia, and since 2001 she has recorded 11 albums for ECM Records. In 2010 Friman completed a Doctor of Philosophy in Music at the University of York, UK where she researched the modern performance of medieval music by women. For five years she taught singing and coached vocal ensembles at the University of York, and further through the years she has very much enjoyed giving vocal masterclasses and ensemble workshops at different academic institutions in Europe and USA, teaching at summer courses as well as coaching individual groups. From 2001 – 2015 she was a jury member at the vocal ensemble competition the Tampere International Choral Festival in Finland. Friman teaches at the Master’s programme in Choral Conducting at the Academy of Music & Drama in Göteborg, Sweden.

Linn Andrea Fuglseth
Linn Andrea Fuglseth was born in Sandefjord, Norway in 1969. She studied at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London 1994-1995, receiving a diploma in Advanced Solo Studies in Early Music.

She completed her Masters Degree in vocal performance at the Norwegian Academy of Music in 1997, specializing in baroque interpretation and writing a dissertation on the Restoration Mad Songs. In October 1997 she founded Trio Mediæval.

Fuglseth’s solo engagements include performances with the Norwegian Radio Orchestra, Stavanger Symphony Orchestra, the Norwegian Baroque Orchestra, Norwegian Soloists’ Choir and Rolf Lislevand. She is a member of the folk music ensemble Østfolk, touring with school concerts in Norway. Fuglseth started, and has since 2004 conducted Bolteløkka Jentekor in Oslo, a school choir for girls aged 6-16. For this work she was awarded a culture prize in Bydel St Hanshaugen Oslo in 2011 and the Childrens’ Choir Conductor of the year by Ung i Kor Norway in 2015. In 2007 Fuglseth received a Government Grant for Artists for a period of three years. Fuglseth writes vocal arrangements of folk songs, and is being published by Musikk-Husets Forlag AS, Norway.

Jorunn Lovise Husan
Jorunn Lovise Husan joined the Trio Mediaeval in June 2018 (replacing Berit Opheim). Husan has an extensive experience as an ensemble singer and chamber music performer. She is a member of the Norwegian Soloists’ Choir and was for many years singing with the Oslo Chamber Choir and the renowned Norwegian vocal sextet Pust, that specializes in their own compositions and arrangements inspired by ballads, jazz and folk music. Her interest in folk – and contemporary music resulted in a Masters degree in vocal performance at the Norwegian Academy of Music (2010) where she specialized in the art of interpretation of folk music elements in Norwegian contemporary music.

In addition to her solo appearances touring with contemporary music ensembles such as BIT20 Ensemble and premiering Marcus Paus opera “Heksene”, she regularly performs alto solo parts from the main church music repertoire and has performed with conductors such as Grete Pedersen, Andrew Manze og Sirkka-Liisa Kaakinen-Pilch. Jorunn Lovise Husan is originally from Rennebu, but lives in Stavanger where she teaches singing at Stavanger Katedralskole and conducts the Stavanger Cathedral Girls’ Choir.

Nefesh Mountain: A Hanukkah Celebration
2024-12-12 19:30 - 21:30
Immerse yourself in the soul-stirring melodies and captivating harmonies of Nefesh Mountain. Led by the dynamic husband-and-wife team of Doni Zasloff and Eric Lindberg, their fusion of Jewish music with the rich tapestry of bluegrass and Americana creates an enchanting sound that transcends boundaries and lifts the spirit. Inspired by Jewish heritage and tradition, their lyrics are set against the backdrop of breathtaking musical arrangements. Experience the celebration of culture, faith, and the beauty of nature that defines Nefesh Mountain’s music, a stirring symphony that speaks to the hearts of all who listen.

“A Masterclass in string music, A Powerhouse Unit.” – Rolling Stone

Learn More about Nefesh Mountain
New York based Progressive Americana band Nefesh Mountain has been hailed as one of the formative boundary-pushing ensembles in roots music. The band’s creators and dynamic husband and wife team of Eric Lindberg and Doni Zasloff have created a world and sound all their own; blurring the lines between Americana, Bluegrass, Folk, Jazz and Blues with a masterful hand as songwriters, instrumentalists and composers alike. The band, declared “A Powerhouse Unit” by Rolling Stone and “Introspective lyrics and world class musicianship” by American Songwriter, takes the listener on a deeply personal journey that embodies their own wild nature and unbridled free spirits, bridging compositional prowess and prolific songwriting with deft instrumentals and jams.

Since their formation nearly a decade ago, Nefesh Mountain has been proudly open and vocal about their background and heritage as Jewish Americans, and are among the first preeminent Americana / Bluegrass bands to infuse Jewish tradition and soul into the beautifully diverse tapestry of American roots music. For them the music is wholly American, freely expressing their own identities while at the same time addressing the hate, discrimination, anti-semitism and racism that still remains at large in America and the World today.The band has recorded and shared the stage with Sam Bush, Jerry Douglas, Bryan Sutton, John Doyle, Noam Pikelny (Punch Brothers), Mark Schatz (Bèla Fleck, Nickel Creek), Mike Gordon (Phish) and Tony Trischka among others. The Troubadours along with their band continue to forge new paths in unknown territory, armed with Zasloff and Lindberg’s strong, smokey, and folksy vocals and Lindberg’s soulful and masterful skills on guitars and banjo alike.

Doni and Eric are on road year-round with their baby Willow and the Nefesh Mountain band; a collective of Bassists, drummers, and multi-instrumentalists including Thomas Cassell, Maddie Witler, Korey Brodsky, Dylan McCarthy, Ben Plotnick, Avery Merritt, Julian Pinelli, Dan Klingsberg, Noah Fishman, Erik Alvar among others

In 2021 they made their debut at The Grand Ole Opry in Nashville, TN and in recent years have performed various Festivals, PACs, and countless venues including Mountain Stage, Merlefest, Wintergrass, Ossipee Valley, Kaw River Roots, Thomas Point Bluegrass, Multiple City Wineries, and many more. Through the years Nefesh Mountain has officially showcased and been a proud member of AmericanaFest, Folk Alliance, and the IBMA. Eric Lindberg is proudly sponsored by Deering Banjos, Bourgeois Guitars, and Thompson Guitars.

For more information, please visit their website.

Holiday Rosen House Tours
2024-12-13 12:30 - 2024-12-22 13:30
You are invited to step into a holiday wonderland! Join us for a special tour of the art-filled Rosen House, decked out with enchanting decorations inspired by the cherished Rosen family archive. This limited-time holiday tour offers a glimpse of the family life that inspired celebrations in this historic house..

Our knowledgeable guides will take you on a captivating journey that’s perfect for friends and families alike. Create lasting holiday memories and immerse yourself in the rich history of the Rosen House with an unforgettable holiday tour!

Duration: Approximately 45 minutes of festive delight.

Advanced Registration Required.Members and Children 18 and Under: Admission is free!

Time Slots:December 13–22 (no tours on the 16th): 12:30pm or 1:00pm

Holiday Tea Musicale
2024-12-14 14:00 - 16:00
Get in the holiday spirit at Caramoor’s historic Rosen House! Enjoy charismatic musicians, festive decorations, and tea service in the majestic Music Room. Following the spirited performance, the tea service includes an assortment of finger sandwiches, scrumptious holiday treats, and a variety of teas (or hot chocolate with marshmallows for children!). This program is popular and dates quickly fill up. Please scroll down to see the menus we offer!

Artists

Saniyyah Bamberg, sopranoWilliam Schwartzman, piano

Schedule

12:00pm / Caramoor Holiday Gift Shop opens in Summer Dining Room1:30pm / Music Room opens for seating2:00pm / Holiday concert with Saniyyah Bamberg & William Schwartzman3:00pm / Tea service begins5:00pm / Caramoor Holiday Gift Shop closes

Self-Guided Rosen House Tours (included with ticket) / Following the tea, you will also have a chance to visit select rooms of the Rosen House starting at 4:00pm, until 5:00pm. The rooms showcase fine examples of decorative arts from Europe and China including jade, porcelain, and textiles that the Rosens admired and collected, and will also be decked out for the holidays with enchanting decorations inspired by the Rosen family archive.

Docent-Guided Holiday Rosen House Tours (additional fees may apply) / Preceding the tea, you are invited to step into a holiday wonderland! Join us for a special tour of the art-filled Rosen House, decked out with enchanting decorations inspired by the cherished Rosen family archive. Create lasting holiday memories and immerse yourself in the rich history of the Rosen House with an unforgettable Holiday Tour! Docent-led Holiday Tours are available by appointment only; they tend to fill up quickly, so be sure to book in advance by clicking here or calling the Box Office at 914.232.1252. Advanced Registration Required. Docent-led Holiday Tours are free for Members and Children 18 and Under.

Menu

Adult Menu

Upon Arrival

Cranberry-Orange Scone with Crème Fraiche and Raspberry Jam

Tea Sandwiches

Roasted Tomato, Ricotta, and Avocado on Crostini Toast

Smoked Salmon, Chive Cream Cheese, and Capers on Rye Bread

Cucumber and Mint Cream Cheese on Black Bread

Curried Chicken Salad on Brioche Bun

Turkey Apple Cranberry Salad in a Phyllo Cup

Teas

Ceylon Waltz Black Tea

Earl Grey Moonlight Sonata Black Tea

Peppermint Herbal Tea

Desserts

An Assortment of Seasonal Desserts

Children’s Menu (suitable for ages 4–12)

Upon Arrival

Cranberry-Orange Scone with Crème Fraiche and Raspberry Jam

Tea Sandwiches

Roast Beef and Cheddar on Wheat

Ham and Swiss on Rye

Turkey and American Cheese on Rye

Mozzarella and Tomato on Mini Brioche Buns

Peanut Butter and Jelly on White Bread

Teas

Hot Chocolate with Marshmallows

Desserts

An Assortment of Seasonal Desserts

Dietary Restrictions: With advance notice at the time of booking, we are able to accommodate the following dietary restrictions: vegetarian, vegan, dairy-free, and gluten-free. Please let us know if you have any severe allergies and we will do our best to accommodate. Please note, all foods are prepared off-site therefore we cannot provide day-of requests.

Vegetarian Menu

Upon Arrival

Cranberry-Orange Scone with Crème Fraiche and Raspberry Jam

Tea Sandwiches

Roasted Tomato, Avocado, and Ricotta on Crostini Toast

Cucumber and Mint Cream Cheese on Black Bread

Fresh Mozzarella, Pesto, and Arugula on Whole Grain Bread

Hummus and Roasted Veggies on Rye Bread

Curried Vegetarian “Chicken” Salad and Arugula on Mini Brioche Bun

Teas

Ceylon Waltz Black Tea

Earl Grey Moonlight Sonata Black Tea

Peppermint Herbal Tea

Desserts

An Assortment of Seasonal Desserts

Vegan Menu

Upon Arrival

Vegan Scone with Raspberry Jam

Tea Sandwiches

Curried Vegetarian “Chicken” Salad and Arugula on Vegan Bread

Hummus and Roasted Veggies on Rye Bread

Avocado, Roasted Tomato, and “Ricotta” on Crostini Toast

Vegan Mozzarella, Tomato, and Arugula with Balsamic Vinaigrette on Crostini Toast

Cucumber and Mint Vegan Cream Cheese on Black Bread

*uses nut-based cheese substitutes

Teas

Ceylon Waltz Black Tea

Earl Grey Moonlight Sonata Black Tea

Peppermint Herbal Tea

Desserts

An Assortment of Seasonal Vegan Desserts

Gluten-Free Menu

Upon Arrival

Gluten Free Scone with Crème Fraiche and Raspberry Jam

Tea Sandwiches

Roasted Tomato, Ricotta, and Avocado on Gluten Free Bread

Smoked Salmon, Chive Cream Cheese, and Capers on Gluten Free Bread

Cucumber and Mint Cream Cheese on Gluten Free Bread

Curried Chicken Salad on Gluten Free Bread

Turkey Apple Cranberry Salad on Gluten Free Bread

Teas

Ceylon Waltz Black Tea

Earl Grey Moonlight Sonata Black Tea

Peppermint Herbal Tea

Desserts

An Assortment of Seasonal Gluten Free Desserts

Dairy-Free Menu

Upon Arrival

Dairy Free Scone with Raspberry Jam

Tea Sandwiches

Curried Chicken Salad and Arugula on Dairy Free Bread

Avocado, Roasted Tomato, and “Ricotta” on Crostini Toast

Smoked Salmon, Vegan Cream Cheese, Capers, Rye Bread

Cucumber and Mint Vegan Cream Cheese on Black Bread

Turkey Apple Cranberry Salad on Dairy Free Bread

*Uses Nut-Based Cheeses

Teas

Ceylon Waltz Black Tea

Earl Grey Moonlight Sonata Black Tea

Peppermint Herbal Tea

Desserts

An Assortment of Seasonal Dairy Free Desserts

Give the Gift of Music this Season!Need a unique gift idea for the music lover in your life? Purchase a Caramoor Gift Certificate for any value by emailing us at boxoffice@caramoor.org or call 914.232.1252. Or Give the Gift of Membership! Membership is a delightful present for any occasion that can be enjoyed year-round, including: Advanced ticket sales, to get the best seats first; Free tours of the historic Rosen House; and, Exclusive invitations to Members-only events. Contact membership@caramoor.org for more information.

Don’t Forget to Stop by the Gift Shop!Get into the festive spirit at Caramoor by visiting our gift shop, where you can discover the perfect holiday presents for your loved ones. From Caramoor merchandise to musical treasures, make a stop at Caramoor’s gift shop as part of your holiday shopping tradition.

Holiday Tea Musicale
2024-12-15 14:00 - 16:00
Get in the holiday spirit at Caramoor’s historic Rosen House! Enjoy charismatic musicians, festive decorations, and tea service in the majestic Music Room. Following the spirited performance, the tea service includes an assortment of finger sandwiches, scrumptious holiday treats, and a variety of teas (or hot chocolate with marshmallows for children!). This program is popular and dates quickly fill up. Please scroll down to see the menus we offer!

Artists

Saniyyah Bamberg, sopranoEsteban Castro, piano

Schedule

12:00pm / Caramoor Holiday Gift Shop opens in Summer Dining Room1:30pm / Music Room opens for seating2:00pm / Holiday concert with Saniyyah Bamberg & Esteban Castro3:00pm / Tea service begins5:00pm / Caramoor Holiday Gift Shop closes

Self-Guided Rosen House Tours (included with ticket) / Following the tea, you will also have a chance to visit select rooms of the Rosen House starting at 4:00pm, until 5:00pm. The rooms showcase fine examples of decorative arts from Europe and China including jade, porcelain, and textiles that the Rosens admired and collected, and will also be decked out for the holidays with enchanting decorations inspired by the Rosen family archive.

Docent-Guided Holiday Rosen House Tours (additional fees may apply) / Preceding the tea, you are invited to step into a holiday wonderland! Join us for a special tour of the art-filled Rosen House, decked out with enchanting decorations inspired by the cherished Rosen family archive. Create lasting holiday memories and immerse yourself in the rich history of the Rosen House with an unforgettable Holiday Tour! Docent-led Holiday Tours are available by appointment only; they tend to fill up quickly, so be sure to book in advance by clicking here or calling the Box Office at 914.232.1252. Advanced Registration Required. Docent-led Holiday Tours are free for Members and Children 18 and Under.

Menu

Adult Menu

Upon Arrival

Cranberry-Orange Scone with Crème Fraiche and Raspberry Jam

Tea Sandwiches

Roasted Tomato, Ricotta, and Avocado on Crostini Toast

Smoked Salmon, Chive Cream Cheese, and Capers on Rye Bread

Cucumber and Mint Cream Cheese on Black Bread

Curried Chicken Salad on Brioche Bun

Turkey Apple Cranberry Salad in a Phyllo Cup

Teas

Ceylon Waltz Black Tea

Earl Grey Moonlight Sonata Black Tea

Peppermint Herbal Tea

Desserts

An Assortment of Seasonal Desserts

Children’s Menu (suitable for ages 4–12)

Upon Arrival

Cranberry-Orange Scone with Crème Fraiche and Raspberry Jam

Tea Sandwiches

Roast Beef and Cheddar on Wheat

Ham and Swiss on Rye

Turkey and American Cheese on Rye

Mozzarella and Tomato on Mini Brioche Buns

Peanut Butter and Jelly on White Bread

Teas

Hot Chocolate with Marshmallows

Desserts

An Assortment of Seasonal Desserts

Dietary Restrictions: With advance notice at the time of booking, we are able to accommodate the following dietary restrictions: vegetarian, vegan, dairy-free, and gluten-free. Please let us know if you have any severe allergies and we will do our best to accommodate. Please note, all foods are prepared off-site therefore we cannot provide day-of requests.

Vegetarian Menu

Upon Arrival

Cranberry-Orange Scone with Crème Fraiche and Raspberry Jam

Tea Sandwiches

Roasted Tomato, Avocado, and Ricotta on Crostini Toast

Cucumber and Mint Cream Cheese on Black Bread

Fresh Mozzarella, Pesto, and Arugula on Whole Grain Bread

Hummus and Roasted Veggies on Rye Bread

Curried Vegetarian “Chicken” Salad and Arugula on Mini Brioche Bun

Teas

Ceylon Waltz Black Tea

Earl Grey Moonlight Sonata Black Tea

Peppermint Herbal Tea

Desserts

An Assortment of Seasonal Desserts

Vegan Menu

Upon Arrival

Vegan Scone with Raspberry Jam

Tea Sandwiches

Curried Vegetarian “Chicken” Salad and Arugula on Vegan Bread

Hummus and Roasted Veggies on Rye Bread

Avocado, Roasted Tomato, and “Ricotta” on Crostini Toast

Vegan Mozzarella, Tomato, and Arugula with Balsamic Vinaigrette on Crostini Toast

Cucumber and Mint Vegan Cream Cheese on Black Bread

*uses nut-based cheese substitutes

Teas

Ceylon Waltz Black Tea

Earl Grey Moonlight Sonata Black Tea

Peppermint Herbal Tea

Desserts

An Assortment of Seasonal Vegan Desserts

Gluten-Free Menu

Upon Arrival

Gluten Free Scone with Crème Fraiche and Raspberry Jam

Tea Sandwiches

Roasted Tomato, Ricotta, and Avocado on Gluten Free Bread

Smoked Salmon, Chive Cream Cheese, and Capers on Gluten Free Bread

Cucumber and Mint Cream Cheese on Gluten Free Bread

Curried Chicken Salad on Gluten Free Bread

Turkey Apple Cranberry Salad on Gluten Free Bread

Teas

Ceylon Waltz Black Tea

Earl Grey Moonlight Sonata Black Tea

Peppermint Herbal Tea

Desserts

An Assortment of Seasonal Gluten Free Desserts

Dairy-Free Menu

Upon Arrival

Dairy Free Scone with Raspberry Jam

Tea Sandwiches

Curried Chicken Salad and Arugula on Dairy Free Bread

Avocado, Roasted Tomato, and “Ricotta” on Crostini Toast

Smoked Salmon, Vegan Cream Cheese, Capers, Rye Bread

Cucumber and Mint Vegan Cream Cheese on Black Bread

Turkey Apple Cranberry Salad on Dairy Free Bread

*Uses Nut-Based Cheeses

Teas

Ceylon Waltz Black Tea

Earl Grey Moonlight Sonata Black Tea

Peppermint Herbal Tea

Desserts

An Assortment of Seasonal Dairy Free Desserts

Give the Gift of Music this Season!Need a unique gift idea for the music lover in your life? Purchase a Caramoor Gift Certificate for any value by emailing us at boxoffice@caramoor.org or call 914.232.1252. Or Give the Gift of Membership! Membership is a delightful present for any occasion that can be enjoyed year-round, including: Advanced ticket sales, to get the best seats first; Free tours of the historic Rosen House; and, Exclusive invitations to Members-only events. Contact membership@caramoor.org for more information.

Don’t Forget to Stop by the Gift Shop!Get into the festive spirit at Caramoor by visiting our gift shop, where you can discover the perfect holiday presents for your loved ones. From Caramoor merchandise to musical treasures, make a stop at Caramoor’s gift shop as part of your holiday shopping tradition.

Holiday Tea Musicale
2024-12-17 14:00 - 16:00, 2024-12-18 14:00 - 16:00
Get in the holiday spirit at Caramoor’s historic Rosen House! Enjoy charismatic musicians, festive decorations, and tea service in the majestic Music Room. Following the spirited performance, the tea service includes an assortment of finger sandwiches, scrumptious holiday treats, and a variety of teas (or hot chocolate with marshmallows for children!). This program is popular and dates quickly fill up. Please scroll down to see the menus we offer!

Schedule

12:00pm / Caramoor Holiday Gift Shop opens in Summer Dining Room1:30pm / Music Room opens for seating2:00pm / Holiday concert with Joseph Parrish & Amir Farid3:00pm / Tea service begins5:00pm / Caramoor Holiday Gift Shop closes

Artists

Joseph Parrish, bass-baritoneAmir Farid, piano

Self-Guided Rosen House Tours (included with ticket) / Following the tea, you will also have a chance to visit select rooms of the Rosen House starting at 4:00pm, until 5:00pm. The rooms showcase fine examples of decorative arts from Europe and China including jade, porcelain, and textiles that the Rosens admired and collected, and will also be decked out for the holidays with enchanting decorations inspired by the Rosen family archive.

Docent-Guided Holiday Rosen House Tours (additional fees may apply) / Preceding the tea, you are invited to step into a holiday wonderland! Join us for a special tour of the art-filled Rosen House, decked out with enchanting decorations inspired by the cherished Rosen family archive. Create lasting holiday memories and immerse yourself in the rich history of the Rosen House with an unforgettable Holiday Tour! Docent-led Holiday Tours are available by appointment only; they tend to fill up quickly, so be sure to book in advance by clicking here or calling the Box Office at 914.232.1252. Advanced Registration Required. Docent-led Holiday Tours are free for Members and Children 18 and Under.

Menu

Adult Menu

Upon Arrival

Cranberry-Orange Scone with Crème Fraiche and Raspberry Jam

Tea Sandwiches

Roasted Tomato, Ricotta, and Avocado on Crostini Toast

Smoked Salmon, Chive Cream Cheese, and Capers on Rye Bread

Cucumber and Mint Cream Cheese on Black Bread

Curried Chicken Salad on Brioche Bun

Turkey Apple Cranberry Salad in a Phyllo Cup

Teas

Ceylon Waltz Black Tea

Earl Grey Moonlight Sonata Black Tea

Peppermint Herbal Tea

Desserts

An Assortment of Seasonal Desserts

Children’s Menu (suitable for ages 4–12)

Upon Arrival

Cranberry-Orange Scone with Crème Fraiche and Raspberry Jam

Tea Sandwiches

Roast Beef and Cheddar on Wheat

Ham and Swiss on Rye

Turkey and American Cheese on Rye

Mozzarella and Tomato on Mini Brioche Buns

Peanut Butter and Jelly on White Bread

Teas

Hot Chocolate with Marshmallows

Desserts

An Assortment of Seasonal Desserts

Dietary Restrictions: With advance notice at the time of booking, we are able to accommodate the following dietary restrictions: vegetarian, vegan, dairy-free, and gluten-free. Please let us know if you have any severe allergies and we will do our best to accommodate. Please note, all foods are prepared off-site therefore we cannot provide day-of requests.

Vegetarian Menu

Upon Arrival

Cranberry-Orange Scone with Crème Fraiche and Raspberry Jam

Tea Sandwiches

Roasted Tomato, Avocado, and Ricotta on Crostini Toast

Cucumber and Mint Cream Cheese on Black Bread

Fresh Mozzarella, Pesto, and Arugula on Whole Grain Bread

Hummus and Roasted Veggies on Rye Bread

Curried Vegetarian “Chicken” Salad and Arugula on Mini Brioche Bun

Teas

Ceylon Waltz Black Tea

Earl Grey Moonlight Sonata Black Tea

Peppermint Herbal Tea

Desserts

An Assortment of Seasonal Desserts

Vegan Menu

Upon Arrival

Vegan Scone with Raspberry Jam

Tea Sandwiches

Curried Vegetarian “Chicken” Salad and Arugula on Vegan Bread

Hummus and Roasted Veggies on Rye Bread

Avocado, Roasted Tomato, and “Ricotta” on Crostini Toast

Vegan Mozzarella, Tomato, and Arugula with Balsamic Vinaigrette on Crostini Toast

Cucumber and Mint Vegan Cream Cheese on Black Bread

*uses nut-based cheese substitutes

Teas

Ceylon Waltz Black Tea

Earl Grey Moonlight Sonata Black Tea

Peppermint Herbal Tea

Desserts

An Assortment of Seasonal Vegan Desserts

Gluten-Free Menu

Upon Arrival

Gluten Free Scone with Crème Fraiche and Raspberry Jam

Tea Sandwiches

Roasted Tomato, Ricotta, and Avocado on Gluten Free Bread

Smoked Salmon, Chive Cream Cheese, and Capers on Gluten Free Bread

Cucumber and Mint Cream Cheese on Gluten Free Bread

Curried Chicken Salad on Gluten Free Bread

Turkey Apple Cranberry Salad on Gluten Free Bread

Teas

Ceylon Waltz Black Tea

Earl Grey Moonlight Sonata Black Tea

Peppermint Herbal Tea

Desserts

An Assortment of Seasonal Gluten Free Desserts

Dairy-Free Menu

Upon Arrival

Dairy Free Scone with Raspberry Jam

Tea Sandwiches

Curried Chicken Salad and Arugula on Dairy Free Bread

Avocado, Roasted Tomato, and “Ricotta” on Crostini Toast

Smoked Salmon, Vegan Cream Cheese, Capers, Rye Bread

Cucumber and Mint Vegan Cream Cheese on Black Bread

Turkey Apple Cranberry Salad on Dairy Free Bread

*Uses Nut-Based Cheeses

Teas

Ceylon Waltz Black Tea

Earl Grey Moonlight Sonata Black Tea

Peppermint Herbal Tea

Desserts

An Assortment of Seasonal Dairy Free Desserts

Give the Gift of Music this Season!Need a unique gift idea for the music lover in your life? Purchase a Caramoor Gift Certificate for any value by emailing us at boxoffice@caramoor.org or call 914.232.1252. Or Give the Gift of Membership! Membership is a delightful present for any occasion that can be enjoyed year-round, including: Advanced ticket sales, to get the best seats first; Free tours of the historic Rosen House; and, Exclusive invitations to Members-only events. Contact membership@caramoor.org for more information.

Don’t Forget to Stop by the Gift Shop!Get into the festive spirit at Caramoor by visiting our gift shop, where you can discover the perfect holiday presents for your loved ones. From Caramoor merchandise to musical treasures, make a stop at Caramoor’s gift shop as part of your holiday shopping tradition.

Holiday Tea Musicale
2024-12-19 14:00 - 16:00
Get in the holiday spirit at Caramoor’s historic Rosen House! Enjoy charismatic musicians, festive decorations, and tea service in the majestic Music Room. Following the spirited performance, the tea service includes an assortment of finger sandwiches, scrumptious holiday treats, and a variety of teas (or hot chocolate with marshmallows for children!). This program is popular and dates quickly fill up. Please scroll down to see the menus we offer!

Schedule

12:00pm / Caramoor Holiday Gift Shop opens in Summer Dining Room1:30pm / Music Room opens for seating2:00pm / Holiday concert with Scott Rubén La Marca & Amber Scherer3:00pm / Tea service begins5:00pm / Caramoor Holiday Gift Shop closes

Artists

Scott Rubén La Marca, tenorAmber Scherer, piano

Self-Guided Rosen House Tours (included with ticket) / Following the tea, you will also have a chance to visit select rooms of the Rosen House starting at 4:00pm, until 5:00pm. The rooms showcase fine examples of decorative arts from Europe and China including jade, porcelain, and textiles that the Rosens admired and collected, and will also be decked out for the holidays with enchanting decorations inspired by the Rosen family archive.

Docent-Guided Holiday Rosen House Tours (additional fees may apply) / Preceding the tea, you are invited to step into a holiday wonderland! Join us for a special tour of the art-filled Rosen House, decked out with enchanting decorations inspired by the cherished Rosen family archive. Create lasting holiday memories and immerse yourself in the rich history of the Rosen House with an unforgettable Holiday Tour! Docent-led Holiday Tours are available by appointment only; they tend to fill up quickly, so be sure to book in advance by clicking here or calling the Box Office at 914.232.1252. Advanced Registration Required. Docent-led Holiday Tours are free for Members and Children 18 and Under.

Menu

Adult Menu

Upon Arrival

Cranberry-Orange Scone with Crème Fraiche and Raspberry Jam

Tea Sandwiches

Roasted Tomato, Ricotta, and Avocado on Crostini Toast

Smoked Salmon, Chive Cream Cheese, and Capers on Rye Bread

Cucumber and Mint Cream Cheese on Black Bread

Curried Chicken Salad on Brioche Bun

Turkey Apple Cranberry Salad in a Phyllo Cup

Teas

Ceylon Waltz Black Tea

Earl Grey Moonlight Sonata Black Tea

Peppermint Herbal Tea

Desserts

An Assortment of Seasonal Desserts

Children’s Menu (suitable for ages 4–12)

Upon Arrival

Cranberry-Orange Scone with Crème Fraiche and Raspberry Jam

Tea Sandwiches

Roast Beef and Cheddar on Wheat

Ham and Swiss on Rye

Turkey and American Cheese on Rye

Mozzarella and Tomato on Mini Brioche Buns

Peanut Butter and Jelly on White Bread

Teas

Hot Chocolate with Marshmallows

Desserts

An Assortment of Seasonal Desserts

Dietary Restrictions: With advance notice at the time of booking, we are able to accommodate the following dietary restrictions: vegetarian, vegan, dairy-free, and gluten-free. Please let us know if you have any severe allergies and we will do our best to accommodate. Please note, all foods are prepared off-site therefore we cannot provide day-of requests.

Vegetarian Menu

Upon Arrival

Cranberry-Orange Scone with Crème Fraiche and Raspberry Jam

Tea Sandwiches

Roasted Tomato, Avocado, and Ricotta on Crostini Toast

Cucumber and Mint Cream Cheese on Black Bread

Fresh Mozzarella, Pesto, and Arugula on Whole Grain Bread

Hummus and Roasted Veggies on Rye Bread

Curried Vegetarian “Chicken” Salad and Arugula on Mini Brioche Bun

Teas

Ceylon Waltz Black Tea

Earl Grey Moonlight Sonata Black Tea

Peppermint Herbal Tea

Desserts

An Assortment of Seasonal Desserts

Vegan Menu

Upon Arrival

Vegan Scone with Raspberry Jam

Tea Sandwiches

Curried Vegetarian “Chicken” Salad and Arugula on Vegan Bread

Hummus and Roasted Veggies on Rye Bread

Avocado, Roasted Tomato, and “Ricotta” on Crostini Toast

Vegan Mozzarella, Tomato, and Arugula with Balsamic Vinaigrette on Crostini Toast

Cucumber and Mint Vegan Cream Cheese on Black Bread

*uses nut-based cheese substitutes

Teas

Ceylon Waltz Black Tea

Earl Grey Moonlight Sonata Black Tea

Peppermint Herbal Tea

Desserts

An Assortment of Seasonal Vegan Desserts

Gluten-Free Menu

Upon Arrival

Gluten Free Scone with Crème Fraiche and Raspberry Jam

Tea Sandwiches

Roasted Tomato, Ricotta, and Avocado on Gluten Free Bread

Smoked Salmon, Chive Cream Cheese, and Capers on Gluten Free Bread

Cucumber and Mint Cream Cheese on Gluten Free Bread

Curried Chicken Salad on Gluten Free Bread

Turkey Apple Cranberry Salad on Gluten Free Bread

Teas

Ceylon Waltz Black Tea

Earl Grey Moonlight Sonata Black Tea

Peppermint Herbal Tea

Desserts

An Assortment of Seasonal Gluten Free Desserts

Dairy-Free Menu

Upon Arrival

Dairy Free Scone with Raspberry Jam

Tea Sandwiches

Curried Chicken Salad and Arugula on Dairy Free Bread

Avocado, Roasted Tomato, and “Ricotta” on Crostini Toast

Smoked Salmon, Vegan Cream Cheese, Capers, Rye Bread

Cucumber and Mint Vegan Cream Cheese on Black Bread

Turkey Apple Cranberry Salad on Dairy Free Bread

*Uses Nut-Based Cheeses

Teas

Ceylon Waltz Black Tea

Earl Grey Moonlight Sonata Black Tea

Peppermint Herbal Tea

Desserts

An Assortment of Seasonal Dairy Free Desserts

Give the Gift of Music this Season!Need a unique gift idea for the music lover in your life? Purchase a Caramoor Gift Certificate for any value by emailing us at boxoffice@caramoor.org or call 914.232.1252. Or Give the Gift of Membership! Membership is a delightful present for any occasion that can be enjoyed year-round, including: Advanced ticket sales, to get the best seats first; Free tours of the historic Rosen House; and, Exclusive invitations to Members-only events. Contact membership@caramoor.org for more information.

Don’t Forget to Stop by the Gift Shop!Get into the festive spirit at Caramoor by visiting our gift shop, where you can discover the perfect holiday presents for your loved ones. From Caramoor merchandise to musical treasures, make a stop at Caramoor’s gift shop as part of your holiday shopping tradition.

Holiday Tea Musicale
2024-12-20 14:00 - 16:00, 2024-12-21 14:00 - 16:00
Get in the holiday spirit at Caramoor’s historic Rosen House! Enjoy charismatic musicians, festive decorations, and tea service in the majestic Music Room. Following the spirited performance, the tea service includes an assortment of finger sandwiches, scrumptious holiday treats, and a variety of teas (or hot chocolate with marshmallows for children!). This program is popular and dates quickly fill up. Please scroll down to see the menus we offer!

Schedule

12:00pm / Caramoor Holiday Gift Shop opens in Summer Dining Room1:30pm / Music Room opens for seating2:00pm / Holiday concert with Sophia Baete & Francesco Barfoed3:00pm / Tea service begins5:00pm / Caramoor Holiday Gift Shop closes

Artists

Scott Rubén La Marca, tenorAmber Scherer, piano

Self-Guided Rosen House Tours (included with ticket) / Following the tea, you will also have a chance to visit select rooms of the Rosen House starting at 4:00pm, until 5:00pm. The rooms showcase fine examples of decorative arts from Europe and China including jade, porcelain, and textiles that the Rosens admired and collected, and will also be decked out for the holidays with enchanting decorations inspired by the Rosen family archive.

Docent-Guided Holiday Rosen House Tours (additional fees may apply) / Preceding the tea, you are invited to step into a holiday wonderland! Join us for a special tour of the art-filled Rosen House, decked out with enchanting decorations inspired by the cherished Rosen family archive. Create lasting holiday memories and immerse yourself in the rich history of the Rosen House with an unforgettable Holiday Tour! Docent-led Holiday Tours are available by appointment only; they tend to fill up quickly, so be sure to book in advance by clicking here or calling the Box Office at 914.232.1252. Advanced Registration Required. Docent-led Holiday Tours are free for Members and Children 18 and Under.

Menu

Adult Menu

Upon Arrival

Cranberry-Orange Scone with Crème Fraiche and Raspberry Jam

Tea Sandwiches

Roasted Tomato, Ricotta, and Avocado on Crostini Toast

Smoked Salmon, Chive Cream Cheese, and Capers on Rye Bread

Cucumber and Mint Cream Cheese on Black Bread

Curried Chicken Salad on Brioche Bun

Turkey Apple Cranberry Salad in a Phyllo Cup

Teas

Ceylon Waltz Black Tea

Earl Grey Moonlight Sonata Black Tea

Peppermint Herbal Tea

Desserts

An Assortment of Seasonal Desserts

Children’s Menu (suitable for ages 4–12)

Upon Arrival

Cranberry-Orange Scone with Crème Fraiche and Raspberry Jam

Tea Sandwiches

Roast Beef and Cheddar on Wheat

Ham and Swiss on Rye

Turkey and American Cheese on Rye

Mozzarella and Tomato on Mini Brioche Buns

Peanut Butter and Jelly on White Bread

Teas

Hot Chocolate with Marshmallows

Desserts

An Assortment of Seasonal Desserts

Dietary Restrictions: With advance notice at the time of booking, we are able to accommodate the following dietary restrictions: vegetarian, vegan, dairy-free, and gluten-free. Please let us know if you have any severe allergies and we will do our best to accommodate. Please note, all foods are prepared off-site therefore we cannot provide day-of requests.

Vegetarian Menu

Upon Arrival

Cranberry-Orange Scone with Crème Fraiche and Raspberry Jam

Tea Sandwiches

Roasted Tomato, Avocado, and Ricotta on Crostini Toast

Cucumber and Mint Cream Cheese on Black Bread

Fresh Mozzarella, Pesto, and Arugula on Whole Grain Bread

Hummus and Roasted Veggies on Rye Bread

Curried Vegetarian “Chicken” Salad and Arugula on Mini Brioche Bun

Teas

Ceylon Waltz Black Tea

Earl Grey Moonlight Sonata Black Tea

Peppermint Herbal Tea

Desserts

An Assortment of Seasonal Desserts

Vegan Menu

Upon Arrival

Vegan Scone with Raspberry Jam

Tea Sandwiches

Curried Vegetarian “Chicken” Salad and Arugula on Vegan Bread

Hummus and Roasted Veggies on Rye Bread

Avocado, Roasted Tomato, and “Ricotta” on Crostini Toast

Vegan Mozzarella, Tomato, and Arugula with Balsamic Vinaigrette on Crostini Toast

Cucumber and Mint Vegan Cream Cheese on Black Bread

*uses nut-based cheese substitutes

Teas

Ceylon Waltz Black Tea

Earl Grey Moonlight Sonata Black Tea

Peppermint Herbal Tea

Desserts

An Assortment of Seasonal Vegan Desserts

Gluten-Free Menu

Upon Arrival

Gluten Free Scone with Crème Fraiche and Raspberry Jam

Tea Sandwiches

Roasted Tomato, Ricotta, and Avocado on Gluten Free Bread

Smoked Salmon, Chive Cream Cheese, and Capers on Gluten Free Bread

Cucumber and Mint Cream Cheese on Gluten Free Bread

Curried Chicken Salad on Gluten Free Bread

Turkey Apple Cranberry Salad on Gluten Free Bread

Teas

Ceylon Waltz Black Tea

Earl Grey Moonlight Sonata Black Tea

Peppermint Herbal Tea

Desserts

An Assortment of Seasonal Gluten Free Desserts

Dairy-Free Menu

Upon Arrival

Dairy Free Scone with Raspberry Jam

Tea Sandwiches

Curried Chicken Salad and Arugula on Dairy Free Bread

Avocado, Roasted Tomato, and “Ricotta” on Crostini Toast

Smoked Salmon, Vegan Cream Cheese, Capers, Rye Bread

Cucumber and Mint Vegan Cream Cheese on Black Bread

Turkey Apple Cranberry Salad on Dairy Free Bread

*Uses Nut-Based Cheeses

Teas

Ceylon Waltz Black Tea

Earl Grey Moonlight Sonata Black Tea

Peppermint Herbal Tea

Desserts

An Assortment of Seasonal Dairy Free Desserts

Give the Gift of Music this Season!Need a unique gift idea for the music lover in your life? Purchase a Caramoor Gift Certificate for any value by emailing us at boxoffice@caramoor.org or call 914.232.1252. Or Give the Gift of Membership! Membership is a delightful present for any occasion that can be enjoyed year-round, including: Advanced ticket sales, to get the best seats first; Free tours of the historic Rosen House; and, Exclusive invitations to Members-only events. Contact membership@caramoor.org for more information.

Don’t Forget to Stop by the Gift Shop!Get into the festive spirit at Caramoor by visiting our gift shop, where you can discover the perfect holiday presents for your loved ones. From Caramoor merchandise to musical treasures, make a stop at Caramoor’s gift shop as part of your holiday shopping tradition.
