Happy 75th Anniversary, Marlboro

September 10, 2026

In the summer of 1957, Jaime Laredo and I were violin students of Ivan Galamian at Meadowmount, his string camp in the Adirondacks. We had already heard so much about the Marlboro Music Festival that when Meadowmount ended we hopped in a car and drove there.

Jaime and I arrived in time for the Festival’s last weekend of concerts. To this day I can remember most of the works performed: Brahms Horn Trio, Beethoven Clarinet Trio, the Schubert Octet. The final work was Beethoven’s Choral Fantasy, with Rudolf Serkin as piano soloist, the orchestra of Marlboro participants, and a chorus drawn mainly from local people. Jaime and I sat transfixed as we listened to the conviction, vitality, and sheer joyfulness of the performances. To think that Marlboro had been founded in 1951, a mere six years earlier, by musicians who had emigrated to the United States to escape fascism, and who had envisioned a bucolic place where aspiring young players could focus on chamber music!

Two years later I was invited to participate in the 1959 Marlboro Festival. With fresh memories of the unforgettable performances I had heard there, I was ecstatic. Great chamber music repertoire and inspired artist-musicians awaited me. What I did not imagine, despite Marlboro’s celebration of chamber music, was that I would ever play in a professional ensemble myself. In all the years I was a music student, the possibility had never even occurred to me. Like-minded young violinists and I dreamed of being brilliant virtuosos. Chamber music? That was for pleasure and nourishment of the soul, but certainly not for making a career. In fact, I heard that American concert managers often discouraged soloists on their rosters from playing chamber music. They worried that the public might perceive chamber musicians as failed soloists and, by association, tarnish the glamour of a solo career.

Arriving at Marlboro for the first time, I quickly realized that no failed soloists could be found there. For example, Rudolf Serkin, one of the Festival’s founding musicians, gave the lie to segregating musicians into categories. Serkin had a towering career as soloist, yet here he was participating in one group after another with gifted young musicians. In my very first year there, Alexander “Sasha” Schneider, another soloist/chamber musician, collared three of us and said, “We are going to rehearse and then perform Bartok’s Second String Quartet.” “But Sasha, none of us even know the piece,” we complained. “You will,” he said matter-of-factly. It turned out to be one of the most remarkable musical experiences of my young life. And so many others followed over the years. Whether a duo or a nonet, the deep satisfaction we felt working respectfully together was inseparably woven into every experience.

Summer after summer I returned to Marlboro, only dimly aware that a tectonic shift was taking place in America. Music lovers were discovering that bigger was not necessarily better, and that a vast and remarkable repertoire devoted to the intimate setting of chamber music awaited them. At first, the Marlboro dining room that acted as a performance space was extended to make room for a stage. Then a new concert hall was built to accommodate the people who flocked to the sold-out concerts. While I was accepted as a participant by invitation, so many young musicians clamored for the Marlboro experience that auditions had to be held. Marlboro was not the only driving force in this sea change, but it was an important one. For many musicians the idea of forming an ensemble no longer seemed a fantasy. In 1964, four of us at Marlboro formed the Guarneri String Quartet. And as audiences grew, so did the formation of many other ensembles that would have long and successful careers. The chamber music revolution was on its way, thanks in large part to Marlboro.

Fast-forward to the present. This past July 11, the Marlboro Music Festival celebrated its 75th anniversary. Former participants from all over the world came to share stories about how much Marlboro had meant to them and to their musical life. I was one of them, recounting some of my inspiring interactions as a young participant with artist-musicians such as Rudolf Serkin, Pablo Casals, Marcel Moyse, Sasha and Mischa Schneider, and Felix Galimir. They are all gone now, but the impact of their artistry and wisdom helped fashion me as a musician.

For the past twenty years I have returned to Marlboro as a senior participant. The place has gradually changed. A modernized concert hall, the smaller Serkin Auditorium, more rehearsal rooms and dormitories, a beautiful new library, new housing for senior musicians, and ample office space have been gradually added. One thing has never changed, however: the vision of that band of immigrants who settled in Vermont long ago remains alive and filled with creativity. As always, the other seniors and I work with highly gifted young musicians, to give them an open-ended amount of time to explore the music’s essence, and to encourage their unique personalities to flourish.

If the founders could only eavesdrop on the probing rehearsals and memorable performances taking place in this year of Marlboro’s 75th anniversary, they would undoubtedly be deeply moved.

Happy 75th anniversary, Marlboro.

Sign reading Caution: Musicians at Play in front of a white clapboard building at Marlboro

Comments

From Mary Malin on September 11, 2026

Thanks again for another great story—and for your performance at Marlboro and in New York !! Marlboro magic also happened for me, whether in the audience, the chorus, orchestra or chamber groups… when I went there, I had no training on harpsichord and a mere 2 concerts on it under my belt, but everyone was very supportive—unusual for such a newbie to be there ! Thanks especially to Blanche Moyse (who invited me) and to Benita Valente, who brought out the inner singer in everyone ! A mere few weeks was transformative for me as it has been for so many…May Marlboro thrive for many more years !
From Marjory Lange on September 11, 2026

It was my privilege to attend Marlboro in summer 1973, not as a participant, but as a student of the violinist, Jamie Buswell, there to take lessons in exchange for helping his (first) wife, Sara, care for their toddler son, Joshua. [I was part of Jamie’s first university studio at the University of Arizona, and had just finished my freshman year.]
Even though I was not a participant, generous room was made for me in the community. During free times, I often played badminton with Sascha Schneider (he liked to win, and, with me as opponent, his victories were guaranteed). I helped clean buckets of chicken livers for a community dinner. I turned pages for Rudolf Serkin during his rehearsals (one of his students turned during concerts). On a few occasions, I even sat in on rehearsals for an absent violist. I believe this was the summer Yo Yo Ma met Jill, who became his wife.
Perhaps the most memorable moment of most memorable summer was the rehearsal Pablo Casals conducted of a Beethoven symphony. At one point a member of the woodwinds was too quiet on a subito forte. Maestro Casals said, “you are playing it like, ta, ta, boom. I want ta, ta-BOOM!!!) yelling loudly enough to rattle every heart in the hall. He scanned the frozen orchestra–everyone looked certain he was going to keel over dead–and said, so quietly, “do you see? play it like that” and went on with the rehearsal.
From Gerald Goldman on September 11, 2026

Thank you for the beautiful memories and for all you have given to all who love chamber music ?!
From Katrin Ellger on September 11, 2026

Lieber Arnold,
manchmal schaue ich auf diese Seite und freue mich an allem, was du schreibst. Aber jetzt ganz besonders. Ich wollte dich nämlich nach Marlboro fragen und ob du noch dort bist….
Michael hatte oft davon gesprochen.
Die innere Haltung, die Philosophie, die dort lebt, hat mich immer berührt. Genau wie Euer Quartettspiel. Ich habe es geliebt.
Nun habe ich eine junge Pianistin in der Familie, sie lebt mit meinem Sohn zusammen in Stuttgart, 32 Jahre jung und so begabt! Wie könnte sie nach Marlboro gelangen? Kann ich dir Informationen über sie schicken? An welche Adresse? Kann sie irgendwo vorspielen?
Die Konzerte des Guarneri Quartetin Berlin, Stuttgart und irgendwo in Deutschland und Europa liegen nun schon viele Jahre zurück, aber sie sind in meinem Herzen gut aufbewahrt.
Alles Liebe Katrin
(Katrin Ellger, Stuttgart)
From Matthias von Hülsen on September 11, 2026

Dear Arnold,

It’s touching how you describe the original spirit of Marlboro. Together with Judith Serkin and Charles Neidich, more than half a century later, you brought that spirit of Marlboro to Krzy?owa/Kreisau in Lower Silesia during the first year of Krzy?owa-Music, to which you subsequently paid an equally touching tribute in your blog (https://keyofstrawberry.com/more-than-a-music-festival/). Unfortunately, I’ve only had direct contact with Marlboro twice in my life: once in the 1960s during Marlboro Music’s guest performance at the Lucerne Festival, featuring Rudolf Serkin, Alexander Schneider, and Jaime Laredo, among others; and then again in 2001, when Freya von Moltke and I visited together, during which Dorothy and I met Judith and saw Richard Goode perform. Richard Goode was then invited there in 2009 by Viviane Hagner as a “Prize Winner in Residence” at my previous festival, the Mecklenburg-Vorpommern Festival. At that time, however, Viviane and I did not yet know that, inspired by Marlboro, we would develop the concept for Krzy?owa-Music in 2013 and establish it in 2015. After Viviane experienced Krzy?owa in 2013, as a longtime participant in Marlboro Music, she was so convinced of the special significance of this place—which also held a special place in the heart of your wife, Dorothea—that she came up with the idea of founding a European Marlboro in Krzy?owa together with me. Now, after 12 years, I’m passing the baton to my successor, Stephanie Scholz, who also discovered Marlboro Music as a student in the U.S. and will surely continue to nurture this very special spirit in Krzy?owa as well.

Warm regards from your Matthias
From Peter Hoenisch on September 12, 2026

Lieber Arnold, wir besuchen gerade die Akademie, die sich anschließt an das Festival in Cervo/Ligurien. Und: Kennst Du “Musethica”, eine Akademie für ausgewählte junge Musiker, gegründet von Avri Levitan? Die Ensembles spielen täglich 3 Konzerte in soialen Einrichtungen, Kindergärten, Altenheimen, auch Gefängnissen und bekommen Podiumserfahrung und lernen ensemblespiel. Ich habe der Organisation schon viel Geld besorgt. Na ja, sei herzlich gegrüßt. Dein Peter
From Debby Kakalik on September 12, 2026

I just sent you my new phone number only to find this story after I had sent it. It is (773) 410-7865. Now I will read your story.
Love, Debby Robyn Kakalik
From Janice on September 16, 2026

Dear Arnold, I have vivid memories of our group from the Harpur seminar going to Marlboro by bus. The hotel had been arranged for us, the breakfast waffles were sensational, and the rest of the weekend was spent in the paradise of listening to live chamber music concerts by the greats! Just one of the perks that was part of the privilege of our studying with the you, John, Michael and David!!
Yours( without a single schlepp, Janice…Nu?

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When I first posted stories about music on my web site, I assumed that there would be just a handful of things to write about. Now, more than four years later, I'm still writing. This has everything to do with the nature of being a musician. When musicians get together, we inevitably have stories to tell about music, musicians, concerts, audiences, instruments, travel, food, and ever so much more. We talk about the great moments, the disasters, what was memorable, forgettable, hilarious, and unexpected. The stories seem never ending and never less than engaging. I plan to keep writing. I hope you will keep reading.