Playing to Caramoor’s Strengths.
Site-specific programs highlight Caramoor’s unique setting By Kathy Schuman, Artistic Director
W
hen I started planning my first Caramoor summer season in 2018, I wanted to take advantage of our unique setting and all the possibilities therein. As anyone who has attended a concert at Caramoor knows, hearing music here is very different from the experience of hearing it in a traditional concert hall. Caramoor was already programming day-long festivals of jazz and American Roots music around the grounds, and we had guitar recitals in our Sunken Garden. We’ve also been exhibiting sound art works around the campus (see related article on page 14 ). Programming John Luther Adams’ Inuksuit seemed like a no-brainer – it calls for the audience to wander outside among musicians playing an incredible array of instruments including conch shells, sirens, gongs, bells, drums, Caramoor
The Secret Gardener in 2018
cymbals, and glockenspiels, dispersed throughout the landscape. It was also a perfect opportunity to throw open our gates and invite people in for free, encouraging audiences to try something new. The performance, with more than 60 percussionists (on the hottest day of the summer — approaching 100 degrees), was transcendent and inspiring. That summer we also welcomed On Site Opera, who brought a marvelous early Mozart opera, The Secret Gardener to our Sunken Garden. I read about this inventive company in The New York Times after they performed the work in a community garden in Manhattan, and thought it could be a perfect fit for us. Since then I’ve attended a number of wonderful OSO productions in NYC, and we’re planning a return visit for them in 2022. /9
