Festival History Music in Norfolk has a long an vibrant history, dating back to the 1890s when Ellen Battell and her husband Carl Stoeckel, son of the Yale School of Music’s first professor, founded the Litchfield County Choral Union. Chamber music and choral concerts in their 35-room mansion, Whitehouse, were the beginning of the Festival that, by the turn of the century was already considered one Jean Sibelius in Norfolk, 1916. of the country’s most Photo courtesy Joanna Dolbey prestigious. As audiences grew, the Stoeckels commissioned New York architect, E.K. Rossiter, to design the larger and acoustically superior Music Shed. Dedicated in 1906, a recent restoration has returned the hall to its original glory. The stunning acoustics have remained unchanged since renowned musicians such as Fritz Kreisler, Sergei Rachmaninoff, and Jean Sibelius graced its stage. Programs from the early days of the Festival (1906-1923) demonstrate that Norfolk was a dynamic center where composers, performers, poets and authors from around the world were Honourary members of the Litchfield County Choral Union. A short list includes Alice Longfellow in 1910 (daughter of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow and one of the founders of Radcliffe College); Henry Hadley also in Norfolk in 1910 (first conductor of the San Francisco Symphony, Associate Conductor of the New York Philharmonic, founder of the Berkshire Symphonic Music Festival in 1934 — later known as Tanglewood); and Frederick Stock in 1915 (Music Director of the Chicago Symphony for 37 years, succeeding its founder, Theodore Thomas, and preceding Fritz Reiner). Other Honourary members included Vincent D’Indy, Antonín Dvořák, Edward Everett Hale, Camille Saint-Saëns and Ralph Vaughan Williams. Norfolk was an important, perhaps critical, stop on the music circuit in the early years of the 20th century. Upon her death in 1939, Ellen Battell Stoeckel left her estate in a private trust with instructions that the facilities be used for Yale University’s summer music school, ensuring an enduring artistic legacy. Now in its 77th season, the Norfolk Chamber Music — Yale School of Music has a dual teaching/performance purpose. Audiences from around the country come to northwest Connecticut to hear world-class artists, such as the Tokyo, Alexander, Brentano, Emerson and Artis String Quartets. Boris Berman, Peter Frankl, William Purvis, Frank Morelli,
Ani Kavafian and many others from around the world perform as part of a series of nearly 40 concerts over a nine-week period. These professional musicians also serve as teachers and mentors to the Fellows who come to Norfolk each year to study. The Fellows who spend their summer in Norfolk participate in the intensive program of coachings, classes and performances. They are exposed to every aspect of their future profession: their colleagues, their mentors, and most importantly, their audience. Alumni of the Norfolk program who have enjoyed successful careers in music include Alan Gilbert, Richard Stoltzman, Frederica von Stade, Pamela Frank, the Claremont and Eroica Trios, Sō Percussion, eighth blackbird, and the Alexander, Calder, Cassatt, Cavani, Jasper, Miró, Saint Lawrence, Shanghai and Ying quartets, among many others. Recent Norfolk alumni, have also won many of the most prestigious chamber music prizes including the Young Artists’, Naumberg, Fischoff, M-Prize, and Banff competitions. A strong bond exists with the community, as residents of Norfolk and the surrounding area host the Fellows throughout their summer experience. The Fellows perform on the Emerging Artist Showcase series, which is offered free to the public throughout the summer, as well as join their faculty mentors on our Chamber Music Friday concert series. The community of music lovers supports the young performers and becomes their most enthusiastic advocate. Over the years, while Norfolk has become a symbol of quality in chamber music performance and professional study, thousands have enjoyed the picturesque environment of the Ellen Battell Stoeckel Estate and the excellence of one of (Top: Left to Right) Conductor Arthur Mees, soprano America’s most Alma Gluck, violinists Efrem Zimbalist and distinguished Fritz Kreisler in Alma’s new Ford, purchased on the musical way to Norfolk. Photo courtesy of the Mees Family. traditions. In both the school and in our concerts we work every day to honor the spirit of Ellen and Carl Stoeckel, as stated in a concert program from June, 1922: “the sole object being to honour the composer and his work, under the most elevated conditions.”
FESTIVAL HISTORY | 13
