My Kinhaven journey began in the summers of 1958 and 1959. I was 14 and had played clarinet for all of 3 years. My mother tried to find a summer camp for me that would be an upgrade over Camp Moosehead (archery, riflery, swimming relays, basket weaving…) so when our neighbors said their daughter had been to this wonderful music-themed summer camp called Kinhaven, my mother decided to send me to Vermont. There was no audition, no recording to send in, no one to come by and listen to me. I think she just had to write a check! The only Kinhaven session in 1958 was seven weeks long, which was a long time for a 14-year-old to be away from home.
Kinhaven was a little different then. There was no concert hall, no dining hall, and a lot of the other outer buildings didn’t exist yet. But there was the barn, the farmhouse, the pond, the “tennis court” and of course the green grass. The top floor of the barn was the rehearsal room for orchestra and Bach cantatas and also served as the concert venue—there were only about 30 kids that summer. Boys slept in platform tents in the woods with 6 or 7 boys to a tent. The common room of the farmhouse was also the dining room for the whole camp and the food was all prepared in its small but mighty kitchen! Of course, the farmhouse was also Mr. and Mrs. D’s home, so we never ventured further than the common room. The bottom of the barn housed the infirmary, which was next to Mr. D’s recorder manufacturing plant—it wasn’t very automated but I remember multiple Dushkin recorders in various stages of undress hanging from the rafters like candles. It was an incredible experience.
Years later, as an undergraduate at Dartmouth, I played in the band and orchestra but eventually had to cut most of my music back to concentrate on physics. My contact with Kinhaven for the next 40 plus years was very limited. I saw Mrs. D once at Dartmouthand she asked me to visit. So, I took my nephew to visit Kinhaven in the 1990s; we entered Lawrence Hill Rd from route 100 and went directly to a concert in the concert hall. I was confused and wondered what had become of the old campus; I couldn’t figure out where I was because we didn’t go up to the farmhouse/barn level and I had no memories of the concert hall!
By 1999, I had retired and started playing more music. Soon afterwards, I started attending adult chamber music workshops and then I noticed that Kinhaven had an adult workshop, so I applied. Being a clarinetist, I was not surprised that I was not accepted (Flutists and Clarinetists are well aware of this issue—there are often too many of us relative to oboes and bassoons to make chamber music ensembles work). So, I reapplied the next year, again with no luck.
Finally, on my third audition, a clarinetist had to withdraw at the last moment. Mike Finckel, then director of ACMW, called me about three weeks before the workshop and asked if I would like to come. So, a few weeks later I was at Kinhaven and at 9:00 AM the first morning, I was playing the Khachaturian Trio for clarinet, violin, and piano. This was a little stressful as 1) it was 6:00 AM pacific time (where I live), 2) the Khachaturian Trio is hard and I didn’t really know it 3) the violinist was a coach (Andrea Schultz who is both a wonderful coach and a wonderful violinist) and 4) Andrea and the pianist had already worked in past years on the first two movements with the clarinetist I replaced. So, it was the musical equivalent of being thrown into the deep end to see if you could swim. Despite this unusual beginning, they were very nice, as were the other players and coaches in my other groups. And I’ve been going back ever since.
In reflecting on what I have learned at the Kinhaven Adult Chamber Music Workshop over the years, a few key experiences stood out. First, I’ve had the opportunity to study everything from trios to dectets for every imaginable instrumentation. There were pieces I’ve played since I was a child and pieces that I’d never heard of. Every year I learned from a different set of coaches, all wonderful musicians and teachers.
And then two years ago, I volunteered to join the Kinhaven Board because I wanted to participate in and contribute to making Kinhaven an even greater institution for the next 75 years. This has allowed me to learn in detail all of the hard work and accomplishments of the Kinhaven Board and the Executive Directors over the past decade or more which have brought Kinhaven to where it is today. The buildings are totally rebuilt to modern standards yet they respect the memories of the camp I and so many others attended as kids. Now Kinhaven Music School is beginning to use our beautiful campus to train classical musicians in the fall through the creation of the first music-focused Semester Program in the United States, in collaboration with Burr and Burton Academy in Manchester, VT.
Now, at the age of 80, I can look back at a 25-year-long amateur music “career” with great pride. I’ve been to many other workshops and played many other pieces in other places, but nothing can recreate the thrill of returning each June to Kinhaven in the Foothills of the Green Mountains.