The Hills Are Alive ... With the Sound of Music

Back from a weeklong absence (sorry). These photos are from farther afield -- Falls Village in northwest Connecticut, where I used to live and where my kids were raised.

Gordon Hall, Music Mountain, Falls Village, Connecticut USA

Specifically, this is Music Mountain, the oldest continuing summer chamber music festival in America (and possibly the world). Founded in 1930, Music Mountain was built from pre-fabricated houses from the Sears, Roebuck catalog, the parts shipped by rail and assembled on the mountaintop. Gordon Hall, shown here, was custom designed to be a concert hall for string quartets; it was even constructed to imitate a violin in architecture, all wood with a narrow neck and a hollow space under the floor like the resonant body of a stringed instrument. Whether by luck or premeditation, the acoustics are excellent.

Today, Music Mountain has concerts for 16 weeks each summer from June through September -- chamber music on Sunday afternoons and jazz on Saturday evenings. I served on the board of directors of Music Mountain until I reached my term limits last year. In my capacity as a grant-writer, I have voluntarily secured funds for Music Mountain, including federal funds through Congressional appropriations and the National Endowment for the Arts) and state and private funds. Some of those funds are to make improvements to the property and buildings (it is listed on the National Register of Historic Places). When I went to see a concert yesterday, I saw they had moved the box office to a much better location than where it used to be.

Music Mountain box office as concertgoers arrive, June 15, 2026.

I made the long trip for me (since I moved far away) to see Simone Dinnerstein and her new ensemble, Baroklyn (a clever portmanteau of Brooklyn, where they live, and Baroque), perform a program of Bach and Glass. I was not disappointed. It might be an understatement to say Dinnerstein is the Glenn Gould of our era, because she is the Simone Dinnerstein of our era -- surely the greatest living interpreter of Bach, perhaps the greatest ever. Her playing is so pure and crystalline it makes every note and every trill sing. Which also makes her the perfect person to interpret Phillip Glass. In short, this was a superb concert and possibly the earliest sold-out concert at Music Mountain ever. 

Simone Dinnerstein (second from left, on piano) with Baroklyn, performing at Music Mountain.

June 14 Music Mountain concert program.

The afternoon ended with a sustained standing ovation and three "curtain calls" for the musicians. Music Mountain (my friends waggishly call it "Magic Mountain") is a special place. If you ever find yourself in that part of the world, go visit!


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