[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 121 (Monday, September 14, 1998)]
[Senate]
[Pages S10327-S10328]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                        VERMONT MOZART FESTIVAL

 Mr. LEAHY. Mr. President, I rise today to speak about an event 
that has been a Vermont cultural tradition for twenty-five years. The 
Vermont Mozart Festival began in 1974, and through the vision of its 
founders, it has grown tremendously in popularity, today attracting 
over 17,000 advance ticket buyers for a series of 25 concerts in 16 
different locations across the state.
  The international acclaim of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart is clearly 
demonstrated by the long distances loyal festival attendees travel each 
year. Concert-goers flock from all across the United States, Canada and 
even as far away as Europe to hear top-caliber musicians perform world-
class compositions. These faithful return year after year to hear the 
works of a variety of composers, with a primary focus on the 
symphonies, concertos and other brilliant works of Mozart.
  The festival is a tradition for the Leahy family. I was honored when 
the festival asked me to speak at a concert to honor its 25th 
anniversary. I took this opportunity to praise the musicians but also 
to acknowledge the dedication of the festival organizers and the 
expansive volunteer network, now numbering over 150. The fruits of 
their efforts are clear from the warm applause that bring the curtain 
down at the end of each performance.
  Mr. President, I ask that a recent article about the Vermont Mozart 
Festival that appeared in the Rutland Herald be printed in the Record 
so that all Senators and their staff can learn more about this great 
Vermont tradition.
  The article follows:

                [From the Rutland Herald, July 5, 1998]

          Festival Celebrates 25th Year With More Great Music

                             (By Jim Lowe)

       The Vermont Mozart Festival's 25 years of success come from 
     turning adversity to advantage, making the most of a 
     situation, according to two of its founders, Melvin Kaplan 
     and William Metcalfe.
       When Kaplan, the festival's artistic director from the 
     beginning, discovered Shelburne Farms in a book of North 
     American barns, he got himself invited to tea with Elizabeth 
     Webb, the estate's owner.
       ``No one living in this community 25 years ago had ever 
     seen it. It was a private home. It was like stepping into a 
     fairy tale,'' Kaplan said.
       ``So I said to her, `Gee, two years from now we're going to 
     start a festival, and it would be wonderful to have concerts 
     here.' And she said, `Why don't you come and have your 
     concerts here?' A lot of people wouldn't have asked the 
     question.''
       Five months before the festival opened, however, the Webb 
     children reduced the offer to only a few concerts each year. 
     ``Because of that, we turned it into doing multiple 
     locations, which turned out to be a big plus,'' Kaplan said.
       ``I think of the concept, which is so special,'' added 
     Metcalfe, who conducts choral and orchestral concerts, as 
     well as leading the annual Gilbert and Sullivan operetta. ``I 
     think the concept, in my mind, is that you take advantage of 
     the special locations we have around Burlington, and you put 
     high quality music into those locations, and build programs 
     in a way which suits the locations. I think that makes this 
     festival very special.''
       The Vermont Mozart Festival is celebrating its 25th 
     anniversary this summer with 25 concerts at 16 different 
     locations in 12 towns. After a special presentation of the 
     Peter Shaffer play, ``Amadeus,'' July 10 and 11 at 
     Burlington's Flynn Theatre, produced with Vermont Stage 
     Company and the Flynn, the festival will formally open July 
     12 with the orchestral concert at Shelburne Farms, including 
     the annual dressage exhibition. The festival actually opened 
     July 4 with a pre-season holiday concert at Sugarbush, and 
     closes Aug. 12 at Stowe's Trapp Family Meadow.
       ``They've got a great theme--the whole notion of Mozart, 
     the greatest composer who ever lived,'' Thomas Philibon, 
     executive director of the Vermont Symphony Orchestra, said of 
     the festival's success.
       ``They've been at it all those years, and they really know 
     how to fix up the events and make it so they can attract a 
     lot of happy people.''
       It all started when Kaplan, a professional oboist and New 
     York concert manager, and his wife, violist Ynez Lynch, 
     bought a barn in Charlotte in 1971, and converted it into a 
     house. He was approached by University of Vermont Lane Series 
     director Jack Trevithick, UVM choral director James Chapman 
     and Metcalfe, who though a UVM history professor had taken 
     over the music department for a year. They asked him to join 
     them in creating a summer music event.
       Thus, in 1974, under the auspices of the UVM Lanes Series, 
     the first Vermont Mozart Festival presented 10 concerts over 
     a two-week period, including the opening concert at the UVM 
     Show Barn, Mozart piano concertos on the Lake Champlain Ferry 
     performed by Beaux Arts Trio pianist Menahem Pressler, and 
     myriad ancillary activities. The concert in the Shelburne 
     Farms ballroom was the first time the Webb estate had ever 
     been used for a public event.
       Kaplan had connections throughout the music world, and 
     invited some of his well-known musician friends, including 
     Pressler, New York Philharmonic Principal Flutist Julius 
     Baker, as well as his own world-touring ensembles, the New 
     York Chamber Soloists and the Festival Winds. Over 25 years, 
     the festival has attracted some of the world's greatest 
     musicians, including a benefit concert in 1980 by Benny 
     Goodman.
       ``He looked like a very old man,'' Kaplan said of the great 
     jazz clarinetist's performance. ``He walked up on stage, 
     started to play, and lost 40 years. It was just 
     astonishing.''
       The festival featured L'Orchestre Symphonique de Montreal 
     (Montreal Symphony) in 1989, but over the years it has 
     presented concerts by such famed ensembles as the Beaux Arts 
     Trio, the Guarneri Quartet, and the Tokyo Quartet. The 
     Emerson String Quartet and the Ying Quartet can thank the 
     festival for some of their earliest concerts. (Both are 
     returning this season.)
       ``It becomes more like family,'' Kaplan said. ``The people 
     that come here come from San Francisco, Montreal, Ottawa, 
     Philadelphia, New York, etc. Some people come from Europe. 
     Almost all of them have known each other from 30 to 50 years. 
     It's like getting a big family back together.''
       ``It's also true that we've had Vermont musicians here, and 
     it's still true. It's a wonderful mix from people from all 
     over the place,'' Metcalfe added.
       Programming, too, has broadened out of necessity. The first 
     two years were devoted entirely to Mozart, including 
     symphonies, piano concertos, chamber and choral works. After 
     the second year, with three weeks of concerts, it was decided 
     to vary the programming. In addition to the 206 works by 
     Mozart the festival programmed over 25 years, 1,948 by other 
     composers have been performed.
       ``In the beginning, we felt that an audience of 600 or 700 
     for big events was enormous,'' Kaplan said. ``When we started 
     to get audiences of 1,900 and 2,000, I convinced the board it 
     made no sense to play a Mozart symphony with just five 
     strings. Little by little, we've increased it so that we have 
     as big an orchestra as we could put on the Shelburne Farms 
     porch. We're stretching it a tiny bit to do Brahms Double 
     Concerto this year.''
       Still, Mozart remains the staple, and for this year's final 
     concert at Shelburne Farms Aug. 1, Metcalfe will conduct his 
     Oriana

[[Page S10328]]

     Singers and the Festival Orchestra in Robert Levin's new 
     orchestration of the Requiem. (Mozart died before the work 
     was completed; the version traditionally performed is by his 
     student, Franz Sussmayr.)
       ``It's different, and I think it's really good,'' Metcalfe 
     said. ``Part of the Mozart Festival tradition is to introduce 
     new things as well as maintain continuity. It opens your 
     ears.''
       The festival was a popular success from the beginning, with 
     all concerts selling out the first year, but achieving 
     financial stability took a while. After opening with a 
     $36,000 budget, the festival incurred substantial deficits 
     for its first three years, while under the financial umbrella 
     of the University of Vermont.
       When UVM then dropped the festival as a financial 
     liability, its leaders managed to turn it to their advantage. 
     Previously, Burlington businessman Duncan Brown had told 
     Kaplan that if there was any problem with the university, he 
     would solve it.
       ``I called him,'' Kaplan said. ``He said, `What do you 
     need?' I said I needed $55,000 and a secretary to do nothing 
     but that, and an office for her.''
       Brown hired the secretary, provided space for her at his 
     office, and called together a meeting of a hundred of his 
     music-loving friends and acquaintances at St. Paul's 
     Cathedral.
       ``Ultimately, it ended up with a bunch of people sitting 
     around saying they didn't want it to die. They met again, and 
     formed the corporation.'' Kaplan said. ``It was much better 
     for the festival to have a community board that was invested 
     emotionally and financially in the whole operation.''
       Today, the festival has a budget of just over $600,000, 
     with a year-round full-time staff of three, two more in 
     summer. Ticket sales have grown from $13,917 in 1974 to 
     $307,316 in 1997. This year, some 17,000 tickets--6,000 more 
     than last year--were sold by the June 15 discount deadline.
       If tickets were to pay the cost of the festival, though, 
     they would be $30 as opposed to the $19 charged, explained 
     Trish Sweeney, the festival's executive director since 1996. 
     Fund-raising activities make up the rest, including 
     individual gifts (membership), and merchandise sales, but the 
     largest portion is business sponsorship.
       Volunteers, numbering some 160, represent the festival's 
     major support group. It requires 60 for each Shelburne Farms 
     concert. ``We have so many who are coming to every concert, 
     which is a blessing because they really know what they are 
     doing,'' Sweeney said. ``People jockey for concerts. For the 
     smaller ones, we have to turn people away.''
       Although the festival is celebrating its 25th anniversary 
     this year, it doesn't have time to rest. Most of its next 
     season is already set, much of it based on the Paris Piano 
     Trio, which was so successful in the winter season's 
     Burlington chamber music series.
       ``I think we're going to do the Beethoven Triple Concerto 
     on the opening concert,'' Kaplan said. ``And then on the 
     weekend, on the Friday, Saturday and Sunday, they'll each 
     play a solo with orchestra, and they'll do a trio concert in 
     the middle of that week.''

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