"Hearing the final concerts by the students at Kneisel Hall this summer left me overwhelmed by the extraordinary quality of the music making. This must be the best place anywhere for the study of chamber music. Franz Kneisel, who founded the school almost a hundred years ago, would be on very happy man to see his dream realized. Here you have a faculty of great musicians, artist-students at the highest level of talent, and an administration with the vision to provide ideal conditions for study and performance Players and listeners, we can all rejoice in what this place does for chamber music."
— Raphael Hillyer, founding violist The Juilliard String Quartet


"Playing with other in many groups. hearing master classes by world class musicians—all this created new musical horizons." — Murray Perahia



"I can honestly say that Kneisel Hall was directly responsible for what I've been doing these days. That was the summer I knew that somehow, some way, I would play chamber music as part of, or hopefully all of, my profession. And look what happened...." — David Ying, Ying Quartet



"As a student of Kneisel Hall I had the unique opportunity to work with some of the most inspiring teachers and musicians it has been my honor to know." — Elmar Oliveira



"When I first came to Blue Hill (in 1959) I was not very serious or focused on music or cello playing. At Kneisel Hall during that first summer, I heard teenagers just a few years older than me playing great music amazingly well, which started waking me up to the possibilities of music in my own life. My second summer at Kneisel Hall was a major turning point in my life as a cellist.

I practiced for many hours every day for the first time, inspired by the level of playing and teaching around me, by the exciting prospect of getting to play some of the masterpieces I was hearing, and buoyed by the rapid progress I was making. That inspiration, hopefulness, and excitement has carried me since that time, reinforced by other wonderful experiences and more hard work, to a life filled with fascinating challenges and personal fulfillment.

I'm grateful to Kneisel Hall for providing the environment for me to begin to receive the "passing of the flame," from the music that inspires us and from the many great teachers and great traditions that show us the way." — Timothy Eddy, cellist Orion Quartet



"My earliest memories are of coming to Blue Hill with my family in mid-late August of 1954 to visit my brother Aaron Krosnick, who was a student there of Joseph Fuchs then, and was later a faculty member (and I think perennial 2nd violin to Sascha Jacobsen) during the 70's (?). I was 13 years old, needed a place to practice, and did so along with especially pianists in the unbelievably echoey confines of the Stevens Academy. I was unwittingly inspired by all the artistic energy that bounced off the walls of that place, and wound up practicing 5-6 hours a day, including lots of scales as never before. Of course, I was just keeping pace with what I heard around me, inspired as our students are today by their colleagues. Three years later, I came for two partial summers at Kneisel, to add to the numbers of cellists already there to play with all those violinists studying with Fuchs, Dethier, Persinger, Shumsky, et al. I remember two distinctly memorable sensations. One was of playing all day long, I think quite literally from morning into the night, quartets, quintets, sonatas, octets, etc. Another was that because there were no dorms or food services, breakfast, lunch, and dinner were at Tako's (?); and evenings were rehearsals in one or another of the private homes where students rented rooms. Socializing was there or walking around the streets, talking or just hanging out. The amount of music at the rehearsals and regular chamber music classes given by Joseph Fuchs or Artur Balsam—and the intensity and quality of it all—was dizzying and inspiring.

The final concerts—then, I think, only at the end of summer—were the incredibly heated summations of a whole summer's stimulation and growth. Without my realizing it of course, this was a very slightly controlled version of what it is I wished to do with my life. It was a first intoxicating taste of what it is I have been fortunate enough to do with my life as an artist-cellist ever since. Now, teaching at Kneisel Hall, I am on the "other side" of the stimulating and growing experience; I know now, as I probably did not then, that the intensity permeates both ends of the learning experience. Last summer, when a group "of mine" learned the entire Beethoven opus 59, no. 1 in three weeks and gave a fine performance of it, it could not have been more intense an experience for me than it was. Four people sharing my and their love for this great work, and coming to their own understanding of the complex structures involved enough to give a completely lucid performance.... It felt like as much of a test of my understanding and ability to communicate it to others in a way that would allow them to make their own music—as much of a test or more as it would be to perform it myself. My first taste of this whole process—either end of it—was here as Kneisel Hall. And it still goes on here with unbelievable intensity, as all of us who hear the "final" performances experience. God bless Kneisel Hall and those who made it possible so many years ago, and of course to those colleagues, friends, and supporters who make it possible now." — Joel Krosnick



"What a deep pleasure, to hear music at Kneisel! Nothing matches it in the US and I can't commend you enough for a truly memorable afternoon. The intimate setting, closeness of players, clarity of sound and just plain ease of listening to music, a heartbeat away, is a rare treat. Kneisel stands alone in it's uniqueness.

My thanks to you, your superb colleagues, helpful students and Board members, for an American treasure. I urge you to keep it as it is and wish you continued joyful music making, that reaches right into our hearts, in a setting that nourishes our spirits."
— John Duffy, founder, Meet the Composer

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