Meadowmount School of Music, The Society for Strings

Founded in 1944 by legendary violin teacher Ivan Galamian, Meadowmount School of Music is a seven-week summer program for young violinists, violists, and cellists whose approach of intensive study and practice has helped mold some of the greatest artists of our time. Musicians ages 13 to 30+ from around the world gather at the school’s campus in the Adirondack Mountains of upstate New York to further their musical skills with, in Mr. Galamian’s words, “a special spirit that is conducive to total concentration on excellence in musical performance,” aided by a faculty of renowned artists. The stellar array of alumni over the school’s 77-year history includes Itzhak Perlman, Yo-Yo Ma, Pinchas Zukerman, Kyung-Wha Chung, Lynn Harrell, Joshua Bell, Jaime Laredo, James Ehnes, and Ani and Ida Kavafian. Meadowmount alumni are well represented internationally among soloists and chamber musicians, principal players of leading orchestras, and distinguished teachers. With a capacity enrollment of 200 on the 52-building, 240-acre campus, the school retains an intimacy that provides for personal attention and fosters camaraderie among the students. Many of the school’s alumni return as members of the faculty, ensuring the continuity of the Meadowmount teaching tradition. The faculty roster that has over the years included Gregor Piatigorsky, Josef Gingold, Isaac Stern, Leonard Rose, Sally Thomas, and Dorothy DeLay, has recently featured cellist Hans Jørgen Jensen and violinists Ann Setzer and Kikuei Ikeda – a lineage that is unmatched in the field.