Thank You to Our Donors

No musician would dream of starting a concert without first tuning their instrument. What if we helped listeners tune theirs?

That question is at the heart of Beginner’s Ear, a series of transformational listening experiences designed to open the mind to both silence and sound to bring audiences closer to the music. The series is named after the Buddhist ideal of Beginner’s Mind, denoting a state of mental openness that is free from preconceptions and alive to the present moment. I created Beginner’s Ear as a way to dissolve the mental static that so often gets in the way of a clear connection to a musical performance. Each session begins with a brief guided meditation. Out of the resulting deep stillness, a live musical performance will emerge, unfold in the space, and recede back into the rich calm. A short moderated conversation with performers and participants will close the event.

— Corinna da Fonseca-Wollheim (Founder, Beginner’s Ear)

Corinna da Fonseca-Wollheim is a music critic and cultural entrepreneur dedicated to elevating the art of listening. Since 2012, she has contributed hundreds of reviews, features and essays about classical music to The New York Times. Her writings on music have also appeared in The Wall Street Journal, The New York Classical Review, Symphony Magazine, The Strad, The Daily, The New York Sun, The Times of Israel, and The Jerusalem Post. Her work as a critic has been honored with the 2015 Cremona Mondomusica Communication Award and a 2018 residency at the American Academy in Rome. In 2019 she founded Beginner’s Ear, a program of transformative listening experiences centered on meditation and live music. Since then, she has brought music meditations to diverse audiences and spaces, including a yoga loft, a sunken garden, a federal detention center, a dance studio, an independent high school, as well as more traditional music venues.

Born to German parents in Brussels, she obtained degrees from the University of London, Sussex University, and Cambridge University, where she wrote her Ph.D thesis on the Jewish-Venetian poet Sara Copio Sullam. She is a violinist and avid chamber musician, and she lives in Westchester.

The recipient of a 2016 Avery Fisher Career Grant and a 2020 Borletti-Buitoni Trust Award, Alexi Kenney is building a career that defies categorization, following his interests, intuition, and heart. He is equally at home creating experimental programs and commissioning new works, soloing with major orchestras in the U.S. and abroad, and collaborating with some of the most celebrated musicians of our time.

Kenney has performed as soloist with orchestras such as the Detroit Symphony, St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, Indianapolis Symphony, Sarasota Orchestra, Orchestre de Chambre de Lausanne, and in a play-conduct role as guest leader of both the Mahler Chamber Orchestra and the Pittsburgh Symphony. He has played recitals at Wigmore Hall, on Carnegie Hall’s Distinctive Debuts series, at Lincoln Center’s Mostly Mozart Festival, the Philadelphia Chamber Music Society, Phillips Collection, MecklenbergVorpommern Festival, and the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum.

Winner of the 2013 Concert Artists Guild Competition and laureate of the 2012 Menuhin Competition, Kenney has been profiled by Musical America, Strings Magazine, and The New York Times, and he has written for The Strad.

In April 2021, Kenney released his first recording, Paul Wiancko’s X Suite for Solo Violin, accompanied by a visual album that pairs each of the seven movements of X Suite with seven contemporary sculptures, filmed on location at the Donum Estate in Sonoma, California.

Chamber music continues to be a major focus of Kenney’s life, performing at festivals including Marlboro, La Jolla, Bridgehampton, ChamberFest Cleveland, Festival Napa Valley, Kronberg, the Lake Champlain Chamber Music Festival, Music@ Menlo, Ravinia, and Yellow Barn. He is a member of The Bowers Program at the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center (formerly CMS 2). He participated in Caramoor’s Evnin Rising Stars mentoring program in 2012. Born in Palo Alto, California in 1994, Kenney is a graduate of the New England Conservatory in Boston, where he received his Artist Diploma as a student of Miriam Fried and Donald Weilerstein. Previous teachers include Wei He, Jenny Rudin, and Natasha Fong. He plays a violin made in London by Stefan-Peter Greiner in 2009. Outside of music, Kenney enjoys hojicha, bauhaus interiors, baking for friends (his specialty is his lumberjack cake), and walking for miles on end — in whichever city he finds himself — listening to podcasts and Bach on repeat.

2021–22 Ernst Stiefel String Quartet-in-Residence

Praised for their “intensity and bravado” (Third Coast Review), the Callisto Quartet’s Ernst Stiefel residency continues with two appearances that spotlight emerging composers and the works that influenced them. In this performance, you’ll hear a world premiere by Nathaniel Heyder, who was inspired by Brahms’ Third String Quartet, which was modeled after the Mozart Quartet also on the program.

TICKETS / caramoor.org / 914.232.1252

Friday/ August 20 / 7:00pm / Friends Field

Friends Field sponsored by

Please do not take photos or record any part of the performance, and remember to silence your mobile devices. On behalf of the artists and the rest of the audience, we thank you.

Della Mae is a Grammy-nominated, all-woman, string band founded by lead vocalist/guitarist Celia Woodsmith and two-time national champion fiddle player Kimber Ludiker. Rounding out the lineup are guitarist Avril Smith, bassist Vickie Vaughn, and mandolinist Maddie Witler.

Hailing from across North America, and reared in diverse musical styles, Della Mae is one of the most charismatic and engaging roots bands touring today. They have traveled to over 30 countries spreading peace and understanding through music. Their mission as a band is to showcase top female musicians, and to improve opportunities for women and girls through advocacy, mentorship, programming, and performance.

Emerging from 2020 with songs and an immense gratitude, the band recorded a fan-funded album, Family Reunion, to be released later this summer. The followup to 2020’s Headlight, the project features new members Maddie Witler and Vickie Vaughn and captures the joy of the band reuniting after more than a year of virtual collaboration, Zooms, and group texts.

The band is joyful to return to their touring this summer.

A frequent collaborator with contemporary jazz luminaries, Isaiah J. Thompson has emerged as a powerful pianist, bandleader, and composer. A graduate of The Juilliard School, he’s the recipient of the 2018 Lincoln Center Emerging Artist Award and won second place in the 2018 Thelonious Monk (now Herbie Hancock) Institute of Jazz International Piano Competition.

TICKETS / caramoor.org / 914.232.1252

Sunday / August 27 / 7:00pm / Friends Field

Friends Field sponsored by

Please do not take photos or record any part of the performance, and remember to silence your mobile devices. On behalf of the artists and the rest of the audience, we thank you.

Shenel Johns is “history in the making,” as expressed by The Boston Globe. A dynamic jazz musician who commands the stage with a lively spirit, incredible range, and talent, Johns has been immersed in reggae and gospel for most of her life. Hailing from the capitol city of Hartford, CT, Johns honed her intrinsic aptitude and passion for music as an undergraduate at the Hartt School (University of Hartford), with an intense focus and specialization in music management. While there, she received invaluable mentorship from jazz legends Rene McLean (son of Jackie McLean), Jimmy Greene, and Steve Davis. Recognizing the positive influence of music on her life, this songstress has endeavored to mentor aspiring young artists across the world through Jazz at Lincoln Center’s education program and the Seiko Jazz camp in Tokyo, Japan. She has toured across Europe many times and reached the number one spot on BBC’s Classical Radio. After winning the Riga Jazz Stage Vocal Competition in Latvia, she returned to that country to produce a project honoring George Gershwin with the accompaniment of a 17-piece orchestra, while also collaborating with Damien Sneed to fuse the traditional gospel and jazz idioms.

She continuously strives to push her limits and range in formidable and renowned venues such as the Museum of Modern Art, Dizzy’s Club CocaCola, Minton’s Playhouse, and Blue Note Jazz Club in her home away from home, New York City. Most recently, Johns debuted with the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra, under the direction of Wynton Marsalis, for their return performance to the Rose Theater Stage in Songs of Freedom.

Sunday / August 29 / 10:00am / Sunken Garden

TAP HERE TO LEARN ABOUT BEGINNER’S EAR AND ITS FOUNDER, CORINNA DA FONSECA-WOLLHEIM