Caramoor Center for Music and the Arts is a former estate near Katonah, New York United States, approximately 50 miles (80 km) north of New York City. Today it serves as a live music venue for symphonic, opera, chamber, American roots, and jazz, performances.
- Venue
- Caramoor Center for Music and the Arts
- Town
- New York, US
Caramoor Center for Music and the Arts is a former estate near Katonah, New York United States, approximately 50 miles (80 km) north of New York City. Today it serves as a live music venue for symphonic, opera, chamber, American roots, and jazz, performances. The estate and its historic home are legacies of their original owners, Walter and Lucie Rosen. The Caramoor Summer Music Festival is held there every summer. It also runs educational programs, and can be rented for events such as: weddings, pre and post-concert receptions, meetings and retreats, corporate and cultivation dinners, and photo and film shoots. The Rosens built the estate and Tuscan-style villa gradually during the 1930s, importing many architectural and decorative items from Europe. The informal musical performances they hosted evolved into the beginning of Caramoor's current offerings in 1945, and their collection of Renaissance-era and Chinese artworks, some rare, is on display throughout the estate. Lucie Rosen later donated it to the private organization that runs it today. In 2001 it was listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Caramoor is an 81-acre (33 ha) parcel on Girdle Ridge Road just east of the NY 22 state highway east of the hamlet of Katonah in the Town of Bedford. The area is primarily residential, with houses on similarly large lots amidst wooded, gently rolling terrain. The John Jay Homestead State Historic Site, a National Historic Landmark, is a short distance to the northwest along Route 22. The Caramoor estate became a center for the arts and music following the death of the son of owners Walter and Lucie Rosen during World War II. In 1945, the couple created a foundation to support the property and musical programming in their son's memory, and it quickly became an established summer festival. There are 12 total contributing resources on the estate-seven buildings, one site, and four structures. An additional building, the Venetian Theater, was built after the est