Described by The New Yorker as “the classical world’s most coveted retreat,” Marlboro Music has, for seven decades, brought the world’s most distinguished concert artists and most promising emerging instrumentalists and singers to Potash Hill.

Participants spend seven weeks exploring and exchanging ideas on the approximately 250 works, involving a wide variety of instrumental and vocal combinations, that the musicians themselves have proposed to study. As a retreat where the mission is to delve into music in great depth, less than 25% of the works rehearsed are presented in the weekend concerts. Programs are only decided a week in advance and are drawn from those works that the musicians feel have gone especially well and should be shared with others. Audiences enjoy a spirit of discovery, experiencing exciting young musicians and hearing insightful interpretations of chamber music masterworks and unfamiliar pieces played with great passion and joy.

Since the Guarneri String Quartet formed at Marlboro in 1964, former participants have formed or joined many outstanding ensembles, including the Brentano, Cleveland, Dover, Emerson, Juilliard, Mendelssohn, Orion, Takács, Tokyo, and Vermeer Quartets; the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center; and a great many other prominent groups. Marlboro artists have also expanded the art form in innovative ensembles such as Brooklyn Rider, Decoda, the East Coast Chamber Orchestra (ECCO), TASHI, Windscape, and the Aizuri and Momenta Quartets. Others are now principal chair members of leading symphonic and opera orchestras worldwide; are among today’s most sought-after recording and solo artists; or are acclaimed teachers at prominent conservatories and universities.

Founded in 1951 by the eminent pianist Rudolf Serkin and co-founders Adolf and Hermann Busch and Marcel, Blanche, and Louis Moyse, Marlboro continues to thrive today under the leadership of Mitsuko Uchida and Jonathan Biss, remaining true to its core ideals while incorporating fresh ideas and inspiration. For more information on Marlboro Music, visit marlboromusic.org.

A subsidiary nonprofit organization of Marlboro Music, Potash Hill, Inc. was created to manage and oversee the campus following Marlboro Music’s purchase of the property in 2021.