History

Opening Theme

Friends of Music has roots in an unexpected place: a New Jersey prep school. The Lawrenceville School, founded in 1810, its main campus re designed later in the century by Olmstead, still retained many reminders of the English boarding school in the late 1950's, where our story begins. Perhaps it was this familiar environment which attracted a young faculty member to the history department in 1956: Arthur Graham Down held degrees from Cambridge and Oxford and possessed skills in a variety of disciplines. Of special interest was Graham Down's devotion to high quality amateur music-making, which was most evident in his work as a fine organist. Although a member of the history department, Mr. Down was constantly organizing concerts, student trips to hear performances in Princeton or New York, and other musical activities. Although he has held church organist posts in the various places he has lived, Graham Down has, then, exemplified the true spirit of the musical amateur, one who performs for the love of the music, and not for fame or fortune.

This important musical tradition was particularly valued in Mr. Down's native England: Benjamin Britten, for example, loved to get together with friends and play early English dance tunes on his recorder. It was this valuable musical spirit which Graham Down brought to his new summer home in Guilford, in 1964, and it is this tradition which Friends of Music carries into its 37th season.

The Guilford Theme

Graham Down brought more than his exuberant musical skills and energy to Guilford. For one thing, he brought an antique pipe organ to his neighborhood; for another, he brought quite a bit of the neighborhood! Mr. Down wished to have an organ on which to practice daily. He auickly discovered that the commute to Brattleboro to borrow various church organs negated the purpose of a rural getaway. He searched New England and found a tracker (mechanical) action organ in a Maine barn. The organ was the work of noted builder E.W. Lane, who was active in the 1890's. Graham Down had the instrument transported to Guilford, restored, and planted in a neighbor's barn. That neighbor was the first of a series of seven Lawrenceville faculty colleagues and former students, who would take on vacation homes and, in some cases, permanent residence on Packer Corners Road, at Mr. Down's urging.

The Labor Day Weekend Concerts

In the summer of 1966, work had progressed on the installation of the organ to the point that Graham Down was able to practice every day. He decided that before returning to school in September he would have a dedicatory recital and invite Guilford friends and neighbors. On the Sunday afternoon of Labor Day Weekend, he delighted an audience of 30 with an ambitious program ranging from Bach to modern repertoire. Each year, on the same weekend, the Sunday afternoon concert took place, with the gradual addition of voices and other instruments. The concerts were admission-free. At the 4th annual concert in 1969, tenor Rodney Parke and a chamber ensemble joined the organ for a performance of Bach's lovely Cantata 189. (Mr. Parke was a Lawrenceville colleague; the oboist on that occasion was Zeke Hecker, a former student.) This was Graham Down's final performance in the series he founded, as new professional obligations took him, eventually, to Washington, D.C. When Mr. Down moved from Guilford in 1970, a group of his musical friends -- from the neighborhood he had nurtured -- chartered Friends of Music at Guilford to buy the organ and continue the concerts. Both those goals were realized, and a bit more. In those three decades, Friends of Music has produced hundreds of other events: chamber, orchestral, choral and music theater projects.

A Return to the First Theme

Although Friends of Music concerts have been presented in other Guilford locations, in Brattleboro, and in Vermont towns as far away as the Montpelier area, the site of the first concert has continued to be special to us. The annual Labor Day Weekend Festival is still held here. With the addition of a second, outdoor concert, we annually turn off N.P.R. in favor of the ubiquitous all-weather radio. Our indoor concert space is also important. In 1994, after years of planning and fund- raising, Friends of Music made the commitment to renovate the barn and organ to make the structure more useful for concerts and to protect the instrument. The organ renovation is complete, as of Labor Day Weekend, 2002. A few bits of carpentry, and the addition of some new lighting and other equipment, are on our to do list.

by Don McLean, Lawrenceville class of 1963, Friends of Music's first administrator