Introduction to Yellow Barn

Yellow Barn is a center for chamber music study and performance in Putney, Vermont, internationally recognized for its distinguished history and innovative approach to lifelong learning. Through its annual summer programs, and its ongoing series of Artists Residencies, workshops, local outreach programs, and collaborative performances, each year Yellow Barn welcomes over 100 musicians from all over the world to Vermont, and reaches more than 4,000 audience members from the local community and across the nation.

Summer Season and Year-Round Programs

Yellow Barn was founded in Putney in 1969 as an informal summer retreat for students of cellist David Wells, then chair of the chamber music department at the Manhattan School of Music. Over the ensuing 41 years, Yellow Barn has grown steadily in size, scope, and reputation, and has evolved into one of the finest chamber music training and performance centers in the world, renowned for its nurturing learning environment and commitment to excellence. Today under the leadership of its Artistic Director, Seth Knopp, Yellow Barn offers two summer performance programs: the Young Artists Program for musicians ages 13 to 20, and the core Yellow Barn program for young professionals.

Since 2008, with the establishment of Yellow Barn’s campus at The Greenwood School in Putney, Yellow Barn has a year-round presence in southern Vermont, during which time Yellow Barn extends the artistic philosophy and activities of the summer season, fostering opportunities for musicians at all stages of their careers to continue learning in an environment conducive to undistracted study. These include Artist Residencies, which provide the unique opportunity for musicians to develop projects of their own choosing, and workshops designed by Yellow Barn, which allow musicians to participate in an in-depth exploration of specific works. Deeply committed to the revitalization of Putney, Yellow Barn also offers a series of curriculum-based programs for local schools, and interactive presentations for members of the community.

Yellow Barn Philosophy, Repertoire, and Performances

Humility in recreating a musical score, and the craft and conviction needed to communicate it meaningfully, frame the interpreter's quest. It is this quest that, above all else, informs Yellow Barn's educational philosophy. While sharing this philosophy, Yellow Barn musicians approach it in highly individual ways. This results in a constant, lively exchange of ideas and an environment in which musicians are unusually receptive and responsive to one another. Yellow Barn embraces performance as a critical part of studying chamber music, and embraces audiences as equal partners.

Since its founding, composers have played an important role at Yellow Barn, both as faculty members and as visiting composers-in-residence. Their involvement is beneficial to our educational programs, and for presenting new music in a context that gives it historical perspective. Yellow Barn’s youngest composers-in-residence are the composers who attend the Young Artist Program. Each year, six students compose new works during this program, interacting with performers from the earliest stages of the composition process.

Yellow Barn concerts are by nature as educational for audiences as they are for the performers. Over the course of each summer, audiences come to Yellow Barn to learn about repertoire and share musical experiences with faculty and participants. This common ground between musicians and audiences is one of the most important aspects of Yellow Barn's mission.

Certainly Yellow Barn's size is an important factor in what we do and how we do it. The number of musicians that visit Yellow Barn each year is intended to give us the freedom to explore a wide range of repertoire while remaining small enough to maintain a very personal feeling at Yellow Barn. Yet when we describe Yellow Barn's atmosphere as “intimate”, we are referring not just to the number of musicians participating each summer, but also to the warm and beautiful post-and-beam barn where performances are held and the New England setting that Yellow Barn calls home. Most importantly, we are describing a trust that is established between faculty, participants and audience members – one that allows us to feel that we are all part of the same lifelong process of musical discovery.

Yellow Barn is incorporated as a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization in the state of Vermont. It is governed by a volunteer board of trustees and managed by an artistic director and managing director, who supervise a dedicated year-round staff and seasonal production team.

Yellow Barn does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, age, national or ethnic origin, sexual orientation, physical or mental disability, or veteran status in the administration of its educational policies, admission policies, employment policies, scholarship and loan programs, or other Yellow Barn-sponsored activities.