MUSIC in the WOODS (2025)

The founder tells the 50-year story of establishing a summer music festival in a Chautauqua in the wooded hills of rural Pennsylvania.

 The story begins with a Gilded Age millionaire creating Mt. Gretna in 1882 as an amusement park around a small mining railroad station. He added a Chautauqua and a Brethren religious retreat, a narrow-gauge railroad, and an encampment for the Pennsylvania National Guard before declaring bankruptcy in 1893. "Gretna" continued to attract summer visitors, including a U.S. president, but declined with the rise of the automobile, World Wars, and the Great Depression. Residents tore down hotels and other buildings but cherished their memories. 

Rejuvenation started with “The Little Theater in the Woods” in 1927. In 1975, two resident artists, the author, and the Chautauqua continued this revival by creating a summer outdoor art show and a music festival. Both have been recognized nationally as some of the best of their kind.

Before and after the original Chautauqua Auditorium collapsed in 1994, Gretna Music transformed its open-air venue, by then called The Mt. Gretna Playhouse, into a rural ‘Carnegie Hall,’ hosting over 750 concerts and featuring over 2,000 renowned artists, including Wynton Marsalis, Midori, Lionel Hampton, Stéphane Grappelli, Dave Brubeck, Leon Fleisher, Martha Graham dancers, the Audubon String Quartet, Emanuel Ax, and Hilary Hahn.

A blend of history and memoir, the author advocates for the enduring value of great music written over the past thousand years. Mozart in the Woods emphasizes how its excellent performance helps sustain the community and artistic spirit that defines Mt. Gretna today.