Kneisel Hall

Kneisel Hall
Named afterFranz Kneisel
Formation1953; 71 years ago (1953)
FounderElizabeth Sprague Coolidge
TypeClassical music
PurposeMusic Festival, Summer academy for pre-professional musicians
Location
Coordinates44°25′12″N 68°35′26″W / 44.4199864°N 68.5904712°W / 44.4199864; -68.5904712
Artistic Director
Laurie Smukler
Executive Director
Meredith Amado
Students
50 (Young Artist Program)
Websitewww.kneisel.org

Kneisel Hall is an annual chamber music festival and school located in Blue Hill, Maine. The season runs for seven weeks each summer from late June until mid-August. A small faculty works with approximately fifty young artists of collegiate and graduate level at the beginning of their professional careers, concentrating almost exclusively on chamber music for strings and piano. From 1986 until his death in 2015, pianist Seymour Lipkin served as artistic director. The current artistic director is Laurie Smukler.

Kneisel Hall's summer season is marked by weekly chamber music concerts given by the faculty and guest artists, and is punctuated by two series of Young Artists Concerts—one in mid-July, one at the close of the season in August, both free and open to the public—in which the Young Artists perform great works of chamber music.