Golden Chamber Music

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That's Sam in the photo above behind the others, with Paula on the right. In a scene that is totally typical of the mood of any chamber music weekend, a good time is being had by all. Here, Joanne and Ed Kovarik are the players enjoying the festivities with the Goldens. In 1969 Richard Gray, a prominent Chicago art dealer, asked a friend of his, Zita Cogan, whether she thought amateur musicians might want to come to Sleepy Hollow, the resort he owned on the shores of Lake Michigan. Zita was the administrator of the University of Chicago concert program and a friend of ours as well. (In fact, Zita, who died a few years ago, was known and beloved by many, including a large number of leading musicians. We still miss her a lot.) Zita asked what we thought and we decided to try it. So, that fall, three quartets of musicians went to this beautiful resort, We found we had a ball playing music and enjoying the lake, the grounds and the South Haven area, with its many orchards and berry farms. Why not do this every year, we thought. We talked to Mr. Gray and he came up with a format. He would pick weekends outside of the peak months of July and August when the resort usually had few guests. (In the first few years he selected the weekend after July 4 for one, believing that most people would not be vacationing right after the holiday. It turned out that the resort was always busy that weekend, but not with our people, who were out vacationing elsewhere, so the July weekend was dropped.)

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