Greenwood Music Camp is a summer camp in

Cummington, Massachusetts Cummington is a town in Hampshire County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 829 at the 2020 census, down from 872 at the 2010 census. It is part of the Springfield, Massachusetts Metropolitan Statistical Area. History Cummington ...

whose primary focus is

chamber music Chamber music is a form of classical music that is composed for a small group of instruments—traditionally a group that could fit in a palace chamber or a large room. Most broadly, it includes any art music that is performed by a small numb ...

. Other activities include soccer, crackabout, softball, capture the flag, a treasure hunt, charades, talent show, hikes up Mount Greylock, visits to art museums, a contra dance and a visit to the Cummington Fair, as well as sports swimming, tennis or ping-pong. Greenwood was founded in 1933 by Dorothy "Bunny" Fay Little and Ruth Hill McGregor, and moved to its current location in 1940. The senior session (up to age 18) is five weeks in July, and the junior session (up to age 13) is two weeks in August.

History

Greenwood Music Camp was founded in 1933 by Dorothy "Bunny" Fay Little and Ruth Hill McGregor.Smith College news article
about Greenwood In a 1982 essay, Dwight Little wrote:

Greenwood really started by chance. Bunny (Fay) and Ruth (Hill) had taught at the
Smith College Smith College is a Private university, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts Women's colleges in the United States, women's college in Northampton, Massachusetts. It was chartered in 1871 by Sophia Smith (Smith College ...
Summer School of Music after graduating, but in 1933 Rumsey McGregor (engaged to Ruth) said, "Why don't you and Bunny take a few of your students to
Isle La Motte Isle La Motte is an island in Lake Champlain in northwestern Vermont, United States. At 7 mi (11 km) by 2 mi (3 km), it lies close to the place that the lake empties into the Richelieu River. It is incorporated as a New England town in Grand Isle ...
"—Ruth's parents' summer home on
Lake Champlain , native_name_lang = , image = Champlainmap.svg , caption = Lake Champlain-River Richelieu watershed , image_bathymetry = , caption_bathymetry = , location = New York/Vermont in the United States; and Quebec in Canada , coords = , type = , ...
—"for a month this summer?" Ruth thought it was a great idea, wrote to Bunny, and had a reply (positive) by return mail.

That first year, in 1933, there were five students, and Ruth's parents, Dr. and Mrs. Hill, enthusiastically made way for them ... The name Greenwood had been given to the Hill's summer place by Ruth's younger brother who loved Robin Hood. He shot home-made arrows up and down the hill when he was a boy.

When the camp grew to ten students, Dwight and Bunny moved it to

Harvard, Massachusetts Harvard is a town in Worcester County, Massachusetts, United States. The town is located 25 miles west-northwest of Boston, in eastern Massachusetts. A farming community settled in 1658 and incorporated in 1732, it has been home to several ...

, to a large house with a warren of rooms and studies—known as the Hutch—on the side of a hill. The move to the Berkshires, to a beautiful hilltop location, made it possible to house more than 40 campers plus faculty. The camp and its music teaching methods have been featured on the ''Classical Connections'' show on

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...

's WGBH (FM).

Notable alumni

* Alan Gilbert * Gilbert Kalish *

Joel Krosnick Joel Krosnick (born 1941, New Haven, Connecticut) is an American cellist who has performed as a soloist, recitalist, and chamber musician throughout the world for over 40 years. As a member of the Juilliard String Quartet from 1974 to 2016, he ...

* Anton Kuerti *

Julian Kuerti Julian Andreas Kuerti (born September 28, 1976 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada) is a Canadian conductor. He is the son of pianist Anton Kuerti and cellist Kristine Bogyo. Kuerti read engineering and physics at the University of Toronto, and graduate ...

* Charles Neidich *

Peter G. Neumann Peter Gabriel Neumann (born 1932) is a computer-science researcher who worked on the Multics operating system in the 1960s. He edits the RISKS Digest columns for ACM ''Software Engineering Notes'' and ''Communications of the ACM''. He founded ...

Andy Stein Andy Stein is an American saxophone and violin player. He is a member of The Guys All-Star Shoe Band on the radio show ''A Prairie Home Companion'' and the movie. He was a founding member of the country rock band Commander Cody and His Lost Plan ...

Mark Steinberg Mark Steinberg is a sports agent who has been representing top golfers since 1992. He is a partner at Excel Sports Management. where he heads the professional golf division. Established in 2002, Excel Sports Management is a full-service sports ma ...

* Mark Wood *

James Yannatos James Yannatos (March 13, 1929 – October 19, 2011) was a composer, conductor, violinist and teacher. He was a senior lecturer at Harvard University until his retirement in 2009.

References

External links

Greenwood homepage
* WGBH (FM) program ''Classical Connections'' has two radio stories:
article

interview
{{Coord, 42.467008, -72.880222, display=title Summer camps in Massachusetts 1933 establishments in Massachusetts Buildings and structures in Hampshire County, Massachusetts Cummington, Massachusetts