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A Personal Recollection by Harold Harris
Format: Hardcover, 120 pp.
ISBN: 0-9671851-1-4
Pub Date: December 2000
Price: $29.
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Harold Harris grew up in Brooklyn in the 1930s. There he first acquired his love of music listening to classical music on the radio and attending free outdoor concerts. Harold, who has a long history of love for the Catskill Mountains area, published an earlier book, TREASURE TALES OF THE CATSKILLS AND SHAWANGUNKS. In addition to writing, Harold is a working sculptor who has had over 30 one-man shows over a period of 25 years.
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In 1955, something extraordinary happened in the small village of Ellenville, NY. That humble town, whose only prior distinction was that the Delaware and Hudson Canal once ran through it, became the home of the Empire State Music Festival. For four consecutive summer seasons thereafter, the most famous musicians of the day descended upon Ellenville in great numbers, transforming the town into a latter-day Camelot--and its residents into supporters no less loyal and enthusiastic than Arthur's finest.
THE SAGA OF THE EMPIRE STATE MUSIC FESTIVAL: A PERSONAL RECOLLECTION is more than just a charming, first-person account of this short-lived but magical event. It is a vivid chronicle, replete with photographs, of a time of innocence in American history. It is a catalog of both stunning musical performances and the off-stage shenanigans of their principal players; its pages are graced not only with musical masters such as Leonard Bernstein, Morton Gould, Arthur Fiedler, Carlos Chavez, and Elaine Malbin but also with some of our best-loved musical critics and such well-known personalities as Red Buttons, Mike Wallace and Rocky Marciano.
Ultimately, THE SAGA OF THE EMPIRE STATE MUSIC FESTIVAL is the compelling story of a town in its heyday--a time when her citizenry pulled together to accomplish the impossible under the guidance of one man whose fervent belief in artistic eminence rendered him blind to the possibility of failure--even as it was unfolding before him. Seen through the eyes of sculptor, writer, music disciple and Ellenville resident Harold Harris, we revisit the behind-the-scenes struggles that made the Empire State Music Festival the shining feat it was and the disaster it became.
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