Reviews & Features

Marlboro has been fortunate to receive in-depth profiles in the local, national, and international press. Below is a selection of notable articles that have been written about Marlboro, exploring what Alex Ross (in his 2009 New Yorker feature) calls “the classical world’s most coveted retreat.”

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Alina Kobialka, Janos Palotyjay, and Peter Wiley perform at Marlboro

The Joys of Marlboro Music: Chamber Music’s Best-Kept Secret

"The Festival has become a musical lodestar: a place of pilgrimage where devotees can hear exceptionally gifted young professionals and established artists of the greatest stature," writes Christopher Sallon in a feature for Seen & Heard International (August 27, 2019).

Marvels from Schumann and Schoenberg at Marlboro

"Marlboro audiences have come to expect uncommonly high playing standards... and Saturday's concert was no exception," writes David Weininger in a review for the Boston Globe (July 29, 2019).

Itamar Zorman, Jonathan Biss, and Alice Yoo at Marlboro Music

A Guiding Hand

Co-Artistic Director Jonathan Biss talks about the work that goes into making the Festival run smoothly in this 2019 season preview in the Commons (July 10, 2019).

While Marlboro season closes, tradition continues

Emblematic was Saturday’s excellent and musically probing performance of Beethoven’s String Quartet No. 13 in B-flat Major, Op. 133, using the original Große Fuge ending (August 18, 2018).

Finding a Musical Ideal in the Vermont Woods

"The most extravagant gift Marlboro offers participants is a commodity that has become only more precious: time." Corinna da Fonseca-Wollheim of the New York Times captures essential truths of this unique musical community (July 24, 2018).

The Music Mountain

In-depth feature on Marlboro in the June 29, 2009 issue of The New Yorker, written by Alex Ross, in which he proclaims Marlboro “the classical world’s most coveted retreat.”

Youth and Veterans Make Marlboro Unique

"The Marlboro Music Festival opened its 68th season with two concerts that justified its place as one of the most important in the world." —Jim Lowe, Rutland Herald (July 16, 2018).

Equality Prevails at Marlboro

"The afternoon brought together artists from all different stages of their careers," and together, Musicians from Marlboro provided "fiery takes on Boccherini, Bartók, and Ravel that also showcased humor, expansivity, and refinement" (March 13, 2018).

Marlboro at the Forefront

Musicians from Marlboro "tantalized the eardrums" of audience members with "absolutely enticing delicacies" at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in the first tour group of the 2017-18 season. The wonderful winds performed Ligeti, Beethoven, Barber, and Poulenc (November 20, 2017).

Tenor Nicholas Phan brings intensity to the Kimmel Center

“The great chamber music laboratory six hours to the north, Marlboro Music, keeps a discreet profile. But every once in a while, the festival takes its act on the road, and we are able to hear interpretations in various stages of development” (January 27, 2017).

Tenor Nicholas Phan shines in Musicians from Marlboro Concert

The Boston Globe lauds Nicholas Phan as “one of the world’s most remarkable singers” in a performance that offered “glimpses into the storied summer festival’s approach to its craft” (January 24, 2017).

Musicians from Marlboro Shine at the Gardner Museum

Boston's Arts Fuse reports on the second 2016-17 Marlboro tour, saying that the performance "will surely be among the finest I’ll hear in the year to come" (January 25, 2017).

Where Musicians Bask in the Luxury of Time

Vivien Schweitzer of the New York Times sketches a portrait of community and music-making and explores the particular value of time at Marlboro (August 8, 2011).

New England native returns to Marlboro Music Festival

The Republican features Marlboro participant Lily Francis, who reflects on the living traditions of the festival after a 10-year absence from Marlboro (August 4, 2016).