The beauty of the Finger Lakes is a distraction which encourages creativity, so Richard Auldon Clark has brought his most promising students to Keuka Lake each summer for an immersion in music. In 2002, Hunt Country Vineyards offered a concert venue. The audience so appreciated this performance, that the concept of a summer chamber music series was born, in part to support this student music “camp”.

   Joyce and Art Hunt welcome Richard Auldon Clark and his graduate students to a concert at Hunt Country Vineyards

   THE MANHATTAN CHAMBER ORCHESTRA was founded in 1987 by its artistic director and conductor, Richard Auldon Clark. Hailed by the media as an "extraordinary ensemble of virtuosos," and credited with providing the "definitive versions of forgotten American masterpieces," the Manhattan Chamber Orchestra has been dedicated to innovative, exciting and multi-cultural programming.

   In addition to touring and recording, the MCO is regularly heard in the New York area, featured at Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, Symphony Space, Weill Recital Hall, and the United Nations. In 1995, the orchestra was awarded the Lincoln Center Arts Project Award and performed at Alice Tully Hall.

  Originally a project of the Yates County Arts Center, the Finger Lakes
Chamber Music Festival has grown into its own. Now an independently
incorporated not-for-profit organization, the Board of Directors includes
Mel Goldman (Hammondsport), chairperson; Jamie Hawk (Naples), treasurer;
Elise Rosenfeld (Pittsford), secretary; and members Susan Adnopoz (Penn
Yan), Bonnie Barney (Penn Yan), Renee Bloom (Bluff Point), Joyce Hunt
(Branchport), Elizabeth Jones (Penn Yan), Robert Kinney (Penn Yan), Howard
LeVant (Rochester & Penn Yan), Atty. George Mathewson (Penn Yan), Stephen
Rosenfeld (Pittsford & Penn Yan), and Mark Scher (Dresden). Contact the
committee at 315-536-0383, P.O. Box 605, Penn Yan, NY 14527.