Mozart in the Woods; Gretna Music’s 50 Years begins with the story of a Gilded Age millionaire who established Mt. Gretna in 1882 as an amusement park around a small mining railroad station. He added a Chautauqua and a Brethren religious retreat, a narrow-gauge railroad, and an encampment for the Pennsylvania National Guard before his bankruptcy in 1893. His unique place continued to attract summer visitors, including a U.S. president, but declined during the rise of automobile travel, the World Wars, and the Great Depression. Residents demolished hotels and other buildings, but cherished memories. The birth of summer stock theater in 1927 marked the beginning of a rejuvenation. In 1975, two resident artists, the author, and the Chautauqua enhanced this revival by establishing a summer outdoor art show and a small music festival. Both were hailed nationally as among the best of their kind and contributed to making Mt. Gretna the thriving arts village it is today.  After the original Chautauqua Auditorium collapsed in 1994, Gretna Music transformed its modern open-air replacement, the Mt. Gretna Playhouse, into a rural ‘Carnegie Hall,’ continuing to host more than 750 concerts and 2,000 renowned artists, including Wynton Marsalis, Midori, Lionel Hampton, Stéphane Grappelli, Dave Brubeck, Leon Fleisher, the Martha Graham dancers, the Audubon String Quartet, Emanuel Ax, and Hilary Hahn.

This book, a blend of history and memoir, celebrates the enduring power of music and the vibrant community spirit that defines Mt. Gretna today. The author makes the case for the timeless value of enduring music written over the past millennium and continues to be written today.