When Magdalena and I married in '83, we were both artists with the Metropolitan Opera. She was a violinist in the orchestra and I sang as a baritone in the chorus, while moonlighting as a composer. Even though performing with the Met is artistically rewarding, we shared a desire to expand our performing lives beyond the repertoire performed at the Met. We also shared a desire to escape New York City when not at the Met. So, we bought an older house situated on 15 acres in the Northern Catskills just seven miles above the town of Windham, a quaint historic hamlet and ski resort only two and a half hours from Lincoln Center.

Our desire to perform chamber music in Windham was an idea that we talked about constantly. We even considered presenting summer concerts in our meadow with its inspiring panoramic mountain view, but our need for privacy won out, so we began looking for a suitable venue in the Windham area for chamber music.

In the center of Windham stands an 1826 Presbyterian Church that had been closed for years and donated to the town in the late seventies for eventual use as a "Civic Centre." Walking through town one day, we noticed that the door was open and so we entered the old structure. It was in a state of almost total disrepair, but obviously an architectural gem in need of a lot of tender loving care. We found a carpenter, Larry Tompkins, meticulously working at repairing and restoring the building. Later, we learned that the building was on the National Register of Historic Places and Larry was the chairman of the Committee to Preserve the Centre Church Building. We introduced ourselves and told him we were looking for a place to do concerts. Larry replied that the town was hoping to use the building, in part, for exactly that purpose. I clapped my hands together twice and knew the acoustics would be ideal. We had found the place we were looking for.