Through My Eyes
By Dietlinde Turban Maazel
Twenty-three years ago my husband Maestro Lorin Maazel and I traveled to Virginia in the hopes of finding a family home, a safe place for our three young children, a place for us to relax and ultimately retire. We never had envisioned that it would become a home for so many others. Most people would consider it crazy to invite hundreds of people to one’s own home and turn an old chicken barn into a 140-seat-theater. But Castleton took on its own life….
We started to work with young children in an arts-based school setting and created a non-profit organization, The Châteauville Foundation, in order to “nurture children, foster art and reclaim the human spirit.” Today those children are young adults but we still believe in that mission.
The chicken barn became the Theatre House at Castleton Farms and for the past 15 years we have grown beyond our humble beginnings. The small stage has seen over 120 performances, and we have built The Castleton Festival.
There used to be a European custom that students of any discipline would come to live with their Masters to study, like a member of the family. Today we bring this tradition back to life through the Castleton Artists Training Seminar (C.A.T.S), for which the sale of the ‘Maazel’ Guadagnini of 1783 will inaugurate and endowment.
Here at Castleton Farms we share with the young artists our love of music, our knowledge and experience, our home and our hearts. Together at Castleton we are like one big family.
My husband’s commitment to Castleton is born from his deep passion for music, his worries that classical music may not survive and his inner imperative to offer encouragement to the young. By inviting these emerging young artists to our home, by providing them an unparalleled experience though immersion and by sharing the extraordinary results with audiences, he infuses everyone with that same deep love for music that he has.
