YELLOW BARN

Yellow Barn is an international center for chamber music based at 49 Main Street in Putney. The main performance venue, known as the Big Barn, is an intimate concert hall seating approximately 80. The organization is twice a recipient of the ASCAP/Chamber Music America Award for Adventurous Programming.

The five-week summer festival in July and early August features more than 40 chamber music concerts, public masterclasses, pre-concert discussions, and community outreach events. Yellow Barn draws young professional musicians from the United States, Europe, the Middle East, and Asia to study alongside internationally regarded faculty. Programs also include an Artist Residency, a Young Artists Program for ages 13-20, and the mobile Yellow Barn Music Haul traveling stage.

Cellist David Wells and pianist Janet Wells founded Yellow Barn in 1969 as an informal summer retreat for David's students at the Manhattan School of Music. The name came from the color of the Wellses' farmhouse. Neighbors cooked for musicians and organized concerts. Over the ensuing decades, Yellow Barn evolved into one of the finest chamber music training and performance centers in the world.