For Immediate Release
Contact: Cohn Dutcher Associates
Lois Cohn, 917.339.7187, lcohn@cohndutcher.com
Dan Dutcher, 917.339.7157, ddutcher@cohndutcher.com
Laura Malick, 917.339.7183, lmalick@cohndutcher.com
David Mayhew, 203.533.5621, david@davidmayhew.net

"We built a home, my husband and I, not to be old or new,
just to be beautiful.  And we built it for music." ~ Lucie Rosen

THE HISTORIC ROSEN HOUSE AT CARAMOOR

The magnificent Mediterranean-style villa on Girdle Ridge Road in Katonah, New York, now the historic Rosen House at Caramoor, was created between 1929 and 1939 by New Yorkers Walter Tower Rosen (1875-1951) and his wife, Lucie Bigelow Dodge Rosen (1890-1968), as their country retreat, as a welcoming home in which to receive guests and share with them their love of beautiful music, and as a showcase for the treasures they had collected over the years.

For many years, Walter Rosen, an attorney and international financier, made frequent trips to Europe during which he amassed a collection not only of extraordinary paintings and decorative art objects but entire rooms from private villas and chateaux in England, France, and Italy dating from the 17th- and 18th-Centuries. These would be incorporated into the home on their estate, Caramoor. 

Both accomplished musicians, the Rosens designed the centerpiece of their house, the grand Music Room, to entertain. This magnificent room features a raised stage, musicians' balcony and an organ chamber, and is richly decorated with objects dating from the Renaissance: furniture, tapestries, Urbino Maiolica, stained glass windows, a Lucas Cranach painting, and bronzes; Gothic tapestries, 17th-and 18th-Century needlework chairs, beautiful pietra dura objects, and outstanding Asian sculptures, with one dating from the Tang Dynasty (618-907CE): a remarkable confluence of countries, styles, and eras.

An invitation to the Rosens' country home was an invitation to fine art and glorious music, pleasures they shared with their friends many of whom numbered among the leading conductors, composers, actors, directors, dancers, artists, and writers of the day. 

The Rosens' musical evenings were the seeds of today's Caramoor International Music Festival. Realizing the pleasure their friends took in the beauty of Caramoor - the house with its art collection, the gardens, and the musical programs on summer evenings - in 1946 the Rosens established a public charity to open Caramoor to the community. The Rosen House was opened to the public as a museum in 1970, two years after Lucie Rosen's death.

The Rosen House today
Twenty rooms of the Rosen House, filled with the Rosens' extraordinary and eclectic collection from B.C.E. to the 20th-Century, are open to the public for tours. The House is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and is one of only five famous mansions in the United States that incorporate entire rooms from European palaces and country manors.

Music continues to be a focal point for the Rosen House. Caramoor's acclaimed Great Artists in the Music Room and Caramoor Classics concerts are held throughout the fall and spring and, during the summer Caramoor International Music Festival, the Music Room is the site of the Wednesday Morning Concert series.

A popular and enduring activity in the Rosen House is Afternoon Tea, served in the grand style throughout much of the year on the Rosens' own antique china. Served on Thursday and Friday afternoons in the Summer Dining Room overlooking the Rosen House's romantic Spanish Courtyard, this traditional tea features a rich assortment of tea sandwiches, scones with clotted cream and preserves, mouth-watering desserts, and specialty teas.

Activities in the Rosen House also reflect Caramoor's commitment to education. Programs related to Caramoor's mentoring programs for young professional musicians and vocalists, Rising Stars and Vocal Rising stars, are held in the Rosen House as are activities related to the Student Strings program for young people, which involves the participation of Caramoor's Ernst Stiefel String Quartet-in-Residence.  Curriculum-based programs, developed by professional educators and focusing on the Rosen House, its history, and its collections, are held for children throughout the school year.  

Docent-led tours of the Rosen House are given May to October on Wednesdays, Thursdays, Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays from 1:00pm to 4:00pm (last tour begins at 3:00pm). During the Caramoor International Music Festival on Saturdays the hours are 1:00pm to 5:00pm (last tour begins at 4:00 pm). 

Tickets for tours of the Rosen House are $10 with children 16 and under admitted free when accompanied by an adult. 

Further information on the Rosen House is available at www.caramoor.org or by calling 914.232.5035 ext. 221.