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festival news festival programs festival artists ticket information about the festival email the festival home Copyright © 2002 Laurel Festival of the Arts All Rights Reserved For web design information, contact webmaster@LaurelFestival.org		ABOUT THE FESTIVAL | A LOOK AT THE ESSENCE OF JIM THORPE AND THE LAUREL FESTIVAL OF THE ARTS By David W. Price, Mauch Chunk Historical Society | Jim Thorpe, or as it was known in the nineteenth century, Mauch Chunk, is perhaps the most unusual town in the country, because of its geography. A favorite subject of 19th century artists, its architecture is set against a background of towering laurel covered and forested hills. The curator of the American Museum of Natural History in 1880 wrote in his diary: the town lies “between hills, whose slopes crowd down upon the houses and tilt up their backyards at all angles. The houses cluster closely together, are clean, and many attractive; the windows are thrown open and you look into rich and elegant interiors. Over their roofs you see the sides and tops of hills and this pressure and contact of wild nature upon and with the conventions and structures of a city, give an air of novelty which at first surprises and charms you.” It is this intimacy of place that makes it an appropriate venue for chamber music. A place emptied of its youth which resonates to America’s past, it is not unlike the interiors which contained and resonated to the notes of Mozart and Bach. The town of Mauch Chunk is a room in landscape, a place captured by the brushes of artists like Bodmer, Hertzog, and Kline. That it possesses no middle ground, no middle landscape, to mediate between nature and civilization is what gives this place its unique quality. Described by a 19th century poet as a crack in the earth, where only the moon shines in Winter, it sits in the exact center of eastern Pennsylvania. A numinous point which for three weeks in May and June, will resonate to the music of the world’s greatest composers played by a group of world-class musicians. The Laurel Festival of the Arts is something very precious and sacred to the people who have been involved with it for the last twelve years. It was born out of the spirit of Mauch Chunk when one sunny day the director of the Concerto Soloists Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia, by chance, stepped into the Hazard House Gallery on West Broadway, with two of the country’s finest chamber musicians. They were invited to stay and share in a beautiful feast brought in from the local farmers’ market. The intimacy of this moment was the breath of animation for the spirit of the Laurel Festival of the Arts. This spirit is very much in keeping with Jim Thorpe as the American homestead of some of its most prosperous sons. It is a place set apart in a world of slow time where the influence of European culture abounds in its Victorian architecture built during the halcyon days of America’s youth. A time when Americans went on the world tour and walked through the streets of Pompeii, the temple of Amon Ra, and the battlefields of Troy. It is in this same spirit that visitors to the town are invited to experience classical music, which always seems to lead us back into a forgotten domain, an experiential realm shimmering with heightened reality and expectancy. for more reading, check out ... The Insiders’ Guide to the Pocono Mountains®. DIRECTIONS TO THE FESTIVAL | From New York City (approximately 2.5 hours) Cross the George Washington Bridge to Interstate 95 south. Take Interstate 80 west to the Northeast Extension of the Pennsylvania Turnpike (Interstate 476). Take Interstate 476 south to exit 34. Take Route 209 south into the town of Jim Thorpe. Turn left at the light onto Broadway. The Mauch Chunk Opera House is at the second intersection on the right. | From Philadelphia (approximately 1.5 hours) Take the Northeast Extension of the Pennsylvania Turnpike (Interstate 476) north to exit 34. Take Route 209 south into the town of Jim Thorpe. Turn left at the light onto Broadway. The Mauch Chunk Opera House is at the second intersection on the right. | From Allentown (approximately 45 minutes) Take Interstate 78 west to the Northeast Extension of the Pennsylvania Turnpike (Interstate 476). Take Interstate 476 north to exit 34. Take Route 209 south into the town of Jim Thorpe. Turn left at the light onto Broadway. The Mauch Chunk Opera House is at the second intersection on the right. Once in Jim Thorpe, there is parking off the street or at the Railroad Station. The Mauch Chunk Opera House is within walking distance from the Railroad Station. if you need a map, get one at ... MapBlast.com or MapQuest.com. WHERE TO STAY AT THE FESTIVAL | After an exciting concert at the Laurel Festival, treat yourself to a relaxing stay at an elegant bed and breakfast right in the heart of the historic village of Jim Thorpe, PA. The Manor at Opera House Square, the Inn at Jim Thope and the Harry Packer Mansion are all within convenient walking distance of all shops, galleries, museums and restaurants. For more information on lodging in and around Jim Thorpe, visit the Pennsylvania Visitors Network online or call the Carbon County Tourist Promotion Agency at (570) 325-3673 or toll free at (888) 546-8467. top