My fascination with castles began in 1996 when I spent two weeks living at Hengrave Hall which was, at the time, a modest 30-bedroom estate in Suffolk, England, used as a hall, church, and run as a convent; it is now used for weddings and events. It’s in Bury St. Edmunds to be exact.
During my two weeks there in 1996 and again in 2000, I lived, ate, and breathed violin. Even at university, there were non-essential classes, frat parties, and all-night cram sessions. With only my violin, suitcase, and 29 other violinists from all over the world, I left my public university music school pedigree of noise, and entered a world of bliss and dreams.
Manicured gardens. Spiraling staircases. Four lessons per week with the late, Yfrah Neaman, a violin pedagogue. My British violin teacher, Michael Davis, knew Yfrah - they had risen through the ranks together. I was invited by Yfrah to come to his course after a Masterclass (shown at the bottom). I was obsessed, not with email or frat parties, but the violin. I prioritized this castle escape and saved my money to attend. I remember calling my parents on the castle pay phone once a week, elated to be there.
Did I mention the nuns? Every morning at 7:30am sharp, we were expected at breakfast, followed by more catered lunches and dinners. Obsessive violinists, nightcaps at the guest cottage turned nightly pub to lubricate the musicians for more playing. And these wild musicians - yes, classical musicians are wild. never, ever underestimate them! - played into the wee hours. As I drifted to sleep at 2:00am sounds of Brahms Sextet in G Major emanated up the spiral staircase. My American roommate Meghan McGowan, was a great violinist, very encouraging and an otherworldly Irish fiddler, who is now an OB-GYN in Minnesota.
When she told Yfrah she was going to go to med school instead of more music, he responded softly, “I think that’s a very mature decision.” The Hengrave Hall atmosphere was never competitive like at most American schools. On the contrary, there was no concept of scarcity of talent. I’m now wondering if Americans were bred to be competitive, jealous, and toxic - or if it was just the culture of his violin studio.
Every day, I had to pinch myself that I wasn’t dreaming.
Was it Europe? Was it the estate? Past-life memories? Was it the immersive environment? Or was it the fact that no one had to worry about bills, responsibilities, or distractions? Just 30 young adults and their art.
Although this immersive violin boot camp only lasted two weeks, it felt more like a year. All were heartsick to leave and go back to “reality.” We arrived at the London tube where it was time to disperse to our native countries. Most were crying. Why can’t real life be like this all of the time? Imagine two weeks with your mentor! The respect for Yfrah Neaman among students approached religious. Yet spiritually, he was a very humble, Jewish man.
In 2003, an ambulance interrupted what would be Yfrah’s last violin lesson at his home, to take him for cancer treatment. He left the way he lived, refusing to let the paramedic interrupt the student’s time.
Cracking the door open two inches he asked the medics, “I’m sorry, would you mind waiting until we’re finished? They’re paying by the hour.” And then he was gone.
I was supposed to study at The Guildhall Music & Drama - I applied for transfer after the last castle incubator and was accepted. Yet fate had another path in mind for me.
So when I heard of his death in 2003 it was a bitter pill to swallow of what might have been and the end of a great man.
After two summers at Hengrave Hall, my playing completely transformed. I won some small competitions, and started playing with an orchestra full-time while still in school. It’s what naturally happens when you practice eight hours a day - you become your community. That world, that era of the violin is only a vapor now. I entered a different world, a world of numbers and cubicles, which I treated as an escape room challenge.
What lived on was my love for castles. Castles & palaces taunt me with their stories of courtiers, patrons, waxed seals, and scandal.
So imagine my surprise when I discovered as I prepared for my most recent podcast guest, Angus Gordon Lennox, Owner of Gordon Castle, direct descendant of the Dukes of Gordon, that Angus has an uncle who lives at Saxham Hall, a mere 15 minutes away from Hengrave Hall, that magical place where I began to dream of a different way of living. An island of possibility. Someday I will be back.
You can listen to the interview with Angus HERE or watch it HERE.
The complete interview transcript with Angus, a violin masterclass with Yfrah and an invitations to small group castle immersions are available for upgraded subscribers.
