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A Simple Idea

Conductors Retreat at Medomak was founded in 1997. The idea was to provide professional conductors a welcoming and safe place to renew their skills and recharge their spirits by refocusing on the art, while providing young conductors a non-competitive place to learn from their more experienced colleagues. From a modest beginning, the Retreat has grown in the quality of its program and the scope of its reach. The Conductors Retreat at Medomak now presents public chamber music and orchestra concerts and offers educational and outreach concerts. The Conductors Retreat has helped catalyze a re-thinking of the conductor’s role, and a new approach to conductor-development. It has inspired the founding of new orchestras and organizations whose benevolent purpose is to raise awareness and support for larger, humanitarian causes.  It has had an impact on the skill and artistry of its participants, and has influenced the character and tone of their leadership.

The Conductors Retreat has attracted notice from the press, including the Atlantic Monthly and New York Times. In 2005, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation recognized the Conductors Retreat at Medomak for its unique mission, with a three-year grant of $100,000 that affirmed the work we had been doing, and helped us to launch our Leadership Program, an innovation in our field. This program focuses attention on a conductor’s individual leadership attributes, artistic integrity, and relationships with the musicians they conduct and the communities they serve. The grant brought musicians from major orchestras to lead sessions and widen conductors’ perspectives. These musicians came from such orchestras as the St. Louis Symphony, Pittsburgh Symphony, St. Paul Chamber Orchestra and New Jersey Symphony Orchestra.

Notice from the Atlantic Monthly, New York Times, The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation

Our Purpose

Throughout our organization’s evolution, there has been a commitment to: mentor conductors young and old through a program of score-study, musicianship, movement, and conducting; to nurture and support conductors in their personal and musical growth, and to prepare conductors to be leaders in the world of music, and in their respective communities.  We are committed to expanding the capacity and effectiveness of musical organizations through development and training of their leaders.  Our program empowers conductors to achieve musical excellence, and develops their capacity to inspire the musicians they conduct, the students they teach, and the communities in which they live. 

Our Conductors and Their Work

Our work, through the work of our conductors, has reached thousands of people worldwide.  Our conductors have been of service on the podiums of great orchestras and opera companies in major cities, and in the bright lights of the professional stage.  They have also reached out to underserved urban areas, and worked in poor, rural villages.  They have been instilling self-esteem and engendering self-expression of young people in the classroom, thrilling audiences in concert halls and inspiring the congregations of synagogues and churches. We have served hundreds of conductors from all over the United States, and as far and wide as Australia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, China, Colombia, England, France, Germany, Honduras, Hong Kong, Italy, Japan, Korea, Mexico, Portugal, Serbia, Spain, Thailand and Taiwan, among others. 

Why We Need Your Support

Please support our efforts to present concerts to the Washington, Maine community and surrounding mid-coast Maine area. Please invest in strengthening the important work of training the artistic and educational leaders who have such an impact on the young people they teach, the musicians with whom they make music, and the communities they serve.  Gifts large and small are needed and very much appreciated.

Tax-Deductible Contributions

Although we are funded in part by tuition from participating conductors, we rely on grants and gifts from foundations, sponsors and individuals to support our lean and cost-effective operation. 

The Conductors Retreat at Medomak is recognized by the IRS as a 501 (c) (3), non-profit organization. Your contributions are tax-deductible as allowed by law.

Thank you for your support of the Conductors Retreat at Medomak.  

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