Woodstock Public Library Collections
These photographs of the Maverick Festival and Maverick Musicians are representative of the collection of historical materials held by the Woodstock Public Library District. The Maverick Festival is nearing the centennial year of its founding by Harvard graduate turned social activist, idealist, author and bohemian, Hervey White in 1905.
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Browse the Maverick Musicians Portraits - A musician and founding music director of the National Orchestral Association, Leon Barzin is quoted in the Maverick Concerts Seventy-fifth Anniversary Book as stating: “From the very beginning, music at the Maverick was a unique effort of professionals and amateurs” and “From the very first performance there was a delightful mixture of formality and informality. Nothing in Woodstock can ever be completely formal.” Barzin was just one member of an diverse gathering of musicians, including Pierre Henrotte, concert-master of the Metropolitan Opera House, Georges Barrere, internationally renowned flutist and Boris Koutzen, gifted composer and member of the first violin section of the Philadelphia Orchestra.
The Maverick Sunday Concerts are still drawing crowds, and 2006 will mark the centennial celebration of the Maverick Sunday Concert series.Browse the Maverick Festival Collection - These photographs of the Maverick Festivals are representative of the collection of historical materials held by the Woodstock Public Library District. This year, 2005, is the centennial anniversary of the founding of the Maverick Art Colony, in Woodstock, NY., by Harvard graduate turned social activist, author, idealist and bohemian, Hervey White. On the original Maverick Art Colony site, the Maverick Concert Series carries on a tradition of chamber music performances during the summer months.
In 1905, Hervey White, along with Fritz van der Loo, purchased a farm in the Hurley Patentee Woods. Hervey envisioned the farm becoming a new art colony, where the old restrictions on individual freedoms would be put aside. He strove to create an environment where men and women could live freely. Hervey's creed for the Maverick colony was simply put, "Do what you want to (as long as you don't harm others)."
The short geographic distance between Greenwich Village, in New York City and Woodstock, in upstate New York, brought artists, musicians, social reformers and intellectuals to Woodstock. At the Maverick, artists found Hervey's farm a very pleasant and creative environment. Life quickly became more unconventional and bohemian, as viewed by the more conventional Woodstockers. The rural residents of Woodstock, NY, faced with the Byrdcliffe colony, the Art Students League now watched as Greenwich Villagers sought residence at Hervey's farm, the Maverick. Feelings of unfriendliness between the resident Woodstockers and the newcomers intensified. Hervey believed that he could placate the local residents by providing musical performances, and at first, chamber music was performed for a small fee in Woodstock's Fireman's Hall. The audiences grew rapidly and it became apparent that people were willing to pay to hear the well played classical chamber music. Hervey began to look for a suitable concert hall, hoping it could be found at his Maverick farm.
By 1915, summer residencies at the Maverick Art Colony increased to more than twenty-five cabins, and so did the need for water and creature comforts. It became apparent that a well was needed and Hervey hired a man named Rockafeller, who was willing to be paid over a number of years for the drilling service. After having a well drilled an astonishing five-hundred and fifty feet deep, Hervey was faced with a bill for fifteen hundred dollars, far more than he expected. Plans to raise money for paying this bill turned into the organization of the first Maverick Festival.
Using available resources, Hervey and friends converted a stone quarry on the Maverick property into an open-air theater. Seating, a stage and an orchestra pit were built and picnic grounds were cleared. The picnic grounds are where the present Maverick Concert Hall stands and the long-running Maverick Summer Concert Series performances are still held today. Hervey viewed the Maverick Festivals as an opportunity for all people, whether involved in the arts or not, to share in the festival pageantry, wearing fantastic costumes, picnicking around campfires, and enjoying numerous performances. Hervey's pageants included :
- 1917 A version of Rip Van Winkle
- 1920 Edna St. Vincent Millay and her sister Norma, performing in Edna's own Aria da capo
- 1921 Temptation of St. Anthony
- 1922 H..G. Wells' Outline of History was dramatized successfully
- 1923 "Cubist Circus", by Russel Wright, an up-and-coming young designer proved to be immensely popular, using cubist elements to design huge, angular, distorted animals that relied on the people within for movement.
- 1924 Walter Steinhilber, a painter, illustrator, and later Socialist Labor Party candidate, built an eighty-foot long, sixty-foot tall, sailing vessel called the Ark Royal. Steinhilber played the pirate chief who kidnapped and later won over the princess. The ship was burned at the end of the performance, to the amazement of the audience.
- 1925 Salammbo (1925) in pantomime
- 1929 "The Gay Nineties" a musical revue
- 1931 "The Early Crusades" A medieval village carnival would be interrupted by triumphant crusaders and won over (converted)
As the Maverick Festival progressed, a gathering opposition to the revelry increased. It was reported in major newspapers that The Maverick Festivals were becoming less an expression of creative exuberance and more hedonist, with alcohol present and violence resulting. The 1929 Maverick Festival drew six thousand paid admissions and an estimated two thousand more crashed the gate. After an unsuccessful Maverick Festival in 1931, following sixteen prosperous events, Hervey called an end the the Maverick Festivals. Hervey believed the Maverick Festivals had fallen victim to strong outside forces and were being lead towards a materialistic end.
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