Castleton Festival Receives $20,000 Jack Kent Cooke Foundation Good Neighbor Grant

Only top 5% of Applicants Won
Castleton VA (April 23, 2015) – The Castleton Festival announced that it has been awarded $20,000 as a 2015 Jack Kent Cooke Foundation Good Neighbor Grant recipient. They were among the 5% of winning applicants. The Good Neighbor award is in recognition of Castleton’s outstanding work and efforts to bring Arts Education and Outreach programming to school age youth in the Piedmont Region. This grant will go to support the Festival’s 2015 Summer Education Outreach program, Castleton Alive, and will be instrumental in allowing Castleton to continue to expand its service to youth in the region. During the summer of 2014, Castleton Festival reached more than 1,000 students, many of whom may not otherwise have had the opportunity to experience live arts events and programming. This year, only 9 organizations were selected from a pool of 167 applicants in a very competitive selection process.

Dietlinde Maazell, Executive and Artistic Director of the Castleton Festival said, “We are honored and humbled to be included among the recipients. Additionally, the Castleton Festival is pleased to help continue the incredible legacy of the Jack Kent Cooke Foundation.” On the announcement of the grant Executive Cooke Foundation Director Harold O. Levy added,“Steeped in the spirit of Maestro Lorin Maazel, Castleton Alive trains and inspires budding performing artists. We are delighted to support programs that will nurture the next generation of opera stars, instrumentalists, and conductors.”
The Jack Kent Cooke Foundation is dedicated to advancing the education of exceptionally promising students who have financial need. By offering the largest scholarships in the country, comprehensive counseling and other support services to students from 7th grade to graduate school, the Foundation is dedicated to ensuring high-performing, low-income students have the support necessary to develop their talents and excel educationally. In addition to its scholarship programs, the Foundation provides grants for innovative, high-impact initiatives that benefit such students. By doing so, the Cooke Foundation seeks to use its resources to end the Excellence Gap, the disparity between the number of low and high income students who reach the top levels of academic performance. Founded in 2000, the Foundation has awarded $130 million in scholarships to 1,900 students and over $80 million in grants. www.jkcf.org
Founded in 2009 by Maestro Lorin and Dietlinde Maazel, the Castleton Festival introduced classical music, theatre, and opera performed by established artists, working with the stars of tomorrow, to the rolling hills of Rappahannock County, Virginia.
The Castleton Festival is distinct among other festivals in the region because of its combined roles as a producing entity, a modern performance venue, and most importantly, a mentoring program for young artists and theatre professionals. Each summer, the Festival invites more than 250 artists to Castleton, where young professional singers, musicians, conductors, stage directors, makeup artists and costume designers, technicians and stagehands develop their craft alongside more experienced professionals for eight weeks through rehearsals and performances.
Castleton has been a vista-opener for over 3,000 young people through open dress rehearsals, master classes and through its C.A.T.S. (Castleton Artists Training Seminar) program for advanced vocal students which runs parallel to the summer performance festival.

Set in one of the most beautiful areas of Virginia, the Castleton Festival’s performances take place in two venues on the Maazel family’s 600-acre Castleton Farms. The Festival Theatre is a 650 seat air-conditioned proscenium theatre that includes multi-level seating and an orchestra pit accommodating up to 90 musicians; the Theatre House is an intimate, state-of-the-art 140 seat proscenium theatre that includes seating on two levels and an orchestra pit accommodating 20 musicians. Led by Artistic and Executive Director Dietlinde Turban Maazel, an award-winning performer, the Festival is the largest non-government employer in central Virginia’s Rappahannock County
Entering its seventh season, the 2015 Castleton Festival will host over 10,000 on-site patrons to engage with the tragic tale of Roméo et Juliette, celebrate the world premiere of a new American opera, Scalia/Ginsburg, embark on a symphonic journey with Maestro Fabio Luisi, and bear witness to some of the greatest stars oftomorrow. Joining forces for the first time, the Castleton Festival and Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis will introduce jazz to the festival season repertoire. Add Bluegrass performances, an engaging presentation from Supreme Court Justice Ginsburg on Law in Opera, performances of the beloved theatre piece,Our Town, chamber music, and a tribute performance of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9, and the 2015 Castleton Festival will make this a summer to remember!
The Castleton Festival’s 2015 season is supported by private contributions and grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Virginia Commission for the Arts, and the Virginia Tourism Corporation.