Carl Stoeckel

Carl Stoeckel was one of those public-spirited and self-effacing citizens, fortunately numerous, who provide for America the patronage of music which the king or the state used to provide at European capitals, and who adapted their subventions to the spirit of American life. During many years the Litchfield County music festivals were arranged and promoted by Mr. Stoeckel, who built the music hall on his own Connecticut estate, placed it at the service of the choruses organized from the people of Norfolk and the adjacent towns, engaged the conductors, paid their salaries and the salaries of the orchestras, entertained soloists, visiting composers, chorus and guests, and provided for all their traveling expenses. Possibly the cost of this undertaking to its sponsor ran from $10,000 to $20,000 at each annual music festival, but the money spent was only a small part of his disinterested service. The achievement, on the one hand of constantly introducing, during twenty-five successive years, something new in choral composition to the American public, on the other hand of giving larger and finer significance to the life of the neighboring communities, was the real memorial to this notable patron of the arts.

Alexander Dana Noyes
1926 Century Association Yearbook