When Lewis Kaplan was just four or five years old—an age when most boys might ask for a toy gun or a bicycle—he surprised his mother by asking for a violin. She was open to the idea but thought it would be best to get him a toy instrument.
However, Kaplan’s grandmother had a different idea: why not get him a real violin?
That’s exactly what he received. “That,” Kaplan said, “was the beginning.”
He remembers that moment with joy. “I was screaming and plucking,” he said, “trying to get any kind of sound I could out of the instrument.”
That was 87 years ago. Since then, Kaplan—a violinist, conductor, and violin teacher at New York City’s prestigious Juilliard School—has maintained his passion for music.
In the 1960s, he helped establish and lead the Bowdoin International Music Festival in Brunswick, dedicating fifty years to it before stepping down, feeling it was time to move on.
But his musical journey didn’t end there. Without missing a beat, he founded the Bach Virtuosi Festival, which is now celebrating its tenth season from June 18 to 24 in Portland and Cape Elizabeth.
For Kaplan, music has been a source of great joy throughout his life. He hopes festival attendees will have an experience that goes beyond the everyday.
“In a world that’s torn apart and challenging for all of us,” he said, “to sit in a church and listen to the music of Johann Sebastian Bach…you’ll find something that drugs won’t give you, that nothing else will give you.”
