Ridotto series brings unstuffy Classical music concerts to Huntington

Margaretha Maimone got the idea to create a different kind of music series — one that could change people’s relationship to Classical music — while performing in concerts in the Netherlands in 1984.

There would be no more stuffy settings, darkened rooms or audience required to wear formal clothes.

Forty years later, Maimone continues that tradition on Long Island with the nonprofit Ridotto. The music series offers audiences accessible and affordable chamber music programming, often presented with theatrical flourishes.

“I can still, to this day, remember the excitement of setting up Ridotto. The sky was the limit,” Maimone said. “We wanted programming that was mainly music, but not only. We wanted a theatrical component and a visual component, all relevant to each other. It had to be one coherent performance, and, by golly, we did that.”

Maimone, who was born in the Netherlands, moved to the United States in 1984 with her American husband, Mark, and their infant daughter, Andrea. The couple had met in Amsterdam when he replaced the cello player in a string quartet she played in. They spent their first years on Long Island in Roslyn, where they lived with his parents, until moving to Huntington in 1986.

She began organizing Long Island concerts in 1992.

Ridotto now offers eight concerts a year, three of which are piano recitals. The five other shows can include a “touch of theater,” Maimone said. “Last year we did dance — we had a pas de deux, and we also had a whole tango program with a classical tango and a violinist who played a take on the tango.”

Ridotto has presented its 4 p.m. Sunday concerts at the Huntington Jewish Center on Park Avenue, since 2012, and previously at two churches in Huntington.

The setting is intimate, with the performer seated feet away from an audience of up to 200 spread out across the room, a pandemic holdover.

The quality of the players has improved over the years, said Mark Maimone, who is chairman and treasurer of Ridotto’s board. “It’s like having Carnegie Hall at the [Huntington] Jewish Center, and you sit five feet away from the performers,” he said. “And there’s no fees on the LIRR or for parking. We just have unbelievable performers.”

Starting out

Margaretha Maimone and pianist Monique Copper named their new series Ridotto after the 17th century Venetian gathering spots in the foyers of theaters that were “almost dangerous,” Maimone said. There, people wore masks and engaged in gambling and other entertainment.

“You could lose your husband there, but you could also peddle your poetry. It was a space with a lot of possibilities,” Maimone said. Copper designed the distinctive red and blue logo that still graces Ridotto’s promotional material and programs. They began seeking funding to bring their dream to life.

“I wrote to places for money — I sent letters to the company whose coffee I liked, whose bread I liked and to the supermarket where I shopped,” she said. “I typed the letters on an IBM machine, so I wrote to IBM.”

More than a week later, she got a phone call asking her to come for a lunch meeting at IBM.

She said she had lunch with an executive at the tech company and “talked his ears off.” The executive, a cellist, apparently liked what he heard.

“He gave me an enormous check. He said ‘before you cash it, make copies of it, show others that IBM Europe is helping you. It’s good leverage.’

Soon, the project was well-funded.

“He never came to the concerts, but we had money,” Maimone said, laughing. “People came, we sold out every time.”

As the concert series took shape, Maimone said she gained more ideas on how to execute it. “Music had to be the central force, and it still is.” 

Heart and soul

Maimone earned her master’s degree in violin performance at the Royal Conservatory in the Hague and was a co-founder and member of the Delta Ensemble for Contemporary Music. She also earned a master’s degree in theater arts from Stony Brook University and has taught violin at Nassau BOCES Long Island High School for the Arts in Syosset and at Usdan Summer Camp for the Arts in Wheatley Heights.

While a core of dedicated supporters helps keep the organization running, Maimone “is the heart and soul of Ridotto,” said Vivian Doremus, of Centerport, a retired school administrator and a member of the nonprofit organization’s board of directors. Maimone plans the programs and the board signs off on what she proposes, she said.

“She has an extraordinary network of contacts,” Doremus said. “Over the years she has reached out to agents and managers, and the performers form a bond with her.”

One of the perks of attending a Ridotto concert is hearing the musicians speak about their performance before the show, Doremus said. “They get a chance to reveal a little of their personality, so the audience can have a stronger relationship with the music,” she said. “It’s very enriching.”

Gary Field, 71, of Huntington, a retired lawyer and former Ridotto board member, has known Mark Maimone since their youth. Ridotto “is a valuable asset to Huntington. Six or seven times a year you can hear a high level of entertainment in a modest space, and it’s got a loyal crowd,” Field said. “Tickets are moderately priced for the level of musicianship you’re getting.”

Henrietta Schavran, of Huntington, who has attended Ridotto concerts for years, appreciates the quality of the musicians who perform. “It’s a wonderful opportunity for young international artists to perform and build their name,” said Schavran, who has a doctorate in musicology and music history from New York University.

“Occasionally the artists will play a contemporary work. But for the most part it is music familiar to the audience.”

Chatting with the audience

The introductory remarks about the musical pieces and the composers that Maimone offers before each concert enhance listener enjoyment, Schavran said. “It gives them a listening aid to get more from a piece,” she said. “And it’s useful to me when I see the name of a new composer. I’m glad she does that. It helps people to understand the music and composers a little better.”

Pianist Zhu Wang, of Forest Hills, Queens, who in December made his third appearance in the Ridotto series, talked about his love of Mozart for the composer’s “tender and dramatic movements in ‘Piano Sonata in D Major, K. 311.’ ” And when introducing the “Piano Sonata Sz. 80” by Béla Bartók, he said, “It gives me joy to play, especially in the first and third movements” along with “the mysterious and a little dark-in-tone ‘night music’ in the second movement.”

For the past 10 years Maimone has also organized a series of free Classical concerts for the South Huntington Public Library. Its Classical Sunday programming draws on chamber music groups and pianists as well as local groups such as Opera Night Long Island, a Northport group scheduled to play in the library’s concert series on March 23.

Catherine Schmoller, the library’s program director, hired Maimone 10 years ago to coordinate the library’s eight-concert season. “I don’t know how she gets it done, but it’s very good,” Schmoller said. “They’re very popular. The audience gets to stay local, they’re free and they get to listen to very high-caliber Classical music in their hometown.”

Support for program

Fundraising remains a perpetual challenge. In December, Maimone learned the nonprofit group did not receive a general operation support grant for 2025. For the first time in more than 15 years, she said it didn’t receive a $2,000-$5,000 Long Island Grants for the Arts administered by the Huntington Arts Council and part of Ridotto’s approximately $48,000 annual budget. The arts council declined to comment. “It’s an unexpected setback and a dark cloud over next year,” Maimone told the audience attending Ridotto’s Dec. 13 concert at the Huntington Jewish Center. “But I love a challenge,” she said as she handed out cards seeking year-end donations to the group.

The organization also receives a grant from Suffolk County’s Office of Economic Develoment, she said. Ridotto offers season subscriptions, and a free ticket to new attendees who come with a friend for the first time.

She said she hopes to upgrade the organization’s website and boost its social media presence. Maimone said Ridotto also is selling advertising in its concert programs. She’s always percolating ideas for future programs, she said, and points to a box full of notes in her home: Perhaps more theatrical offerings with Shakespeare-related pieces, or a performance of Béla Bartók’s a cappella composition “The Prisoner.” Or maybe a children’s program featuring a reading of “The Story of Babar” by Jean de Brunhoff with music by Francis Poulenc.

“Ridotto is a tremendous pleasure to do, as well as to follow and listen to,” Maimone said. “It’s a never-ending adventure."

A previous version of this story misstated the amount Ridotto previously received from the Huntington Arts Council.