News From Britt Hill – August 2018

Everyone loves a love story and this one is so special that we have decided to reprint excerpts from a previously-published story. It began back in 1972 (not long after Britt began), when two Pan Am crew members staying in the same hotel on a stopover in London discovered their mutual love for classical music.

A passionate symphony devotee, pilot Sam Enfield went straight to the hotel concierge to get a ticket to the evening’s London Philharmonic concert. Behind him was a stewardess from another flight with the same goal. Sam suggested they go together and the rest is history.

Hannelore Enfield remembers to this day that Myra Hess played Beethoven’s Fifth Piano Concerto on that program. Sam and Hannelore began going to concerts together whenever their flight schedules had them in the same city. Hannelore says, “After a while, we chose our schedules around the concerts we wanted to see. We went everywhere – Paris, Rome, Frankfurt, Prague. That was our connection—classical music.”

“One of our most glorious memories was being stuck in Amsterdam for five days due to fog. We checked the weather after breakfast each morning and when the day’s flight was canceled, we got tickets for the symphony. We saw David Oistrakh with the Concertgebouw for five straight nights. The more fog there was, the more we liked it!”

The couple married in 1976 and continued to travel to concerts all over the world. After retirement, they spent two years searching for a place to call home. Sam wanted to live in the West. Hannelore recalls, “Sam wanted elbow room.” In 1985 they finally found the perfect spot and began building a log home in the hills above Jacksonville.

Unbeknownst to the Enfield’s, they had truly come home because as they were finishing the building of their Jacksonville residence, they heard music. “We followed the sound until we found the Britt Orchestra on stage rehearsing” say Hannelore. “We hadn’t even known Britt existed until then. We couldn’t believe it!”

That was 1986 and the Enfield’s began attending every rehearsal and concert of the Britt Orchestra each August. The entire Britt staff knew that “They were something special—Hannelore’s German accent and quick wit accompanied by Sam’s twinkling grey eyes and charm. They were always there.” In 2008, as age and health posed challenges for Sam, the Enfield’s had to give up attending morning rehearsals and they were missed.

Hannelore says she always knew she couldn’t marry someone who didn’t share her love of classical music. “It’s too much a part of me.” She and Sam married late in life, but had thirty-four years together. It was not uncommon to see them holding hands at rehearsals and it was obvious that their love of music was a very special part of their relationship. Hannelore says that one night at a Britt Orchestra rehearsal Sam told her, “I want to be in that orchestra after I’m gone.” Sam passed away in January 2010. In 2011, Hannelore gave him his seat in the orchestra by endowing the principal oboe chair in his memory.

Then again, in 2014, Britt established the “Sam and Hannelore Enfield Classical Annual Fund” through another generous donation made by Hannelore.

This year, Hannelore is providing a lasting legacy for their Love Story, with each other and the Britt Festival Orchestra, by endowing the “Maestro’s Podium”—every great orchestra requires innumerable people to make it successful. From the musicians, to the composers, to the audience, and everything in between, people are what make an orchestra tick. Moreover, there is no more important person for an orchestra than the Maestro, who shapes and interprets the music for everyone involved. In addition, Hannelore is providing support of the “Sam and Hannelore Enfield Classical Annual Fund” over the next ten years.

On July 31st in honor of her generous gifts, the Britt Performance Garden Stage, where our classical pre-concert lectures and children’s programs take place, was named the “Sam and Hannelore Enfield Stage.”