The Round Top Festival Institute is one of the more unlikely serious music institutions in the United States — a conservatory and concert hall set on a 200-acre campus in the Texas Hill Country, founded by the pianist James Dick in 1971. The institute runs intensive summer programs for young musicians and hosts concerts throughout the season in the Festival Hill Concert Hall.
The concerts are open to the public and represent genuinely high-quality classical music performance in a beautiful rural setting. The campus itself is worth visiting: formal gardens, historic buildings moved from across the region, and a concert hall with fine acoustics. Check the Festival Institute's schedule before visiting — the season runs primarily from spring through summer. Tickets are reasonably priced and the experience — serious music in a peaceful pastoral setting — is memorable.