Blink too quickly while driving around Beaver Cove on the east short of Moosehead Lake and you might miss the small, decades-old shed that tells a big story.
It's a story that began thousands of miles away on May 20, 1924 in a small town near Budapest, Hungary when Joseph Kovacs was born. Early in his life it was clear that Joseph was a talented violinist, and he blossomed into one of the country's great young musicians under the tutelage of his teachers, including Bela Bartok and Zoltán Kodály, two of the most influential composers of the twentieth century. In 1949, Joseph was encouraged by relatives in New Jersey to move to the Garden State. He became concertmaster of the original Princeton Symphony Orchestra, taught violin, and founded the Collegium Musicum of Princeton, a small chamber group. He eventually became a professor at Rutgers University.
In the early 1960s, Joseph made his way to Moosehead Lake, which would remain his summer home until his wife passed away in 2007. When he first arrived in Maine, he asked a local builder to build him a practice shed. The builder's response? "Mr. Kovacs, I know how to build, I don't need no practicing." Little did the builder know that he was talking to one of the most accomplished musicians to ever set foot in the Moosehead Lake Region. The shed was a place for Joseph to practice his violin for hours on end without bothering his wife Dorothy.
Many of Joseph's neighbors knew about his exceptional talent, but for the most part, Joseph was hiding in plain sight, until one day when he performed a recital in the Greenville Methodist Church. Joseph became a minor celebrity in town after that.
Joseph passed away in 2017, but his legacy lives on in the Moosehead Lake Region. Joseph's estate is benefiting his local Northern Light Health hospital, where he left a significant planned gift that will support patient care for years to come.
While the smooth sounds of Joseph's violin no longer emanate from the shed in Beaver Cove that he filled with music every summer for decades, the building remains strong, just like the legacy of a man whose generosity will benefit patients and others in the Moosehead Lake Region for years to come.
At Northern Light Health, we're building a better approach to healthcare because we believe people deserve access to care that works for them. As an integrated health delivery system serving Maine, we're raising the bar with no-nonsense solutions that are leading the way to a healthier future for our state. Our more than 12,000 team members are committed to making healthcare work for you: our patients, communities, and employees.
