The Man in the Purple Hat www.montereycountynow.com JULY 9-15, 2026 MONTEREY COUNTY WEEKLY 21 earned coverage in Vogue. But those commissions were a minor prelude to the full scope of his talent. His sculptures and mosaic works brought him lasting recognition—most famously, a 40-by-46-foot mosaic window for the Nob Hill Masonic Center in San Francisco—but his greatest creation may be the mountaintop house in Big Sur he built and decorated over nearly 60 years. Every surface reflects his hand: intricate woodwork, stained glass, nature-inspired inlay that took years to complete. “Every inch of it is built and designed by him, with an artist’s eye,” says Nathan Lutz, executive director of the Carmel Bach Festival. “The moment you walk in, you feel this magic.” At the heart of the house, in a room of its own, stands a 948-pipe Baroque tracker organ from Germany—a birthday gift Norman gave to Clement. He spent a year adorning its exterior cabinet with inlay work, both an artistic act and an act of devotion. Norman loved Bach, who during his own lifetime was celebrated primarily as a virtuoso organist and expert on organ construction. Norman wanted organists to play Bach here. Norman didn’t consider himself a skilled musician—both he and Clement kept pianos, harpsichords and organs throughout the house and played every day, but Norman’s relationship to the instrument was personal rather than performative. “Emile says of Brooks that Brooks played beautifully,” Lanier recalls. “But of himself, he said: ‘I just played for my own amazement.’ Which I love.” Lanier traces that love of Bach to Norman’s high school years in Los Angeles in the early 1930s, where he participated in music and theater, and likely deepened through his time in New York, where he absorbed opera and concerts with voracious attention. At one point, Norman and Clement even loaned one of their smaller organs to the festival for a concert—a small gesture that pointed toward a larger generosity. The Carmel Bach Festival is the recipient of a $350,000 donation from the Emile Norman Charitable Trust. He had left instructions for his trustee to reward the festival for “the continuing joy that it brings to our communities.” Now, as the 2026 festival begins, both nonprofits, Emile Norman Arts and the Carmel Bach Festival, are honoring that vision together with plans for something new already taking shape for the 2027 festival. They are putting together a three-hour-long concert event titled Emile Norman Retreat in Big Sur, with tickets on presale now, at $1,250 each. The concert will take place on July 6 of next year at Norman’s home on Pfeiffer Ridge in Big Sur, giving guests rare access to a place few outsiders have ever seen. In time for this year’s Bach Festival, the foundation is also mounting an exhibition in the foyer of Sunset Center, featuring Norman’s works alongside a slideshow of the house and the life that continues within it. One of the three pillars of Norman’s trust specified that his home would go on supporting arts nonprofits in the area. “Being reconnected with the Bach Festival was a dream from the beginning,” Lanier says. “Emile was a devoted participant since the time he arrived here. It was such a big part of his life.” The theme of this year’s Bach Festival, The Nature of the Sound, carries a deliberate double meaning. It gestures toward a phenomenological question, an inquiry into the very essence of sound, while also nodding to the spectacular natural world surrounding Carmel. It is a theme that resonates with violinist Edwin Huizinga, a 21-year veteran of the festival who carries his own personal history with Norman. “I remember seeing and meeting Emile at the concerts,” Huizinga says. “That is a really beautiful memory of mine—just to see him in the audience.” Through his work with Big Sur Fiddle Camp and the Big Sur Land Trust, Huizinga grew close to the community around Emile Norman Arts and eventually joined its advisory board. In recent years, he has brought festival musicians to perform at the house. Bach is not a historical artifact but a living presence. DANIEL DREIFUSS
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