In Memory of Karl Finger

Karl Finger, 85, of Monterey, Massachusetts, passed away peacefully at Fairview Commons in Great Barrington, MA on Wednesday January 1, 2025.

Karl was born on November 10, 1939 in New York City to Sophie ‘Suds’ Mins Finger and Raphael ‘Phil’ Montague Finger.

I met Karl through dance, and we were a couple from about 2001 to 2011. When we were together, I called him my ‘husbandnot’ (like a husband, but nothing legal).

For this memoriam, I reconstructed a piece of Karl's homepage (now long gone) that I had created with him. I thought it appropriate to share his style, his whimsical header, and his words—and I'll add some of my own.

Karl Finger is an accomplished, internationally-known recording artist, folk singer and guitarist, and a leader of folk dances from around the world. (He also calls squares and contra dances.) For over 30 years he has been leading trips to over 50 countries around the world conducting workshops, learning dances and music from the local folk and bringing American travelers with an interest in cultural exploration into friendly music-and-dance-sharing contact with their local counterparts. The enthusiastic non-dancers and dancers alike, non-musicians and musicians alike, who have joined him on these trips number in the thousands.

Karl has appeared on radio and TV in the U.S. and abroad and has performed on over 40 music album recordings and several singles. He has lectured on folk music and its role in history and social movements at schools, colleges and universities and has produced and performed on a series of albums of folk dances and singing games for children. His appearances include nightclubs, festivals, colleges, schools, concert halls, resorts, cruise ships... Internationally, he has performed in venues in many of the foreign lands he has visited.

In addition to teaching dances from around the world, Karl Finger has choreographed for and performed with several international folk dance troupes. He also organizes and leads weekend-long festivals of workshops, classes, dance parties, music concerts and jam sessions. Over 11,000 people have taken part in these weekend festivals of music, dance and camaraderie.

Karl's interest in folk music and folklore was stimulated during his 8 years as a camper and counselor at Camp Woodland in upstate New York that emphasized research into and learning about the people and history of the area. Campers, counselors and music/folklore staff would go into the surrounding communities to meet the people and learn their history, their stories, songs and dances. During his years there many songs, stories and dances of the region were collected and have found their way into books, scholarly journals, concerts and recordings. Speaking of ‘scholarly’, Karl has a Bachelor's Degree from the University of Chicago (Biological Science) and 2 years of graduate study at the Columbia School of General Studies.

Karl Finger's entire life experience is consistent with his view that music and dance are fundamental and essential to human existence. A main feature of his trips abroad is the use of folk music and dance to break the barriers of language and culture, to enable people from different worlds to get to know one another as human beings and to develop a respect for one another's culture and heritage. Among the over 50 countries Karl has taken travelers to, learned from and performed in are: Greece, Bulgaria, Israel, China, Romania, Turkey, Spain, Morocco, Mexico, Brazil, Russia, Jamaica, Costa Rica, Yugoslavia, Norway, Sweden, Barbados, Jamaica, Georgia, Armenia...

Karl is a firm believer in the philosophy that learning can and should be fun. Both learning (acquiring knowledge and perspective) and actually experiencing the music and the culture are significant components of his classes. Students achieve this through the unmitigated joy of the songs and dances themselves, by feeling them through active participation.

For his last 60 years, Karl called the Berkshires his home. He found peace and solitude in his beloved Log House, down a long dirt road, tucked deep in the forest.

Karl was a true woodsman, with great strength. He masterfully felled trees, wielding a chain saw to cut them into massive rounds and then hoisting them onto his wood splitter. He loved his garden, nurturing the blueberries and raspberries that grew there. His golden retriever, Jesse, was often at his side.

Karl enjoyed playing tennis with others, but with me it was table tennis (ping-pong)—fierce games in his cellar—Karl offensive, me defensive. We loved badminton in his yard. He introduced me to ‘mish-mosh meals’, teaching that stir-frying pretty much anything can be delicious. Without Karl, we wouldn't have our Christmas morning tradition of lox, bagels, cream cheese, capers.

Karl shared his love of music and dance with great generosity. My sister Jean (now gone from this earth) always begged Karl to play ‘This Little Light of Mine’ and my family's Lenox home would be filled with joy. He was the truest of performers, connecting with his audience, putting them at ease, drawing them masterfully into his own love of music and dance. My experiences with his dance groups always ended the same way: ‘just one more dance...’ ... over and over and over again.

Karl had an extraordinary ability to take a tune and use his own lyrics to transform it into a tribute, a birthday wish, a life story... He would disappear for an hour or so, then re-appear with a piece of paper, ready to deliver his musical gift.

Karl was predeceased by his parents, Sophie (‘Suds’) Mins Finger and father Raphael (‘Phil’) Montague Finger; sister Barbara Clark; brother Gregory Finger. He is survived by his nephew Marc Dorfman of Lawrenceville, NJ and his sister-in-law, Joan Hollister of New Paltz, NY.

Karl always told me that when he left this earth, he wanted his ashes to be scattered on the hillside when the mountain laurel are in bloom. Whenever I see mountain laurel, I will think of him.

# of people on Karl's Trips	# of countries visited	# of people at Karl's ‘Weekends’
almost 2,000	about 67	over 11,000