As I walked into the annual gala for the Orchestra of St. Luke’s Monday night, I saw more content-looking couples than I’d ever before seen at a fund-raising event. So I did some digging and discovered their secret: frequent exposure to chamber music.

Cynthia McCollum and John Spellman, for example, swear by their chamber music recordings of Mozart, Vivaldi, and Mendelssohn.

Elaine and Edmund Schroeder say they hit it off instantly at a concert on their first date. (Luckily, Mrs. Schroeder quickly got over her mortification that same night when Mr. Schroeder sent the wine back at dinner.) Now the couple channels their passion for music into philanthropy. Mrs. Schroeder is a past chairwoman of Caramoor, while Mr. Schroeder is founder of Education Through Music, which offers music lessons to 5,000 New York City schoolchildren.

It’s often said young people don’t like classical music, but at least one couple at the event defies that conventional wisdom: April Grunow, who once played the piano, goes to Lincoln Center al most every Sunday to listen to chamber music with her boyfriend, Joe Fernandez, who plays guitar and saxophone.

And then there’s the loving relationship between the Orchestra of St. Luke’s and the Caramoor International Music Festival, which the orchestra honored with its Gift of Music award at the gala, held at the Plaza Hotel and attended by 250 guests.

The orchestra owes much to the festival, the summer long program of outdoor concerts on the grounds of the Caramoor estate in Westchester. After all, that’s where it all began (almost). In 1974, several musicians formed the St. Luke’s Chamber Ensemble, its name taken from the Church of St. Luke in the Fields in Greenwich Village. Five years later, those musicians began playing at Caramoor. The experience helped the musicians see how chamber works could be translated into symphonic arrangements. Each year, more musicians returned, refining their playing under distinguished conductors, until the orchestra earned its first official appearance in 1985 as the Orchestra of St. Luke’s.

Today it calls Caramoor home as the festival’s orchestra in residence, and it continues to grow in the idyllic setting created by Lucie and Walter Rosen. In 1998, for example, the orchestra had the chance to work with conductor Donald Runnicles, performing Mozart’s Jupiter Symphony. The conductor and the orchestra hit it off, and now Mr. Runnicles is principal conductor.

“St. Luke’s started as a chamber ensemble with the impossible dream that it could do everything from Baroque to contemporary and chamber ensemble to chamber orchestra,” the orchestra’s president, executive director, and cofounder, Marianne Lockwood, said. “That it has grown to embrace all of that and more, with a list of pre-eminent collaborating artists, presenters, and venues, has extended beyond any of our wildest expectations.”

The Orchestra of St. Luke’s has a rich life outside Caramoor – some of which is captured in five recordings. It also presents concerts at 14 New York City public schools, Carnegie Hall, and the Brooklyn Academy of Music. The $400,000 raised at the gala will help finance the orchestra’s activities in the public schools.

But let us dream of summers at Caramoor. (Note to all singles: a very romantic place, great for a date, proposal, or even a wedding.) Opening night of the festival, June 25, features the Orchestra of St. Luke’s and the Collegiate Chorale performing Beethoven’s Ninth – the first time that symphony will be performed at Caramoor. The next night, the chief executive of Caramoor, Michael Barrett, who also runs the Moab Music Festival, conducts the orchestra in a “musical trail ride of the Wild West.” A month later, on July 23, the orchestra performs “La Traviata.” And who will be in the audience? Look for the orchestra’s chairman, Norman Benzaquen, and trustees Josie Natori, Kathryn Steinberg, and Ruth Widder. Caramoor’s chief supporters will probably be there, too: chairwoman Judy Evnin and past chairmen Elaine Schroeder, Peter Gottsegen, and Michael Gellert. And chances are, there will be plenty of couples stealing a kiss in the garden as the orchestra plays.