Following The WholeHearted Musician
Dana Fonteneau and the Argus and Omer Quartets reflect on their WholeHearted Musician Artist Residency, and talk about their upcoming projects:
Post Yellow Barn residency, I immediately went to New York City where I facilitated career development interviews for the finalists of the Concert Artists Guild Competition. I also served on the jury for the final round of the competition.
On Saturday, November 2, I will be doing a live webinar interview for the Andover Educators Association.
In January, I will be giving three presentations at the Associaton for Performing Arts Professionals Conference in New York, as well as a presentation at the Juilliard School and career consulting at the Chamber Music America Conference.
Finally, I am going through the results of the residency and will be working on both a book and a possible promotional video about the work and results.
Since our Yellow Barn residency, Argus has been back in New York feeling invigorated, fueled, and inspired by our work with Dana. Our awareness and intention in rehearsals and performances has felt markedly different, and we’ve been eagerly trying new techniques to heighten our connections between us and with our audiences. We had three major concerts in October—in New York at Schneider Concerts, in Cedar Falls at the University of Northern Iowa, and in Syracuse at the Syracuse Friends of Chamber Music. In November, we will give the premiere of a new work written for us by Shuying Li (commissioned by the Composers’ Guild of New Jersey) and we’ll play three shows in New York City and Philadelphia with the incredible rapper, singer, and writer Dessa, celebrating the release of her latest album. Not a moment has gone by—onstage or off—that we haven’t felt the influence of our work at Yellow Barn under Dana’s loving guidance, and we’re excited to keep watering the seeds of this work in the coming weeks and months.
50 Years of Musical Collaboration and Learning
Earlier this summer, Howard Weiss-Tisman, reporter for Vermont Public Radio, wrote this story commemorating Yellow Barn's 50th anniversary.
▶️ Listen to the story as it was broadcast on July 23, 2019
(Howard Weiss-Tisman/VPR)
The Yellow Barn music festival in Putney is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year.
Back in 1969, local resident David Wells was a professor at the Manhattan School of Music. He invited a group of his students up to his place in Vermont to enjoy the summer, eat some good food and explore classical chamber music.
Wells and his wife, Janet, introduced the students to the community. In return, Putney embraced the idea of having young musicians from around the world in their small town. Neighbors cooked potluck meals, they put up some of the students, and throughout the summer they would gather inside the yellow barn for a night of chamber music.
Wells died in 2012, but musicians from around the world are still coming to Putney every summer to play music at Yellow Barn.
"This is home — and that's what's always been remarkable about Yellow Barn," said Catherine Stephan, the current executive director of Yellow Barn.
Stephan first came up to play music at Yellow Barn 25 years ago when she was a 20-year-old cellist; then 10 years ago, she came back and became executive director.
"None of it would be what it is without the love that David and Janet brought to Yellow Barn and brought into this room," she said. "They brought out the best in every single one of us."
(Howard Weiss-Tisman/VPR)
Wells continued to invite students up every summer. The festival grew, in both size and prominence, and eventually invitations went out to young musicians who weren't only working with Wells.
In 2002, a new barn was built just up the road. That's where, on a recent afternoon, an ensemble was practicing for a special program commemorating the Yellow Barn's 50th anniversary.
In the summer of 1969, the students at Yellow Barn gathered to watch the Apollo 11 moon landing. This summer, Yellow Barn put together a night of classical and contemporary moon music — including a piece by composer Arnold Schoenberg from the early 20th century: "Pierrot in the Moonlight."
Auditions for this year were held at 50 sites around the world, and more than 500 people auditioned for about 40 slots in the 2019 summer program.
Yellow Barn artistic director Seth Knopp said even though Yellow Barn has grown, that original idea of having musicians come up to Vermont to teach, learn, and share their talents and love of music, is what drives the audition process.
"David wanted to work with his students and have them improve over the summer. And that's the thing that I wanted to protect more than anything else," Knopp said. "It's not so much a matter of, you know, showing their wares or their terrific playing. You know, everyone here I feel has the means to grow. They have the means to do meaningful searching in music."
Anthony Marwood has been coming to Yellow Barn as a faculty member since 2000. Marwood performs around the world, and last year was recognized by Queen Elizabeth II for his work.
He said he makes time in his schedule every year to spend a few weeks in Putney to slow down, spend time with the music, and to teach young musicians and to learn from them. When he leaves Putney each year, Marwood said he tries to hold on to all of that for as long as he can.
"The world is a very strange and peculiar place at the moment, I feel. And there's ... a lot of focus on what is troubling, and I feel personally there is a lot to be troubled by," Marwood said. "So it's very important in one's life to actually go the other way and to be engaged with something that really feels enormously positive. I mean, to put it bluntly, working with these young players gives one really great hope for the future. And that's a very valuable resource for us all right now."
There are Yellow Barn concerts and events in Putney into the first week of August, including a special 50th anniversary gala celebration on Aug. 3. That will take place at the original yellow barn near the home of David and Janet Wells.
Reflections on Reflections
Percussionists Ayano Kataoka, Eduardo Leandro, and Sam Seyong Um discuss Jacob Druckman's Reflections on the Nature of Water, as well as their unique performance of it which will take place Tuesday, July 23.
A Conversation with William Sharp and Seth Knopp
In advance of their performance of Schubert's Schwanengesang ("Swan Song") this Thursday, July 18, baritone William Sharp and pianist Seth Knopp talk about their long running tradition of performing song cycles together at Yellow Barn.
"It was music you could reach out and touch."
On July 5, 2019, Yellow Barn opened its 50th Anniversary season with the work Speak Music, a 50th birthday gift created by Seth Knopp with Julian McBrowne, comprised of voices of musicians and audience members, 1969-2019.
In celebration of its golden anniversary, Yellow Barn is collecting oral histories for its archives. The first 50 are incorporated into Speak Music, starting with our founders David and Janet Wells and continuing to the present day. We hope to collect many more over the course of the coming year! To contribute your memory, please call 802-387-3104 and leave a message of up to 90 seconds in link. State your name and your approximate year(s) at Yellow Barn. Once received we will turn your voicemail into an audio file. If you have any questions, send an email to info@yellowbarn.org.
The Art of Program Note Writing
Just as musicians take a printed score and bring it to life through performance, a program note has the power to animate a work and humanize a composer. Yellow Barn cellist Annie Jacobs-Perkins has a penchant for program-note writing. In this video, she discusses why she enjoys writing notes for Yellow Barn concerts, as well as her process.
Read some of the notes Annie has written thus far for the summer season:
Shostakovich: Seven Romances on Poems of Alexander Blok
Ysaÿe: Trio à cordes "Le chimay," Op. posth.
Brahms: Piano Trio in C Minor, Op. 101