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Bits and Bytes: Action on food insecurity; benefit concert for Berkshire Music School; a classical concert in Lakeville

The Food Security Infrastructure Grant Program seeks to ensure local food producers are better connected to a robust and resilient food supply system in order to mitigate future food supply and distribution issues.

Funds for Berkshire farms, food organizations to address food insecurity

Great Barrington – The Baker-Polito Administration earlier this week announced $22.5 million in funding to food producers across the Commonwealth, continuing ongoing efforts to address food insecurity issues exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic.  

The Food Security Infrastructure Grant Program seeks to ensure local food producers are better connected to a robust and resilient food supply system in order to mitigate future food supply and distribution issues. This year’s recipients of grant funding represent a variety of sectors, including farms, fisheries, schools, nonprofits, for profits, food pantries, municipalities, distributors/suppliers, and other entities.  Thirteen grants were awarded in the Berkshires.

In Pittsfield, Roots Rising was awarded funding toward building a new Youth Farm which will serve as a training ground for youth, a community and food hub, and a headquarters for the organization.  Roots Rising’s Youth Farm will be teen-powered and community centered, and will be an innovative approach to youth empowerment, food justice and sustainable development.  

Full Well Farm in Adams will use the funds to build a climate battery heated greenhouse. The infrastructure improvement “will allow us to produce vegetables year-round, improve our production of summer favorites like tomatoes, and allow us to move our seedling production to our own farm rather than renting space”, said farmers Meg Bantle and Laura Tupper-Palches. 

“Ensuring children, their families, and all individuals have access to healthy, local food products is critical, particularly as so many continue to be detrimentally impacted by the pandemic,” said Lieutenant Governor Karyn Polito. “Our Administration is proud to work so closely with the Commonwealth’s farmers, food distributors, non-profit organizations, and others as we partner to strengthen the state’s food supply chains.” 

Prior awardees have been able to make local, fresh food production more efficient and accessible, lower the production cost, and increase distributors’ ability to partner with SNAP, EBT, and other organizations.  

Sweet Brook Farm in Williamstown will use the award to purchase a new cattle corral system. “As an emerging beef producer in Berkshire County,” said farmer Sarah Lipinski, “Sweet Brook Farm hopes to use these funds to expand our operations to further support the demand for local, sustainable foods.” 

Lanesborough’s Red Shirt Farm received FSIG funds to construct a new farm store and commercial kitchen. Farmer Jim Schultz said that the store will serve as “a conduit for connecting our farm with the community”, and the commercial kitchen will help the farm reduce food waste by turning excess produce into value-added products. 

Berkshire Grown is proud to be among this year’s awardees, alongside many outstanding farmers and organizations working to address food insecurity in the region. As part of their Farm to Food Access program, Berkshire Grown maintains cooler and freezer for crop and meat storage. “We will use the FSIG funds to purchase a back-up generator for the walk-in, a temperature monitor and alert system, and funds to pour a concreate delivery platform outside the cooler door. This allows us to make large-scale crop purchases from local farmers and store the food until pick-up by food pantries and community kitchens,” says Executive Director Margaret Moulton. 

The awardees for this round of FSIG grants in the Berkshire region include:

·         Berkshire Grown, Inc. (Great Barrington): Temperature control support for walk-in cooler

·         Berkshire Wildflower Honey LLC dba Mill River Farm (Great Barrington)

·         Fairfields Dairy Farm LLC (Williamstown): upgrade to automatic milking system

·         Full Well Farm LLC (Adams): Climate battery greenhouse

·         Greenagers, Inc. (South Egremont): infrastructure and equipment to improve food storage capacity

·         Holiday Brook Farm LLC (Dalton): season-extending high tunnel

·         Ian Allen Farms (Sheffield)

·         North Plain Farm (Housatonic): improvements to Farm Store

·         Olsen Farm (Lanesborough): two hoop houses

·         Red Shirt Farm (Lanesborough): build-out of Farm Store and commercial kitchen

·         Roots Rising (Pittsfield): Toward expenses related to establishing a Youth Farm

·         Sweet Brook Beef Company (Williamstown): New cattle corral system

·         Woven Roots Farm (Tyringham): improvements to strengthen vegetable production/distribution capacity, expand wash/pack and storage infrastructures

Since 2020, the Baker-Polito Administration has awarded over $58 million in grants to 507 projects across the Commonwealth through the grant program. For more information regarding the Food Security Infrastructure Grant Program, please visit the program’s website.

 

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Berkshire Music School benefit concert at Wheatleigh with Vienna-based fortepianist Daniel Adam Maltz

Pittsfield — Travel back to the Gilded Age with the Berkshire Music School for a benefit cocktail party and concert by Vienna-based fortepianist Daniel Adam Maltz on Saturday, May 14, 2022, at Wheatleigh in Lenox, Massachusetts. Drawing on Mr. Maltz’s training at the Royal Academy of Music in London and at Vienna’s University for Music and Performing Arts, the afternoon will feature the work of Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, and Schubert on a historic fortepiano in the exquisite setting of Wheatleigh’s Great Hall. All proceeds will go towards the Berkshire Music School need-based financial aid program.
Executive Director Natalie Johnsonius Neubert says, “We are excited to host Daniel’s performance at Wheatleigh. It’s so rare to have the opportunity to hear the repertoire on the historical instrument on which it was originally written. Daniel brings an artistry and passion to the music that makes an exquisite and magical experience.”

Tickets for the event can be found on the Berkshire Music School website. If you would like to purchase tickets over the phone, please contact BMS at 413-442-1411.

Following the performance on Sunday, May 15 Mr. Maltz will give a fascinating lecture, demonstration, and masterclass exploring the fortepiano, repertoire, and the similarities and differences to the modern piano. The event, perfect for piano and keyboard enthusiasts of all levels, will take place at the Berkshire Music School Taft Recital Hall. To purchase tickets with the suggested $25 donation, visit the Berkshire Music School website, or call 413-442-1411 to pay-what-you-can. 

About the Artist:

Daniel Adam Maltz is a fortepianist based in Vienna, Austria devoted to performing on historic Viennese fortepianos — enabling modern audiences to experience the sound world of the Classical era — utilizing the vast range of tones and colors familiar to the composers. He brings his expertise in the Viennese sound, culture, philosophies, and practices of the era to his interpretations. He studied historical performance at the Royal Academy of Music in London and at Vienna’s University for Music and Performing Arts. He has appeared in concert throughout North America, Europe, and Australia, and made his Carnegie Hall debut at age 22.

About the Berkshire Music School:

Founded in 1940 by Winnie Davis Long Crane, the Berkshire Music School is dedicated to providing quality education in music, and musical opportunities to people in the greater Berkshire community, regardless of race, sex, religion, ethnic origin, age, or disability. The school serves more than 250 students taking weekly lessons from more than 35 professional musician/educator faculty members. Additionally, BMS provides numerous classes, chamber ensembles, workshops, and special series for students of all ages.  BMS also hosts a variety of collaborations with other cultural organizations, social service agencies, and senior centers as well as recitals, concerts, and residencies at venues across the county.  In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Berkshire Music School expanded its programs to include both private and group learning opportunities online as well as in-person on its historic Pittsfield campus.  Honoring its founder’s legacy BMS has need-based financial assistance and generous work-study opportunities available for all its programs, and turns no one away on account of inability to pay. Berkshire Music School is a member of the National Guild of Community Schools of the Arts and is a Chapter Charter Tri-M Music Honor Society member, a program of the NAfME National Association for Music Education. The Berkshire Music School was named “Best After-School Program” by The Berkshire Eagle’s 2021 Best of the Berkshire Awards. For more information, call 413-442-1411 or visit www.berkshiremusicschool.org.

Pianist Daniel Adam Maltz.

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On May 14 and 15 Crescendo presents second of four spring concerts of vocal and instrumental music

Lakeville, Conn. — This program features some of the great vocal repertoire before the era of Bach and Vivaldi. Included are works by the 17th century Italian composer Giacomo Carissimi who continued Claudio Monteverdi’s legacy of dramatic vocal music, telling the story of a human tragedy in one of the first oratorios, “Jephte.” The Israelite general Jephte and his people celebrate a great military victory, and then sink into despair over the loss of Jephte’s beloved daughter. Like in later oratorios – similar to opera – the main character roles are sung by soloists, in this case, a tenor and a soprano. Solos, duets, ensemble and choral members play the role of narrator. Among the latter is the famous “Plorate filii Israel” (Weep, Oh ye children of Israel), a lament for six voices by the daughter’s virgin companions, in which they bewail her misfortune. This oratorio leaves nothing to be desired. It presents the full spectrum of emotions: joy, fear and anger, love and tenderness, triumphal exaltation, desperation, and sadness.

Carissimi’s twelve-voice mass of the Early Baroque is based on the famous medieval folk tune “The Armed Man.” The melody of this chanson is present in each of the five movements. Missa L’Homme armé is the last one of more than 40 masses composed on this tune over 170 years, and the one with the largest cast. In the Venetian polychoral style, singers and instrumentalists are divided into three groups. This type of music, for which Giovanni Gabrielli was famous, creates a lively dialogue by alternating responses of spatially separated groups on stage – a real sonic experience not to be missed!

The musicians who present these works are: Pablo Bustos, tenor (Jephte), Agnes Coakley Cox, soprano (Filia), with Kirsten Sollek, alto and Peter Becker, bass (Historicus), sopranos Sarah Fay and Jennifer Tyo, the Crescendo Vocal Ensemble and period instrument ensemble: Hideki Yamaya, theorbo, Christa Patton, Baroque harp, Rachel Begley, dulzian, and Anne Legêne and Erica Warnock, viola da gamba. The ensembles are directed by Christine Gevert from the organ.

These concerts have been made possible in part with support from the Connecticut Office of the Arts, which also receives funding from the National Endowment for the Arts, a federal agency. Support for these concerts has also been provided to Crescendo from CT Humanities (CTH), with funding provided by the Connecticut State Department of Economic and Community Development/Connecticut Office of the Arts (COA) from the Connecticut State Legislature.

The concerts are on Saturday, May 14 at 6 p.m. at Saint James Place, 352 Main Street, Great Barrington, and on Sunday, May 15 at 4 p.m. at Trinity Church, 484 Lime Rock Rd., Lakeville, CT. Tickets are $35 (general seating), $60 (premium seating), and $10 (youth). All audience members, staff, and performers must show proof of being fully vaccinated, and must be properly masked once inside the performance venue. These policies are subject to change. Access online ticket sales and the full Covid precaution policy in the most updated version on Crescendo’s website: crescendomusic.org.

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