ADAPTATION
We began the summer with our fifth concert here at Farmata— a solo program called ADAPTATION, featuring virtuosic pieces from the earliest to latest music for solo cello without the endpin. The barn provided the perfect, intimate setting to invite the audience into an earlier, quieter era. Following the concert, we served treats made from our elderflowers and berries, which thankfully we had preserved from last year (since this year’s crop was destroyed by the hail storm!).
HILL COUNTRY
Just a few days after the concert, we drove to the Hill Country in Texas for the month of June. We spent the first half of the month in the beautifully quaint town of Fredericksburg where Steuart was teaching at the Fredericksburg Music School & Festival alongside some of the world’s greatest cello pedagogues and performers. During the festival he led a Bach seminar, teaching master classes on each of Bach’s six Cello Suites. Following the festival, we headed to a retreat center in Hill Country where Steuart and musician Jonny Rodgers collaborated on a concert program they would bring to Farmata later in the summer.
OUR FIRST APPRENTICE
In July we were so happy to host our first Farmata retreat guest, a wonderful person and cellist! Steuart had taught Rebecca at a summer festival in Ohio over a decade ago and subsequently she and Michelle worked together at the same non-profit. When she reached out to us this spring about a possible retreat/apprenticeship we were thrilled. Rebecca is the founder and Artistic Director of an amazing Cleveland-based non-profit called Renovare. After leading the organization for ten years, Rebecca took a well-deserved sabbatical which included her time at Farmata as a place to rest, reflect on what she has built with Renovare and even have a little time to practice. Rebecca spent the week mulching apple trees, helping Steuart build a shed extension, cooking and eating with us, practicing in the barn and taking cello lessons. It was hot, even by Missouri standards, but Rebecca was out every day (with our son following her around most of the time) and truly made the most of her time here. We couldn’t be more grateful.
WOOD & GLASS
As I stood in the back of the barn and listened to Jonny and Steuart play Spiegel im Spiegel (a stunningly beautiful piece by Arvo Part), I felt a huge wave of relief. I looked at the people in the audience, most of whom I didn’t know, and saw peace, joy, and quite a few tears on their faces. Somehow, each had decided that they would drive to Fair Grove (some coming from an hour or two away), buy a ticket, and enter something completely new and unfamiliar. At that moment, I knew it was worth it. It was worth their effort, and it was worth ours.
I hope that the amount of effort it takes to put on a concert goes unnoticed. I hope that our guests feel at ease and know that what we are giving them, we are giving with love and joy. But to do something with excellence is not typically without great effort. Jonny Rodgers, our guest musician, traveled from Oregon by way of Denver, leaving his house at 3:30am, with his carefully packed wine glasses in tow. After arriving at Farmata, he spent many hours setting up and tuning his glasses, not to mention the many hours of practice spent in preparation. He and Steuart had a few days to rehearse together, continually evolving their collaboration into a deeper beauty. Meantime, I was spending a good portion of each day making ice cream for the concerts, usually complaining about how much time it was taking, and stressing over whether we would get everything cleaned up in time.
Friday evening came and a heavy storm was forecasted. The rain stayed away as guests arrived and walked from their cars to the barn. And as soon as the music began, so did the pouring rain, thunder and lightning. That is one of the special things about Farmata: we can’t hide from nature here, nor do we want to. We want what is happening naturally around us to affect us, for good or bad. So, there we were, in a barn in rural Fair Grove, Missouri, watching Jonny’s hands dance across tuned wine glasses with unrivaled skill and sensitivity, with rain falling on the metal roof forcing us to listen even more closely. I for one will never forget that evening.
WHAT’S NEXT
Farmata remains a work in progress. We host our concerts in one half of the barn while the other half is an unfinished space filled with tools and animal stalls. This fall, we are focusing on closing up the unfinished half of the barn, adding two bedrooms, and expanding our concert space. We have paused the concert series for a few months to complete these renovations, with plans to re-open this winter. Stay tuned for upcoming events, including an extraordinary cello duo concert!