ArtsAhimsa Chamber Music Festival at Belvoir Terrace

ArtsAhimsa is happy to announce our thirteenth annual chamber music festival, held at Belvoir Terrace in Lenox, MA, Wednesday, August 18 – Wednesday, August 25, 2021. The program is open to string players, pianists, and wind players. Applications are due by March 1, 2021. 

The ArtsAhimsa Chamber Music Festival at Belvoir Terrace offers opportunities to make music in collaboration with both amateur players and the distinguished coaching faculty. The emphasis is on the shared musical experience. Participants and faculty play and work together amidst Belvoir’s beautiful setting. The goal of the festival is to set the stage for finding inspiration in a caring and supportive community.

Information below includes a description of our regular ArtsAhimsa Festival activities as well as safety precautions we are taking now in response to Covid 19.

The ArtsAhimsa Festival schedule includes three daily chamber music rehearsals: two groups comprised of both faculty and students and one group including only student players, coached by a faculty member. Students can choose to be assigned to two or three chamber groups, each rehearsing one and a half hours per day. Afternoon schedule includes chamber music, Musicpalooza: musical discussions with Amy Lieberman, and a recreational block for tennis, hiking, and/or swimming in the outdoor heated pool. Evenings will have informal performances by faculty and students and time for casual sight-reading. Individual players, as well as pre-formed groups, are invited to apply. Repertoire will be assigned and we encourage participants to be well prepared.

Belvoir Terrace has excellent practice and performance facilities, including the mansion’s gracious Music Room and the 300-seat Jesup Theater. Set majestically amongst rolling hills, Belvoir is one of the original Berkshire “cottages” from the gilded age. The town of Lenox, with galleries, restaurants, and shops, is a ten minute walk from Belvoir, and Tanglewood is only a couple of miles down the road.

Belvoir housing options include single and double rooms with adjacent shared baths. Three excellent meals are served daily in the dining room of the mansion, as well as wine and cheese before dinner. Housing assignments will be arranged prior to arrival.

Lenox is an easy drive from both Boston and New York. Tuition is $2,000 for the week and includes chamber music coachings, ensemble rehearsals, room, and board. $1,400 is the tuition for students with off-campus housing, and $800 is the fee for a guest spouse staying at Belvoir.

Festival director Laura Jean Goldberg would like to meet and play chamber music with all applicants, if possible. Otherwise, A CD or DVD is requested with the application. ArtsAhimsa is a not-for-profit organization dedicated to promoting peace through the arts. Laura Jean Goldberg will be heading up the distinguished faculty, which will also include Amy Lieberman, Laura Bossert, Terry King, Moshe S. Knoll, Lynn Nowels, Makiko Hirata, Lisa Heffter, Maiko Sasaki, and Kate Dillingham. For more information, you can also visit www.belvoirterrace.com

ArtsAhimsa Festival 2021 Safety Precautions

Dining:
Meals: outdoors whenever possible.

Our chef, Joe McNeish, has been running the Belvoir Terrace kitchen for 30 summers. During the rest of the year, Joe is one of the senior chefs at Smith College Dining Services in Northampton, MA. Smith College, having remained open during the Covid 19 quarantine, has depended on chef Joe McNeish and his colleagues to ensure a safe dining experience for the college community. Joe knows the protocols necessary to make community dining safe, and he is fully equipped to safely take care of our dining needs at ArtsAhimsa Festival.

Belvoir was open for FAMILY CAMP last summer, and Joe served everyone with paper and plastic in individually boxed meals. This summer we may do that at ArtsAhimsa, or, it may be safe for socially distanced kitchen staff with gloves and masks to fill individual plates for each of us from the serving table. Only four people will be seated at each dining table.

We will be opening the girl's camp this summer, and all safety protocols will be ready. ArtsAhimsa Festival, of course, is for adults, and safety precautions will be adjusted to suit our group.

General Safety Precautions for ArtsAhimsa Festival 2021:

1. Every ArtsAhimsa participant and staff member is required to have taken the vaccine.  Also, everyone will get tested for Covid-19 within 7 days before arrival, and provide proof of a negative result.

2. The use of face coverings (face masks) at all times will be mandatory, except during mealtimes and in personal living quarters. Social distancing will be practiced.

3. Staff and participants will wash hands frequently, use hand sanitizers, and wipe down surfaces such as doorknobs, light switches, tabletops, music stands, and piano keyboards with sanitizing cleaning products after use. Sanitizing and cleaning equipment will be provided by Belvoir.

4. Groups including piano and strings will keep distances of at least six feet between players, and players will wear masks.

5. Groups including winds and brass will keep distances of ten feet between players, use facemasks during rehearsals when it is possible (i.e. during long rests), and collect moisture that drips out of the bell of the instrument on the puppy pads.

6. Wind and brass groups will rehearse in the following spaces: the Upper Studio, the Pavilion, the Tap Tent,  the Painting Studio, the Stage (near the pool), or, weather permitting, the lawn. 

7. Concerts and community events will incorporate social distancing, and take place at the Stage (near the pool), the picnic area, the Dining Room, or the Jesup Theatre, rather than in the Music room.

8. Dining room serving and seating procedures will be adapted for safety. Whenever possible, meals will be served outside.

9. The ArtsAhimsa Festival community will create a Covid-19 bubble for the duration of festival week. Every participant is required to have taken the vaccine. Also, all participants will get tested for Covid-19 within 7 days before arrival and provide proof of a negative result. Once the Festival begins, it is required that all community members commit to staying inside our bubble, not venturing out to restaurants, stores, shops, or public gatherings.