Spend time with art
A Harmonious Collaboration
For Mazzocchi, seeing the program in action has been profoundly fulfilling.“ When you have people on campus engaging in something that you had as a complete and total vision in your mind, and the vision matches the reality— it’ s the most fulfilling thing,” he reflects.“ These young students are thriving.”
Life and Learning at Kinhaven
The inaugural Kinhaven-BBA cohort consists of nine string players: violinists, violists, and cellists. They left their usual schools for the semester, and they are spending the Fall living on Kinhaven’ s campus and studying each morning at BBA. They are the first to test the model that Mazzocchi hopes will grow into a sustainable template. Ava, a senior violinist, described the experience candidly:“ It’ s been really great! It’ s also really intense – and this is definitely a full-time job. I can feel myself becoming a better musician and becoming more disciplined. It’ s busy. The schedule is packed, and it requires a lot of maturity.”
The program is structured to encourage discipline and time management skills. Students leave Weston in the morning for classes at BBA, but return by early afternoon for their musical immersion programming.“ We get home from BBA around 2PM,” Ava explains.“ From 3:30 to 5PM we have chamber coaching, sometimes with faculty, sometimes independently. Then from 5 to 6PM, we have designated practice time. After dinner, we might have studio class, where we talk about things like injury prevention, stress during performances, or cueing technique, and then a couple of us play for each other and get feedback.”
Faculty coachings are central to the program.“ We have chamber music coachings with the groups every single day,” says faculty violinist Sommer Altier, a member of Kinhaven’ s resident“ Trillium” faculty quartet.“ Some of them are half rehearsals and half coachings, and we also teach private lessons.” Every week, concerts are held where both staff and students perform various repertoire selections. Altier elaborates:“ Half the concert is all the students playing one or two movements that they prepare in a week. Then we will play a full work, and finally, we close with a large ensemble where students and teachers perform side-by-side.”
Unlike Kinhaven’ s summer sessions, which include orchestral programming, the semester focuses exclusively on smaller chamber music and string ensembles.“ During the summer, there are also or-
Spend time with art
860 SVAC DRIVE / WEST ROAD MANCHESTER, VT 05254 SVAC. ORG
Christmas 1912 Step back in time to experience the home festooned with hand-crafted, elegant holiday décor of the period. 12 / 4- 12 / 29
SEE ALL OF THIS SEASON’ S PROGRAMMING ONLINE AT SVAC. ORG
The Museum Store Experience the joy of giving. Find artisanal and Hildene-sourced gifts for everyone on your list. Admission not required to visit the shop.
Open Thursday through Monday 10:00am – 4:30pm Manchester, VT hildene. org
36 manchester life | manchesterlifemagazine. com