Yellow Barn

2019-20 Artist Residencies

In 2008, Yellow Barn instituted its Artist Residencies, the first retreat program in the United States created specifically for performing musicians. The purpose of the Artist Residencies is to further the art of the performance of classical music by providing an environment conducive to undistracted study, an exchange of ideas and opportunities for performance. Their content is defined by artists’ proposals and Yellow Barn’s artistic vision, and musicians have come to Yellow Barn to create new repertoire, to prepare for major performances, to explore new interpretations of important works, and to stage theatrical events.

Past Artist Residency projects

Artist Residency musicians and ensembles

Apply for an Artist Residency

River Spirits: An abstract fable

Yellow Barn is committed to the health and safety of everyone in our community. We are closely monitoring the coronavirus outbreak and following guidance from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Vermont Department of Health. Accordingly, we are postponing the River Spirits Artist Residency, including the public concert scheduled for April 19 in Putney, to a later date TBD.

Ultrafizz: Since 1500

The second half of the Ultrafizz Artist Residency, including the public performance scheduled for May 16, has been postponed to a later date TBD.

Lydian String Quartet: “Versuch uber die Fuge”

The Lydian Quartet Artist Residency, with Tony Arnold, has been postponed to a later date TBD.

Past event (2019)

The WholeHearted Musician

In this artist residency, career consultant, psychotherapist, and former concert cellist Dana Fonteneau will work with the Argus and Omer Quartets, facilitating a week-long intensive to explore all aspects of what is required for a fulfilling, successful, and sustainable career. The residency will be bookended by two performances showing how these “off stage” elements, when addressed effectively, make a difference in performance “on stage”. More

Residency Concert I

Monday, September 23 | 7:30pm
Next Stage, Putney, VT
Works by Bach, Beethoven, Brahms, Seo, and Webern

Residency Concert II

Monday, September 30 | 7:30pm
Next Stage, Putney, VT
Works by Bach, Beethoven, Brahms, Seo, and Webern
Past event (2019)

Lassus Quartett

Composer Morton Feldman writes, “Art is a crucial, dangerous operation we perform on ourselves. Unless we take a chance, we die in art.” That there is no in-between for the artist who wants to be “alive in art,” finds a contrapuntal lament in this reflection of Feldman’s, spoken in phrases punctuated by long pauses: "There’s an aspect of my attitude about being a composer that is like mourning. Say, for example, the death of art . . . something that has to do with, say, Schubert leaving me.” Morton Feldman’s String Quartet No.2, a work lasting six hours, and Schubert’s G Major string quartet will be the focus of the Lassus Quartet while at Yellow Barn. More

Residency Discussion

Monday, November 4 | 7:00pm
Antidote Books

Residency Concert

Tuesday, November 12 | 4:00pm
Michael S. Currier Center, The Putney School
Past event (2019)

Three Enigmas: Kern

Cellist Jay Campbell and pianist Conor Hanick return to Yellow Barn to explore the first “chapter” of a new work by composer Marcos Balter: Kern, my new 20-minute work for cello and prepared piano, is inspired by the graphic designing term “kerning”. It will be built around the concepts of clarification and obscurantism, and how they relate to the temporal and spatial organization of musical material. Eventually, Kern will become part of Three Enigmas, an hour-long tableaux comprised of three interconnected works. Incorporating hidden music quotations and systems, as well as extra-musical elements hidden within the fabric of the tableaux, the three sections point toward a single, larger-scale enigma. More

Past event (2020)

The Music Alliance Project

Jazz duo Cordelia Tapping (vocals) and Chase Morrin (piano), together with Yellow Barn musicians flutist Rosie Gallagher and cellist John Myerscough, and harpist Charles Overton, embrace the commonalities between jazz and classical music. Free admission More

Residency Concert

Thursday, February 20 | 7:30pm
Next Stage, Putney, VT
Past event (2020)

Duo-ING: Refractions

Violinist Ying Xue and pianist Qing Jiang return “home” to Yellow Barn to focus on sonatas of J.S. Bach and Ravel, juxtaposed with works written over the past decade by Tonia Ko, Eric Nathan, Sean Shepherd, and Daniel Temkin. Free admission More

Residency Concert

Sunday, February 23 | 7:30pm
Next Stage, Putney, VT