Grass Root Culture

Lich Gate Concerts

An altruistic effort started in the depths of the Covid pandemic quickly took roots in the sophisticated soil of the Southern Berkshires and is providing music lovers with yet another outlet for their passion.

Lich Gate Concerts, whose first live chamber concert was a 2020 event that benefitted the needy, has now grown to three performances each year, in spring, fall and winter. The fall performance will be held September 14th at 4PM in the Sheffield Town Park.

A top-tier quartet of artists—Jorge Ávila, violin I; Rachel Handman, violin II; Orlando Wells, viola; and Sarah Hewitt-Roth, cello, will be joined by a chamber orchestra of 10 New York musicians. They will present a program that begins with Allegro piacevole from Serenade for String Orchestra in E minor, Op. 20 by Edward Elgar; Élégie from Serenade for Strings in C major, Op. 48 by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky; and The Four Seasons (Le quattro stagioni) Concerti for Violin and Orchestra, Opus 8, Nos. 1–4 by Antonio Vivaldi. Jorge Ávila will be the soloist.

The program will end with Romanian Folk Dances, Sz. 68, BB 76 by Bela Bartok.

The music of Vivaldi's The Four Seasons is based on four poems written by Vivaldi himself. Ávila’s partner, playwright Ed Valentine, will read the poems before each section.

“It will be a really good concert,” said Ávila. “We love playing for music lovers who are really sophisticated as well as those who experience it in a more visceral way. And I do like to play different composers. This time we will be doing Vivaldi’s Four Seasons in its entirety. It’s very well-known and very beautiful.”

He said the program starts with Elgar and Tchaikovsky. “Then we jump into ‘Spring’ and ‘Summer’ from The Four Seasons. That brings us to a short intermission. We will open the second half with ‘Fall’ and ‘Winter’ and end up with the ‘Rumanian Dancers.’ All together, we will represent music from the 1700s to the 20th Century. I like to take people on a musical journey.

“I’m very excited about this concert series,” he continued. “I think it is a good service to members of the public who can’t easily get to New York City or Boston to hear music. I work all the time in New York City but my heart is here. Lich Gate is very local to Sheffield and we are so proud of it.”

For those who may be wondering about the concert series name, Lich Gate, a lich gate is a covered gateway found at the entrance to a traditional English-style churchyard. It marks the transition from the secular world into the sacred. Lich Gate Concerts seek to transport the community from everyday life into the realm of music, which has the power to speak directly to souls.

Ávila was familiar with the Berkshires long before he and his partner purchased a house in Sheffield in 2019. He enjoyed fellowships at Tanglewood as a young musician and was befriended by three women friends he affectionately calls “my Jewish mothers.” They subsequently invited him into their homes and he was able to see the country in all four seasons.

“I just loved it so the minute we could we bought our own house. We weren’t just New Yorkers escaping the pandemic.” He said soon after their relocation they found friends at Christ Trinity Church, led by Trudy Weaver Miller as Executive Director. Miller had been a professional singer and ran the Berkshire Choral Festival for many years.

With Ávila and Valentine trapped in their new country home for 18 months, they were more than ready to help when Miller suggested a benefit concert. “The church is so good at doing outreach to the needy, the hungry and hikers,” Ávila said. “We planned a concert and three friends from the city came up to perform with me. We isolated—this is a big house—and we kept our distance while playing. We did the concert in the middle of Covid in the Sheffield Park. We found people were hungry for community. Art touches people in different ways and people were coming up to us crying.”

The series was extended into a second year when two concerts were offered and then three concerts in spring, fall and winter. About 100 to 150 listeners come to each concert from Connecticut, throughout the Berkshires and as far away as Albany NY. The musicians perform inside the park’s pavilion which Ávila says has excellent acoustics. Patrons can sit either in the pavilion or on the park’s grass.

The musicians’ instruments must be kept out of the sun—hence the pavilion—but he said they are not affected by changes in humidity unless they are significant. “If we play near the sea, we bring our second instruments because some of our instruments are very old and very valuable,” he revealed, “But here, we will be playing our best instruments. We take care of them like our babies.”

In case of inclement weather, programs are offered in the nearby Old Parish Church, also the site for the winter concert.

Ávila said Lich Gate Concerts is a “mom and pop” organization, with Miller acting as executive director and Ávila as artistic director. It is supported through ticket sales but also needs donors to continue. Pavilion Seating $40/Lawn Seating $20 Children under 18 are admitted free on the lawn with a ticketed adult; Card to Culture holders are admitted free. To purchase tickets click here.

Miller suggests adding a donation to purchasers’ ticket prices to help with the increased expense of presenting a chamber orchestra concert. Lich Gate Concerts are under the fiscal sponsorship of Christ Trinity Church, a not-for-profit 501(c)(3) organization.

“It’s been wonderful playing in Sheffield,” Ávila said enthusiastically. “I take pride in thinking we have brought a little bit of Tanglewood south. It’s a miracle in my eyes. During Covid when nothing was happening something happened in Sheffield.”