Renowned violinist will perform at Lenox Library

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LENOX, Mass. - On Sunday, February 21, at 4 pm, renowned violinist and a founding member of the Emerson String Quartet, Eugene Drucker, will perform and read at the Lenox Library.

Mr. Drucker will play the final two movements of J.S. Bach’s Partita in D Minor for solo violin, including the magnificent Chaconne which piece is also  featured in Drucker’s 2007 novel, The Savior. He will read from this critically-acclaimed story about a violinist in Nazi Germany.

An active soloist with orchestras around the world, Drucker is also violinist with the internationally famous Emerson String Quartet which, over three decades, has won eight Grammy Awards, three Gramophone Awards, and the coveted Avery Fisher Prize.

Mr. Drucker graduated from Columbia University and the Juilliard School, where he studied with Oscar Shumsky and where he was concertmaster of the Juilliard Orchestra. He made his New York debut as a Concert Artists Guild winner in the fall of 1976, after having won prizes at the Montreal Competition and the Queen Elisabeth Competition in Brussels. Mr. Drucker has recorded the complete unaccompanied works of Bach, recently reissued by Parnassus Records, and the complete sonatas and duos of Bartok. His novel, The Savior, was published by Simon & Schuster in July 2007 and has recently appeared in paperback.

Mr. Drucker’s appearance at the Lenox Library is part of the 2009-2010 Distinguished Lecture Series at the Lenox Library. All programs in this series are free and open to the public thanks to the sponsorship of Mary Nash Consulting and The Barefoot Gardener Company, LLC. Reservations are not required. Lectures and performances are held monthly in the Sedgwick Reading Room of the Lenox Library at 18 Main Street, Lenox, Massachusetts.

The Distinguished Lecture Series is organized and hosted by Professor Jeremy Yudkin of Lenox. For information about future lectures in this series, please see the Library’s “Calendar of Events” at www.lenoxlib.org or contact Lisa Berkel at 413-637-2630 or lberkel@lenoxlib.org.
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A Boutique Hotel is Bringing Guests a Luxury Stay in Lenox

By Breanna SteeleiBerkshires Staff

LENOX, Mass. — A new Inn is bringing a boutique-style stay for visitors and locals to enjoy.

Owners, Sullivan Capital LLC, purchased the property, located on 135 Main Street, in 2024. After a year or renovations, Garden Gables Inn is open for business. 

"Garden Gables started off as one of the many Berkshire cottages, 1790 was the date on that, and it's always operated as an inn," said Hospitality Manager Yvonne Walton. "It's just a great gathering place and relaxation spot for people to come and get the feel of Lenox, and just slow down and enjoy the nature and the surrounding area...get culture and art and see some great concerts. I think it'll be a wonderful place, definitely does more of the upper-scale hospitality." 

Owners Niko Giallouis and Eric Sullivan bought the property from the former owner. Sullivan had his eye on Lenox since attending a wedding almost 10 years ago.

"I came to a wedding in Lenox, probably six or seven years ago. Personally, just kind of fell in love with the area, and I guess that's kind of how it got on my radar. So you know from that perspective, as we got into the hotel business out towards an area, it was a place I was kind of monitoring and waiting for the right property to show up."

After purchasing the two underwent a full renovation, a project that cost around $1.5 million. The building, first built in 1780, required some TLC. Sullivan's wife, Jessica, who owns Jessica Sullivan Design, designed the inn.

Sullivan said they installed a new roof, repainted everything, renovated the bathrooms, installed new floors, a new HVAC system, and new plumbing.

"We really touched everything from the outside...I mean, all the aesthetics and layouts changed a bit," he said. "As I said, put about a million and a half into it. All new furniture, fixtures, everything. The design's completely different. It wasn't a full gut, but it was a heavy, heavy renovation."

The two like to collaborate with local businesses, and they make a point to direct visitors to local restaurants, businesses, and attractions.

"If guests are asking for recommendations, our customer service team, our guest services team, will relay that kind of information. Even if we can call and make a reservation for somebody, happy to do it," he said. "We aren't doing breakfast, but what we do is we have partnerships with a lot of the breakfast places downtown. We actually purchase a gift certificates for each person each day, so that they can use that to go downtown."

Sullivan hopes that guests don't see their inn as just a place to sleep and dump their bags, but make it an experience for anyone who stays.

"We really focus on kind of the experience side of things, so again, we want to give you the best experience you can have here...and we want that not just to be the place you put your bag and go do things. It's important to think of everything," he said.

Sullivan said partnerships are important to their business and are a way to connect with locals.

"The local partnerships, I can't stress that enough, because no matter how much and how great the room is, people are still going to want to go do other things," he said. "So, I think it just benefits everybody if we're all working together and so forth, and supporting the community, being neighborly too, because we are surrounded by residential homes...But we really try to put a lot of blood, sweat, and tears, a lot of love into the building, all the details, really care about the senses," Sullivan said.

The Inn's check-in and reservations are completely online. When guests arrive, all they have to do is check in online and receive their code that they will use to enter their room. Sullivan hopes this helps create less stress for guests and gets them to their room as fast as possible, especially after a long trip.

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