Harpsichordist to Perform at the Clark

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Victor Clark
Photo, Howie Levitz
WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — Renowned harpsichordist Victor Hill will present a solo recital at the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute on Sunday, Oct. 3 at 3 p.m. Admission is free.

Featured on the program are Johann Sebastian Bach’s six “French Suites,” the first five of which he composed for his wife Anna Magdalena in approximately 1720. Each suite consists of a sequence of six to eight stylized dance movements that Hill says “emphasizes Bach’s immense creativity.” German composer Johann Sebastian Bach (1685–1750) was a master of the Baroque period renowned for the artistic beauty, technical skill, and intellectual depth of his ecclesiastical and secular works for choir, orchestra, and solo instruments.

Hill was a professor of mathematics at Williams College for 40 years. He studied the harpsichord in Amsterdam with the noted Dutch harpsichordist Gustav Leonhardt and has played more than 900 concerts throughout the United States and in Europe. Hill plays the double-manual harpsichord of eighteenth-century design that was custom built for him in 1997 by Richard Kingston of Asheville, North Carolina. He tunes the instrument himself in a common 18th-century pitch and temperament.

The Clark is located at 225 South St. The galleries are open Tuesday through Sunday, from 10 to 5 (daily in July and August). Admission is free November through May. Admission is $15 from June 1 through Oct. 31. Admission is free for children 18 and younger, members, and students with valid ID. For more information, call 413-458-2303 or visit clarkart.edu.
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Williamstown Fire Committee Talks Station Project Cuts, Truck Replacement

By Stephen DravisiBerkshires Staff
WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — The Prudential Committee on Wednesday signed off on more than $1 million in cost cutting measures for the planned Main Street fire station.
 
Some of the "value engineering" changes are cosmetic, while at least one pushes off a planned expense into the future.
 
The committee, which oversees the Fire District, also made plans to hold meetings over the next two Wednesdays to finalize its fiscal year 2025 budget request and other warrant articles for the May 28 annual district meeting. One of those warrant articles could include a request for a new mini rescue truck.
 
The value engineering changes to the building project originated with the district's Building Committee, which asked the Prudential Committee to review and sign off.
 
In all, the cuts approved on Wednesday are estimated to trim $1.135 million off the project's price tag.
 
The biggest ticket items included $250,000 to simplify the exterior masonry, $200,000 to eliminate a side yard shed, $150,000 to switch from a metal roof to asphalt shingles and $75,000 to "white box" certain areas on the second floor of the planned building.
 
The white boxing means the interior spaces will be built but not finished. So instead of dividing a large space into six bunk rooms and installing two restrooms on the second floor, that space will be left empty and unframed for now.
 
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