Hawthorne String Quartet & Painter Jim Shantz To Perform At Tanglewood

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LENOX, Mass. - On Friday evening at 6:00 pm on August 14, 2009, visual artist Jim Schantz will create an improvisational painting inspired by the Hawthorne String Quartet's live performance of Hans Krása's String Quartet (1921).

Marking the 50th anniversary of Martinu's death, the Hawthorne String Quartet will perform Bohuslav Martinu's Sixth String Quartet. The all-Czech program will also include Gideon Klein's Fantasy and Fugue for String Quartet, composed in 1943 during his incarceration in the Terezín concentration camp. Both Klein and Krása perished in the Holocaust. The concert will take place at Ozawa Hall.

Mark Ludwig who is a Fulbright scholar of Holocaust Music and director of the Terezín Chamber Music Foundation (TCMF) conceived the collaboration between the quartet and Jim Schantz.  The project entitled Remembrance & Beyond: A Legacy In Music & Painting, celebrates the extraordinary creative spirit and legacy of Hans Krása.

This unique artistic collaborative draws inspiration from the life and music of composer Hans Krása. Before his incarceration in the Terezín concentration camp, Krása was among the most promising voices of his musical generation. Tragically, he, like so many gifted artists and composers imprisoned in Terezín, perished in the Holocaust. REMEMBRANCE & BEYOND is a transformative memorial to these extraordinary artists.

Upon the 1921 premiere of Hans Krása String Quartet in Paris, critics hailed the young Krása as a composer in the "company of Schoenberg and Bartok." Holocaust music scholar Mark Ludwig discovered that Krása envisioned that this composition would be performed while an artist actively painted in response before an audience. This choreography of music and color surely has its experimental roots in the Surrealist movement. 

Recently, Mark Ludwig reflected on this project: "The Quartet (1921) and Krasa's vision for this composition symbolize the great promise of this lost generation. The act of painting live provides audience members with a thrilling perspective into the connections between the visual arts and music; and the opportunity of experiencing the promise of creativity in process."
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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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