Supporting the Arts in Western Massachusetts and Beyond

July 6, 2018

PREVIEW: Close Encounters With Music, High Peaks Festival


Close Encounters With Music, Great Barrington, MA
www.berkshirehighpeaksmusic.org
August 6 -16, 2018

Close Encounters With Music (CEWM) an organization artistically headed up by internationally acclaimed cellist and educator Yehuda Hanani, is making history this summer by moving its High Peaks Festival to the Berkshire School campus in scenic Sheffield, MA. Previous editions of the festival have taken place throughout New York State. Now, the pull of the Berkshires, the actual home of CEWM, ultimately has drawn the festival back to its base where audiences and supporters have enjoyed 26 seasons of concerts. . The Festival is slated to take place August 6-August 16.

The High Peaks Music Festival was created as a logical extension of the mission of the organization. “It has been our goal to make great music approachable and to relate it to other artistic disciplines so that it can receive the love and sense of wonder it merits,” says Hanani.

Each year’s Festival has a theme and this summer it’s “The French-Russian Connection.” “There was so much reciprocal import-export of ideas, important cultural figures and aesthetic ideals that we have a plethora of pieces to program and talks to schedule,” explains Hanani.

The 2018 musicians are expert in strings and piano. In addition, Baroque experts will accompany.