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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
COPLAND HOUSE LAUNCHES
TRANSFORMATIVE EXPANSION
Award-Winning Creative Center for American Music and the Arts
Begins New Era with Purchase of Vast Additional Property
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Cortlandt Manor, NY, March 4, 2024 -- Copland House, the award-winning creative center for American music and the arts based at iconic composer Aaron Copland's National Historic Landmark home in New York’s Lower Hudson Valley, today announces its purchase of a vast school campus on the New York-Connecticut border, heralding a transformational programmatic and institutional expansion. The $3-million, 24-acre complex nestled in the woods in Brewster, New York will become a major satellite venue for Copland House, enabling it to substantially extend its artistic support, audience reach, public presentations, educational engagement, and programs that uniquely embrace and champion the entire artistic process. As home to a vibrant, multidisciplinary creative community centering the arts in ongoing public conversation, the property, known as Bluestone Farm, will stand as a vital meeting place, both live and virtual, where artists, music lovers, cultural adventurers, and newcomers of all ages, backgrounds, and identities are welcomed into an exhilarating world of continuous exploration, discovery, and innovation.
“In a profoundly-changed post-pandemic world, this ambitious venture strongly affirms our belief in the power of ideas, creativity, expressivity, and collaboration to bring people together,” said Copland House's longtime Artistic and Executive Director Michael Boriskin, a noted pianist, recording artist, producer, and one of Musical America’s “Top 30 Professionals of 2023.” “This giant step provides us with the capacity to deepen our relationships with the music industry, educational and business communities, and general public. It is also a breathtaking way for us to begin celebrating Copland House’s 25th Anniversary – by envisioning our next quarter-century and beyond.”
For nearly 50 years, Bluestone Farm was the site of the beloved Melrose School, an Episcopal grade school located one hour north of New York City, at the nexus of Westchester, Putnam, and Fairfield Counties. The property fulfills all of Copland House’s structural, aesthetic, and operational needs, and provides both a serene location and ready public access by car, train, and air. The heart of the complex is a large, three-wing school building, whose simple, strong design features hundreds of windows that bathe the interior in natural light and affords inspirational views of the surrounding woods. Encircling it are three residential houses, an intimate chapel, small farm outbuildings, and a large outdoor soccer field.
Copland House will adapt the existing structures and spaces to create:
- a state-of-the-art venue – for public and family concerts, recording and filming, educational and distance-learning programs for all ages
- artist studios – for theater, dance, opera, the visual arts, and other genres
- living quarters – for resident artists
- reclaimed exterior gardens and green spaces -- as oases for outdoor reflection, leisure, public performances, and other presentations and activities
- permanent exhibition about Aaron Copland and the evolution of American music
- intimate community gathering spaces
- administrative offices
Copland House’s first-phase programmatic priorities at Bluestone Farm include:
- launching collaborative residencies for entire creative teams working together on larger, multi-arts projects
- expanding its coveted creative workshops and mentoring programs for gifted emerging composers
- broadening its mainstage concert series that showcases 150 years of America’s rich, diverse musical legacy and features its internationally-acclaimed Music from Copland House ensemble and renowned guest artists
- offering educational projects and lifelong-learning activities, featuring Copland House’s resident and teaching artists
- building multiple opportunities for engagement for diverse populations – both experienced and newcomers – to directly interact with living creators, and experience new works as they are being developed.
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This substantial programmatic and institutional expansion will strongly complement the continuing and essential role of Rock Hill, Copland’s beloved, decades-long residence in adjacent Westchester County, New York. While the needs of a nationally active arts organization greatly exceed the confines of a small private house, Rock Hill will always stand as Copland House’s irreplaceable institutional and inspirational home. A National Historic Landmark and unique cultural, educational, and civic resource, Rock Hill reflects Copland’s values and focus, and connects him to a time and place – though his legacy far transcends both.
“This transaction represents a big milestone for the Town of Southeast,” said Thomas LaPerch of Houlihan Lawrence Commercial, the deal’s lead selling broker. “Copland House plans on working with the Town to bring a wide spectrum of musical and cultural programs to the community. This will enhance the quality of life for all town residents in Southeast and the surrounding area.”
“With the purchase of Bluestone Farm, Copland House can meaningfully expand its efforts to honor and further build upon the lifelong legacy of the legendary Aaron Copland in championing American composers and their work,” said Dr. Ezriel Kornel, President of Copland House’s Board of Trustees. “At Bluestone Farm, we will now be able to fulfill the needs of composer-led creative teams by providing safe spaces for artistic risk-taking and innovating, as they collaborate on multi-disciplinary projects. We will also be able to support extraordinary composers, performers, and other artists from all backgrounds as they explore evolving technologies in creating, presenting, and preserving their visions. Copland House is now poised to play a dominant role in music and the arts in America, and we are excited to become a part of Brewster, the Town of Southeast, and Putnam County. Advancing art enhances not only the entire local community but also humanity as a whole.”
ABOUT COPLAND HOUSE
Copland House has long welcomed past and present musical dreamers, explorers, and game-changing innovators of all backgrounds and identities, who – like Aaron Copland – have changed the way we engage with the world. An award-winning creative center for American music based at Rock Hill, Copland’s longtime residence and a National Historic Landmark in New York’s Lower Hudson Valley, Copland House is the only composer’s home in the U.S. devoted to nurturing America’s vibrant, diverse cultural legacy through a broad range of musical, public, educational, and digital programs. Hailed by The New York Times for “all the richness of its offerings,” Copland House’s activities resonate far beyond its walls, nationally and globally, and are built upon three primary programmatic areas: multi-faceted composer support, live and recorded performances, and in-school and on-site educational activities. Among its honors are the Yale Distinguished Music Educator Award, American Music Center’s Letter of Distinction, Westchester magazine’s “Best of the Decade” recognition and “Top 52 Reasons to Love Westchester,” and ArtsWestchester’s Arts Organization of the Year Award.
Its touring, resident chamber music ensemble, Music from Copland House, has been featured on CBS Sunday Morning, NPR, the European Broadcasting Union, and Sirius; engaged by the Kennedy Center, Tanglewood, Carnegie Hall, Library of Congress, Smithsonian Institution, the Caramoor, Cape Cod, Bard, Bowdoin, and Ecstatic Music Festivals, and many others; and been heard on the Arabesque, Koch International, and Copland House Blend labels. It has commissioned nearly 100 works, and presents a wide variety of educational and community outreach activities across the U.S. Founded in 1999 by flutist Paul Lustig Dunkel, clarinetist Derek Bermel, violinist Nicholas Kitchen, cellist Wilhelmina Smith, and pianist Michael Boriskin, the ensemble’s concerts feature its stellar roster of Founding, Principal, and Guest Artists, of whom The Chicago Tribune raved “Copland would have been proud of them all.”
Contact us to arrange for tours and interviews.
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