The band plays on at Grace Note Farm
An injury may have taken away the ability for this classicallytrained flutist to play, but she’s found another way to stay connected to the music she loves
BURRILLVILLE — A professional flutist who trained at Julliard School of Music, Virginia Sindelar was at the height of her music career in the Boston area when she was involved in a car accident in 1987 that left her with limited mobility and no longer able to meet the grueling demands of a professional musician’s performance schedule
“I suffered permanent damage to my neck and was unable to put in the kind of practice I was used to,” she says.
Realizing that she would never be able to play and perform again at the highest level, Sindelar made the painful decision to give up her professional music career.
She ended up teaching and playing small benefits, but what really changed her life and opened new doors was finding the Benjamin Smith homestead farm in Pascoag, a historic 1730 farm adjacent to the George Washington Management area.
“I bought the farm in 1994,” she said. “It was an abandoned historic property and one of the first original
farms in Pascoag, but it needed a lot of work.”
Renamed Grace Note Farm and converted into an inn, Sindelar and her sons renovated the original buildings and outbuildings, and added on a great room with an enormous hearth.
The 11.5-acre property is protected by a conservation easement after being acquired by the Burrillville Land Trust in 2007.
Sindelar says while she loves being an innkeeper, educating guests about the history of the homestead and farm, and welcoming children for school programs that teach history and animal husbandry, she wanted to somehow incorporate her love for music into the property.
That’s when she came up with Music at the Farm, a unique concert series that presents a new artist each month on the second Sunday through December. Co-sponsored by Grace Note Farm and the Burrillville Land Trust, the concerts feature a variety of music styles from classical chamber music to folk and jazz. As artistic director and host, Sindelar invites talented internationally recognized artists from around the world.
Tickets are $20 for adults and $10 for students under 12. Seating for the concerts is limited to between 30 and 40 people, and all proceeds benefit the musicians who are invited to play.
“There’s nothing like this in Rhode Island,” Sindelar says. “It’s an intimate setting with high quality, world renowned performers and fulltime musicians,” she said. “We want to bring audiences in to enjoy the farm, the music and the beautiful Burrillville countryside.”
The fourth concert in the series will be held Sunday, Aug. 12 at 2 p.m. with soprano Catherine Psarakis, and pianist Leona Cheung present- ing “My Favorite Arias” by Puccini, Moore, Bach, Faure, Bishop, and five Greek Songs by Ravel.
Psarakis, a native of Melbourne, Florida, is a graduate of Rollins College with a double major in chemistry/music where she performed on violin and voice and performed the role of Papagena from The Magic Flute. She made her operatic debut in Queen of the Night in Die Zauberflote, with the Chicago Summer Opera where she played the role of Cundegonde in Candide at the New England Conservatory. In Europe she has sung in Music Theater of Bavaria in Oberaudorf, Germany where she performed scenes in German including the role of Zdenka from Arabella. She also was part of “Si parla, si canta” in Urbania, Italy, where she performed roles in Italian including Ardina from L’elilsir d’amore, Violetta from La Traviata, Nannette from Falstaf and Lucia from Lucia d’ Lammermoor. In addition, Psarakis recently made her debut as the soprano soloist in Handel’s Messiah with the Messiah Choral Society in Orlando. She has performed with the Boston Art Song Society and the Dante Alighieri Society of Mass.
Cheung, a native of Hong Kong, has a M.M. in collaborative piano from the New England Conservatory, and a B.M. in Piano Performance with honors from the Hong Kong Baptist University. As a specialist in vocal repertoire, she has participated in numerous master classes, including the Summer Program Songfest in Los Angeles; as cooperative operatic coach/accompanying at Westminster Choir College in England, and as a fellow at the Toronto Summer Music Festival.
Cheung has recorded with Cantoria Hong Kong and was featured on the website Half Moon Rising and Edition Peter CD.
Sindelar said she came up with the concept of Music at the Farm as a way to present good music close to home and in a setting surrounded by beauty in history.
“I was spending a lot of money on tickets and driving my granddaughter to Boston to hear good music, so I thought, what if I could do this at farm?” says Sindelar.
The concerts are held in an intimate Colonial-style setting inside the Great Room, with its huge hearth, Windsor chairs, pinewood floors and large windows offering expansive views of the homestead.
The concerts begins at 2 p.m. and are followed by tours of the property at 3:15 p.m. The tour lasts about 30 minutes. Music themed deserts are also served for a donation. There is also ample time to meet and talk with the musicians in what Sindelar calls “a very relaxed, bucolic setting.”
Sindelar says the experience combines nature, history and a history of music.
The concerts are co-sponsored by the Burrillville Land Trust, which holds a conservation easement for the property. A conservation easement is a restrictive covenant by the owner to ensure that the property will always remain a farmstead and will look like an 18th century Rhode Island farm. The conservation easement is held by the Land Trust and was the first of its kind in Burrillville.
“We’re co-sponsoring Music at the Farm so we can have more people appreciate the beauty of the surroundings,” said Burrillville Land Trust President Paul Roselli.
“Since I’ve turned the farm into an inn we’ve had people from all over come to Burrillville,” adds Sindelar. “Putting on these concerts allows even more pope to experience and enjoy the farm and the town.”
For more information on the Grace Note Farm and the Music at the Farm concert series, visit www.gracenotefarmweb.com.