WHO

The Chamber Music Workshop of the Composers Conference is collaborating with Avaloch Farm Music Institute to offer the annual Fall Foliage Chamber Music Retreat! Come join us for a long weekend of informal sightreading during peak fall foliage season. It takes place in beautiful Boscawen, New Hampshire– near the Appalachian Mountains and the Atlantic coastline. Space is limited to 32 musicians, including mixed strings, winds and piano. Adult amateurs and professionals (over 18) are welcome to attend. Boscawen is 20 minutes from Concord NH and 90 minutes from Boston Logan Airport.

WHAT

The retreat is an opportunity for several days of social, informal chamber music sightreading over the course of a weekend. The goal is to help recharge the soul and rekindle the joy of music making together. THIS IS NOT A WORKSHOP! All playing is informal– there are no scheduled lessons or coachings– and one must be comfortable with sight-reading! We will provide some music from our CMW library, but you should plan on bringing repertoire you would like to read. The full complement of instruments will be provided to you ahead of time for planning. A post-dinner chamber music concert by select CMW faculty will be offered on one evening.

Spouses/partners/friends are also welcome to attend and share your room to make it a family weekend holiday. If they do not wish to play or listen to sightreading sessions all day, there are plenty of additional activities to take part in, including morning yoga sessions, hiking opportunities (during peak fall foliage time!), canoeing and apple picking on the grounds of Avaloch, perusing New Hampshire’s famous Antique Alley (New England’s oldest antiques shopping district), or exploring the local quaint towns such as Concord and Manchester.

WHEN

All are invited to arrive between 4-6pm on Thursday October 17, 2024. Dinner will be served, followed by open sightreading sessions. The retreat will end at 12pm Sunday October 20th following a special brunch.

If you are currently a music educator who is interested, but are only able to attend between Friday-Sunday, we are committed to support you in an affordable musical retreat to help you recharge for your students! Please contact us at avalochfarm@gmail.com for more information regarding a shorter, scholarship-subsidized retreat opportunity.

ACCOMMODATIONS AND AMENITIES

Avaloch Farm Music Institute was founded by dedicated arts philanthropist Alfred Tauber, with the goal of providing professional musicians with unique creative residency opportunities, while simultaneously enriching the cultural landscape of the surrounding Boscawen community. The facilities are unique and unparalleled, and specially designed to accommodate musicians. In addition to 30 modernly furnished hotel-like bedrooms (set up in suites of 2 or 4 with common spaces, kitchenettes and bathrooms) there are also a total of 19 rehearsal spaces that range from accommodating 3-18 people for ensemble playing. There are a total of 10 grand pianos, 3 upright pianos and 3 electronic keyboards on the Avaloch campus.

For the retreat, all meals will be catered and prepared on-site by a professional chef and kitchen staff, featuring local New England sourced ingredients.

Additional amenities onsite include blueberry picking (summer), apple orchard picking (fall), canoeing and boating on the adjacent lake, and a recreation room to relax or enjoy a game of pool or ping pong. Within 20 minutes drive from Avaloch, there are multiple hiking opportunities, as well as the famous Antique Alley on Route 4. Both Concord and Manchester NH are located close by, and the coastal town of Portsmouth is under an hour away.

COST

The entire weekend, including all lodging (3 nights) and all meals (8 meals, starting with dinner on Thursday night and ending with brunch on Sunday at noon) is $550. If your partner/spouse/friend wishes to share a room with you (there is one full sized bed in each room), they may do so for an additional $150 to help defray the additional food costs. Commuters are also welcome for a cost of $150, which includes access to all activities and meals.

Every dollar goes towards running the facilities at Avaloch (food, lodging, housekeeping/grounds/kitchen staff.) No profit is made by the Composers Conference.

HOW TO SIGN UP

If you wish to sign up for the Fall Foliage Chamber Music Retreat, please click on the link below to register. There will be limited spots for each instrument in order to maintain balance for chamber ensemble making. With only 32 total playing spots available, we highly encourage you to sign up early! Once we receive your registration form (as long as there is a spot available for your instrument) Avaloch Farm Music Institute will send you an email to complete your registration with the board/lodging fees. Your spot will be held for 1 week and then offered to the next person on the list with the same instrumentation if we do not hear from you. If there are no spots available when you sign up, you will be placed on a waitlist and contacted on a first-come-first-served basis (dependent on instrumentation.)

If there are any unforeseen circumstances that arise, you may cancel before September 15 and receive a 50% refund, minus any credit card processing fees. After September 15, we unfortunately cannot offer any refunds as all the food/lodging costs will have already been contracted.

If you are a current music educator wishing to attend between Friday and Sunday, please contact us at avalochfarm@gmail.com before submitting a registration form.

Stay tuned for the third annual Fall Foliage Chamber Music Retreat in 2024!

Information and registration will be available in Summer 2024. If you would like to be added to the mailing list to ensure a spot, please email us at avalochfarm@gmail.com.