Our world has become fragmented and Michael Schmidt is trying to bring fragments back together.
What he saw in the 120-year-old barn on the Glencolton farm near Durham, Ont., was how he could bring his passions for music and agriculture together. The cycles of nature fit well with the rhythms of music.
This is a working farm but the barn is big enough to have wonderful performance areas in the loft. The dream of a symphony in the barn moved toward reality.
With the help of neighbours, Schmidt dismantled a second barn he bought and used the lumber to expand his own. Imagine the rhythm of hammers and saws blending with the flavours of food as the barn-raising bee swung into action.
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For the past seven years people have come north of Toronto to hear the likes of piano soloist Anton Kuerti and see performances of Lehar’s Merry Widow and Mozart’s Zaide.
Last year one of the artists, a grad from New York’s Julliard School of Music, stayed on as an apprentice farmer. This spring he started a huge herb and vegetable garden.
A tent city has been built behind the barn and the 35 musicians who are playing this summer live on site and grow and prepare their own food between practices and performances.
As they play Haydn’s Creation, Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons and Beethoven’s Symphonic Biography, classical music blends with the sounds of cattle, the smell of the land, and the taste of fine food catered by famous chefs.
The artists find ways to practise their art while sustaining their bodies and spirits.
And they see how the beat of the drum amplifies the heartbeat of the earth as members of the Nawash First Nation drum and sing their way through their creation story.
