LET THE MUSIC BEGIN!

The old floorboards creaked under even the smallest of feet as students and parents climbed the beautiful oak staircase to their music classes at the Grafton Town House this summer.  After signing a 30-year lease with the Town of Grafton last May, the Apple Tree Arts staff was eager to begin scheduling classes in the historic 19th century building, grateful to leave behind the rental space in various locations around town, happy to offer the faculty a centralized space in which to teach, and delighted to welcome students and their families to the building's air-conditioned rooms.

It's still a work in progress, but Beth Anderson -- who taught keyboard classes and also the Arts Alive! program there this summer -- couldn't be happier about teaching there.  "This beautiful space is the right setting for theatre and music classes," she says.  "Classrooms in the town's municipal center felt borrowed; this is ours."  Because the municipal center's classrooms are not air-conditioned, Beth's classes had to be moved every summer to a meeting room full of furniture in the basement of the Grafton Congregational Church.  This year, she happily set up her circle of keyboards in a large bright room on the second floor of the Town House, overlooking the beautiful Great Hall.  The room's vaulted ceiling, painted sky blue with period details, is supported by rich oak beams and features dormer windows with views of Grafton Common.  Beth loved teaching there and says it was fun to see how her students reacted to the new site.  Those new to Apple Tree Arts thought the building was "really cool," she says, "but the reaction of those whose classes used to meet at the municipal center was "Whoooaaaaa!"

With a new roof in place and fire escapes repaired, heavy machinery was installed in front of the building last spring to tackle Phase I of the accessibility work needed to make the building ADA-compliant, including handicap-accessible ramps and restrooms and also new door hardware and openers.  Other miscellaneous building improvements, including a copper roof over the building's front portico and new period-appropriate exterior lighting, are also being made. 

The Apple Tree Arts Community Chorus -- together with four other choruses that make up the new Community Chorus Collaborative -- will present Vivaldi's "Gloria" on Sunday, September 18 at 2:30 pm in the Auburn High School Auditorium, 99 Auburn Street.  The five choruses, who have been rehearsing all summer for this wonderful performance, will be joined by a full instrumental orchestra.  The other choruses are the Greater Auburn Community Chorus, the Westborough Community Chorus, the Blackstone Valley Community Chorus, and the Greater Milford Community Chorus.  Tickets will be sold at the door for $10 each.

WELCOME, NEW BOARD AND FACULTY MEMBERS! 

RUSSELL JEWELL-- We also extend a hearty welcome to our new brass teacher, who will teach trombone, trumpet, tuba, and baritone/ euphonium.  Russell earned his bachelor of music degree at Berklee College of Music. He has studied classical music with Tim Meyers (St. Louis Symphony), Dr. Richard Monaco, and Don Sanders (Boston Ballet, Boston Pops) and jazz with Jerry Bergonzi, Herb Pomeroy, and Phil Wilson. He has toured and recorded with the Grammy-nominated Either Orchestra and Mighty Sam McClain. He is the co-founder and leader of the Pan-American chamber group, Brass Roots.   

WOW -- A GRAND PIANO!

Dreams can come true.  At least that's how the staff of Apple Tree Arts feels about the beautiful 1885 Chickering mahogany concert grand piano that was carefully moved into the Great Hall at the Grafton Town House this summer.  On loan from Charles Jackman of Hopkinton, a piano tuner and owner of The Piano Museum there, the instrument has all its original parts and fills the hall with a deep rich sound that can only come from a concert grand.  We are deeply grateful to Charles Jackman for allowing us the use of this incredible piano.

CAPITAL CAMPAIGN IN PLANNING STAGES
Planning has begun for the $2.5 million capital campaign that will be needed to raise the funds needed to complete the restoration of the Grafton Town House for use as a performing arts center.  "We have been incorporating plans for this campaign into our strategic planning for the past two years," says Donna Blanchard, executive director of Apple Tree Arts, "but now we have begun to focus on planning in earnest."  Nearly $1 million of the funding needed to complete the project has already been raised, but another $1.5 million will be needed.  The board and staff are working closely together in what Donna calls the "quiet phase of the campaign" to identify leaders and secure leadership gifts.  The public phase of this effort, she says, will be announced next spring.