MILLBROOK — At the beginning of 2020, the Millbrook Business Association (MBA) was looking forward to a good, if ordinary, year. With a new president, Millbrook village Trustee Kevin McGrane, new vice president, David Gruning, and a new website (still being designed), the future held promise. But by spring 2020, the coronavirus pandemic had changed everything, including the Millbrook economy and how local businesses were faring.
Governor Andrew Cuomo ordered non-essential businesses to shut down temporarily in mid-March due to the virus. Some were able to simply change their hours and offer curb-side service or delivery, like restaurants; others, later on, could open at a limited capacity by enforcing safety protocols like requiring face masks and offering hand sanitizer. Now, roughly one year later, the MBA gave an update on how local businesses are faring.
Jennifer Moriarty, who owns the gift shop, Juniper, on Franklin Avenue, said she is grateful her business is doing well. She credits her customers shop online and in person, understanding how important it is to shop local. Juniper has adjusted its hours and days.
“Our customers care and stand by us,” said Moriarty. “To survive these trying times we need this to continue.”
Gruning said that the home décor business he’s involved with, Millbrook House, located at 3300 Franklin Ave., which also sells unique gift items and offers interior design services, has a clientele that comes mostly from the city, by appointment. That, he said, has made a difference in maintaining a steady customer base that’s not reliant on walk-in business.
Millbrook House follows all COVID-19 safety measures, and is looking forward to seeing things return to normal, said Gruning. The business is currently updating its website.
Irene Wing, who manages St. Joseph’s Church’s thrift store, Uncle Al’s Attic, said it’s being very careful to observe all safety measures, and continues to only allow a few customers in the shop at once. It’s still managing to maintain a steady business, she said.
The pandemic has brought city residents and others to Millbrook, said Wing. She spoke of three young ladies who were in the Hudson Valley hiking before winter arrived, who stopped in the village to investigate. They told Wing that they were surprised at how careful everyone was about wearing masks, social distancing, while still being friendly and inviting. Wing said she hopes that will bode well for future business in Millbrook.
Alicia Adams Alpaca reported an uptick in online sales during the pandemic, said employee Heather Loveland, who feels the Franklin Avenue store is lucky it can sell online. The popular shop is open, sanitizing, requiring masks and following all CDC guidelines for keeping shoppers safe.
A number of village businesses made good use of the warmer weather before the colder weather arrived, with sidewalk sales and outdoor dining.
The Antiques Mall and Millbrook Antiques both capitalized on the idea, and business was steady throughout much of the spring and summer, according to those who worked there. Black Friday and Small Business Saturday saw active sales, reported the two longtime businesses. They hope January and the rest of winter will keep the trend going.
But there have been changes in the Millbrook business community, according to the MBA. The Painted Peach, which was located on Front Street next to the Post Office, has closed. Its owner and one of the vendors who sold out of the store now sell their wares out of the Antiques Mall. It seemed like a good fit, said Gruning, who added the women fortunately have a loyal following.
J. McLaughlin manager Ann Barton reported the upscale clothing store is holding its own, as it has many steady customers.
“We’ve been busy,” said Barton after the holidays. “[Customers] feel safe, because we limit the amount [who can shop at once]. We sanitize continuously; clothes are left for 24 hours after they’ve been tried on before they are brought back out.”
Barton said the store also has new customers from the city, who want to escape to the “country” for a break.
The new Cordially Corinne’s has been open for a few months now. Its owner, Corinne Tardio, said her paper specialty shop did better than expected during the summer, but did not report on holiday sales. She’s taking every safety precaution to protect her customers.
Marona’s Market manager Jan Smith said business has picked up during the pandemic. The community-minded supermarket is sanitizing regularly and following all safety protocols. Smith said she sees new faces all the time as well as her “steadies.”
Two other businesses that closed include the Blue Barn B’nB. Proprietor Joan LaCasse retired after six years in Millbrook, announcing she wanted to relax.
“I’ll have fond memories, and I’ve made good friends,” she said. “But it’s time for a new chapter, to turn to a new page.”
Samantha’s Sweet Shop on Church Street also closed, due to owner Samantha Martin getting ill, though no word if it was with COVID-19. The sweet shop was open for only two summers as well as for 2020. Martin said she was “sad” about closing, and thanked everyone who helped her along the way. She added the sweet shop wasn’t her primary business and that all proceeds supported the community.
“It is hard to keep a business open in Millbrook — support for all of the small businesses is imperative for them to stay open,” she said. “This is their livelihood and saying you’ll support them and buying [their goods] are two different things.”
And that’s the bottom line, agree Millbrook merchants, who hope locals and visitors will do exactly that in 2021, to help them survive the current health crisis and beyond.
Nathan Miller
Pine Plains Councilwoman Jeanine Sisco displays a photograph of flashing lights used to alert drivers to pedestrians in crosswalks in Millerton during a public forum at Pine Plains Town Hall on Tuesday, March 3. Sisco outlined plans to repair sidewalks and install two new crosswalks in downtown Pine Plains as a first phase in sidewalk repairs across the town.
PINE PLAINS — Town Board members unveiled plans for sidewalk renovations in downtown Pine Plains as they prepare to apply for a federal grant to fund the first phase of the project.
Councilwoman Jeanine Sisco described the first phase of the sidewalk project at a public forum at Pine Plains Town Hall on Tuesday, March 3.
The first phase calls for repairing sidewalks along Church Street and Main Street and the crosswalks where those streets meet. Two new crosswalks are planned — one on Church Street at the intersection with Academy Street and another on Main Street that will connect the sidewalk on the east side of the street to the Pine Plains Free Library and Community Center.
Town Board members said they intend to apply for a Transportation Alternatives Program grant. The federal funds are administered through the New York State Department of Transportation to finance projects that promote walkability and lessen dependence on cars in a community. The application deadline is March 12, 2026.
Discussion at the public forum centered around crosswalk safety and the inclusion of flashing yellow lights on signposts for pedestrians to activate when they cross. Sisco said it's unclear whether flashing lights will be required at the crosswalks.
She showed pictures of crosswalks in Pleasant Valley, New York, across Route 44, that do not have flashing lights, which she said indicated the lights may not be required in Pine Plains. Sisco also showed pictures of the crosswalks in downtown Millerton that feature lights that would be similar to installations in Pine Plains if required.
Residents were divided on the issue, with opponents raising aesthetic concerns and supporters citing research that flashing lights improve driver awareness and safety at crosswalks.
Pine Plains resident Torey Soracco said she opposed flashing lights at the crosswalks and questioned prior Town Board statements that indicated the lights may be required under grant stipulations.
Soracco asked about the lights' effectiveness, and whether alternative safety measures had been considered. She supported a police presence at the crosswalks to deter unsafe driving.
"I want to make sure we're doing the best way we can," Soracco said. "We already know a way to do that. The fastest way is to give people tickets."
Michael Stabile, who serves as Chair of the Pine Plains Planning Board, spoke in support of flashing lights. He said Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) studies show flashing lights at crosswalks improve driver awareness.
The lights, officially known as "rectangular rapid flashing beacons," reduce pedestrian crashes by up to 47% according to data from the FHWA. Figures on the FHWA's website also state that driver yield rates increase up to 98% at crosswalks with flashing lights.
"I worry about putting sidewalks in that don't have enough safety features," Stabile said.
Sisco said town officials are budgeting for flashing lights in the event they are required, but current plans are to avoid the lights if possible.
Town Supervisor Brian Walsh laid out the timeline of the project. He said the grant process and design work for the first phase would likely take the rest of this year and continue through 2027. He added that the current timeline indicates the first phase of repairs will be complete in late 2028.
After that first phase, Walsh said the project would expand outward from the town center to repair damaged sidewalks and install new paths.
Those plans have not been laid out yet, with no clear timeline given at the public forum. Board members acknowledged the project will be a lengthy process.
D.H. Callahan
Contemporary chamber musicians, HUB, performing at The Clark.
Northwestern Massachusetts may sometimes feel remote, but last weekend it felt like the center of the contemporary art world.
Within 15 miles of each other, MASS MoCA in North Adams and the Clark Art Institute in Williamstown showcased not only their renowned historic collections, but an impressive range of living artists pushing boundaries in technology, identity and sound.
MASS MoCA is known for its 20th-century holdings spread throughout a sprawling complex of industrial brick buildings. Installations by Sol LeWitt and James Turrell have permanent homes there. Just down the road in Williamstown, the Clark features masterworks by Winslow Homer, Frederic Remington, John Singer Sargent and Claude Monet.
But what visitors might not immediately associate with those established names is how deeply both institutions invest in art happening right now.
On Saturday afternoon, a panel of young artists discussed their relationships with art, identity and technology as part of MASS MoCA’s “Technologies of Relation” exhibition, which opened that evening. The artists represented a broad range of cultural backgrounds, drawing on ancestry while exploring the future of art and technology.
The work itself ran the gamut: wax relief paintings, stained glass, interactive video and sculptural installations. One immersive piece automated the traditional Armenian practice of reading fortunes from coffee grounds. Particularly striking were Roopa Vasudevan’s hand-drawn QR codes and Taeyoon Choi’s large-scale weavings of binary code.
Opening the same night was Zora J. Murff’s “RACE/HUSTLE.” Through photographs, paintings and installations, Murff explores the wide-ranging and sometimes violent implications of being Black in America today. Each piece — whether confronting the rise of white supremacy or examining stereotypes imposed on Black communities — carries razor-sharp visual commentary designed to unsettle.
Pelenakeke Brown’s “Reverb” (detail) at Mass MoCA. D.H. Callahan
On Sunday, the Clark continued the contemporary thread. A small exhibition of work by Raffaella della Olga, titled “Typescript,” features intricate patterns created using a typewriter on varied paper surfaces. The effect seems almost impossible until viewers watch a video of della Olga loading her typewriter with 140-grit sandpaper and typing in a hypnotic rhythm. Though the typewriter is considered obsolete technology, she continues to find new applications for it, completing some of the works in recent months.
Next door in the Clark auditorium, HUB New Music performed works written specifically for its unusual instrumentation: violin, cello, clarinet and flute. While that combination may not stand out to casual listeners, relatively little classical repertoire exists for it. The ensemble regularly commissions composers to expand the possibilities.
The results were striking. From the opening notes of Francisco del Pino’s “Passacaglia,” the quartet’s command and layered repetition pulled unexpected emotion from the audience.
After three pieces came the world premiere of Daniel Wohl’s “Mirage,” a roughly 25-minute work accompanied by digital blips, static and electronic textures evoking radio transmissions and UFO lore. Hearing four virtuoso musicians extract entirely new sounds from traditional instruments echoed the weekend’s larger theme: old tools made new again.
Like della Olga’s typewriter, Vasudevan’s QR codes or Murff’s charged imagery, the performances demonstrated that contemporary art often grows from familiar materials — reimagined.
The old masters will always draw visitors to these institutions. But when living artists command equal attention, this quiet corner of the Berkshires feels less like the middle of nowhere and more like a creative epicenter.
D.H. Callahan is a voice actor, creative director and trail steward. He lives with his artist wife in West Cornwall, Connecticut.
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Aly Morrissey
Francesca Donner, founder and editor of The Persistent. Subscribe at thepersistent.com.
Francesca Donner pours a cup of tea in the cozy library of Troutbeck’s Manor House in Amenia, likely a habit she picked up during her formative years in the United Kingdom. Flanked by old books and a roaring fire, Donner feels at home in the quiet room, where she spends much of her time working as founder, editor and CEO of The Persistent, a journalism platform created to amplify women’s voices.
Although her parents are American and she spent her earliest years in New York City and Litchfield County — even attending Washington Montessori School as a preschooler — Donner moved to England at around five years old and completed most of her education there. Her accent still bears the imprint of what she describes as a traditional English schooling.
Today, she and her family call Sharon, Connecticut, home. While she still travels frequently to Manhattan, she embraces the contrast between city and countryside.
“For me, it’s all about the contrast,” she said, adding that she is friendly and curious about people here in a way that doesn’t feel natural in the city. “I want to know who you are, what you do, and why you’re here. You end up meeting these really interesting people.”
As a longtime editor in newsrooms like The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times and Forbes, Donner said she began to notice something unsettling about how stories were framed, and whose voices were missing.
“It’s just the way news is done,” she said. “It’s the DNA of what we deem newsworthy and important in mainstream media.”
The problem, she explained, isn’t that women aren’t covered at all. It’s that when women are covered, it’s often in a stereotyped way. Women are frequently framed through familiar narratives – the gender pay gap, unpaid labor, caregiving – important issues that persist, she said, but are often treated as repetitive or secondary. Meanwhile, the stories deemed front-page worthy tend to revolve around power, economics, war and politics — and men.
“If we don’t make a deliberate effort to cover women, women won’t be covered,” Donner said.
The issue isn’t unique to any outlet, she stressed. “It’s just the way news is done.”
But that DNA — who gets quoted and whose experiences are centered — has consequences.
And for Donner, that realization demanded a response.
Enter The Persistent.
Founded in 2024, The Persistent was built around what Donner calls a simple but deliberate premise.
“Women don’t get covered in the same way men get covered,” she said.
The goal isn’t to exclude men or create a siloed “women’s section.” Instead, Donner said, it’s about correcting an imbalance by putting women at the center of the story.
Describing the approach as a reframe, this means expanding who is quoted as an expert. It means spotlighting women in business, politics, culture and global affairs. It also means examining major news stories through a lens that mainstream outlets often overlook.
“What we can add,” she said of The Persistent, “is perspective.”
Now approaching its second year — a milestone that will be celebrated next month — the publication operates with an all-women team of writers, editors and illustrators based across the world. The team meets regularly over Google Meet.
“They’re awesome,” Donner said of the editorial meetings. Some of her staff are mothers, some are not. All bring lived experiences to the table. Donner has intentionally created a newsroom culture that balances rigor with support.
“If your writing doesn’t measure up, I’m going to tell you,” she said plainly. “But it’s not a battle. It’s a partnership.”
Beyond publishing stories that matter, Donner wants contributors to be seen.
“I don’t just want people to read the story and forget who wrote it,” she said. “We can do a lot better if we amplify each other.”
As a woman, Donner rejects the idea that success is finite. She wants everyone to have a slice of the pie.
“Just make the pie bigger,” she said. “Bring more seats to the table. Make it richer.”
Donner credits her “mum” for articulating what would become her professional identity.
“You are what you can’t help doing,” her mother used to say.
Today, without hesitation, Donner said she can’t help being an editor.“My identity as an editor is very strong,” she said. Editing, she explained, is less about correcting typos and more about building and shaping ideas.
“Sometimes I imagine this physical movement of cracking something open,” she gestured.
That instinct traces back to childhood. She recalls sitting in a classroom around age 10, listening to a classmate read a short story aloud. For Donner, that moment crystallized something fundamental.
“Someone else’s words made me just sit up straight in my chair and think, wow, that is so good.”
Today, whether she’s in a historic manor house in Amenia or on a Google Meet with her team across the globe, that instinct remains the same: crack the story open, elevate the unheard voice and reframe the narrative.
Natalia Zukerman
On March 7, Berkshire Opera Festival will bring “Winterreise” to Studio E at Tanglewood’s Linde Center for Music and Learning, with baritone Jarrett Porter and BOF Artistic Director and pianist Brian Garman performing Franz Schubert’s haunting 24-song setting of poems by Wilhelm Müller.
A rejected lover. A frozen landscape. A mind unraveling in real time. Nearly 200 years after its premiere, “Winterreise” remains unnervingly current in its psychological portrait of isolation, heartbreak and existential drift.
Porter, praised by Opera News for his “imposing baritone” and “manifest honesty,” has built his career on major European opera stages, including Oper Frankfurt. But recital work, he says, is closest to his heart.
“I love to recital. If I were to pick my career, I would be doing some opera and mostly recital,” he said. “I think there can be difficulty with grabbing an audience in a recital, but this is one of the greatest pieces to do so because it is so psychological, so powerful, so universally moving.”
Unlike opera, there are no sets in a recital, no costumes or lighting cues to lean on. “The singer with no sets or costumes is left to create a kind of one-man show,” Porter said. His solution is internal. “The way that I process learning something like this and having the responsibility to hold an audience without set or costumes or lights or props is to stage it in my mind. Each song has an identity.”
Schubert’s writing, Porter insists, needs no adornment. “Schubert does an amazing job at setting the scene, and for me, you don’t need anything else. I feel like anything added to it would be almost subtracting. I’d rather just see the singer and the pianist the way that Schubert intended it to be.”
At the center of “Winterreise” is the wanderer, an unnamed figure moving through snow and memory after a failed love affair. For Porter, the character is both specific and universal. “There’s so much ambiguity in the piece,” he said. “We don’t know all of the answers in the first song. We don’t really know who this person is. There are tidbits of information dropped throughout each song. And I think the tendency is to put a narrative on that and to try to connect the dots rather than embracing what it is. The ambiguity is actually where the beauty is.”
That ambiguity extends to the cycle’s ending and the encounter with the eerie hurdy-gurdy player in “Der Leiermann.” Does the protagonist die? “I think one could make that argument,” Porter said. But he resists a neat conclusion. “Death is right in front of him. Death is actually the most peaceful answer to his problem and it’s not given to him. There’s something more, a deeper level.”
Rather than a literal death scene, Porter sees a reckoning. “For me, he’s not granted the easy way out. He has to sort of come to terms with being nothing and having no real skill as a songster or a poet or a wanderer.” The winter landscape, he suggests, mirrors the psyche: “The winter is sort of the mirror of his heart.”
In shaping the emotional arc across all 24 songs, Porter leans into uncertainty rather than resolution. “What I relate to in this piece is that in life, you don’t know what’s going to happen. And you don’t know the next day. Even in tragedy—especially in tragedy—there’s so much question.”
Porter performed Gounod’s “Faust” at BOF in 2024 with Garman conducting but this will be the first time the two will be collaborating with Garman at his instrument. “I love making music with Brian,” said Porter. “I’m a huge fan of his musicianship. I think we’re sort of bitten by the same bug that Schubert is, and so I was super honored that he asked me to do this with him.”
For tickets, visit berkshireoperafestival.org
Sally Haver
Christine Gevert, artistic director, brings together international and local musicians for a season of rare works.
Crescendo, the Lakeville-based nonprofit specializing in early and rarely performed classical music, will close its 22nd season with a slate of spring concerts featuring international performers, local musicians and works by pioneering composers from the Baroque era to the 20th century.
Christine Gevert, the organization’s artistic director, has gathered international vocal and instrumental talent, blending it with local voices to provide Berkshire audiences with rare musical treats.
“The biggest event of this part of our season is our April 25 and 26 concerts, with the US premiere of ‘A Jewish Cantata’ and the iconic ‘Misa a Buenos Aires,’” said Gevert. “The composer, an internationally renowned musician, will come and share the podium with me.”
Among the other season highlights are concerts showcasing the works of two trailblazing female musical innovators, Francesca Caccini, the early Baroque composer, poet and singer; and Wanda Landowska, the 20th-century virtuoso who single-handedly brought the harpsichord back from obscurity. Also not to be missed is the May 30 concert, Bach’s Motets in Concert, featuring all six of Johann Sebastian Bach’s surviving motets, sung by four eight-part double choruses and accompanied by period instruments, widely considered the pinnacle of Baroque choral music.
For a schedule of concerts and tickets, visit crescendomusic.org
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