Wolcott

Concert Sixty: 7/20/24 at Steve Young’s chapel, aka St. Aidan’s Kirk

...donations benefited the Northern Rivers Land Trust

click any image to enlarge

The Wolcott concert was the first of this project in a non-public venue. Andy Christiansen of E. Montpelier told me about Steven Young, a retired paleobotanist who conducted most of his research in Arctic and Boreal regions, and who—well into his 70s—built a chapel on his land after the manner of Medieval Norwegian and Scottish churches. Built it of timber and slate, very much in authentic ancient manner, but then stuck a grand piano inside. It sounded too good to pass up, and a good option for a “house” concert, since it was large enough (with decks) to accommodate 60 people, which turned out to be our exact attendance for this 60th concert. Steve’s sister-in-law Gail Osherenko made a documentary about the chapel project: you can read about it and about the chapel at steveschapel.com.

The concert, originally scheduled for June, was postponed at the last minute on account of heavy rain and a tornado warning. In fact the whole state was under a tornado watch, something which used to be vanishingly rare. Wolcott thus gets added to the list of concerts affected by our out-of-control climate: Newark (hottest recorded November day in Vermont), Bakersfield (smokiest day in Vermont history), and Warren (wettest day ever), a list of weather superlatives that will doubtless grow before the project is completed.

PET photographer Annelies takes radiant selfie

The chapel acted like a giant soundbox

Linda Young sings “Hard Times”
video: Gail Osherenko

“Ice Trolls”–Steve poem with piano improv

I played several pieces chosen to highlight key years in Wolcott’s town history, including Stephen Foster’s “Hard Times”, composed in 1855, the year George Brown organized Wolcott’s Methodist Church—believed to be the only non-AME Methodist Church organized by an African-American pastor—sung by Steve and Jan’s niece Linda Young, who also sang a couple of rain-themed tunes to mark the concert’s inclement-weather postponement.

When not studying ancient vegetal remains or building Medieval chapels, Steve writes poetry. He recited his evocative “Ice Trolls” to an improvised piano accompaniment. The program also included Edvard Grieg’s Lyric Pieces (book I), at Steve’s suggestion, as the Scottish-Norwegian Grieg and the chapel had common ethnic roots.

The Hardwick Gazette ran a nice review of the concert.

...about the piano

Steve bought this 5'9" 1906 Sohmer grand from a nearby resident, who told him it had spent a good portion of its life in Utah. While many would categorize a 5'9" piano as a “small” rather than a “baby” grand, Sohmer is known for baby grands, and often credited with inventing them. This is dubious, but it does seem that they created the term, applying it to the 5-foot model they introduced in 1884.

The chapel piano had a pretty, somewhat brittle sound. It played surprisingly well for a piano that lives in a an often humid north country chapel with Medieval (i.e. no) climate control, not even heat. It is well maintained by Steve’s cousin John Young, who has tuned many a Play Every Town concert.

Winnie one more time, for good measure. And good and muddy—she found the pond.

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