FANFARE, otherwise known as the Vermont Symphony Orchestra Brass Trio, was formed in 1974, and has played for untold numbers of schoolchildren and Vermont audiences since that time. In 1984, when the VSO celebrated its 50th anniversary by playing concerts in all 251 towns in Vermont, the brass trio kicked off the project by departing for the very first performance in a car labeled "Berkshire or Bust!" They made even more of a splash at the 251 Finale in Montpelier two years later by arriving on the Statehouse grounds (after playing the very last performance of the 251 Project in Buel's Gore) via helicopter. For over three decades, the Vermont Symphony Orchestra's Fanfare Brass Trio has toured the state, performing in many of Vermont's scenic town halls and churches. Through their annual school performances, they introduce hundreds of elementary students each year to brass instruments. Current trio members James Duncan (trumpet), Alan Parshley (horn), and Lori Salimando (trombone), are skilled performers and gifted teachers who draw the audience, regardless of age, into the splendor and magic of brass instruments. "Fanfare" programs are a unique blend of musical styles, using music both old and new, serious and popular, to produce a lively and informative concert. In addition to their statewide concerts, which have taken them all the way from Readsboro to Derby, the trio has performed live on Vermont Public Radio as well. Fanfare is one of seven traveling ensembles which visit all corners of the state as part of the VSO's SymphonyKids outreach program. SymphonyKids reached nearly 25,000 school children in the 2006/2007 season, with 189 performances serving 194 different schools in 156 towns. These lively performances are met with overwhelming enthusiasm, as the musical ambassadors spread the word that classical music can be fun!
The Stockwell Brothers
After almost four decades playing together across the U.S. and in Europe, The Stockwell Brothers are Vermont’s longest running folk/ bluegrass group. Starting out in 1969, they won a handful of contests, released their first album “The Green Mountain Boys” and appeared in concert with artists from Earl Scruggs to the Mahavishnu Orchestra- all by their mid teens.
While attending college, they collaborated with Phil Rosenthal and Mike Auldridge as “Old Dog” on two Flying Fish albums: “a real find… the group is excellent… a superb album”- Washington Post; “Very talented, inventive players”- Guitar Player.
The Brothers have since released independent projects, “Stobro” and “Leave My Dreams Alone”: “Tasty arrangements; brotherly harmonies, perfectly blended instruments and great songs.” – Music Revue. Their music has also been featured in numerous compilations, most recently the Vermont Arts Council CD “The Cream of Vermont”.
The Stockwell’s repertoire spans traditional and progressive styles, but their trademark acoustic trio sound focuses on new singer/ songwriter material recast with banjo, alternative rhythms and three-part harmonies.
Will Patton Trio Will Patton, David Gusakov and Dono Schabner have been playing their spirited stew of world music around the Northeast for over three years. Drawing from Gypsy jazz and Brasilian choro styles, they create an improvisatory dialogue rich in melodic and harmonic invention. Mandolin Magazine has described the music as "elegant, memorable lines . . . powerful and sophisticated, perfectly capturing the essence of the style."
Will Patton has played his music all over the world, from Key West to Fairbanks, Alaska and from Paris to Rio. His collaborations with the manouche guitarist Ninine Garcia from Paris, documented in the cds "Peripherique" and "String Theory" have been enthusiastically reviewed both in the U.S. and abroad. He teaches jazz mandolin at Jay Ungar and Molly Mason's Ashokan Camp and the Django in June Festival at Smith College. He has performed with Mose Allison and his bands have opened for such acts as Ray Charles, Bonnie Raitt and Van Morrison. Violinist David Gusakov's lifetime career has ranged from classical, as a member of the Vermont Symphony Orchestra since 1973, to hard driving Bluegrass performing with such luminaries as Vassar Clemens, Emmylou Harris, Peter Rowan and John Denver. Born in the heartland of America, Gusakov has travelled the world with his fiddle as his passport.
Dono Schabner was born in Germany and grew up in Pennsylvania and New York. He started playing professionally at age 12 with Italian wedding bands. At 17 he hit the road, playing R & B all over the U.S. and the Caribbean. After many years of travel, he settled near Stowe, Vt. with his photographer wife, Lauren. For the last 3 years he and Will have been making music in many contexts, and also work as a duo. He has been studying the demanding 7 string guitar of late, using all 10 fingers.
Vermont Life Writers - Mission:Vermont Life’s mission is to create an engaging online presence and publish a premier-quality magazine filled with the best writing, illustration, art and photography Vermont has to offer. Every issue of Vermont Life magazine celebrates the unique heritage, countryside, traditions, and people of Vermont and explores issues of contemporary interest to Vermonters and visitors of the state. History: Vermont Life has been the state’s premier magazine since its founding in 1946. It has been completely self-financing since 1969. No tax dollars are used to support Vermont Life. Circulation: 75,000 total; 60,000 subscriptions and approximately 15,000 newsstand and special distribution. In fact, issue-for-issue, Vermont Life is the second highest newsstand selling magazine in the state, second only to TV Guide. The magazine has subscribers in 50 states and 66 foreign countries. Approximately 70% reside outside Vermont, mostly in the Northeast, Florida, and the Southwest. Readership:* 196,000 affluent, well educated readers (primary circulation plus 1.6 pass-along readers per copy). Average household income is $108,000 84% have attended college They make 1,832,000 travel recommendations to places and businesses in Vermont per year. Nine out of ten readers say the magazine is helpful in making their travel plans. Nearly 89% of them regard Vermont Life as the best source of travel information about the Green Mountain State. Economic Impact:* Vermont Life’s out-of-state readers (70%) travel to Vermont an average of 3.3 times per year and stay in Vermont for more than 19 nights. In-state readers (30%) travel in Vermont and stay out away from home on average over 11 nights per year. The result? Vermont Life readers spend over $132 million on travel in Vermont each year. We invite you to learn more about Vermont Life, Vermont’s own magazine. See how, for sixty years, it has helped to shape the brand of Vermont in words and pictures and has won over 95 national magazine awards in the process. Vermont Life magazine is the magazine of choice for both Vermonters at home and Vermonters-at-heart.
Adams Farm is a typical New England farm, in that its role in the past seems to run the same path the economy has taken in history. Since the Adams' first purchased the farm in 1865, the farm has continued to follow the economic trend. During the 1860's Henry and Sarah Adams fell in love with the land and its ability to produce short-term growth marketable timber, maple sugar from a healthy and abundant sugar bush, as well as enough crop land to maintain a small family farm. Timber production was a viable income during the late 1800's in Vermont, as railroads were being built all around the country. Henry also knew he could make more money per log if he produced a finished product from the lumber. With the help of C.C. Haynes, Henry Adams invented and obtained a patent on a type of liquid holder used in the production of maple syrup, as well as a liquid holding tank used for watering livestock, which would not freeze during the winter. They invented and manufactured large scale evaporators for finishing syrup, a sliding oxen yolk and several types of wheel barrows. A wood shop was then built on the farm to manufacture the new and popular coopered wooden tanks and various other products. These tanks were produced on the farm until the 1930's, when the invention of galvanized steel replaced the popularity of wood. Henry and his son Walter ran the farm together for many years. Not just producing products from their mountain but also maintaining a herd of 15 registered milking Durham cattle. (These were the popular cattle of the day before the well known, black and white Holsteins. Durhams, also known as shorthorns are red or red roan, small dual purpose cattle, prized for their production of beef and milk.) Walter and Ada Adams opened the Adams Farm homestead to the public during the late 1890's, for summer guests to get away and beat the heat of the city. Families would bring their children and spend a week or two enjoying Vermont's beauty, swimming in the Deerfield River and Lake Raponda, gathering eggs, playing with lambs and eating fresh delicious home baked foods from the farm kitchen. Walter manufactured finished products in the wood shop. His son Louis expanded on the amount of lumber being produced on the farm and made weekly trips to the shipyards of Boston to support the war effort. As the war years came to a close in the mid 1940's, so did the demand for lumber. Around that same time the demand for milk was rising in America, as the U.S. Surgeon General had determined that humans needed to drink three glasses of milk a day to maintain strong and healthy bodies. Louis and Doris Adams decided to increase the size of their dairy herd and bring in some newly imported mega-milk producing Holstein Friesian Cattle. Doris continued to run the farmhouse bed and breakfast during the summer months and in 1954 opened the house up to guests in the winter, who came to learn the sport of skiing, which at the time was new to the Valley. In 1969, Louis and Doris' son William and his wife, Sharon purchased the farm and increased the herd of milking Holsteins and the production of milk. With the expansion of the farm's milk production, the family no longer had the time to maintain the business as a guest-house and closed the farmhouse to the public. As the price of milk dropped in the late 1970's the need for a supplemental income arose. In 1980, Bill and Sharon purchased their first team of Belgian draft horses from Amish country, built a small log cabin at the far end of the property from the logs that great grandpa Adams had planted, and started a sleigh ride business that would use the cabin as a place to warm up on a cold winter's night. Tourists loved it! Within three years, Bill doubled the size of the log cabin, built two more sleighs, bought four more Belgians and increased the size of his sugar grove, all in an effort to direct market maple syrup to the many visitors of the farm during the winter. Tourism has been at a steady rate of growth since the 60's and the 1980's brought with it a great building boom to the Mount Snow Area and visitors bought and built second homes and condos. In 1986, Adams Farm got involved in Ronald Reagan's Whole Herd Buy Out Program, in an effort to solve the surplus milk problem in America. The government bought the farm's anticipated milk production or in other words, paid the family not to farm. Bill and Sharon used the money to purchase heavy equipment and to utilize the farm's gravel pit to go along the real estate boom in the area. In the winter they continued to run their successful sleigh ride business, make maple syrup in spring and maintain the crops during summer and fall. Due to the popularity which the sleigh rides brought to the farm, by the early 1990's, tourists were stopping at the farm other times of the year, wanting to see farm animals, wanting to take pictures of the buildings, wanting to learn more about life on a farm, about Vermont, about the multi-generations. So in 1993, Bill and Sharon's daughter and son-in-law, Jill and Carl Mancivalano, decided to open the farm to the public for a fun, interactive, educational and wholesome farm experience. Jill and Carl registered an official business name with the State of Vermont and became: The Original Adams Farm. Jill wanted the public to be able to experience what she was able to experience growing up on a farm, like gathering eggs from the chicken coop, bottle feeding the baby calves, milking a goat, riding ponies, playing with chicks and lambs and best of all jumping in the hay Not only did Jill and Carl want to gear the farm to offer an exceptional family experience, but also to provide a quality experience for visitors without children. They added the addition of several special events throughout the year, including evening hayrides in the summer and fondue nights in the winter.
Author Tracey Medeiros ,About “Dishing Up Vermont”: From world-renowned cheddar cheeses to the delectable dinners turned out by talented chefs, the Green Mountain state is rich in exciting eating. Learn new ways to use maple syrup, re-create that meal you enjoyed at a fancy restaurant, bake tree-ripened local apples into crumbly-sweet desserts, and find out how the farmers growing the tastiest micro-greens like to eat them. It’s all here for your eating pleasure! Recipes are from Vermont’s restaurants, farms and inns.
The Vermont Cheese Council is dedicated to the production and advancement of Vermont Cheese
