Music Mountain Announces Cancellation Of Summer 2020 Festival

The Music Mountain Board of Directors has made the difficult decision to cancel its summer concert season and in-person education programs for the very first time in its 91-year history.

"Our top priority is the safety of our family-our audience, artists, faculty, students, board, staff and the community at large-and the current pandemic, together with the lack of a proven treatment, makes it unsafe to be together at this time," said Music Mountain's Artistic and Executive Director Oskar Espina-Ruiz. "Our hearts go out to the many friends who are losing loved ones due to the COVID-19 pandemic."

In making this decision, Music Mountain joined a growing number of regional performing arts organizations, including Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival, Berkshire Theatre Festival and others, that have put audience safety above all else and canceled their summer seasons.

To continue to secure Music Mountain's future, the board and staff are hard at work applying for grants and loans made available by the CARES Act and other sources. We are also reaching out to our artists and supporters to explore all options. "We know that if we stay together, we will safely steward our beloved Music Mountain past the pandemic and into a brilliant 2021 season," said Espina-Ruiz.

"Rest assured, we are also looking into possibilities for producing a number of original music programs to broadcast or livestream from our beloved Gordon Hall and the beautiful nature that surrounds it, or alternatively from artists' homes," Espina-Ruiz continued. The website musicmountain.org will be updated with information on future plans.

Music Mountain will be offering refunds to patrons who have already purchased individual concert or season tickets. Said Espina-Ruiz, "We hope our friends will consider turning their purchased tickets and early bird packages into fully tax-deductible contributions to support Music Mountain at this difficult time."

Not surprisingly, Music Mountain has a proud history of finding creative ways through adversity. In 1942, World War II threatened to put the brakes on the summer music festival. In his report to the Board of Managers dated October 2, 1942, Jacques Gordon, founder of Music Mountain and the Gordon String Quartet, wrote, "As the summer approached, we came to a complete standstill ... no salaries, no money to advertise concerts, and no gas ... then, an idea came to me to organize the Quartet on Wheels."

By the end of their two-month season, the quartet had taken twenty-two concerts on the road, including one Young People's Concert at the Regional High School in Falls Village. By Gordon's estimation, they reached nearly 8,300 people-an amazing accomplishment, especially with wartime restrictions.

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