Photo Credits: Andrea B. Swenson

It was a glorious day at River Hook Preserve for EcoTones on Sunday, June 2! We invited audiences to walk a half-mile Music Trail through Upper Nyack’s River Hook Preserve, hearing small ensembles play music inspired by the park’s flora & fauna, followed by a sit-down concert featuring the professionals of the EcoTones Ensemble alongside the Nyack High School Chamber Orchestra.

Audience members self-paced along the meandering Music Trail with small ensembles performing at a ‘Beings of the Air Stage’, a ‘Flora and Fauna Percussion Jam’, 12-foot Alphorns in the former sheep pasture, and a ‘Pollinator Jazz Jam.’ Following the Music Trail portion of the event, all musicians and audience convene at the preserve’s central Carriage House for a sit-down concert set. The full ensemble performed musical selections inspired by the nearby Hudson River, Hook Mountain, and the concept that everyone belongs in this treasured public nature space—human and nonhuman alike.

Thank you to all the fabulous musicians, wonderful concert-goers, and volunteers who made a truly memorable, one-time-only event. EcoTones is alive, changes every time, and is completely dependent on the natural setting and who shows up to participate. So thank you all for being a part of this joyful merriment! It was sheer pleasure share what we prepared with all of you!

The event fulfilled the EcoTones missions of inviting local community members to visit a public nature space which they might not otherwise have discovered; to perform live acoustic music up-close and personally for audiences outside the confines of a formal concert hall; and to perform new music inspired by the surrounding nature that lives in a 'musical ecotone' transition zone between classical and jazz improvisation.

Thank you to our community partners and sponsors the Village of Upper Nyack, ArtsRock, ArtsWestchester with an Arts Alive Grant, Greenbush Construction, Long Path Outfitters, Friends of River Hook, many other local volunteers, and the concertgoers. It truly took a village to make an event like this a reality in our community!