JHCM, GTMF launch pilot partnership – JH News&Guide

As Jackson Hole Chamber Music concludes its ninth season this week, it is also looking ahead to its 10th year, when it will embark on a three-year pilot collaboration with the Grand Teton Music Festival.

While the two nonprofits will retain their own boards, do their own fundraising and present their own programs, the partnership will make Walk Festival Hall available for Jackson Hole Chamber Music concerts and expand both groups’ pools of talent.

The $35 million renovation project at Walk Hall will make the Teton Village venue accessible throughout the whole year, which means GTMF will be looking to book more dates through the fall and winter.

Work includes acoustical treatments and other elements that will allow for the intimate concerts JHCM has become known for.

“I have been to several of their performances,” GTMF Executive Director Emma Kail said, “have seen the level of musicianship. … I think it would be a missed opportunity if we didn’t have some of their performances in the hall.”

In addition to sharing missions of bringing world-class classical music to the valley, the two also share musicians, such as JHMC and violinists Jennifer Ross and Rebecca Racusin. Madeline Adkins, one of the Festival Orchestra’s concertmasters who soloed on Korngold’s Violin Concert this past summer, made her Teton debut with JHCM.

Kail approached JHCM with the idea, but, Racusin said, “it’s not something that we haven’t talked about.”

Racusin envisions two concerts in Walk Hall and two in the Center Theater next year. The Antelope Trails Ranch, where it has presented some of its autumn programs each year, may still serve as a venue, perhaps for VIP donor events, she said.

“One reason we’ve taken off,” Racusin said, “is we’ve grown our connections to our community, developed partnerships and collaborations with a number of local organizations, most prominently the Center for the Arts.

“This is just the beginning of what our partnership can mean,” Racusin said of the arrangement with GTMF. “There’s a lot of potential to grow more.”

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