Clark Art Presents Music in the Manton Concert Series

WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — This spring, the Clark Art Institute presents Music in the Manton, a series of concerts in the Manton Research Center auditorium.

The lineup includes:

Friday, March 21, 7 pm
Flore Laurentienne
Canadian Mathieu David Gagnon's incomparable musical project Flore Laurentienne comes from a happy marriage between electronic and classically influenced music. The project is committed to constantly pushing the boundaries between various genres, including ambient, experimental, and progressive rock. Flore Laurentienne has recently released a new album, 8 tableaus, available on Secret City Records. The composer, orchestrator, and musician draws inspiration from the works of Canadian painter and sculptor Jean Paul Riopelle with this new offering.

This program is presented in collaboration with Belltower Records, North Adams, Massachusetts.

Sunday, April 27, 2 pm
Umi Garrett
New York-based pianist Umi Garrett performs works by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Sergei Prokofiev, J.S. Bach, Frédéric Chopin, Florence Price, Gabriel Kahane, and works composed by Williamstown resident and established classical composer Stephen Dankner. Garrett recently released her debut chamber album of Ludwig van Beethoven's Five Sonatas for Piano and Cello with Emily Mantone. She is currently studying for her Artist Diploma at the Juilliard School with Hung- Kuan Chen and Shai Wosner and is a Collaborative Piano Fellow at the Yale School of Music. In the summers, she is a staff collaborative pianist at the Ravinia Steans Music Institute in Chicago.

Friday, May 2, 6 pm
Benjamin Hochman
Benjamin Hochman presents a solo piano recital centered around brilliant American composer Matthew Aucoin's The tracks have vanished, a work inspired by Aucoin's forthcoming opera Demons, itself based on Dostoyevsky's eponymous novel. The recital program draws on an intricate web of interconnected themes, including nihilism and life under Russian totalitarianism (including Ustvolskaya's Preludes) and the genre of opera transcriptions (including from operas by Wagner and Gluck).

Tickets for all concerts $10 ($8 members, $7 students, $5 children 15 and under). Advance registration encouraged. Capacity is limited. Accessible seats available. For more information, visit clarkart.edu/events.

Concerns Over PFAS Spark Sewage Debate in Williamstown

By Stephen DravisiBerkshires Staff
05:50AM / Tuesday, April 01, 2025

The composting facility at the intermunicipal wastewater plant is operating at about two-thirds capacity. 

WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — Forever chemicals are the source of a protracted debate for the Select Board.

 

Out of 15 fiscal articles on the warrant for the annual town meeting in May, the board last Monday voted to recommend passage of 14.

 

It delayed its decision on Article 5, which concerns the budget for the sewer department, more specifically the town's share of operating costs for the Hoosac Water Quality District.

 

Some members of the community, including a member of the Select Board, say the district is choosing a course of action that is at odds with the environmental principles that the town espouses.

 

The HWQD is a 55-year-old intermunicipal entity shared by Williamstown and the city of North Adams.

 

Residents of both communities on public sewer service send their wastewater to a treatment facility in Williamstown off Simonds Road (Route 7).

 

The facility cleans and treats the wastewater and discharges it into the nearby Hoosic River.