FOOD & MUSIC Art Farm Hosts Tertulia Chamber Series

Classical music performances are no stranger to the Serenbe community, with The Atlanta Symphony Orchestra performing in the Wildflower Meadow and the Celli quartet visiting Serenbe Farmers Market during an artist residency. And now, the Art Farm hosts the Tertulia Chamber Music series.

Faith McCoy Scriven, who is Music Council Chair for the Art Farm, saw Tertulia perform in San Francisco and New York because her college friend, James Austin Smith, is co-founder and the Artistic & Executive Director. Seeing Tertulia, she realized the Atlanta music scene was missing this music experience. “What was so amazing and really blew me away was the intimacy of it,” she said. Faith and James talked about bringing Tertulia to Atlanta, but couldn’t find the right fit. Then she moved to Serenbe.

“Once we were here I realized THIS was the perfect place. The artistry and the nature… just all of it. I knew Serenbe and Tertulia melded so well together.”

Tertulia presents chamber music concerts in atmospheres that combine lively conversation and dining, and now they’re adding experiences in nature. Their mission is to make classical music accessible to a wider audience, a goal accomplished by their relaxed and unstuffy approach designed to engage both new and experienced listeners.

“The core of Tertulia is that you come for dinner and you have a three or four course meal, and in between courses of food you have courses of music,” James said during an interview for the Serenbe Stories podcast. “You get these digestible chunks of listening and the listening is really serious.”

This experience of serious listening is ideal for a dining atmosphere, in the sense that it provides a perfect complement. During dinner, conversation and conviviality are highly encouraged. Conversely, the performance is a “time for focused, inquisitive listening.” Each enhances the other. “Listening is better because you have the relaxation time to talk about it. Or to NOT talk about it and talk about something else,” said James. “And that time [spent talking] is better because you just spent 20 minutes listening to glorious music.”

Chamber music is always a small group of musicians (two-to-eight people) with no conductor, so each member is collaborating and coming to an agreement or conclusion with the other musicians. “It calls for that openness, that listening, that leading when the time is right and sitting back and following when the time is right. It’s its own kind of conversation.” In that way, James believes chamber music is perfect for such an intimate dining experience.

“You build a sense of community amongst musicians, and since chamber music usually performs in small spaces, that community extends to the four corners of the room, making it a communal atmosphere where everyone in the room is a part of the process.You turn it into the most intimate concert hall you can imagine.”

Serenbe’s “concert halls” for Tertulia have included The Inn at Serenbe Oak Room, Halsa, the courtyard outside The Blue Eyed Daisy, and Sunset Point, which overlooks horse paddocks and provides some of the best vistas the community has to offer.

As Steve Nygren puts it, “Tertulia is for those people who are passionate about wine, food, music, the whole thing. That’s what Serenbe sets the table for.”

Learn more about upcoming performances at artfarmatserenbe.org.

Past Tertulia performances at Serenbe have included Vivaldi’s Four Seasons, Autumnal Brahms, and selections from Stravinksy, Clarke, Smith, and Beethoven. Initial performances were over dinner at The Inn Oak Room or at Halsa. Art Farm Board Chair Janice Barton, Garnie Nygren, and Art Farm Music Committee Chair Faith Scriven catch up before sitting down to a Tertulia.