Yellow Barn Music Haul at the Brattleboro Retreat
Last summer, Yellow Barn Music Haul visited the Brattleboro Retreat, the first facility for the care of the mentally ill in Vermont, and one of the first ten private psychiatric hospitals in the United States, to bring chamber music to their community. The first performance was geared towards Retreat patients from their Elementary School and Early Education programs, and the second towards all ages. With about 125 children and staff present at both performances, the excitement and connection between musicians and audience was palpable.
During the final week of the festival, Yellow Barn was honored to welcome Retreat employees to the Big Barn for two Retreat Nights, offering them complimentary tickets and thanking them from the stage. Over the course of the two concerts, Retreat employees and their families were able to experience more music from percussionist Sam Um and the Omer Quartet, who had performed at the Retreat.
Konstantin von Krusenstiern, VP of Development and Communications at the Retreat, wrote the following letter of support for the partnership:
Dear Yellow Barn:
On behalf of everyone at the Brattleboro Retreat, thank you for coming to our campus with the Music Haul to perform for our patients and staff. We are also grateful for the complimentary tickets that you provided for folks to attend concerts at your venue in Putney. Approximately 250 individuals at the Brattleboro Retreat benefited from your programming this summer.
All of the concerts were truly fabulous! The children and adolescents in our residential and day programs were totally captivated by the performances. It was also wonderful to see so many of the patients ask lots of questions during the Q&A sessions after the shows. For many of the kids, this was the first time they had ever seen such concerts, and they were totally engaged!
The therapeutic benefit of the concerts was also apparent and without a doubt a wonderful experience for our patients on in their path to recovery. I have enclosed some letters and drawings from some of the children expressing their thanks to Yellow Barn expressing their thanks for the concerts.
The Brattleboro Retreat is exceedingly grateful for our partnership with Yellow Barn and we look forward to collaborating with you again in the future.
Sincerely,
Konstantin von Krusenstiern
Vice President Development and Communications