Record Players To Perform Annual JKR Conservation Fund Concert Mar. 4

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Photo: The 2017 Record Players, (from left), Sarah Freiberg, cello; Anne Black, viola; Ray Jackendoff, clarinet; Andrea Mason Nolin, flute; Colin Davis, violin. (courtesy The Record Players)

The Record Players will celebrate their 17th year of tribute to the Judith K. Record Memorial Conservation Fund with a chamber music concert at 7:30 p.m., Saturday, March 4 at The First Church in Belmont, 404 Concord Ave.

The concert is free and open to all, with contributions accepted at the door. A reception for all attendees will follow the concert at this wheelchair accessible venue. 

The JKR Fund works to conserve and protect Belmont’s unique and historic property at Lone Tree Hill and other local open spaces enjoyed by the public.    

The program will include music for strings and wind instruments composed by Hovhaness, Quantz, Mozart, Wilson, and Reger. 

The JKR Fund was founded in 2001 to honor Judy Record’s dedicated efforts in support of Belmont’s conservation areas. The Fund’s principal work during the past year past has been continuing to oversee and underwrite the restoration of the century-old Pine Allee on Lone Tree Hill Conservation Land.

Tax-deductible gifts may be made to Mass Audubon/JKR Fund, P.O. Box 79138, Belmont, MA 02478. More information on the fund and open spaces in Belmont can be found at JKRFund.org.

Lone Tree Hill’s Pine Allée Receives $150K Gift from Record Memorial Fund

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Photo: The Pine Allée in Belmont’s Lone Tree Hill.

You have probably admired them without knowing it had a name.

Walking between a line of trees or shrubs along each side of a lane, an allée is a landscape feature first formally used in French gardens and estates to emphasize the “coming to,” or arrival to a specific point of interest.

The best-known example in these parts is the Grand Allée on the Crane Estate at Castle Hill in Ipswich. Finished a century ago this year, the half-mile-long, 100-foot-wide stretch of turf, bordered by two rows of trees, is a spectacular example of that effect. 

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But you don’t have to take a trip to the North Shore to see one around Belmont, there’s one already here.

The Pine Allée, running adjacent to upper Concord Avenue near the Belmont Hill Club on the Lone Tree Hill Conservation Land, is one of the signature landscape features of the newest open space in Belmont.  

But like so much open land in Belmont, there is always a need for funds to maintain this historical landmark.

Earlier this month, Belmont Board of Selectmen accepted a $150,000 gift from the Judith K Record Memorial Conservation Fund to begin the much-needed work on the allée. 

Kit Dreier, chair of the Record Fund, told the board the fund’s trustees were pleased that the funds will be used to hire an arbor care firm to undertake and oversee the recommended work, much of it to be performed during the winter when the ground is frozen so not to damage the landscape.

“We hope that the measures to protect the Allée’s health and to assure its long-term safety will extend its life well into the future,” said Dreier. 

This Weekend: 15th Judith Record Concert Saturday, Sing-a-long Saturday Morning

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Photo: The Record Players.

• The Record Players will celebrate their fifteenth year of tribute to The Judith K. Record Memorial Conservation Fund with a night of chamber music on Saturday, Jan. 31 at 7:30 p.m. at The First Church, Belmont, 404 Concord Ave.

This concert is a collaboration between the Players and the Judith K. Record Memorial Conservation Fund, bringing together people who find inspiration and beauty through music and nature. The concert, which is open to the public free of charge, serves as our annual appeal and is supported by pre-concert private and corporate sponsorships.

Contributions are accepted at the door. All proceeds from the concert go to the fund’s endowment managed by Mass Audubon.

The original core of musicians – Flutist and Founder, Andrea M. Nolin; Colin Davis, violin and Sarah Freiberg, cello – will be joined by clarinetist Ray Jackendoff and pianist Leslie Amper, who has captivated audiences with her “stupendous” performances throughout the Boston area, the United States and Europe.

The program includes:

  • Stamitz’s Trio in G, Op.14.
  • Beethoven’s Clarinet Trio, Op. 11.
  • Martinu’s “Promenades” for flute, violin and piano.
  • Brahms’ Clarinet Trio, in A minor, Op. 114.
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Vanessa Trien. Photo by Neale Eckstein.

• Join singer-songwriter Vanessa Trien, local rock star to the young (and young at heart) on Saturday, Jan. 31 at 10:30 a.m. in the Belmont Public Library’s Assembly Room for a morning of singing and dancing. This event is part of the Children’s Room’s Saturday Sing-Along Series.

• Head over to the “Skip” (the ‘Skip’ Vigiloro Skating Rink on Concord Avenue adjacent to Harris Field) on Saturday, Jan. 31 at 1 p.m. to see the Belmont High School Boys’ Ice Hockey Marauders take on the Rockets of Reading Memorial High School in Middlesex League play.