Join us on the first Saturday of each month from June through October & tour the Medicinal Gardens at Churchtown. Learn directly from our team of gardeners about the plants and methods that make it special.

~ 10am-noon ~

Susan Chiappini of Arrow Maker Quilts leads a monthly handwork get-together on the first Saturday of every month from 10am-12pm at the farm. Together, we’ll work on sewing projects and troubleshoot new techniques. A Churchtown cheese board will be served for attendees to enjoy as they work.

Participants need to bring their own handwork projects with all necessary tools and materials. Please RSVP for this free event via email: arrowmakerquilts@gmail.com

Book Club meets on the last Wednesday of the month (unless otherwise noted) to discuss topics surrounding land, history, ecology, and community.

My Favorite Plant: Writers and Gardeners on the Plants They Love by Jamaica Kincaid 

A delightful compendium of writing on plants. The passion for gardening and the passion for words come together in this inspired anthology, a collection of essays on topics as diverse as beans and roses, by writers who garden and by gardeners who write.

Please email caitlin@churchtowndairy.org with any questions or to be added to the club’s mailing list.

Book Club meets on the last Wednesday of the month (unless otherwise noted) to discuss topics surrounding land, history, ecology, and community.

Love, Nature, Magic: Shamanic Journeys into the Heart of My Garden by Maria Rodale

In Love, Nature, Magic, organic advocate and former CEO of a global health and wellness company Maria Rodale combines her love of nature and gardening with her experience in shamanic journeying, embarking on an epic adventure to learn from plants, animals, and insects―including some of the most misunderstood beings in nature. Maria asks them their purpose and listens as they show and declare what they want us humans to know. From Thistles to Snakes, Poison Ivy to Mosquitoes, these nature beings convey messages that are relevant to every human, showing us how to live in balance and harmony on this Earth.

Please email caitlin@churchtowndairy.org with any questions or to be added to the club’s mailing list.

We are delighted to announce the launch of a new chamber music series at Churchtown Dairy, beginning this August. Curated by renowned cellist Wendy Sutter, the inaugural season brings world-class musicians to the iconic Round Barn for intimate performances that celebrate the intersection of art, nature, and community.

Concert I

• Friday, August 29, 2025

• 6:00 PM 8:00 PM

August 29th, 2025  | 6:00–8:00 PM | Round Barn at the Churchtown Dairy
357 Co. Rd. 12, Hudson, NY 12534

Click here to purchase tickets

Antonín Dvořák (1841–1904)

String Quartet No. 12 in F Major, Op. 96, “American”

Violin I — Jesse Mills

Violin II — Alex Fortes

Viola — Milan Milisavljević

Cello — Matthew Christakos

– Intermission –

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (1840–1893)

Souvenir de Florence, String Sextet in D Minor, Op. 70

Violin I — Catherine Cho

Violin II — Todd Phillips

Viola I — Milan Milisavljević

Viola II —Alex Fortes

Cello I — Wendy Sutter

Cello II — Matthew Christakos

We are delighted to announce the launch of a new chamber music series at Churchtown Dairy, beginning this August. Curated by renowned cellist Wendy Sutter, the inaugural season brings world-class musicians to the iconic Round Barn for intimate performances that celebrate the intersection of art, nature, and community.

Concert II

• Saturday, August 30, 2025

• 6:00 PM 8:00 PM

August 30, 2025 | 6:00-8:00 PM | Round Barn at the Churchtown Dairy
357 Co. Rd. 12, Hudson, NY 12534

Click here to purchase tickets

Johannes Brahms (1833–1897)

String Sextet No. 2 in G major, Op. 36

Violin I — Jesse Mills

Violin II — Alex Fortes

Viola I — Milan Milisavljević

Viola II — Todd Phillips

Cello I — Matthew Christakos

Cello II — Wendy Sutter

– Intermission –

Franz Schubert (1797–1828)

String Quintet in C Major, D. 956 (Op. posth. 163)

Violin I— Todd Phillips

Violin II- Catherine Cho

Viola — Milan Milisavljević

Cello I — Wendy Sutter

Cello II — Matthew Christakos

Join us on the first Saturday of each month from June through October & tour the Medicinal Gardens at Churchtown. Learn directly from our team of gardeners about the plants and methods that make it special.

~ 10am-noon ~

Susan Chiappini of Arrow Maker Quilts leads a monthly handwork get-together on the first Saturday of every month from 10am-12pm at the farm. Together, we’ll work on sewing projects and troubleshoot new techniques. A Churchtown cheese board will be served for attendees to enjoy as they work.

Participants need to bring their own handwork projects with all necessary tools and materials. Please RSVP for this free event via email: arrowmakerquilts@gmail.com

New Dance Series Conceived and Curated by Richard Colton

Produced by Churchtown Dairy

Taiji Dao, Dance, Calligraphy, & Sound

An Afternoon of Taiji, Qigong and Bagua dance celebrating the mystery of the Dao through a living mandala of movement, music, calligraphy, and sound. Taiji Dao is a journey from the silence of Hundun (混沌)—the primordial chaos before creation—into the unfolding of Wuji (無極), infinite stillness, where all potential sleeps. Movement becomes brushwork. Ink becomes breath. The stage becomes a place of transformation. Dance, music, calligraphy, and listening, are magically integrated into the nature and architecture of Churchtown Dairy.

Conceived for Churchtown Dairy and Performed by Lorelei Chang

Music Created and Performed by Joseph Getter

Narration Created and Performed by Nini Melvin

Costumes by Mai Nakanisha

* Suggested Donation at Door ($25 General Admission, $15 Senior and Under Eighteen)

Lorelei Chang is a pioneering modern dancer from China whose 40-year artistic journey bridges continents and cultures. She is renowned for integrating Qigong, dance, Chinese calligraphy, and healing arts into unique works of embodied expression. As the co-founder of DancEnlight—a cross-cultural dance company dedicated to artistic collaboration and spiritual enrichment—Lorelei has performed and taught internationally, from the U.S. and Japan to New Zealand and China. Her work has been featured at institutions such as Trinity College, the Kripalu Center, Omega Institute, and the National Qigong Association. A professional member of the National Qigong Association, Lorelei is a Shiatsu practitioner trained by Nini Melvin and a certified Radiant Lotus Women’s Qigong instructor founded by Daisy Lee. Lorelei currently studies Hun Yuan Tai Chi and Bagua with a renowned martial artist and teacher, Zhang Qilong. She holds deep reverence for her many teachers—especially her mother, who introduced her and her twin sister to Qigong in their early teens. Lorelei’s teachers’ influence permeates every aspect of her work. Through her own presence and teachings, she honors their light, and hopes that anyone she encounters benefits from her guidance and passion.

Joseph Getter is a creative world musician, multi-instrumentalist, improvisor, composer, and teacher. He has decades of experience in call-and-response kirtan, Javanese gamelan of Indonesia,Carnatic classical music of southern India, experimental music, drumming, and Jazz. Joseph creates music for theater, dance, sound meditations, yoga, and the circus arts. Joseph accompanies dance classes at Wesleyan University, and at Educational Center for the Arts high school. He teaches music at Southern Connecticut State University, University of New Haven, Independent Day School, and Oddfellows Playhouse. 

Nini Melvin created a nature-based healing art, HUMANATURE, blending Shiatsu, Chinese Medicine, Dance, Qigong and Five Element Meridian Movement. She wrote a book, HUMANATURE, made a divination deck and many shiatsu charts, all featuring Lorelei Chang. Nini has a Master’s Degree in Dance from Temple University, Philadelphia, PA. She studied and taught shiatsu at the Ohashi Institute in NYC from 1981-1994. Since 1985, Nini has trained shiatsu and Qigong teachers and practitioners locally and internationally. She teaches classes online and in person. Nini and Lorelei have been collaborating and co-creating for a decade.

New Dance Series Conceived and Curated by Richard Colton

Produced by Churchtown Dairy

A BODY in CHURCHTOWN DAIRY

Eiko Otako performs at Churchtown Dairy her iconic solo project A Body in Places, the omnibus title of Eiko’s place and occasion specific project that she started in 2014 after working as Eiko & Koma for 41 years. Its scale, contents, and modes of presentation vary radically depending on a community, a hosting institution, a place, each place’s constituency, a season, and an occasion. Central to the project is a drive to explore non-traditional venues and to respond to the innate characteristics of each place. Performing as a soloist, Eiko willfully partners with the particularities of places and viewers and how in turn each place affects her choreography and performance. Her objective is being radically available to be seen and to be heard as a performer and as an artist by diverse audience members. This performance will be the culmination of Eiko’s four-day artist residency at Churchtown dairy.

Created for Churchtown Dairy and Performed by Eiko Otake

Sound Created and Performed by Jeffrey Lependorf

* Suggested Donation at Door ($25 General Admission, $15 Senior and Under Eighteen)

Eiko Otake - Born and raised in Japan and a resident of New York since 1976, Eiko Otake is a movement-based, interdisciplinary artist. She worked for more than 40 years as Eiko & Koma performing their own choreography which earned them Guggenheim, MacArthur, and United States Artists Fellowships, as well as the Samuel H. Scripps American Dance Festival and the Dance Magazine Awards. Since 2014, Eiko has been directing her own projects. She has performed a series of site-specific solo work, A Body in Places at over 76 sites. In 2016, Eiko was the subject of the 10th annual Danspace Platform, a month-long curated program that brought her a Special Bessies Citation, an Art Matters Grant, and the Anonymous Was a Woman Award. A Body in Fukushima records Eiko‘s solo performances in post-nuclear disaster Fukushima, Japan. The project has produced a book publication, a feature-length film as well as numerous photo exhibitions, lectures, and performances. In 2017, Eiko launched her multi-year Duet Project, a mutable and evolving series of experiments in collaborations. She has worked with artists David Harrington, Ishmael Houston-Jones, Wen Hui, Joan Jonas, Don Christian Jones, Iris McCloughan, Beverly McIver, Mérian Soto, Wen Hui, and her late grandfather, Chikuha Otake. Her 10-year project, I Invited Myself, is a series of exhibitions and screenings of her media works. Her short and feature-length films have been screened in many film festivals internationally. Eiko will be presented by Brooklyn Academy of Music October 21-25 this fall as part of their acclaimed Next Wave 2025 performance series. A Body in Places

Jeffrey Lependorf is a composer, musician, and visual artist, as well as a certified master of the shakuhachi, a traditional Japanese bamboo flute. His music has been performed around the globe—literally, in fact: a recording of his Night Pond for solo shakuhachi was launched into space when the shuttle Atlantis took off on May 15, 1997 and remained for a year aboard the Russian space station Mir. His “Masterpieces of Western Music” audio-course is available through Barnes & Noble’s “Portable Professor” series, as well as for download through audible.com. Music recordings can be found on Ayler, Albany, Sachimay, and other labels. A nationally recognized arts leader, he currently serves as Executive Director of the John Cage Trust, following serving as Executive Director of The Flow Chart Foundation (devoted to the legacy of John Ashbery), and also directs the Art Omi: Music international musicians residency program, a collaborative music-making residency he created.

New Dance Series Conceived and Curated by Richard Colton

Produced by Churchtown Dairy

Cage & Cunningham @ Churchtown Dairy

This music and dance program features a MinEvent comprising solos and duets from Suite for Two, Signals, XOVER and other works by Merce Cunningham performed by a select group of professional dancers who regularly participate in Merce Cunningham Trust activities and projects. The MinEvent, arranged by MCT co-director Patricia Lent, will be performed with music by John Cage curated by Jeffrey Lependorf, executive director of the John Cage Trust. The program will also include excerpts from Cunningham’s Beach Birds taught in a community workshop, additional music by Cage performed by Lependorf and students from Bard College Conservatory, along with a music & dance realization of Cage’s iconic 4’33”.

*Suggested Donation at Door ($25 General Admission, $15 Senior and Under Eighteen)

Beach Birds Community Workshop:

Patricia Lent, Co-Director of the Merce Cunningham Trust, will conduct a two-day workshop teaching phrase material from Cunningham’s 1991 dance Beach Birds. The workshop, which will take place in the Round Barn at Churchtown Dairy, is free to the public and is open to intermediate and advanced level dancers. The workshop will culminate in a public showing as part of a program of music & dance at the Round Barn. Participation in the showing is optional.

Schedule:

• Thursday, September 18. 12:00-4:00

• Friday, September 19. 10:00-1:00

• For those choosing to participate in the showing:

• Saturday, September 20

• 10:00-1:00 warm-up and rehearsal

• 3:00 program begins

** To register for the workshop portion, please email: rcolton5678@gmail.com

Patricia Lent was a member of the Merce Cunningham Dance Company from 1984 to 1993, dancing in over forty complete works, including Pictures, Fabrications, August Pace, and CRWDSPCR.  As a member of Mikhail Baryshnikov’s White Oak Dance Project (1994-1996) she performed work by Hanya Holm, Mark Morris, Tere O’Connor, and others.  After earning a masters degree from Bank Street College of Education, she taught second and third grade at P.S. 234 in Lower Manhattan (1998-2007).  In 2009, Lent was named a trustee of the Merce Cunningham Trust, and currently serves as the Trust’s Co-Director, in which capacity she initiates and supervises staging projects for professional companies, museums, conservatories, schools, and arts organizations worldwide. Lent began teaching technique and repertory workshops at the Merce Cunningham Studio in the late 1980s.  She has staged Cunningham’s work for numerous schools and companies, including Fabrications for MCDC and Ballet de Lorraine, Scramble for Repertory Dance Theater, Duets for American Ballet Theatre, Channels/Inserts and Exchange for Lyon Opera Ballet, Beach Birds and Change of Address for North Carolina School of the Arts, and Roaratorio for MCDC’s Legacy Tour.  Lent was the principal stager for Night of 100 Solos: A Centennial Event, presented at the Brooklyn Academy of Music in April 2019 in celebration of the 100th anniversary of Merce Cunningham’s birth.  In the summer of 2023, she collaborated on an arrangement of Beach Birds performed on the shoreline of Rockaway Beach.  Lent has done extensive research into Cunningham’s notes and choreographic methods, and welcomes opportunities to share her discoveries with dancers, dancemakers, artists, and other inquiring minds.

Jeffrey Lependorf is a composer, musician, and visual artist, as well as a certified master of the shakuhachi, a traditional Japanese bamboo flute. His music has been performed around the globe—literally, in fact: a recording of his Night Pond for solo shakuhachi was launched into space when the shuttle Atlantis took off on May 15, 1997 and remained for a year aboard the Russian space station Mir. His “Masterpieces of Western Music” audio-course is available through Barnes & Noble’s “Portable Professor” series, as well as for download through audible.com. Music recordings can be found on Ayler, Albany, Sachimay, and other labels. A nationally recognized arts leader, he currently serves as Executive Director of the John Cage Trust, following serving as Executive Director of The Flow Chart Foundation (devoted to the legacy of John Ashbery), and also directs the Art Omi: Music international musicians residency program, a collaborative music-making residency he created.

Join us on the first Saturday of each month from June through October & tour the Medicinal Gardens at Churchtown. Learn directly from our team of gardeners about the plants and methods that make it special.

~ 10am-noon ~

Susan Chiappini of Arrow Maker Quilts leads a monthly handwork get-together on the first Saturday of every month from 10am-12pm at the farm. Together, we’ll work on sewing projects and troubleshoot new techniques. A Churchtown cheese board will be served for attendees to enjoy as they work.

Participants need to bring their own handwork projects with all necessary tools and materials. Please RSVP for this free event via email: arrowmakerquilts@gmail.com

Susan Chiappini of Arrow Maker Quilts leads a monthly handwork get-together on the first Saturday of every month from 10am-12pm at the farm. Together, we’ll work on sewing projects and troubleshoot new techniques. A Churchtown cheese board will be served for attendees to enjoy as they work.

Participants need to bring their own handwork projects with all necessary tools and materials. Please RSVP for this free event via email: arrowmakerquilts@gmail.com

Susan Chiappini of Arrow Maker Quilts leads a monthly handwork get-together on the first Saturday of every month from 10am-12pm at the farm. Together, we’ll work on sewing projects and troubleshoot new techniques. A Churchtown cheese board will be served for attendees to enjoy as they work.

Participants need to bring their own handwork projects with all necessary tools and materials. Please RSVP for this free event via email: arrowmakerquilts@gmail.com