BRATTLEBORO-After 12 years at the helm, Mary Greene, executive director of the Brattleboro Music Center (BMC), is retiring effective Saturday, Aug. 1.
“This has been my dream job,” she said in a recent interview. “I felt that way 12 years ago, and I feel that way now.”
Greene and her family moved to Brattleboro in 1991.
“We first became involved with the BMC when we were looking for a cello teacher for our daughter,” Greene said. “Three of our children took lessons there, and all four attended BMC music camps.”
This involvement led to Greene’s serving two terms on the board of trustees, including as board president, concluding in 2003. However, she continued to stay involved.
When the BMC began looking for a new managing director in 2014, Greene applied.
“I thought that my skill sets and my experience in education were a good match for what the organization was seeking,” she said.
Greene first served as co-director with Patricia Mangan, board treasurer, in 2014.
“In the summer of 2015, I took over solo,” Greene said.
Then began an unanticipated whirlwind sequence of events over a span of months.
For decades the BMC had been renting space from Saint Michael’s Catholic Church on Walnut Street in Brattleboro, occupying the front half of the building that had served as the residence for the nuns who taught at Saint Michael’s Catholic School next door.
“Walnut Street was to be our ‘temporary’ home,” Greene said. “Temporary turned out to be 38 years.”
Early in 2015, the church said it would not be renewing the BMC’s lease after the following year because St. Brigid’s Kitchen and Food Pantry, which provides hot meals and grocery items, required more space to meet increased need.
“At different times over the decades, the board had searched for a new home, only to be stymied each time,” Greene said.
A new board committee began looking for a new site.
“We learned that Winston Prouty Center had decided to buy the former Austine School campus, which meant they would vacate their site on the former Frances Hicks School campus opposite Living Memorial Park,” she said.
“Everything was in motion,” Greene continued. “There was a new sense of urgency. We already had a capital campaign underway, but it kicked into high gear once we knew we would be relocating.”
The board was committed to doing so without debt.
“The BMC has deep roots in this community,” she said. “People who have been touched emotionally by experiences here serve as our ambassadors. We’ve built relationships over decades. People responded generously, and they continue to do so.”
On July 8, 2016, the BMC took ownership of the Prouty campus, with the official groundbreaking taking place on September 15, a mere two months later.
The BMC worked with Simons Architects from Portland, Maine, because of the firm’s experience designing spaces for music, Greene said.
The existing building was remodeled for the music school to enhance music instruction, providing 15 teaching studios purpose-built and soundproofed with acoustic panels, four double piano studios, a mixed-use classroom, and a music library.
The BMC’s commitment to excellence also led to a newly constructed 4,400-square-foot performance auditorium, Greene said.
It became the first new hall in the area specifically designed for chamber music since 1895, when an opera house was added to the Brattleboro Town Hall. That space was demolished in 1953.
“From the beginning our plans included a public performance space optimized for chamber music,” Greene said. “That had always been the dream. How fortunate we have been to see that dream realized.”
That connection to excellence, Greene said, has existed from the BMC’s founding in 1952 by violinist Blanche Honegger Moyse to “promote the love and understanding of good music through performance and education, and make it a vital part of the community.
“We believe that music is for everyone,” Greene said. “Our mission has always been to foster the joy and understanding of music, and make it available to all people at any stage of life.”
The BMC officially moved to its new campus in 2017.
Greene said the BMC faced another urgent situation in the spring of 2020 during the Covid lockdown.
“There was the tragedy of the murder of George Floyd and the resulting Black Lives Matter movement,” Greene said. “Organizations throughout the country, and certainly in this community, responded with statements and actions of support. The BMC staff held daily online conversations asking what these events and this movement meant for us.”
At both the staff and board level, Greene continued, “we realized and agreed that we had a responsibility as an organization to respond programmatically. We asked, ‘What repertoire is being performed and being taught here?’”
In answering this question, the board decided to develop an artist-in-residence program to deepen and expand the BMC’s repertoire in a lasting way.
“We conducted a national search, and had the good fortune to find the organization Castle of Our Skins, and Ashleigh Gordon, a violist, the organization’s co-founder with Anthony R. Green,” Greene said.
Castle of Our Skins is a Boston-based concert and educational series devoted to celebrating Black artistry through music.
“Gordon had the role of BMC’s artist-in-residence for two years and has continued to advise and provide resources to staff and faculty since then,” Greene said. “Gordon has familiarized the entire BMC community — faculty, students, program attendees — with the music of seldom-heard Black composers through presentations, discussions, visits to the Music in the Schools groups, and performances. It has been a wonderful connection.”
Although Gordon will step down this summer from her leadership role at Castle of Our Skins, Greene said the BMC will continue to work with the organization next season and beyond.
“The BMC’s growth under Mary’s extraordinary leadership has been organizational as much as musical,” said Lisa Cox, president of the BMC’s board of trustees.
Greene “has guided us in broadening our mission from a simple focus on the classical tradition to embracing high-quality music across a range of historical traditions,” she said.
“You can now experience at the BMC anything from Monteverdi to traditional Québécois, from North Indian classical to big band, from little-known African American composers to Japanese composers of video game music,” Greene continued. “Mary has always understood that fostering the joy and understanding of music means opening the door as wide as possible.”
While still very much involved in guiding the day-to-day operation of the BMC, Greene also is reflecting on her 12 years as executive director.
“What an exceptional privilege it has been to work with this team of colleagues, with the board leadership, and with the breathtaking generosity and encouragement of this community,” she said. “To have been a part of this effort is something I’ll hold forever.”
This Arts item was submitted to The Commons.