The Rural We: Jorge Avila
After buying a house in Sheffield, the NYC-based violinist got involved in the community and formed a chamber concert series.
Born in Honduras, violinist Jorge Avila came to the United States to study at the Mannes College of Music in NYC. But it was his three summers at Tanglewood that initiated his love of the Berkshires. The area became a big part of his life; he grew close to people who had second homes in the Berkshires and visited them often, all the while becoming a sought-after violinist, performing, recording and serving as concertmaster in various orchestras. As artistic director, Avila, along with Trudy Weaver Miller, the producer, formed the Lich Gate Concert Series in Sheffield, Massachusetts. The series will present its winter concert, “A Sheffield Schubertiade,” a celebration of the 226th birthday of Austrian composer, Franz Schubert, at the First Congregational Church on Sunday, Jan. 29 at 2 p.m.
Every chance I had I would come up to the Berkshires and finally my partner and I started looking to buy a home. We looked at property in Sheffield and bought it just minutes before the pandemic; it was a miracle of perfect timing, considering what happened to property values when the pandemic hit. We lived in Sheffield full-time during the shutdown because there was no live music happening in New York.
The pandemic, as awful as it was, gave us a chance to get to know everybody in town. While we were getting adjusted to Sheffield, we were driving around Christ Trinity Church on Main Street and met people there. We just fit in right away with the community. I began playing for the church’s online services every Sunday. In the summer of 2020, out of the need for live music, we presented a benefit concert at the pavilion in the town park, an outside concert where everyone could safely distance themselves. That was the origin of the concert series. Last March, we presented one indoor concert. [The name Lich Gate comes from the edifice that serves as a gateway from the mundane to the sacred world of a church; there is a small lich gate at Christ Trinity.]
In my dreams, I did have the desire to have my own concert series somewhere, maybe in Honduras, but in the Berkshires I hit the jackpot; people just love the arts. It does help that Christ Trinity Church has been so supportive. The effort is all very local, home based. The performers are colleagues from New York who I’ve been playing with for many years, all who play at the highest levels.
