Sept. 28: The Birch Festival: Fall Edition 2026 – Encounter: The Bach Suites and Ravel
L-R: Cellist Jan Vogler, Violinist Yevgeny Kutik, Actor Tamara Hickey
The Birch Festival: Fall Edition 2026
Encounter: The Bach Suites and Ravel
Yevgeny Kutik, Artistic Director & Rachel Barker, Executive Director
Featured Performance:
Cellist Jan Vogler, Actor and Writer Tamara Hickey, and Violinist Yevgeny Kutik
Monday, September 28, 2026 at 7pm
First Congregational Church Stockbridge | 4 Main Street | Stockbridge, MA
Tickets and Registration Information: www.thebirchfestival.org
Stockbridge, MA — The arrival of the fall season will be brightened by the return of the The Birch Festival to Stockbridge, MA, which presents a featured performance on Monday, September 28, 2026 at 7pm. Birch Festival Artistic Director and esteemed violinist Yevgeny Kutik welcomes acclaimed cellist Jan Vogler and award-winning actor and writer Tamara Hickey, for a collaborative concert at First Congregational Church Stockbridge (4 Main Street). The program will include J.S. Bach’s Cello Suites Nos. 1 and 6, Maurice Ravel’s Sonata for Violin and Cello, and Handel-Halvorsen’s Passacaglia. Berkshire County Students and a guardian may attend the concert for free. Prior to the concert, the artists will also be presenting a private workshop for students in local public schools.
This fall’s featured performance, Encounter: The Bach Suites and Ravel, traces a journey from solitude to encounter, and from encounter to transformation. With the musicianship of iconic cellist Jan Vogler, a voice emerges, unfolding in Bach’s first cello suite, before Ravel brings violin and cello into a vivid exchange of tension and discovery. The journey returns to Bach with his sixth suite: the original solitary voice transformed by everything that has come before. Completing the encounter, both violin and cello come together at the end in the exuberant union of Handel–Halvorsen’s Passacaglia. Joining Vogler and Kutik will be the Berkshires’ own Tamara Hickey of Shakespeare & Company for special readings before each piece. Interwoven with the music of Bach and Ravel, these readings will help trace the evening’s themes of Beginnings, Encounter, and Transcendence—bringing music and words together in what will be a particularly special Birch performance. Hickey is an award-winning actor, writer, and theater-maker whose work spans theater, film, and television in the U.S. and Canada. Based in the Berkshires, she is a company member of Shakespeare & Company and creates original theater through her production company, MetaGirl Productions.
“Jan Vogler brings extraordinary artistry and a deeply personal connection to Bach’s Cello Suites, and I’m thrilled to welcome him to the Berkshires for this special program, pairing Bach with Ravel’s gorgeous Sonata for Violin and Cello,” says Birch Festival Artistic Director Yevgeny Kutik. “With Tamara’s readings woven throughout the evening, and the opportunity to bring these artists into our local schools, this is a wonderful expression of what we hope to offer through Birch: discovery, connection, and music that brings our community together.”
The Birch Festival was founded in 2022 by Lenox-based husband-and-wife team Yevgeny Kutik, an internationally renowned violinist who serves as Artistic Director, and Rachel Barker, who is the non-profit organization’s Executive Director. The Birch Festival promotes and propels distinct voices in music, whether through new composition or creative interpretation of old favorites. It offers leading musicians a chance to play and establish relationships in the Berkshires, while recognizing the importance of their work by offering compensation that sustains and values their efforts in this industry. The Birch Festival’s mission is to bring world-leading musicians for artist residencies in Berkshire County schools, and work in tandem with local business and cultural partnerships. Kutik, a Belarusian-Jewish refugee resettled in Pittsfield by the Jewish Federation in the 1990s, named the festival for his grandmother Sima Berezkina, whose last name means “birch tree.” With significance in many global cultures, birch trees symbolize growth, resilience, and adaptability – qualities that Sima embodied.
The Birch Festival will also be presenting its spring festival on Friday, May 14, 2027, in partnership with the Tanglewood Learning Institute, presenting the Boston Conservatory at Berklee Percussion Ensemble in a performance featuring Lou Harrison’s Concerto for Violin and Percussion Orchestra. Tickets are on sale now and more information can be found here.
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The Birch Festival’s Fall 2026 Schedule:
Bach & Birds
Pleasant Valley Wildlife Sanctuary (472 W Mountain Rd, Lenox, MA 01240)
Monday, September 28, 2026 at 9:30am
Registration: www.massaudubon.org/programs/pleasant-valley/104320-bach-birds
As part of its Fall 2026 edition, The Birch Festival will partner with Mass Audubon to present Bach & Birds, a free pop-up performance at Pleasant Valley Wildlife Sanctuary in Lenox, Massachusetts. Cellist Jan Vogler will perform excerpts from Bach’s Cello Suites and share insights into these transformative works, surrounded by an exhibition of watercolor paintings of birds from around the world by artist Robin Crofut-Brittingham. The performance will take place in Pleasant Valley’s historic barn, a fully accessible program space. Accessible parking and seating will be available, and coffee will be provided. Made possible through the generous support of an anonymous donor and the partnership between The Birch Festival and Mass Audubon, Bach & Birds is free and open to the public.
The Birch Festival Featured Performance – Encounter: The Bach Suites and Ravel
Monday, September 28, 2026 at 7pm
First Congregational Church Stockbridge (4 Main Street, Stockbridge, MA 01262)
Tickets: www.thebirchfestival.org
Violinist and Birch Festival Artistic Director and Co-Founder Yevgeny Kutik comes together with acclaimed cellist Jan Vogler and award-winning actor and writer Tamar Hickey to perform the emotive and thought-provoking works by J.S. Bach and Maurice Ravel, as well as Johan Halvorsen’s interpretation of Frederic Handel’s Passacaglia, in a program inspired by the themes of solitude, encounter, and transformation. Berkshire County Students and a guardian may attend for free.
About the Artists & Festival Directors:
About Yevgeny Kutik: With a “dark-hued tone and razor-sharp technique” (The New York Times), violinist Yevgeny Kutik has captivated audiences worldwide with an old-world sound that communicates a modern intellect. Praised for his technical precision and virtuosity, he is lauded for his poetic and imaginative interpretations of both standard works and newly composed repertoire. A native of Minsk, Belarus, Kutik began violin studies with his mother, Alla Zernitskaya, and immigrated to the U.S. with his family at the age of five. An advocate for the Jewish Federations of North America, the organization that assisted his family in coming to the US, he regularly speaks and performs across the country to promote the assistance of refugees from around the world. Kutik’s discography, all on Marquis Classics, includes The Death of Juliet and Other Tales (2021), Meditations on Family (Marquis Classics 2019), Words Fail (2016), Music from the Suitcase (2014), and Sounds of Defiance (2012). Committed to the music of our time, Kutik regularly gives premiere and repeat performances of major works by today’s most celebrated composers. For more information, please visit www.yevgenykutik.com.
About Rachel Barker: Rachel Barker is an educator and writer. Barker has been awarded spots in writers workshops for both nonfiction and fiction, including the Key West Literary Seminar, the Aspen Institute's Aspen Summer Words, and multiple residencies with Write On, Door County. She has consulted and presented for a number of organizations throughout the country, including the Yale Council for African Studies, Flint Institute of Music, Boston University's African Studies Center, Primary Source, and the Wayland/Weston Interfaith Council on Teaching Religion in Schools. Rachel Barker’s MEd. is from Boston College, where she graduated with a focus on social justice and teaching English language learners. Her undergraduate degree in Anthropology is from Boston University, and she currently studies Religion at Harvard University.
About Jan Vogler: Jan Vogler’s distinguished career has brought him together with renowned conductors and internationally acclaimed orchestras around the world, such as London Philharmonic Orchestra, New York Philharmonic, Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin and Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra. His great ability allowed him to explore the sound boundaries of the cello and to establish an intensive dialogue with contemporary composers and artists. This includes regular world premieres, including works by Tigran Mansurian (with WDR Symphony Orchestra conducted by Semyon Bychkov), John Harbison (with Mira Wang and the Boston Symphony Orchestra), Udo Zimmermann (Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra), Wolfgang Rihm (Double Concerto with Mira Wang), Jörg Widman (Cello Concerto Dunkle Saiten, dedicated to Jan Vogler himself), Nico Muhly, Sven Helbig and Zhou-Long (Drei Kontinente – Konzert für Cello und Orchester, composed for Jan Vogler) and Sean Shepherd (On a Clear Day based on a cycle of poems by Ulla Hahn, for cello, choirs and orchestra, which was premiered in 2023 with the Philharmonic State Orchestra conducted by Kent Nagano). The New York Times praises his “soulful, richly hued playing” and the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung grants him the ability “to make his cello speak like a singing voice.”
Highlights of Jan Vogler’s career as a soloist are concerts with the New York Philharmonic – both in New York and Dresden at the occasion of the reopening of the rebuilt Dresdner Frauenkirche under the direction of Lorin Maazel in 2005 –, Chicago, Boston, Pittsburgh and Montréal Symphony Orchestras, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, Orchestra dell’ Accademia di Santa Cecilia, Vienna Symphony Orchestra, Munich Philharmonic as well as with The Knights. He collaborates with conductors such as Andris Nelsons, Fabio Luisi, Sir Antonio Pappano, Marin Alsop, Valery Gergiev, Thomas Hengelbrock, Manfred Honeck and Kent Nagano.
About Tamara Hickey: Tamara Hickey (she/her) is a 500-hour certified trauma-sensitive yoga instructor who integrates biomechanics, pain science, and somatic movement to guide students toward strength, resilience, and ease. Current role with WAM: Teaching Artist for Yoga Cry It Out event WAM Theatre: First WAM theatre collaboration Selected Theatre Credits Elsewhere: Henry 6, Part II, Much Ado About Nothing, Times Stands Still, Heisenberg, The Tempest, Cymbeline, The Merchant of Venice (Shakespeare & Company); Appropriate (SpeakEasy Stage); God’s Ear, Henry VIII, Pericles, Living in Exile (Actors’ Shakespeare Project); Cabaret (A.R.T.) Additional artistic credits: Film/TV: Defending Jacob, Mother/Android, John & The Hole, The Equalizer 2, The Judge, Olive Kitteridge, Bull.
Creative inspiration: Hickey’s 13 year old daughter, going to the theatre Community Engagement/Activist work: Tamara leads classes and workshops at Berkshire Yoga Dance & Fitness, Miraval Berkshires, and through her online yoga studio, The Action Space. She is currently pursuing a two-year Meditation Certification with Tara Brach and Jack Kornfield. Membership/Affiliations: SAG-AFTRA, AEA, Yoga Alliance Selected training: MFA in Theatre from American Repertory Theatre Awards/proudest achievements: Elliot Norton Award (Best Actress, Best Production) God’s Ear; Tamara recently created, starred in, and produced a one-woman show THIS IS IT with Kate Kohler Amory, which led to the founding of their production company, MetaGirl Productions. Final word: Collaboration is Queen.