CAZENOVIA — Cazenovia Preservation Foundation (CPF) will present its second “Music in the Meadow” event on Saturday, Aug. 19 from 5:30 to 8:30 p.m.
Music and nature enthusiasts are invited to pack a picnic, blanket, and chairs and head to Stone Quarry Hill Art Park for a concert performed by a Symphoria string quartet.

The Art Park is located at 3883 Stone Quarry Road in Cazenovia.

The picnic grounds open at 5:30 p.m. and the concert begins at 7 p.m.

Tickets will go on sale on Aug. 1 and are priced at $20 for adults and free for kids ages 12 and under.

Proceeds will go towards CPF’s “Bring the Note to Rest” capital campaign aimed at raising a total of $25,000.

A rain date is scheduled for Aug. 26.

Symphoria is a nonprofit, musician-led cooperative orchestra founded in 2012 and based in Syracuse. Composed of a diverse group of musicians from across the globe, the orchestra presents more than 50 concerts and reaches 100,000 people annually in venues ranging from libraries and healthcare facilities to public parks, churches, museums, and its home venue, the Crouse-Hinds Theater at the Civic Center. For more information, visit experiencesymphoria.org.

Bring the Note to Rest campaign

CPF is a private, non-profit organization that works to protect the historical, agricultural, and natural resources in and around Cazenovia for the benefit of the community and the enjoyment of future generations.

The organization announced its Bring the Note to Rest capital campaign during its annual meeting in May 2023.

In 2015, when the property now known as Burlingame Meadow was listed for sale, CPF launched a capital campaign and was able to raise most of the funds needed to purchase the property to provide parking and permanent public access to CPF’s popular Burlingame-Fairchild Trails. While most of the purchase was covered through gifts from neighbors and CPF members, CPF financed the remainder with a mortgage, which is the organization’s only debt obligation today.

Last August, CPF welcomed a Symphoria string quartet to the property for the first Music in the Meadow event.

Burlingame Meadow had been freshly mowed after the bobolinks and other field-nesting birds had fledged for the season, and concert guests were treated to a sunset and a backdrop of the woodlands that are home to the Burlingame-Fairchild Trails.

Given the success of last year’s event, CPF decided to plan another concert for this summer.

Since announcing the launch of its new capital campaign, the organization has been working to raise enough money to settle its debt before the 2023 Music in the Meadow.

According to CPF Executive Director Jen Wong, the campaign will remain open until the organization raises the full $25,000.

“We are making good progress in meeting our campaign goal, so I am hopeful that we will have reached our fundraising goal for the Bring the Note to Rest campaign before the event,” said Wong.

With support from two donors, gifts are being matched 1:1 up to $12,000.

Any additional funds raised through the Bring the Note to Rest campaign will be added to CPF’s Mission Fund, a reserve fund used to advance critical conservation objectives and secure important conservation properties.

“A musical rest is the open space between notes,” CPF states on its website. “It is an absence of sound that contributes to the musical composition. Just as the composer cannot overlook the importance of these empty spaces between the notes, our community, as stewards of this land, cannot overlook the importance of the open spaces in our landscape. They are essential to our experience of Cazenovia.”

CPF is inviting the public to help “bring the note to rest” so that more of the area’s important lands can be protected.

Supporters of the organization and its mission are encouraged to consider becoming a Music in the Meadow event sponsor or to contribute an amount above the ticket price.

Individuals who cannot attend the concert are also invited to donate to the campaign.

Today, the organization manages approximately eight miles of all-season public trails on the 358 acres of protected lands in the Burlingame-Fairchild Hill area.

“This important recreational resource was made possible through the shared vision of numerous former landowners, including Peggy Hubbard and Faith Knapp, who were instrumental in the preservation of the lands traversed by the Burlingame and Fairchild Hill trails,” the CPF website states.

The website also says that by purchasing the parcel of land on Burlingame Rd. for parking and trail access, CPF and the many donors who contributed to the project “honored the legacy of conservation begun by the earlier residents of this area.”

To purchase tickets to Music in the Meadow, donate to the Bring the Note to Rest campaign, or learn more about CPF’s work, visit cazpreservation.org.