Boriskin to transform Copland House

When Copland House at Bluestone Farm, the planned Brewster arts center, celebrates its partial opening mid-2025, it will mark not only another marquee attraction on the I-684 cultural corridor that includes the Katonah Museum of Art and neighboring Caramoor but a potential jewel in the Putnam County crown of Boscobel House and Gardens, the Buddhist Association of the United States, Dia Beacon, Graymoor, the Garden Conservancy and the Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival.

When Copland House at Bluestone Farm, the planned Brewster arts center, celebrates its partial opening mid-2025, it will mark not only another marquee attraction on the I-684 cultural corridor that includes the Katonah Museum of Art and neighboring Caramoor but a potential jewel in the Putnam County crown of Boscobel House and Gardens, the Buddhist Association of the United States, Dia Beacon, Graymoor, the Garden Conservancy and the Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival. 

“It’s transformational,” said Michael Boriskin, Copland House’s artistic and executive director, “not just for Copland House but for the music scene and the cultural scene in the county, the state and the region.” 

 

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1. At the nexus of arts, education and tourism in the region: An aerial view of the Copland House at Bluestone Farm complex in Brewster.

2. The Chapel, Copland House at Bluestone Farm.

3. The Retreat House, Copland House at Bluestone Farm

4. The interior dining room at the Retreat House, Copland House at Bluestone Farm.

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 As Westfair Business Journal first reported in February, https://westfaironline.com/combined/former-melrose-school-campus-sold/  Copland House – the 25-year-old American music center based at Rock Hill, the historic Cortlandt Manor home of composer Aaron Copland – purchased Bluestone Farm, the 24-acre former site of the Episcopal kindergarten through eighth grade Melrose School, for $3 million, with an eye to turning it into arts and education complex offering exhibits; dance, music and theater performances, including Copland House’s established Mainstage Performance Series; collaborative residencies; workshops; and classes. Bluestone, which takes its name in part from what was once a working farm, consists of five buildings with a combined 37,000 square feet of space. The three-wing school, built in the 1960s, takes up two-thirds of that. Three of the buildings are residences, with one dating from the 1700s. The fifth is a charming chapel that Copland House is thinking of using as a meditation space, Boriskin said. 

“The beauty of it is that we will be able to work with the footprint of the existing property,” he added. “There’s no heavy construction but rather a reallocation and reconfiguration of the school, and in the outbuildings, upgrading.” 

 There’s even a soccer field that could host outdoor events at the complex, which is at once secluded and accessible to I-684, I-84 and the Brewster Metro-North Railroad stop, with ample parking. 

“The only limitations,” Boriskin said, “are those of imagination and finances.” He estimates that renovations will cost $8 million to $10 million, requiring the organization, which has an operating budget of $750,000, to “exponentially” increase funding from local, county and state governments; foundations; businesses; and individuals.    

Meanwhile, the 2,500-square-foot Rock Hill itself – the mid-century Modern house where Copland lived from 1960 until his death at age 90 in 1990, creating the spare, arpeggiated, folk-flavored compositions that helped define the American landscape and character in the 20th century – will continue to host individual artists’ residences and programs filmed by various media organizations like the BBC, CNN, NPR and PBS. (Some of the sure-to-be-expanding staff – which at present includes four full-timers and three part-timers – will shift to the new center.)  

It was a handshake public-private partnership with Westchester County to use Merestead in Mount Kisco – once the summer estate of William Sloane, founder of the now-defunct luxury furniture and rug company W. & J. Sloane – that reaffirmed Copland House’s need for a second home of its own. 

 “Over 10 years (2009-19) of working at Merestead in a limited way made us really realize the importance and necessity of Copland House expanding its footprint,” Boriskin said. (Editor’s note:  On April 29, Westchester County announced that a judge’s order lifting restrictions on the county’s development of Merestead will release funds to enhance its facilities and services as a cultural and recreational hub.) 

Real-estate antennae up, Boriskin and his team looked beyond Merestead and fundraised. When Bluestone hit the organization’s radar, it was ready to move on it, purchasing the property in December. Boriskin saluted the board of trustees:  “They deserve an enormous amount of credit for the vision in pursuing this property.” 

 The plan is to open the center officially in time for the 125th anniversary of Copland’s birth (Nov. 14, 2025), with more celebrations to coincide with the United States’ 250th anniversary on July 4, 2026. 

A concert pianist, recording artist, producer and one of Musical America’s “Top 30 Professionals of 2023,” Boriskin has been at the helm of Copland House since its establishment and is passionate about the ability of the arts to enrich not only everyday life but the business world – a belief backed by Silicon Valley hiring artists of every ilk to strengthen its creativity and innovation. 

“STEM is fine as far as it goes,” Boriskin said, “but it’s missing a letter. The greatest success stories come from the ‘A’ (for art) in STEAM.” 

For more, visit coplandhouse.org.