Grant Money to Fund Musical Piece Inspired by the National Seashore

COURTESY OF THE CAPE COD NATIONAL SEASHORE

EASTHAM – A piece of music inspired by the Cape Cod National Seashore will be written for the National Park Service’s centennial celebration.

The park service and the National Endowment of the Arts awarded a $30,000 grant to the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, in collaboration with the Cape Cod Chamber Music Festival, to commission the piece and for performances by the Curtis on Tour program in Pennsylvania and on the Cape.

The award was one of 50 grants in 27 states totaling over $1 million.

Imagine Your Parks is a grant initiative from the National Endowment of the Arts created in partnership with the park service to support projects that use the arts to engage people with memorable places and landscapes of the National Park System.

Cape Cod National Seashore Superintendent George Price said he is pleased that the Curtis Institute and the Cape Cod Chamber Music Festival were awarded the grant.

“Cape Cod has a long and rich history with the arts, and this effort will not only help us celebrate the NPS Centennial, it will engage musicians and the public in this special place that is such an important part of the American experience,” Price said in a released statement.

The piece of music will be composed by Curtis alumnus Jonathan Bailey Holland and will be performed by a string quartet of Curtis students and alumni.

The piece will be introduced by Holland at a July 28 concert at the Cape Cod National Seashore’s Salt Pond Visitor Center in Eastham at 7 p.m.

It will be played in its entirety at a Cape Cod Chamber Music Festival concert in Wellfleet on July 29. The piece will also be played at the Marine Biological Laboratory on July 24 and the Nantucket Atheneum on July 31.