When cellist, composer and filmmaker Christopher Hoffman moved into the former home of Rex Brasher in Amenia in August 2023, he didn’t arrive with a plan to make an album about the painter and ornithologist who once lived there. But once he began to learn about the home’s former inhabitant — about his attention to land, to birds, to work done slowly and with devotion — he started to compose. “Rex,” Hoffman’s solo cello album (releases Jan. 16, 2026) is not a portrait of Brasher so much as an echo of a person, a place and a way of seeing the world.
Brasher (pronounced “brazier”) was born in Brooklyn in 1869, the son of a stockbroker whose passion for birds left a lifelong mark. After his father’s death, Brasher vowed to paint every bird in North America, and to do it from life. He eventually created more than 1,200 works, depicting birds with a precision and intimacy that bordered on obsession. Working largely outside the art world, Brasher lived on 116 wooded acres he called Chickadee Valley, where he painted, wrote and published his monumental 12-volume “Birds and Trees of North America.”
Rex Brasher at his home in Chickadee Valley.Provided
Founded in 2008 to preserve Brasher’s legacy and promote bird and habitat conservation through art, the Rex Brasher Association became an early point of connection for Hoffman, who composed and performed an original piece at the 2023 Rex Brasher Symposium just months after moving into Brasher’s former home. After many years in Brooklyn, Hoffman and his family had been looking for a change when they were shown the 116-acre property by association board member and architect Matthew Schnepf, who shared the history of the land and of Brasher himself.
“We’re the first renters outside of Rex’s family,” Hoffman said, explaining that the house is rented as part of an agreement to maintain the estate. Upon moving in, Hoffman dug deeper, purchasing the two-volume set of “Birds and Trees of North America” and immersing himself in Brasher’s world. Around the same time, and at the encouragement of composer, saxophonist and flutist Henry Threadgill, Hoffman debuted his first solo project at Tomeka Reid’s Chicago Jazz String Summit, planting the seed for the 13-track album that he then composed, recorded, mixed and mastered in Brasher’s home. The RBA (Rex Brasher Association) was equally supportive of the finished work, granting Hoffman permission to use Brasher’s artwork for the album, including the swallow-tailed kite painting that appears on the vinyl packaging. “You open up the record and the whole painting is right there,” said Hoffman.
‘Swallow Tail Kite’ by Rex BrasherProvided
Though birds are central to the record’s spirit, Hoffman deliberately avoided literal birdsongs. Instead, the cello is layered into dense soundscapes that suggest rather than illustrate. “There are tracks with tons of layered stuff where I guess you could hear bird sounds if you wanted to,” he said. Brasher’s refusal to accept approximation — destroying paintings when feathers didn’t look right — mirrored Hoffman’s own instincts as a musician. Tracks were built, discarded, rebuilt. Nothing stayed unless it felt true.
For Hoffman, “Rex” became a kind of reckoning. Though Hoffman has begun noticing birds with new intensity, using the Merlin bird app to identify some 30 species on the grounds, he says Brasher’s acuity still feels out of reach. “Even with binoculars, I still can’t see the details he was seeing.”
The album will be released Jan. 16 on Out of Your Head Records. Composed for acoustic and electric cello, the record reflects the solitude and intensity that shaped both Brasher’s vision and Hoffman’s process. “This guy was working so hard,” said Hoffman of Brasher. “And it was like, ‘Alright, Chris, get it together. Make the solo record you’re afraid to make.’”
To listen and purchase the album, go to: https://christopherhoffman.bandcamp.com/album/rex
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John Carter
Carter arrived at his calling by a circuitous route. After graduating from Yale, he joined the Peace Corps, then returned to his hometown of Milton, Mass., where he founded and ran the Carter Tree Co. for seven years. After closing the business, he attended Virginia Theological Seminary, earning a Master of Divinity. During that time, he and his wife, Deborah, were involved in the hunger movement. Carter said every venture he undertook was made possible by Deborah, whom he described as his constant companion and indispensable partner in his pursuit of compassion and justice. Still, he questioned himself: “Who am I, and what should I be doing that I’m passionate about?”
John Carter and his wife DeborahPhoto by Deborah Carter
In the face of new challenges, volunteers joined the effort to revive the original program, VS1. The Rev. Heidi Truax, recently retired rector of Trinity Lime Rock, has been a strong supporter of Vecinos Seguros from its inception. Glenn Formica, an immigration attorney from New Haven, gave a presentation informing the community about the second Trump administration’s amended policies. Formica also generated written materials in English and Spanish, advising private citizens and employers how to prepare in the event of a visit from ICE (U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement). William Tong, Connecticut’s attorney general, a proponent of many social justice issues, including the opioid crisis and fair pricing for generic drugs, has also provided support since the establishment of Vecinos Seguros.
The VS2 steering committee, which includes Carter, is led by Jill Drew, a local civic leader. Drew has worked with Judiciary Committee co-chairmen Gary Winfield and Steven Stafstrom in support of SB 91, a proposal by Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont to limit ICE actions in “protected areas,” including schools, hospitals and religious buildings. She has also supported HB 5499, which would place limits on the use of automated license plate readers, addressing concerns that the Trust Act is being circumvented through technology deployed for other purposes. Other committee members include Amy Lake and Lee and Sophia DeBoer.
VS2 has launches a range of initiatives, including distributing “know your rights” flyers; creating an online resource with local legal and social services for immigrants; hosting in-person events to educate neighbors and train volunteers; organizing a rapid response team to verify reported immigration enforcement activity and support those affected; providing financial assistance for legal expenses, rent and utilities; and advising employers — from farms and restaurants to stores and private homes — on how to protect workers if immigration agents arrive.
As the annual report states: “We are committed to building on the powerful work of Rev. Carter, who, in the first seven years of Vecinos Seguros, assisted a significant number of individuals and families. It is our mission to continue this important work.”
Few descriptions capture the moment more clearly than Carter’s own words:
“The human cost of current ICE practices is appallingly high. Evidence of the brutality and cruelty of these practices is everywhere. Minneapolis is a recent and egregious example. ICE enforcement is doing much more than deporting individuals. It is also the systematic destruction of families. According to some reports, 90% of deportees are male. They are husbands, partners and fathers, often the primary contributors to family finances. There is heartbreak, trauma and stress experienced by the families left behind. The humanitarian response to the violence and chaos in Minneapolis is inspirational and instructive. Both citizens and immigrants came to the aid of residents living in fear and peril. It should be noted that people of color, whether their status was legal or undocumented, were also deeply shaken by what they witnessed in their communities.”
Carter also described how communities responded. That out of devastation, he said, came something else:
“A new word was born out of the compassionate response in Minneapolis: ‘neighboring.’ In caring for each other, they were ‘neighboring.’ The mission of Vecinos Seguros 2 is to ‘neighbor’ members of the immigrant community whose lives have been turned upside down by current immigration policies.”
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