Race Brook Lodge: A timeless haven for music, art, and community

Tucked away on Under Mountain Road in Sheffield, Massachusetts, The Stagecoach Tavern dates back to the mid-18th century and offers fine dining in an enchanted setting. It also serves as the portal into the Race Brook Lodge, which harbors unique spaces for entertainment, lodging and wellness.

Intimate outdoor gathering areas are illuminated by strings of lights. A cluster of mid-century bungalows can be rented by guests who come to spend the weekend and attend concerts and retreats, which typically take place in the barns farther back in the woods.

This magical vision springs from the mind of David Rothstein, who purchased the property in pieces between 1990 and 2000, a continuation of his idea to create a place where like-minded people can congregate to enjoy cultural happenings in an idyllic setting.

Before acquiring the Race Brook Lodge, Rothstein, now 90, managed The Music Inn in Lenox, Massachusetts, the premier outdoor music venue in the Berkshires during the 1970s, which he purchased with his former wife, Nancy Fitzpatrick, whose family owned the Red Lion Inn in Stockbridge.

In its heyday from 1970 to 1979, The Music Inn featured a who’s who of iconic performers of the era like Ike & Tina Turner, B.B. King, James Taylor, Muddy Waters, The Byrds, Ravi Shankar, Joan Baez, Van Morrison, Bruce Springsteen, Bob Marley, The Eagles, Lou Reed, Bonnie Raitt, Fats Domino, Bo Diddley, Jimmy Cliff, Toots & The Maytals and The Allman Brothers.

“Music Inn was the last outpost of the counterculture, which had evolved as a result of the groundbreaking evolution of jazz as the first integrated music genre that ultimately paved the way for Rock ‘n Roll,” Rothstein said.

Race Brook barn at nightLety Marcos

This history goes even deeper. Prior to the Music Inn, the buildings were known as the Berkshire Music Barn, and featured performers like Dizzy Gillespie, Louis Armstrong, Mahalia Jackson, Count Basie, Duke Ellington, Dave Brubeck, Thelonious Monk and the Modern Jazz Quartet. The property also featured The Lenox School of Jazz, The Lenox Arts Center, Toad Hall Moviehouse, and The Great Riot Alley Memorial.

As a student of modernist architect Louis Kahn, Rothstein absorbed Kahn’s ideas of “open frame” or a space without barriers. It’s a concept he used at the Music Inn that carries on at Race Brook.

Race Brook’s music programmer, Alex Harvey recalls how he came to do a retreat with Qi Gong master Thomas Drodge and noticed a Louis Kahn poster on the wall. He spent a morning and afternoon talking with Rothstein about art, performance and community in a way he’d been dreaming about for a long time.

“When I saw the poster, I asked David about it. He told me that he was one of Kahn’s assistants, and he actually drafted some of the buildings I’d studied. So, before I knew he had the Music Inn, he was a superstar to me,” Harvey said.

Harvey also met the current proprietor Casey Rothstein-Fitzpatrick — David and Nancy’s son — and the two hit it off, realizing they shared a common interest in global music. Armed with a deep Rolodex, thanks to his many years as a performer and ethnomusicologist, Harvey soon began programming shows at Race Brook.

When booking, Harvey looks for artists who can offer something beyond the typical performance.

“We had Alash, who are one of the more renowned Tuvan throat singing ensembles,” Harvey said. “With their energy, they change the weather of the room. It’s a participatory feeling. I loved reading the reactions online; was it a concert or a ritual? That’s what we’re interested in.”

“We have Beausoleil coming up on April 5. When they start playing, you feel transported to a hooch house in Eunice, Louisiana. They create a sense of place, and that’s what really excites me,” he added.

Sunder Ashni singing at Dia de los Muertos.Lety Marcos

There are regularly scheduled programs, like Jazz brunches every Sunday, and at times Race Brook Lodge is open to other groups who book shows like the recent “Almost Spring Weekend," a weekend-long event Rothstein-Fitzpatrick called a "weekend of immersive global music with DJ'd afterparties."

Ideally, Harvey books fully immersive weekends with music, workshops, and enjoyment of the spaces, whether hiking nearby trails or inside the barns.

“One of my favorites is the Dia de los Muertos weekend which has an open mic to the dead,” Harvey said. “It’s art as a form of medicine and healing. It’s kind of like Brooklyn Academy of Music meets Esselin.”

For elevated musical and wellness experiences in an idyllic Berkshire setting, Race Brook Lodge offers something for everyone. See their site for information on all that they offer: rblodge.com