{"id":21806,"date":"2022-07-14T08:58:40","date_gmt":"2022-07-14T12:58:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/?p=21806"},"modified":"2022-07-17T10:50:22","modified_gmt":"2022-07-17T14:50:22","slug":"symphony-park","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/2022\/07\/14\/symphony-park\/","title":{"rendered":"Deceased Beech Tree Turned Into Statue In Somerville Park"},"content":{"rendered":"

When a massive, old European beech tree at Somerville’s Symphony Park declined into disease, the city’s Parks and Open Space staff decided to have it cut down. But they saved the 43-inch wide trunk and partnered with the Somerville Arts Council to put out an open call for an artist to carve it. The result is “We Are Still Listening,” a carving by East Somerville sculptor Fermin Castro<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Castro reshaped the tree into a person standing playing a lyre as metal musical notes drift off into the sky.\u00a0It stands at the top of the hill in this garden park, a bit like a figurehead at the prow of a ship.<\/p>\n

Meet the artist at a reception at the park, at the corner of Florence and Pearl streets, on\u00a0Thursday, July 14th, from 6 to 7 p.m.<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Fermin<\/a>
Fermin Castro’s sculpture “We Are Still Listening,” 2022, at Symphony Park, Somerville. (\u00a9Greg Cook photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The carving, Casto has said, was inspired by\u00a0Hadley-Conant home, which used to occupy the site. They were a family of musicians. \u201cHad you walked by the house in the 1880s, you likely would have heard the sounds of piano, violin and cello as Samuel Henry Hadley played classical works with his two sons, who grew up to be notable musicians,\u201d according to a sign at the park. \u201cHadley, like his father, was a music teacher in the Somerville schools. His wife, Martha Conant, was musically involved with their church. Together, they nurtured two musical sons: Arthur enjoyed a career as a renowned cellist and Henry Kimball Hadley became a conductor in both concert halls and Hollywood, and one fo the most performed and published American composers of his time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Castro previously carved a deceased tree in Somerville\u2019s Marshall Street playground into his sculpture \u201cHomage to Mother and Child.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

The new carving carries on the musical theme of Symphony Park, which debuted in 2015 with benches and arbors designed to evoke musical notation.<\/p>\n

\n

If this is the kind of coverage of arts, cultures and activisms you appreciate, please support Wonderland by contributing to Wonderland on Patreon<\/a>. And sign up for our free, occasional newsletter<\/a> so that you don’t miss any of our reporting. (All content \u00a9Greg Cook 2022 or the respective creators.)<\/em><\/p>\n

\n
\"Fermin<\/a>
Fermin Castro (center) speaks about his sculpture “We Are Still Listening,” 2022, at a reception at Symphony Park, Somerville, July 14, 2022. (\u00a9Greg Cook photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Fermin<\/a>
Fermin Castro’s sculpture “We Are Still Listening,” 2022, at Symphony Park, Somerville. (\u00a9Greg Cook photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Fermin<\/a>
Fermin Castro’s sculpture “We Are Still Listening,” 2022, at Symphony Park, Somerville. (\u00a9Greg Cook photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Fermin<\/a>
Fermin Castro’s sculpture “We Are Still Listening,” 2022, at Symphony Park, Somerville. (\u00a9Greg Cook photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When a massive, old European beech tree at Somerville’s Symphony Park declined into disease, the city’s Parks and Open Space staff decided to have it cut down. But they saved the 43-inch wide trunk and partnered with the Somerville Arts Council to put out an open call for an artist to carve it. The result […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":21801,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[100,105],"tags":[982,382],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21806"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21806"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21806\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21855,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21806\/revisions\/21855"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21801"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21806"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21806"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21806"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}