- [Stephfond] Tonight on "WPBS Weekly: Inside the Stories," world events affect everything, including the music you listen to when you visit the symphony, we'll tell you how, and Hopenhagen Farm in Copenhagen, has overcome growing challenges to bring you peace with lavender.

Also, lighthouses are historic castles along waterways.

We'll take you to Barcelona Lighthouse on Lake Erie.

Your stories, your region, coming up right now on "WPBS Weekly: Inside the Stories."

(upbeat music) - [Announcer] "WPBS Weekly: Inside the Stories" is brought to you by the Daisy Marquis Jones Foundation, the Watertown Oswego Small Business Development Center, Carthage Savings, CSX, the Oswego County Community Foundation at the Central New York Community Foundation, the Richard S. Shineman Foundation and The Badenhausen Legacy Fund at the Northern New York Community Foundation.

- Good Tuesday evening everyone, and welcome to this edition of "WPBS Weekly: Inside the Stories."

I'm Stephfond Brunson.

From conception to performance, putting together a musical repertoire for an orchestra season has its challenges.

Perhaps one of the most glaring challenges is, how those choices are affected by world events.

Tonight, we step inside the story with Syracuse's Symphoria and the Kingston Symphony to learn more.

(upbeat music) (instrumental music) - [Joleene] For musicians, creating the music we hear is hard work but what we may not realize is the complexity of the process to select those pieces.

- When I was in my undergrad, the orchestra coordinator there described it as a dragon with 50 heads, just this concept of putting together a season in which you're satisfying all these different, sometimes opposing forces.

- [Joleene] These forces are something many audience members are unaware of like the impact of world events.

(gentle music) - Great example would be the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

How could we as an organization not acknowledge this is happening because it's on the mind of our community.

- It made sense for us to even silently acknowledge that this was a unique time in history and a point in which we wanna show solidarity for Ukraine, we don't want to over-represent anything Russian, and we have certainly been careful with regards to historically Russian pieces that we have programmed for upcoming seasons.

- [Joleene] In the North Country, the orchestra of Northern New York removed the 1812 overture from its summer programming.

The Kingston Symphony took out select pieces from Russian composer Tchaikovsky and Symphoria in Syracuse acted by putting together a musical benefit for Ukrainian refugees.

- We knew it was important to do, so we quickly gathered our resources.

We found Ukrainian composers, we found a Ukrainian conductor, and we put this concert together very quickly and the audience responded very positively.

It was a free concert and we use it as a chance to fundraise for Ukrainian refugees in our area and it feels really good to be a part of the community, to be responsive to what's happening in the world and to have a place to do that.

- [Joleene] Even without taking world events into account creating an orchestral season is already a challenge.

- The process that Symphoria goes through to pick our pieces each season is actually quite complex, but the magic of it is that the audience doesn't need to know that it's complex it all happens behind the scenes.

- [Joleene] For Symphoria and the Kingston Symphony, this behind the scenes process begins with committee discussions.

Both orchestras consider themselves unique as their process not only involves the music director, but orchestra and board members.

- All those different perspectives really help keep the eye on the ball and refine the programming process, so it really is quite collaborative.

- But it's very exciting.

It's a little bit mix of data collecting and creativity, so, to me it's like this puzzle, it's like this 5,000 piece puzzle we have, hundreds and hundreds of thousands of choices for repertoire, so how do we pick repertoire?

We always have in mind what the audience wants to hear or what we think the audience will really enjoy.

- But there are other considerations other than what would I like to hear and what would the orchestra like to play and what do we think will sell tickets for the audience when you're putting something together.

- [Joleene] If you've never been to an orchestra, take the trip with this new appreciation, bearing something else in mind.

- Things have changed.

As the saying goes, "We're not your grandmother's orchestra."

- [Joleene] Traditionally applause is held for after an entire piece is completed.

If unsure when to applaud, feel free to wait to see how others respond but these musicians say, it's okay to express if the music moves you.

- Come as you are.

I think we, Symphoria really believes that anyone should have the opportunity to listen to our music, so we don't wanna have people feel restricted with that.

- I think that it's actually far less restrictive than you might imagine, particularly for someone who is coming into a live orchestra concert for the first time.

- It's a great atmosphere and there is nothing like the sonic experience of a live orchestra.

(instrumental music) - [Joleene] Art isn't consumed in a vacuum, it's influenced by the events around us.

Only time will tell how future events may shift things again.

In Syracuse for WPBS Weekly, I'm Joleene DesRosiers.

- The North Country's growing zone is challenging because of its harsh winters and short summers.

So when one hops farm decided to shake things up and grow lavender, they were met with uncertainty.

Today, that uncertainty has produced an extremely popular lavender field and some calming goods to go with it.

(people chattering) - When you see it starting to open up the flowers, start to bloom, you wanna have three, four per bush, then you know it's time that the smell, the perfume is that it's peak.

- [Joleene] Mary Rumble and her husband DeVere own Hopenhagen Farm where lavender grows plentiful.

Nine species of lavender to be precise, and having these plants growing in Upstate New York is impressive.

- So when I first said I was gonna grow lavender, I was told I was crazy that it'll never live in zone four.

So, that made me even more determined to do some more investigative work and we have done a lot as far as things to help keep it viable through the winter.

- [Joleene] Rumble certainly has kept it viable and her cozy farm produces lavender plants.

For the record, this is her third act.

She started her career in the dairy industry, then she became a teacher and now, she and her family maintain rows and rows of this aromatic evergreen shrub that's part of the mint family, but Hopenhagen Farm didn't start out with lavender in mind.

- These hops are perennials so every year we start out with them right there on the ground.

So, hops was the big craze and grapes, so we decided we would grow hops, so we started growing them in 2014 and then in 2015, we retired, and our whole idea of growing hops is to keep us busy and active.

So after I started growing the hops and it's like, I've read different things and they said that lavender goes well with hops, and so I did some research, we visited lavender farms, I did a lot, I did an online course on lavender and found a greenhouse in Pennsylvania that said that they had lavender hardy enough to grow in our zone four, and so that's how we started.

We got some plants and we planted them that first year in 2016 and we've just grown from there.

- [Joleene] The farm contains approximately two acres of growth which is used to make lavender products to sell in the farm store.

- [Mary] There are many ways that you can use lavender and products.

You have what's called culinary lavender which is edible lavender, which is dried in a 20C kitchen and you can use it to make spices, which I also have in the store.

You can use it for baking, seeping for tea and all sorts of edible things, and also, you can use lavender in other things such as serve, making soap.

Lavender is one of the most popular herbs to use because it's so diverse with all the different things that you can use it for.

- [Joleene] Like candles and lotions, the Rumbles partner with local businesses to make unique products like lavender chocolate and lavender wine but her biggest flex is her lavender festival which draws at least 3,000 people in early July.

- All the growth throughout the summer, we are just getting ready to harvest that's why we have our lavender festival on July 9th.

We have it on July 9th because the plants deem that's when they're ready to harvest, and there's a special way that we tell if they're ready to harvest based on blooms and if we're gonna harvest for bundles, we want them to have more buds.

We don't want a lot of the blooms because once you dry the lavender, the blooms will turn brown and fall off, so you wanna keep it in the bud stage.

If we are growing it to use in our distiller, we let it go longer so we get more flowers and that means we'll get more perfume when we actually do the steam distilling process.

- [Joleene] But wait, there's more.

From trimming them in the fall to prepping them so they survive the winter.

- And then we cover everything.

We cover out all our plants with a frost blanket and then tack it down.

We do that when the weather is consistently in the '30s so sometimes it's in November and sometimes we've actually done in December and then they're covered for the winter and we just hope that we have a winter where there's a lot of snow and not an up and down temperature like we did last year.

That is not good for lavender.

- [Joleene] What is good for the lavender is the love and appreciation that goes into creating this ancient herb and it's all available at a little farm, in a little village of Copenhagen.

For WPBS Weekly, I'm Joleene DesRosiers.

- Many lighthouses dot the shores of the Seaway Trail and all have interesting stories.

Let's take a look tonight at the story of the Barcelona Lighthouse on Lake Erie in the town of Westfield.

(upbeat music) (car honking) - [Narrator] In 1828, Congress appropriated $5,000 for building a lighthouse on the bluff overlooking Portland Harbor, now Barcelona.

The year before, Congress had declared Portland Harbor an official port of entry and established a post office.

The name of the town and harbor was officially changed to Barcelona on September 9th, 1836.

The lighthouse was erected with the expectation that Barcelona would become an important commercial city.

Those expectations were never realized.

- Well, Barcelona became a major entity in the 1830s and '40s after the Erie Canal opened up.

People were coming and there was a major boom with real estate prices and that's when it was established to be called Barcelona but it was a booming town and the real estate sword.

They laid out the village of Barcelona was streets and everybody thought they were gonna get money, big money, and everything was fine in the 1830s and 1840s and then a couple of disasters hit for Barcelona.

Number one in 1844, there was a major storm and the federal government had put in a 1,200 foot barrier breakwater over to the west to protect the wharfs and everything going on down here in Barcelona.

Well, the storm took out the Breakwater completely and destroyed all the wharfs and the warehouses and everything was just wiped out.

They had to rebuild, so that happened in '44, at the same time, the very same period of time, Erie, which has a better Harbor, Erie, Pennsylvania, they opened up a canal that connected to the Ohio river system, so it was a better place to go, and also at the same time by 1852, trains came through.

So, you take all those together and it wiped out the whole concept of Barcelona becoming a major, major port.

(soft music) - [Narrator] By 1859, the lighthouse board had decided that the Barcelona Lighthouse was no longer needed and the light was decommissioned, a mere 30 years after it was built.

The Harbor however, did see a lot of activity before the advent of the railway.

Its spacious docks were often filled with goods, ready for transport on wagon trains headed over the hills to the waterways of the south and west.

Barcelona's commercial fishing trade was started in 1852 and grew rapidly because of the railroad.

A report in the local paper in 1863 states that there were 162 sailing vessels counted off Barcelona Harbor that morning.

Upon the Lighthouse's completion in 1829, Joshua Lane, a local clergyman who was deaf was selected as its first keeper.

He was lightkeeper at Barcelona for nearly 20 years and was followed by three other keepers.

At first, whale oil kept the light burning, but with the discovery of a nearby creek containing natural gas, in 1831, the Barcelona Lighthouse became the first lighthouse in the world to be illuminated with natural gas.

Two miles of hollowed wooden pipes carried the gas to the lighthouse.

The wooden pipes would occasionally fill with water, making it necessary to use oil for a short time.

Barcelona, like other ports on the great lakes was subject to immense storms.

- There actually are a lot of shipwrecks all over this end of lake Erie.

It has to do with the prevailing winds and the lake getting massive change in death from the west to the east end.

Ships coming from Buffalo West had a very difficult time getting around long point.

In 1883, there's a really neat wreck actually, the New Connecticut, and when it went down, it capsized, the crew made it safely to shore, but the captain's aunt, Mrs. Applebee was declared lost.

The ship didn't actually sink, it stayed capsized and they were able to tow it in.

They brought it into Portland Harbor here and when they ride it, out stumbled Mrs. Applebee from her cabin.

Five days later, she had a small air pocket and survived, so it was a very happy ending to that shipwreck.

- [Narrator] The lighthouse on the site now is still the original built in 1829, and as such, is one of the oldest lighthouses on the chain of great lakes.

The original lantern room is long gone however, it was probably a birdcage lantern room.

In 1872, the lighthouse and keeper's residence were sold and remained in private hands for almost 150 years.

Over the years, rooms have been added to the original four-room keepers cottage.

In 2008 the state of New York purchased the property.

- When parks first took it over, it was just to preserve it.

There was no plan, there was no here's what we're going to do with it, so it sat dormant for a few years while a plan was worked on.

In 2015, we were approached by the Westfield visitors center, the town of Westfield looking for a new home.

Could we move it to the lighthouse cottage?

So, we did enter into a partnership with them.

They currently maintain a visitor center in what was the dining room here.

(soft music) - The lighthouse is now a state park and restoration efforts continue.

The light in the tower is decorative and an agreement exists with the town of Westfield and the gas company to keep it perpetually lit.

- It's been the symbol of Chautauqua County in Westfield and Barcelona for as long as anybody remembers.

I mean, it is so important.

It is literally the logo on the town of Westfield's logo for advertising.

It has been the symbol of Westfield Barcelona for 100 years.

- Our featured musician this evening, is considered one of Ottawa's best according to Ottawa Life Magazine.

This powerful vocalist has real soul hailing from Sault Ste.

Marie, her commanding stage presence and fierce vocal delivery will surely pull you in.

She is Renee Landry and here she is on location with her original tune, "A Man."

(drums playing) ("A Man") (instrumental music) ♪ I am in love with a man ♪ ♪ Who looks looks the other way ♪ ♪ Can't see me for what I am ♪ ♪ He said ♪ ♪ Said goodbye long before ♪ ♪ Yes I was worth of trouble ♪ ♪ Wasn't worth fighting for ♪ ♪ Oh I want to lift he ever thinks of me ♪ ♪ Oh if she's really all he needs ♪ ♪ 'Cause I'm in love with a man ♪ ♪ Who won't take my hand ♪ ♪ Oh it seems I've become the invincible friend ♪ ♪ Oh I'm in love with a man who's hiding instead ♪ ♪ Will it ever before me once a again ♪ ♪ I left ♪ ♪ Let it roll down my back ♪ ♪ But I am no superman ♪ ♪ Sometimes they left us they cry ♪ ♪ But you roll in this film they call life ♪ ♪ But who am I kidding ♪ ♪ What I give to have you by my side ♪ ♪ Oh I want to lift he ever thinks of me ♪ ♪ Oh if she's really all he needs ♪ ♪ 'Cause I'm in love with a man ♪ ♪ Who won't take my hand ♪ ♪ Oh it seems I've become the invincible friend ♪ ♪ Oh I'm in love with man who's hiding instead ♪ ♪ Will it ever before me once again ♪ ("A Man") (instrumental music) ♪ Hold me out of your life ♪ ♪ That's then you pull me in ♪ ♪ And I'm drowning in your lies ♪ ♪ You're burning your sin ♪ ♪ How can I trust what is already broke ♪ ♪ And it hurts just as much to throw me in the car ♪ ♪ I can't fight this sinking ♪ ♪ I'm falling for grace ♪ ♪ I'm falling for you ♪ ♪ 'Cause I'm in love with a man ♪ ♪ Who won't take my hand ♪ ♪ Oh it seems I've become the invincible friend ♪ ♪ Oh I'm in love with a man who's hiding instead ♪ ♪ Will it ever before me ♪ ♪ 'Cause I'm in love with a man ♪ ♪ Who won't take my hand ♪ ♪ Oh it seems I've become the invincible friend ♪ ♪ Oh I'm in love with a man who's hiding instead ♪ ♪ Will it ever before me once again ♪ ♪ Ooh yeah ♪ - That does it for us this Tuesday evening.

Join us next week for a fresh look inside the stories.

With fall officially here, outdoor activities are shifting but for many, walking, biking even canoeing are still open game.

And Johnny Spezzano heats things up in the kitchen with Dani Baker of Cross Island Farms to make a farm to table brick oven pizza.

Meantime, we wanna tell your story.

If you are someone in your community has something meaningful, historic, inspirational, or educational to share, please email us at wpbsweekly@wpbstv.org and let's share it with the region.

That's it for now, everyone.

We'll see you again next week.

Good night.

- [Announcer] "WPBS Weekly: Inside the Stories" is brought to you by the Daisy Marquis Jones Foundation, dedicated to improving the wellbeing of communities by helping disadvantaged children and families online at dmjf.org, the Watertown Oswego Small Business Development Center, a free resource offering confidential business advice for those interested in starting or expanding their small business, serving Jefferson, Lewis and Oswego counties since 1986.

Online at watertown.nysbdc.org Carthage Savings has been here for generations donating time and resources to this community.

They're proud to support wpbstv online@carthagesavings.com Carthage Savings, mortgage solutions since 1888.

Additional funding provided by CSX the Oswego County Community Foundation at the Central New York Community Foundation.

the Richard S. Shineman Foundation and The Badenhausen Legacy Fund at the Northern New York Community Foundation.

♪ I've become the invincible friend ♪ ♪ Oh I'm in love with a man ♪ ♪ Who's hiding then ♪ ♪ Will it ever before once again ♪ (instrumental music) (gentle music)