Pearlstone, an agency of The Associated and headquarters to Adamah, will open its new amphitheater on its campus in Reisterstown this October.
The Myerberg Stage at the Greenwald Amphitheater is a project that is part of the Meyerhoff New Jewish Family Innovation Fund, an endowment fund of The Associated: Jewish Federation of Baltimore.
“Music is a part of what Pearlstone does,” Rachel Siegal, chief development officer at Adamah, told Baltimore Jewish Times. “A lot of people know Pearlstone for campfires and singing around the campfire, but having this beautiful new addition to the campus that really celebrates the connections between music and nature was a dream that we’ve had for about a decade now.”
The project began in 2016, when the Pearlstone master plan was put into place. The construction of the amphitheater was supposed to commence a few years into the implementation of the master plan but, due to COVID, construction had to be halted.
“COVID was certainly a major hurdle,” said Siegal.
Today, nearly a decade later, Siegal said, all that is left to do is pave the road leading to the amphitheater and complete the structure’s roof.
The Pearlstone, formally called the Pearlstone Campus for Living Judaism, hosted plastering workshops in which volunteers from the community could come to the Pearlstone campus and help build the amphitheater by applying the homemade plaster.
“We used a lot of natural build design elements for the amphitheater itself, so the walls are made of a mud plaster that we mixed on-site using soil on site,” Siegal said. “Then, we had community days where volunteers came and helped put the walls on the amphitheater. The wood that is used for the columns that holds up the stage are actually pieces of wood from trees that were felled on the Pearlstone campus.”
Siegal added that the wood from the trees from the 180-acre campus needed to be cured a year before they could be used in construction.
“Pearlstone’s mission is to cultivate vibrant Jewish life and deep connection with the earth, so having an outdoor amphitheater will really impact our ability to achieve our mission,” said Siegal. “It will get more people out to Pearlstone that maybe don’t interact with each other on a daily basis.”
According to Siegal, working with the all-natural design elements created its own set of challenges.
“The natural design elements are really important to Pearlstone, as an environmental organization that’s committed to sustainability,” Siegal said. “Because of our commitment to do a natural building, not every contractor knows how to work with some of the materials that we wanted to use, so that has been a challenge.”
In addition to the Meyerhoff New Jewish Family Innovation Fund, a donor made a sizable donation roughly eight years ago as part of The Associated’s $200 million Centennial Campaign to help construct environmentally-conscious buildings on the Pearlstone campus.
“We envision this as being a really great place to showcase the Jewish community to the broader Baltimore and Maryland community and a place for us to interact with different community members,” Siegal told Baltimore Jewish Times. “We also envision it deepening Jewish life. We imagine holiday celebrations happening at this amphitheater, as well as showcasing local music and musicians.”
The grand opening of the new amphitheater to the public will be on Oct. 19 during the Harvest Music Festival at Pearlstone as part of the Sundays at the Farm program. The music festival will feature local Maryland musicians like Phoam, Paladia, Nuke the Soup and more. Additionally, there will be ziplining over the lake, educational tours and hands-on activities.
“At a time of real divisiveness — in whatever way you want to slice that politically, religiously, socially — music is one of those things that does bring people together,” Siegal said. “And in a time of heightened antisemitism and distrust between communities, we really see this amphitheater as a chance to bring communities together.”
