Vermont
Tesla opens its first Vermont store in South Burlington with Cybertruck on display
SOUTH BURLINGTON ― Tesla opened its only store in Vermont in the former Hannaford supermarket off Shelburne Road on a drizzly Thursday afternoon, drawing an enthusiastic crowd of dozens of fans to tour the facility and ogle a stainless steel Cybertruck stuffed into the small showroom.
The angular truck, weighing in at more than three tons, measures 18 1/2 feet long and nearly eight feet wide with its mirrors extended, and took up the entire showroom. Todd Lockwood, who manages the Vermont Tesla Owners Group, said he was surprised by the small size of the showroom when he first saw it.
“It looks small with this Cybertruck in here, it’s a big vehicle,” Lockwood said. “The only thing that would make it look smaller would be having a Tesla semi parked in here. But you can put a Tesla (Model) 3 and a (Model) Y in here together, or a Model S and X together, so it’s usable, but most of the larger Tesla facilities have 50% more showroom space than this.”
Tesla store in South Burlington has lots of empty space
Most of the nearly 47,000 square foot building housing the Tesla store is taken up with a cavernous service department and lots of empty space.
“There may have been some considerations about spending right now because Tesla’s been in a little bit of a dip lately,” Lockwood said. “In fact if this whole project had been scheduled six months later than they did they might have scrapped the whole thing.”
So far in 2024, Tesla’s stock price has fallen 30.4%, according to Morningstar, following a 15.3% loss in 2023. The stock is currently priced at about $174 per share, roughly two-thirds of its previous peak of around $258 in December 2023.
No more trips to Latham, New York, to service your Tesla
Lockwood welcomed the opening of the Tesla store nevertheless, and especially its service department. Now he and the other estimated 3,000 Tesla owners in Vermont will no longer have to drive to Latham, New York, near Albany, for servicing, nearly a three-hour drive for Lockwood.
“The other option was Montreal,” Lockwood said. “The problem with going to Canada is if they give you a loaner car you’re not allowed to bring it back across the border. You’re stuck up there.”
More: Tesla will offer sales and service of its electric vehicles at South Burlington site
Lockwood was an unofficial spokesman for Tesla at the opening event, as Tesla employees are not allowed to speak to the press, referring a reporter to Lockwood. Lockwood said he was also enlisted by Tesla to notify the press in advance of the opening.
“They approached me a couple of weeks ago at the corporate level,” Lockwood said. “They said, ‘We heard about what you’re doing up there. We wondered if the club would be willing to send out a press release for us.’”
Contact Dan D’Ambrosio at 660-1841 or ddambrosi@gannett.com. Follow him on X @DanDambrosioVT.
Vermont
The Magnificent 7: Must See, Must Do, May 1-7
Vermont
Vermont H.S. scores for Monday, April 29: See how your favorite team fared
The 2024 Vermont high school spring season has begun. See below for scores, schedules and game details (statistical leaders, game notes) from baseball, softball, lacrosse, track and field, tennis and Ultimate.
To report scores: Coaches or team representatives are asked to report results ASAP after games by emailing sports@burlingtonfreepress.com. Please submit with a name/contact number.
►Contact Alex Abrami at aabrami@freepressmedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @aabrami5
PREVIOUS COVERAGE
Watch list: The top returning Vermont high school boys lacrosse players for the 2024 season
Watch list: The top returning Vermont high school girls lacrosse players for the 2024 season
Watch list: The top returning Vermont high school softball players for the 2024 season
Watch list: The top returning Vermont high school baseball players for the 2024 season
Watch list: The top returning Vermont high school Ultimate athletes for the 2024 season
MONDAY’S H.S. GAMES
Girls lacrosse
Games at 4:30 p.m. unless noted
Green Mountain Valley at Mount Abraham/Vergennes
South Burlington at Essex
Colchester at Stowe
St. Johnsbury at Milton
Rice at Middlebury
Rutland at Spaulding
Boys lacrosse
Games at 4:30 p.m. unless noted
South Burlington at Essex
Middlebury at BFA-St. Albans
Colchester at Mount Mansfield
Otter Valley at Mount Abraham/Vergennes
Softball
Games at 4:30 p.m. unless noted
Mount Mansfield at Burlington/Winooski
Oxbow at Lyndon
Woodsville at Blue Mountain
Baseball
Games at 4:30 p.m. unless noted
Champlain Valley at Middlebury
Richford at BFA-Fairfax
Woodsville at Blue Mountain
Hazen at Montpelier
U-32 at Hartford
Girls tennis
Matches at 3:30 p.m. unless noted
BFA-St. Albans at U-32
St. Johnsbury at Essex
Middlebury at North Country
Harwood at Rice
Champlain Valley at Mount Mansfield
Boys tennis
Matches at 3:30 p.m. unless noted
Essex at St. Johnsbury
South Burlington at Middlebury
Mount Mansfield at Champlain Valley
Boys Ultimate
Games at 4 p.m. unless noted
Rice at Burlington
Montpelier at Champlain Valley
TUESDAY’S H.S. GAMES
Girls lacrosse
Games at 4:30 p.m. unless noted
Lamoille at Mount Abraham/Vergennes
Burlington at Harwood
St. Johnsbury at Colchester
Lyndon at Milton
Woodstock at U-32
Boys lacrosse
Games at 4:30 p.m. unless noted
Montpelier at Green Mountain Valley
Colchester at St. Johnsbury
Spaulding at Stowe
Lyndon at Milton
Harwood at Burlington
Hartford at BFA-Fairfax
Softball
Games at 4:30 p.m. unless noted
Twinfield/Danville/Cabot at Craftsbury
Richford at BFA-Fairfax
Lake Region at Enosburg
Lamoille at Milton
Missisquoi at BFA-St. Albans
Harwood at Randolph
Spaulding at Mount Abraham
Burlington at Rice
Essex at Colchester
Lyndon at North Country
Thetford at Oxbow
U-32 at Hartford
Baseball
Games at 4:30 p.m. unless noted
Hazen at Peoples/Stowe
Mount Mansfield at North Country
Burlington at Missisquoi
Lamoille at Milton
Rice at BFA-St. Albans
Spaulding at Mount Abraham
Lake Region at Enosburg
Essex at Colchester
Randolph at Harwood
Thetford at Oxbow
Girls tennis
Stowe at Burlington, 3:30 p.m.
Boys tennis
Matches at 3:30 p.m. unless noted
Burlington at Stowe
U-32 at Colchester
Girls Ultimate
Games at 4 p.m. unless noted
South Burlington at St. Johnsbury
Burr and Burton at Montpelier
Mount Mansfield at Champlain Valley
Track and field
Mount Abraham-hosted meet
(Subject to change)
Vermont
Internationally renowned composer Nico Muhly comes home to Vermont with piece for VSO
Nico Muhly is a world traveler. The composer was home in New York when he spoke with the Burlington Free Press in early April, but on the days before and after that conversation his itinerary included trips to Paris, Los Angeles and London.
When he’s home, though – not home in New York, but home home, the place where he feels he really belongs – it’s in central Vermont.
“If I say I’m going home,” Muhly said, “it’s to Randolph.”
One of the world’s most highly regarded contemporary composers, Muhly was born 42 years ago at Gifford Medical Center in Randolph. His parents lived primarily in Providence, Rhode Island, but their home and artistic studio in Tunbridge, outside Randolph, is where he feels most rooted, having spent every summer and most weekends there.
Considering his Vermont connections, it’s a little surprising that Muhly has never written a commissioned piece for the state’s most prominent classical organization, the Vermont Symphony Orchestra. That changes May 4 when the VSO and another Vermont-born musician making waves internationally, pianist Adam Tendler, premiere a piece Muhly created specifically for Tendler and the VSO.
Working at Carnegie Hall, with Sufjan Stevens
The composer has certainly written high-profile commissioned pieces before, for the Metropolitan Opera, Carnegie Hall, the Los Angeles Philharmonic and more. Muhly has collaborated with choreographers including Benjamin Millepied at the Paris Opera Ballet and Kyle Abraham at the New York City Ballet. He has dipped into the world of popular music to work with indie stars such as Bryce Dessner of The National and Sufjan Stevens.
Muhly’s mother, Bunny Harvey, an artist and teacher, attended the Rhode Island School of Design in Providence. Muhly’s father, documentary filmmaker Frank Muhly, also went to school in the city, attending Brown University. Harvey taught at Wellesley College, 35 miles away in Massachusetts, so the family lived mostly in Providence, where Muhly attended school.
Muhly said his mother’s parents had homes in Woodstock and Randolph Center before his parents bought an old Cape Cod-style home in Tunbridge in the 1970s that they’ve added onto bit by bit. Those additions include a studio where Muhly sometimes creates his compositions.
“It’s gradually expanded into this kind of magical place,” said Muhly, who called the Tunbridge home “a gathering point” for friends and family. When he describes it to first-time visitors he says, “Yes, the highway (Interstate 89) is there, kind of, but it’s a click farther away than other places.”
Muhly attends festivals and collaborates with musicians worldwide, but that doesn’t keep him from Vermont. Sometimes, he said, he’ll wake up in a place like Helsinki, fly to Boston, board a tiny plane bound for Lebanon, New Hampshire, and arrive in Tunbridge to find himself “grilling a chicken at 6 p.m.”
Compositions by Justin Morgan
The story of how Muhly came to work on the VSO piece, a co-commission with the New Jersey Symphony, is not complicated.
“The phone rang and I said ‘Sure,’” he said. “It was pretty simple.”
The composition itself, a piano concerto titled “Sounding,” was not as easy. Muhly based the 15-minute piece on hymns by Justin Morgan, the renowned 18th-century horse breeder who lived in Randolph.
“He was kind of a polymath,” Muhly said of Morgan. “He was a composer/horse breeder. I think he was also a publisher. He was one of the originators of shape-note music.”
Tapping into music a couple of centuries old is not uncommon for Muhly. “I would say a lot of my music is in some sort of dialogue with the past, either explicitly or not,” he said. But Morgan’s style didn’t mesh easily with Muhly’s approach.
“That music is actually quite at variance with the music from the past that I really relate to, which is Anglican choral music,” Muhly said. He had to translate Morgan’s style into his own language.
“That was randomly more challenging than I thought,” Muhly said. “It kind of doesn’t matter how big the piece is. You still have to have a really good idea.”
Adam Tendler plays Muhly’s music
Muhly often writes compositions with friends in mind to play them. He wrote “Sounding” to be played by Tendler, who grew up outside Barre, just up Vermont 14 from Tunbridge. Muhly said Tendler can provide the “technical fireworks” the piece requires.
Muhly said he likes to ask when writing for a musician such as Tendler “how does this fit in your hands?” Then, he said, “I am able to tailor the suit.”
Tendler performed April 11 at The Phoenix in Waterbury in conjunction with the Waterbury-based contemporary chamber group TURNmusic. The program featured eight piano pieces written by Muhly between 2005 and 2022.
The works displayed Muhly’s range, from the delicate, deliberate tone of “Lilt” to the more energetic and flamboyant “Move.” Tendler concluded with “Eiris, Sones,” a Muhly composition that will appear on Tendler’s upcoming album.
Tendler said he didn’t know Muhly while growing up in Vermont; they became friends while living in New York. “I really started as a fan of his,” Tendler told the audience at The Phoenix.
He described Muhly’s music as “precise,” but also surprising. Muhly likes to include what Tendler called “glitches” in his compositions, where one note can change the shape of an entire piece.
“I call it sometimes the ‘anti-ending,’” Tendler said, adding that Muhly might not care for that description. “I think it’s interesting to hear something that upends what has been established.”
Muhly will be back in Vermont for the May 4 performance of “Sounding.” He said he’s “really happy with the piece,” despite having wrestled with creating it.
“I’m glad I did it,” Muhly said, “so I don’t have to do it anymore.”
If you go
WHAT: “Mozart, Mazzoli, and Muhly,” a concert presented by the Vermont Symphony Orchestra
WHEN: 7:30 p.m. Saturday, May 4
WHERE: The Flynn, Burlington
INFORMATION: $8.35-$59. www.vso.org
Contact Brent Hallenbeck at bhallenbeck@freepressmedia.com.
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