Our Family Orchestra

With the massive attrition of dairy farms in Massachusetts, (and the alarming amount of sad cow stories we've had on the show), we're turning our attention to a co-op that is still making milk magic happen. Angie Facey of Bree-z Knoll Farm, which is a part of Our Family Farms, shows us around their new facilities, including a robot that uses lasers to milk their cows, and a brand new, only-been-open-for-a-month milk processing plant. Then we head east to encounter a group determined to make everyone feel closer to symphonic music. The New England Repertory Orchestra, or NERO, is a boundary-breaking, canon-rethinking, community-entrenched organization that does that and more. Presenting a pair of works centering grief, including a premiere of a newly commissioned piece from Felix Jarrar, the orchestra takes the stage at The Shea Theater this weekend. We chat with artistic director and conductor Cailin Marcel Manson and violin first-chair Michi Wiancko about how diversity as a mantra helps them change the landscape and equity of symphonic and operatic music.