Carmel Bach Festival Online Cottages, Gardens & Cantatas Home and Garden Tour 2021

The Carmel Bach Festival hosted its sixth annual “Cottages, Gardens & Cantatas” Home and Garden Tour, a one-of-a-kind event celebrating its hometown architecture, nature and artistic expression May 1—9. The 2021 self-curated tour was online and offered the opportunity to privately look through five showcase homes.

The first cottage occupies almost three lots. The cottage was saved, restored and augmented over the past five years. Much of the original home is intact. It has a special connection to the Carmel Bach Festival, the second home built by Bach Festival founders Dene Denny and Hazel Watrous. A guesthouse, garage and several outbuildings were added. This compound boasts gnomes, rabbits and mystery. The owner loves Halloween, and it is evident in the study. Additions of a master suite and dining room created the perfect home for today’s lifestyle.

The second home tour is On the Wind. The owners created a living room over portions of the patio, keeping the flagstone flooring with additional light from unique skylights. Family antiques came west with the family after being in Connecticut since the 1600s. Americana and other surprising collections await you.

The third home boasts more than 70 oak trees with ample room for a hammock, swing, and even a zip line for the grandchildren. Inside the 1920s-era home, a total remodel with lots of pattern and color awaits. Owned by a mosaic artist, the studio is used extensively. It’s evident in the garden that whimsy lives here—from the birdhouses as you enter to the homages to the resident basset hounds when you leave.

The fourth home is Casa Bilancia. It lives up to its name with white shingle siding and white organic upholstery throughout punctuated by the green of the garden seen from floor to ceiling windows. The home is also a “Healthy Home,” (housing that is designed, constructed, maintained, and rehabilitated in a manner that is conducive to good health). It is quiet, dust-free and uses other environmentally friendly elements. You might think from that description that the result would be a very sterile environment. This home proves otherwise. Filled with 16th and 17th century European (mostly Italian) antiques, it is an elegant space. The home sits high above the street and there are views to the ocean.

The Festival’s home and garden tour features the musical talent of the Festival’s Young Artists.

The fifth home is on a private road and overlooks the ocean. This level lot boasts an English cottage filled with artifacts from Africa, New Guinea and Native American tribes. Of museum quality, you can view the many masks and other artistic, practical and ceremonial accoutrements from several cultures. Many are antiques while some are considered contemporary folk art. The house has had several remodels with owners carefully preserving the original aesthetic of the home with hand-hewn beams, iron work and original painted panels adorning the living room walls.

While viewing these diverse homes from the comfort of your home, you will also appreciate music provided by outstanding students from throughout Monterey County that have participated in the Carmel Bach Festival’s Young Artists’ Showcase in past seasons.

“Curating the tour has been an exhilarating experience,” said longtime Event Director Gail Dryden. “The homes are architecturally wonderful and the owner’s collections are unique. Having the opportunity to focus on the details is a real advantage of a virtual tour. I hope you enjoy it.”

This online tour lets you see the homes whenever and as many times as you wish during the nine-day event.

All proceeds help support the Carmel Bach Festival.

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