EGREMONT — Cellist Yo-Yo Ma and pianist Emanuel Ax will play an in-person benefit concert next month to benefit Greenagers, calling the youth-driven land stewardship nonprofit “the best of Berkshire culture.”

The concert will take place at 6 p.m. July 7, under a tent at the April Hill Conservation and Education Center in South Egremont. As part of the event, the musicians will have a conversation with Greenagers Executive Director Will Conklin.

Seating is limited to 222, and an outdoor reception follows for top-tier ticket holders. Tickets are available on the group’s website.

Greenagers hires teens and young people for jobs, internships and apprenticeships for farming and for trail building and management in the Berkshires and New York state.

Farm apprentices work with local farmers, learning animal husbandry and organic agriculture. They also manage the farm at April Hill, which Greenagers owns. The nonprofit’s Food Sovereignty Crew installs gardens for families to encourage growing nutritious food at home.

Greenagers concert, Ma and Ax

The work of Greenagers inspired pianist Emanuel Ax, left, and Yo-Yo Ma to stage a benefit concert for the nonprofit next month.

Ma and Ax said in a joint statement that they had become familiar with the organization over the past year, and that they admired the group for maintaining the “long traditions of stewardship for the land, traditional trades, and care for the community.

“Greenagers is the best of Berkshire culture — remembering our past as it imagines and builds our future. We work with our hands all the time, and so we are especially excited to add a little support to Greenagers, where young people learn to use their hands to make the Berkshires a more wonderful place for all of us.”

Greenagers Board Chair David Sheehan said in a statement that the group is honored to host the musicians and that, in the wake of COVID-19, “the concert marks a big leap toward Greenagers’ continuing evolution with jobs and programs for our area’s young people.”

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