News, Tips & Bargains : Inn-vitation to Cross-Country

When orchestra leader Murray Korda isn’t serenading Presidents (he’s played for seven), heads of state (27 at last count) or some of Southern California’s poshest parties with his Monseigneur Strings Orchestra, he returns to Orwell, Vt., where he and wife, Joan, operate Brookside Farms country inn.

When asked how he manages his music gigs on the West Coast with his innkeeping duties in the East, he replies, “I commute.”

Now he’s inviting Californians to do the same to take advantage of Brookside’s miles of groomed cross-country skiing trails. The Kordas are offering a two-night cross-country package for two featuring accommodations, breakfasts and dinners at rates ranging from $260 to $368.

Brookside, with its 19 shimmering white Ionic columns and neoclassic Greek Revival buildings, dates from 1789 and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The 300-acre estate, which is still a working farm, has six guest rooms, some with shared baths, and a 10,000-volume library. For reservations, call (802) 948-2727.