January / February 2023 Issue

Fabulous stone and Clapboard 5-bedroom colonial on 3 acres with light and views and charming red horse barn. Beautifully appointed interior with hardwood floors and three fireplaces.  Beautifully landscaped property with stone walls, dogwoods, hydrangeas, peonies and rhododendron. Enjoy country life at its finest only one mile from the Village and 10 minutes to the train. A special, rare listing!

Simplifying today for tomorrow & beyond.

It’s not just about doing more with your money. It’s about doing more with your time.

Robert Sechan rsechan@newedgecg.com 203-424-2262 Stamford, CT newedgewealth.com

NewEdge Wealth is a division of NewEdge Capital Group, LLC. Investment advisory services offered through NewEdge Wealth, LLC, a registered investment adviser. Securities offered through NewEdge Securities, Inc., Member FINRA/SIPC.

635 Frogtown Rd, New Canaan, CT • (203) 801-5608 CONTEMPORARY STYLE, REDEFINING LUXURY.

PRESIDENT’S LETTER

For 2023, I resolve to continue apace in our relentless effort to deliver insightful biographies of the most interesting and noteworthy people, inside looks at the most spectacular homes, and support for the great charities in the B&NC Mag area. We’re proud to have featured great locals such as Martha Stewart, Chris “Mad Dog” Russo, NFL Star Zach Allen, Olympic Gold Medalist AJ Mleczko, Matthew Del Negro and Chazz Palminteri in 2022; we have plenty of blockbusters lined-up for 2023 and beyond.

In 2022, we added luxury destination travel to the B&NC Mag mix, including features on Grand Cayman and Kauai. For 2023, we’ve started the year with a fabulous feature on Casa de Campo in the Dominican Republic, and already have other exciting travel features planned, including Savannah and Hilton Head, New Orleans, and a ‘Month of Moguls’ feature about a ski road-trip to some of the best ski areas in the West which will be included in our September/October 2023 issue.

We’ve introduced the B&NC Mag readership to some of the notable authors who live in our community, including Fran Hauser, Sara Arnell, Martha Handler, Shaz Kahng, Patricia Morrisroe, Peter Spiegelman, and Marisha Pessl, and now add Katie Sise Sweeney, featured in this issue, to the list. As a new venture for B&NC Mag for 2023, starting with this issue and continuing in each of our 2023 issues, we will proudly publish a mystery in six parts written for B&NC Mag by Katie Sise, titled ‘The Bedford Oak’. We hope you’re as captivated as we already are…and have to wait painstakingly for each of the next five installments - because you won’t be able to get ‘The Bedford Oak’ anyplace else, and we’re not going to let you binge the whole thing like Netflix.

Our Instagram, @bedfordnewcanaanmag, is the largest locally-focused social media in the B&NC Mag area - and growing. And the B&NC Mag Community Calendar on our website at bedfordnewcanaanmag.com has emerged as the go-to place to find out about all the must-go events and activities happening in the B&NC Mag area - like the two Bedford ‘Coffee & Cars’ Shows which B&NC Mag, and event partners OHHO and Jordan Vogel, have planned for 2023.

Finally, for 2023, I resolve to keep it: Always Local! Always Positive! We’re grateful for your time and attention, and all the positive feedback.

Truly yours,

PRESIDENT

Cas Ey Kapla N

“I

fortunate to live an active but beautifully protected lifestyle in an elegant and first-class community.”

122 Palmers Hill Road Stamford, CT 06902 To learn more, call 203-409-8377 or visit EdgehillCommunity.com

To

TABLE OF CONTENTS

p.72

OUR COVER FEATURE

is on CLIVE DAVIS, a living legend in the music industry. He’s won 5 Grammy Awards as a Producer and both the Grammy Trustees Award and President’s Merit Award - the theater at the Grammy Museum is even named the Clive Davis Theater. And in 2000, Clive was inducted as a Non-Performer into the Rock n’ Roll Hall of Fame. …And he’s a long-time Pound Ridge local!

A CONTEMPORARY KITCHEN RENOVATION in New Canaan

P.42

Sue DeChiara, a.k.a The Zhush (@zhush), our B&NC Mag Homes Editor, brings us inside of a fabulous overhaul of a local family's home. Coastal hues, gorgeous blues, light wood, and fantastic light features all make a statement that you don’t want to miss, designed by the award winning designer Jeanne Collins of JerMar Designs.

P.33

SAM CHASON: Swimming In The SHARK TANK

Mt. Kisco-native, Sam Chason, brought his burgeoning self-started student storage business to the famed ABC Shark Tank this year… we got the local exclusive on which shark took a bite.

P.56

is a bestselling mystery writer, most notably including The Break, Open House, and We Were Mothers. But she says she’s first and foremost a Bedford mom of four.

Further to our feature on Katie, B&NC Mag is proud to publish a new mystery in six parts, titled ‘THE BEDFORD OAK’, with the first volume included in this issue, and the balance of the story coming in installments in each 2023 issue of B&NC Mag. It’s our version of a hit Netflix series - without the binge marathons.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

SAM HOLLANDER

is a Billboard-topping songwriter who’s moved ‘back home’ to the B&NC Mag area. MATTHEW DEL NEGRO, another hometown hero who’s made it big as an actor (and was a B&NC Mag Jan/Feb ‘22 Feature), met up with Sam, and wrote this piece for B&NC Mag to fill us in on Sam’s exploits.

P.125

MATT BRUCK AND SWETHA DOPPALAPUDI

Are Married, and B&NC Mag attended the festivities at Glen Arbor this past Summer.

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SHERRY LEVIN WALLACH P.116

a resident of Pound Ridge for 21 years, is both Deputy Executive Director of the Legal Aid Society of Westchester County, and President of the New York State Bar Association. As the bedrock of her fundamental belief in the rule of law, Sherry is heroically devoted to there being equal access to, and application of, justice.

GAUDIO P.112

Each and every HEATHER

installment is a museum exhibit worthy of attention. The Joy of Living is now on view at Heather Gaudio Fine Art PROJECTS space, 78 Elm Street, New Canaan and the masterful Rachael Palacios shares a bit about the pieces and the artist behind them.

CASA DE CAMPO: PICTURE PERFECT VACATION

is our feature on this unparalleled Caribbean destination.

B&NC Mag stayed in one of the luxury villas, and fills you in on the: ideal location; beyond-comfortable accommodations; unique combination of facilities and activities - including world class golf on Pete Dye’s 3 masterpiece courses; sublime service, and; inviting and attractive style.

Photo: Drew Bordeaux

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La Maison Fête is a full-scale event planning and design company. Its retail shop in Bedford showcases elements of their signature events. Brighten your home this winter with distinctive tableware, candles and accessories, or shop gifts and new lines of clothing.

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MAVIS STAPLES

KRASNO / MOORE

DEAD ON LIVE

FRAN LEBOWITZ A CONVERSATION WITH A CULTURAL ICON APRIL 2

MARCH 24

ONE NIGHT OF QUEEN

APRIL 11 & 12

SAM CHASON

These days, appearing on the hit TV show Shark Tank, no less getting investment from one or more of the Sharks, can be better than having a Harvard MBA. Entrepreneurs are today’s industrialists. And an investment from Kevin O’Leary, Damond John, Robert Herjavec, Lori Greiner, Barbara Corcoran, or Mark Cuban, validates the venture and the entrepreneur. In today’s popular culture, every Shark Tank presenter is a star!

When Sam Chason, and his business partner, Matt Gronberg, appeared on Shark Tank in 2022,

they got offers to finance their ‘STORAGE SCHOLARS’ from four of the five Sharks, and ultimately did a deal with Mark Cuban to sell 10% of their company for $250,000. “Of course the valuation was super important, but we were more focused on securing a deal with Mark, to utilize his platform and to bring brand recognition with college students and school administrators. When we went on Shark Tank we had 23 schools - we’re now growing exponentially and already have over 50 schools in our pipeline,” Sam says.

Sam grew up near Byram Lake in Mt. Kisco, and graduated from Fox Lane in 2016. “My mom and dad were both high school teachers,” Sam recounts, “my mom taught Math in Rye and Scarsdale, and my dad taught Physics in Ardsley. Education was, obviously, a priority, but I’ve always been all about business. I’ve been an entrepreneur my entire life! …I started selling lemonade at 5. I started selling candy at 7. I was into flipping things on CraigsList when I was 12, and then in high school I started cleaning out attics and garages and after estate sales and sold thousands of items for my clients. I worked for a catering company all through middle and high school, and even managed a few side gigs. …Senior year of high school, I bought myself the 2002 GMC Sierra Pick-up that I’m still driving. And by the time I graduated, I’d saved up $50,000 that I used to pay for college.”

“Getting ready to go to Wake Forest as a Freshman,” Sam explains, “I recognized the need that college students have moving their stuff to college, storing a dorm room or a college apartment’s amount of bedding and furniture and a bicycle each summer, and then moving everything to the next stop in life after graduation. As soon as I got to college, I started going door-to-door and handing out fliers selling other students - with other Freshman as my prime target - on a service to pick-up their stuff at the end of the year and deliver it to wherever they wanted for the following school year, with a white-glove option where everything is ready and waiting for the student’s arrival. Then I focused on marketing to the following year’s

incoming Freshman, so I could sell them ‘ship to school’ and ship boxes, tape and prepaid shipping labels to make the move-in process easy. We have everything, including their entire online wish list from Target, Amazon, or Bed Bath & Beyond, waiting in their Freshman dorm room when they arrive. Before I graduated, I repeated the process at a dozen other colleges. …I was hiring a lot of students involved in sales and moving, and during my Sophomore year I hired Matt Gronberg, a pre-Med from Boston, to help me grow the business, and because I knew I wanted to study in New Zealand during my Junior year. After thousands of hours working together, we became partners after Matt graduated.”

As we’ve grown, we’ve learned the ins-andouts of the storage and shipping businesses, we’ve essentially become a professional recruiting company and, most important, we’ve learned how to operate in partnership with our universities. As an example, when the administration at Georgetown needed to move 86 students into a new dorm all-atone-time, they called on us,” Sam continues.

“We probably weren’t really ready when we first applied to Shark Tank, right after we graduated from college and in the middle of covid, in 2020. But by 2022 we’d figuredout how to scale…and that Shark Tank - and particularly Mark Cuban - could be our key to becoming a global logistics company.”

Sam has the youthful enthusiasm and boundless energy of a 24 year old, with the business expertise of a seasoned capitalist. He’s moved to Austin, Texas - because STORAGE SCHOLARS is working on building a strong university presence there, for the obvious tax benefits, and because he can run STORAGE SCHOLARS from anywhere.

Sam’s girlfriend, who’s from Chicago, moved down to Austin in 2022. “I’m still the classic young entrepreneur. Right now I’m on an extended and therapeutic solo trip to Balia trip I’d planned to take after graduation in 2020 - but it’s my first vacation since high school, and even here I’m working 7:30 A.M. to 4 A.M. every day” Sam laughs. “We’re very core product focused, and we’re confident

CONTEMPORARY CLASSIC

Transforming A New Canaan Kitchen

Designed by: JerMar Designs

BY B&NC MAGS HOMES EDITOR, SUE DECHIARA / ZHUSH

PHOTOGRAPHY AMY VISCHIO

The Nicolet family, including executive parents, two sporty teenagers, mother-in-law, a friendly Labrador Retriever and a GoldenDoodle puppy, decided to undertake a renovation of their kitchen, mudroom and bar, in the middle of covid - and while living in the house during the 5 months of renovation. They wanted to achieve an open and airy Nantucket-style vibe, with plenty of storage, all suitable for lots of entertaining. And they needed to get the work done on-time and on-budget.

The original space was dated and dark with formica countertops and too many scattered, mis-matched appliances. The new space shows that Jeanne understood the assignment. From drab to fab, the difference is astounding. Whitewashed red oak flooring neutralizes the room and brings together the main kitchen area with the adjoining breakfast nook. Different shades of gray throughout the room, on the plush textured stools and matching chairs, and the hearty wooden island base, are tied together with gray veining on the 2 ½-inch thick countertops and pulled up through the room as notes of gray peek in from the blue glass tile backsplash. The juxtaposition of large modern

stainless steel appliances and the light california-style wood from the legs of the kitchen stools and the floor give the room a feeling of clean modern elegance combined with calming welcome. The light fixtures in each area of the space mirror the same juxtaposition; with three large glass spheres and exposed edison light bulbs hanging from brass pendants over the island giving off a contemporary in-vogue look and a subliminal sumptuous element, and the highly textured woven geometric pendant over the breakfast nook is a bit more tranquil. The use of mixed metals throughout the room allow the colors to flourish and the crisp white cabinets to pop.

PLEASURE WORKING ON THIS PROJECT

and working with the Nicolet’s,” says Jeanne Collins of JerMar Designs, who designed the entire project to meet every expectation. Even though we had to deal with some covid-related delays in getting specific materials and appliances, plus the typical construction unknowns, the Nicolet’s worked with us through

it all to achieve the kitchen of their dreams. The kitchen in this traditional New Canaan center hall Colonial had not been updated for twenty years. We opened up the room, making way for a larger walkway and doorway, by removing an unnecessary closet. We shrunk the size of the pantry, while still increasing total storage space, using cabinets that extend to the 9’-high ceiling and utilizing clever hidden storage solutions - including a hidden coffee bar and a mail holder - and more efficient shelving.”

“To accomplish the Nicolet’s aesthetic,” Collins continues, “we went custom on most of the design elements. A new built-in banquette fits more people than chairs would have allowed and has the added benefit of storage underneath. The custom bench cushion is performance fabric to withstand heavy use and spills. Lighting over the table by Palecek adds to the beachy look with its organic materials. Oversize pendants above the kitchen island bring drama, while the glass material keeps the lighting from being heavy and overpowering. Quartz counters are durable, and the mitered edge maximizes the thick look and adds a modern touch.

The custom island by GS Woodworking, in white oak with a custom stain finish, makes for a stunning focal point. The glass backsplash looks like a washed blue denim, and is laid offset for a more current look than the typical brick style. The appliances are all part of the new GE Monogram line. The ‘5-in-1’ GE Monogram wall oven is the most used appliance, as it boasts five appliances in one, including a microwave and convection oven. The large fridge and freezer with custom paneled doors and custom brass pulls, blend in with the custom cabinetry and are great for entertaining.”

“IT WAS A

COLLINS ALSO SUGGESTED

A CUSTOM BAR

as Mr. Nicolet works in the liquor business. The bar was custom designed with GS Woodworking around a tall Thermador wine fridge, and has pull-out drawers in different sizes to accommodate different bottle types and all the necessary bar accessories. The high-gloss lacquer cabinets with brass inlay, marble and gold backsplash, custom brass sink and quartzite countertops make a real statement!

Collins also remodeled and renovated the mudroom in order to make the space more functional and open. Floor to ceiling cabinets house a pantry and a closet as well as smaller cubbies for accessories and sports gear. The bench was added with a custom cushion in performance fabric. The aquatic wallpaper from Thibaut lines the walls and the ceiling, to make the space feel larger and tying in the coastal look of the kitchen.

The Nicolet family is thrilled with the result. About their new kitchen and mudroom, Stehanie shared, “Jeanne’s expertise helped us to achieve exactly what we wanted; we were able to incorporate our love of the beach with a more sophisticated and classic aesthetic in such a fantastic and functional result. Some of my favorite parts are the blue hues in the kitchen that carry into the wallpaper in the mudroom,” she continues, “and best of all, the solutions that Jeanne designed have made our spaces so much more functional.” As the family moved into their fresh spaces, they also enlisted the help of Tidy Nest, the preeminent home organizing company in the area, to create long-term clutter-free solutions for the spaces that fit neatly within Jeanne’s design, “months later, we’ve managed to keep everything organized and we are just so happy with this new gathering space in our home.”

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Todd Lampert

Gerard Gjertsen

Philip Toohey

Greg Williams

David Rucci Arthur Zinn

Jason Gladstone Harvey Melzerr

KATIE SISE SWEENEYIt’s a Mystery

Katie explains her method of writing bestselling mystery novels saying, “The twist always comes first, and the characters follow. When I start to write, I don’t have an outline or a plot. I throw the characters together and let them interact, almost as if I’m watching a movie. Sometimes, as I see it happening, I don’t even know who the villain is. It’s a mystery, and if I surprise myself, I know I will surprise the reader!”

Katie’s parents, Jack and Mary Sise, were both from upstate New York, and Katie and her 3-year-younger sister Meghan and 6-year-younger brother Jack grew up in Loudonville. “I started writing short stories when I was 8,” Katie recalls. “I had an imaginative inner life, with fairly developed scenes and characters. Usually there was an element of magical realism in each story, with enchanted forests and characters with special powers. In elementary school I wrote a ‘how-to’ book on ‘How To Make Your Parents Let You Have A Dog’... and we got a dog! As I got older, I got into the habit of doing some writing every day - always fiction. I’ve always been into storytelling. Mostly short stories. But I’d never published a collection or anything like that. I went to the public high school, Shaker, in Loudonville,

and then went on to Notre Dame, and majored in Film, Television and Theater. I wrote and acted in plays. I would read the script and rehearse until I felt like I knew the characters inside and out. It was good training for being a fiction writer.”

Katie continues, “When I got out of college I moved to New York City. I took acting classes and tried being an actress, but I didn’t really like auditioning and didn’t land anything significant. I would audition all day and write all night. I needed to make a living, so I took a job bartending - and shifted to writing all morning and working all night. Then I took a job at a boutique, and I started making jewelry and selling it there, and it took off - and it was back to writing in the morning before I went to the boutique, working in the boutique during the day - and then making the jewelry at night. I did a piece for Target and I sold pieces to actresses like Kate Winslet and Cameron Diaz. Then I landed a job hosting TV style segments, including a regular gig as an HSN Jewelry Style Consultant - and, you guessed it, back to writing at night. …By the end of my twenties, after writing about 4 hours a day, almost every day for a decade, I felt like I’d finally learned how to write.”

PHOTOGRAPHY ANDREA CERASO

“Being a mom is my pride and joy”

“I met my husband, Brian Sweeney, in high school and we started dating at the end of high school and during the beginning of college. But I went to Notre Dame and Brian went to Fordham, and after we broke up, we weren’t in contact. Two years after college we ran into each other in New York City, and we’ve been together ever since. He spent a short time on a trading desk, and then went into hospital administration. Now he’s an executive at Hospital for Special Surgery. We were married on New Year’s Eve 2006, in Loudonville. We moved from New York to Bedford in 2014, when our oldest son, Luke, was three, and our second son, William, was seven-months-old. Four years after that came our twins, Isabel and Eloise. Being a mom is my pride and joy,” Katie says with a warm smile. “Right before Luke was born, I ghost wrote three New York Times bestsellers which were mystery novels - that I’m not allowed to say anything more about. But it was so exciting to get paid to write and to learn the craft of writing and plotting novels, even if I had to do it under someone else’s name, and I really believed writing them would help me learn how to be a good novelist. I’d written a non-fiction how-to titled Creative Girl: The Ultimate Guide for Turning Talent and Creativity into a Real Career, published in 2010 by Perseus/Running Press, but I’d have to wait to get my fiction published under my own name.”

It was so exciting to write under my own name

“Then in 2011, when Luke was fivemonths-old, a literary agent named Brenda Bowen, who’d seen the three ghost-written books, proposed that I write a romantic comedy ‘about a girl who could get any boyfriend with an app - and I wrote The Boyfriend App while Luke napped,” Katie continues. “It was so exciting to write under my own name, and I loved incorporating the magical realism element I’d loved as a child. I had a tech consultant to teach me what I needed to know about apps and coding. …And it was really well received! So, in 2015, I wrote The Pretty App a companion to The Boyfriend App, about an app and a beauty contest that spins wildly out of control. Next came a standalone contemporary novel called The Academy, about a sheltered fashion blogger banished to military school to learn honor and discipline. All three of these young adult books were published by HarperCollins Balzer + Bray,” Katie says with a measure of pride, but clearly leading up to the part of her career she’s most excited about. “Then, in 2018, I wrote We Were Mothers: A Novel published by Amazon Publishing/ Little A, which is a suspense novel about three seemingly perfect couples whose lives turn very dark over the course of one weekend. And, in 2020, I followed that up with Open House: A Novel which was also published by Amazon/Little A, and which is about an art student who walks into the woods and is never seen again, her death remaining a mystery that haunts her bucolic university town and her family. And my most recent novel, another mystery, called The Break just published in 2022, also by Amazon Publishing/Little A, involves a new mother, named Rowan, who has a traumatic birth, and when she returns home from the hospital with her beautiful newborn she can’t shake the feeling that something is very wrong. She accuses her sitter, June, of harming her newborn, but when she looks down into the bassinet she sees her daughter sleeping peacefully. Days later, June disappears, and Rowan is implicated. Rowan must put her mind together and face dark truths to get to the bottom of what’s really happening.”

Katie certainly has an audience!

Her novels have been included on best-of lists by Good Morning America, The New York Post, PopSugar, Parade Magazine, PureWow, and Zibby’s Book Club. The Library Journal commented about Katie’s writing: “Sise displays a sly sense of pacing; nearly every chapter unveils a new plot twist, keeping readers hooked.” And Publishers Weekly said about Katie’s newest novel, The Break: “With this white-knuckle journey, Sise shows her mastery of suspense.” Katie admits, “Knowing so many people are reading my stories is the greatest reward! I love when readers email me!”

“I was very close with my Grandma, who passed when I was 19. She was extremely supportive of me and of my artistic endeavors. The way her entire being would light up - for me - gave me my start. And my Dad, who’s a really dynamic and kind hearted man, is one of nine Irish brothersall storytellers! I feel like my storytelling comes from them. I guess I’ve got the gene,” Katie says lightheartedly. “And I like being a writer! I like that the reader doesn’t see me and, unlike in a real-life social setting, that I don’t have to personally win the reader over. The idea that the reader just gets to see what I put in the pages has always appealed to me. I try to write a thousand words a day, and while my character and plot development is pretty eclectic, my process is pretty mechanical. I do a lot of rewriting, and I can’t really predict how much time each day’s work will take. …But when it’s time to pick up the girls at nursery school - it’s time.”

THE

BEDFORD OAK

VOLUME I OF VI

BY KATIE SISE SWEENEY

On the night of James’ funeral, hours after the services were over and my parents and I had driven silently across town from James’ parents’ house on Pea Pond to ours on Hook Road, I slipped quietly out the front door of my childhood home.

“Claire, let me come with you,” my mother said from the front steps, her voice choked from crying. I turned away, unable to look at her. “I’ll be all right,” I called back over my shoulder, which was a lie. I hurried down the driveway, my flashlight’s beam scattering over sticks and pebbles. “I need to be alone, Mom,” I said, and this was true. I absolutely needed to be alone to do what I was planning to do.

She let me go. I trekked down the meandering dirt road past stone walls and stoic colonials, welcoming the icy chill against my skin. I’d felt numb talking to funeral guests all afternoon at James’ parents’ house. Even though James and I had been teenagers in this town together, so many of the guests were family from far-flung places I’d never been, strangers who kissed my cheeks and told me a story about James I’d never heard before.

I kept walking along Hook, trying to forget the guests’ stricken faces. When I got to the wild meadow where Hook meets Cantitoe, I took in the sight of my beloved Bedford Oak and felt like I could finally breathe again. She was a grand dame of a tree, a mighty white oak who had watched my town and its characters unfurl from the early 1500s. I climbed carefully over a stone wall and crept across the frozen grass to stand beneath her magnificent wingspan, one hundred and thirty feet from tip to tip. The ends of her mossy branches tapered until they looked like a woman’s fingers scraping the starry winter sky. I drove past the oak every time I went to my parents’, but I hadn’t been this close to her since the Christmas before last, when James and I ran to the end of Hook and clamored over the stone wall at nightfall.

The January wind hurtled through the naked brush behind the oak like a strangled shriek, and I thought of how warm James’ hand always felt in mine, and the way his very being settled me. I imagined the weight of his body against me, and the things he would say if he were here with me now. I closed my eyes and conjured his face. I could see his golden-brown eyes, and the way he always looked at me like he had a secret.

Really, I’d been the one keeping secrets. James and I had known each other since he was seventeen and transferred into Fox Lane High School. I’d told him so many things about my childhood, and by the time he proposed on the end of a concrete pier near our West Village apartment, I’m sure he thought he knew all there was to know. But I’d never told him about seeing ghosts when I was a little girl growing up on this street, and how the air cooled when the ghosts slipped through the wallpapered walls and drafty windows of our old home. I never told him how at first, I was scared of the ghosts, but then I was hooked on their visits and always wanting more. I never told James about the ghosts for the very same reason I never told anyone, which was because I had a deep, unsettling feeling that my time with the ghosts was way too strange, dangerous even. I knew I was guilty of doing something wrong, even if I wasn’t sure exactly what that was. It was something about the way the ghosts entered my bedroom in the dead of night, as quietly as they could, like we were doing something illicit no one could find out about.

“Claire,” one of them might whisper into my ear. And then a see-through hand would wrap its fingers around my shoulder and shake me. “Claire, it’s urgent we speak to you,” a ghost might say. Sometimes I thought I was dreaming, but other times I knew for absolute sure that I was awake.

“Yes?” I’d say, rubbing my eyes. “What is it?” But they were always so vague, speaking in riddles and nonsense. They’d busy themselves in my room, sifting through my school papers and rearranging things. Once, a tiny ghost called Gloria alphabetized my doll collection by first names, and in the morning when I woke up, dozens of my dolls sat smiling at me exactly the way Gloria had left them.

I waited for the ghosts to come of their own volition, but I also called on them myself when I was flush with loneliness. Lying against my sheets with the pearly buttons of my nightgown catching moonlight, I’d stare at the spidery cracks that ran across the ceiling. I’d invite the ghosts the way you’d summon a friend in the classroom: with whispered words and glances that begged come closer.

And they did. In my upstairs bedroom, the ghosts gathered like guests at a party with wispy hair and cliché see-through bodies. Sometimes they seemed pleased to come, but other nights they stared at me as though I’d done something very wrong. Sometimes I worried that my summons had interrupted whatever important business they’d been doing, but sometimes I interpreted their hollow gazes to mean something else entirely: a warning of sorts. Beware, they sometimes tried to tell me, watch out, but I could never really understand what they were trying to warn me about, and when I asked them, they didn’t give me specifics. I was a child, only able to consider my present life; I never imagined they might be trying to warn me about something far into the future.

But what if the ghosts were true seers? Was it possible that their warnings all those years ago were always about the night last week when I made the catastrophic mistake of leaving James in a bar in New York City with our friends, never to see him alive again? Even if the ghosts could speak and had tried to caution me about that fateful future night, I’m not sure I would have understood. Could I really have fathomed the existence of a person named James whom I would love so deeply, or grasped the immensity of our impending doom? Maybe I would have dismissed the warning as silliness, and maybe it was better that the ghosts never tried to explicitly spell out the fate that awaited us. It might have killed me to have known what was coming for James, and then to not have heeded the warning correctly enough to stop it. As it were, James would be alive if it weren’t for me and what I did.

I couldn’t remember precisely when the ghosts of long ago stopped their preternatural visits to my bedroom, but it was swift and sure, over as quickly as it had started. Crushes, friends, and parties in old cellars replaced them, and I felt confident that those unearthly nights were buried and shelved, something I could look back upon like a longstanding childhood game played with cousins, imaginary though not entirely fictitious, the kind you never realize you’re playing for the last time. But now that I was standing here at the end of Hook Road, looking for James among blazing stars that had already burned out, the ghosts were all I could think about.

James is gone.

I knew this deep in my bones, a streak of cold that wasn’t only the winter night. It was a familiar chill, one that started in my fingers and toes and spread like a rash over my skin, and I knew it wasn’t only the grief of being out in the night alone without James. It was the same feeling I used to have as a little girl, right before the ghosts would come. It was me standing on the edge of something and peering over it, expectant and ready.

The oak towered above me with arms twining toward the heavens. James wasn’t coming back, not in the spring when buds opened like candy unwrapped, or in the summer when my family splashed around the pool at the club down the street where James and I had planned to get married, and not in the fall when the leaves of the oak protested their death with fiery reds and oranges until they dropped onto the cold earth. I grew up with the town lore that circling the Bedford Oak nine times would bring one of the town’s spirits back to life. As preteens, my friends and I gathered around the tree, making it as far as eight circles around her trunk, but always chickening out before we dared circle it a final time. We’d race back to my house, breathless with the thrill of how close we’d come, and terrified that we’d miscounted and let loose a rogue spirit who would chase us home and haunt us forever. We could never fall asleep on those nights.

THE BEDFORD OAK THE BEDFORD OAK

I was terrified of the lore as a preteen, but now it brought the promise of possibility. What if James could come back to me in spirit form, just for a night? No fair God or human could really deny me that, could they?

An animal cried out and I shivered. Creatures were here in this meadow with me, owls and foxes, coyotes and cats. I knew this from growing up surrounded by woods, gorges, and the Bedford Bear who ambled his way into homeroom stories and blurry photographs. And it was dark here at midnight, so very dark, the Christmas lights long gone and houses silent and sleeping with reading lamps turned off for the night. But I could still make out the tall grass and my beloved oak tree spattered in starlight, and I wondered what could happen if…

Really, what did I have to lose?

My breath came faster as I took a few steps toward the tree. I stared at the mossy patches on her branches, and the mosaic of gray and brown bark on her trunk. I thought of the lore and yearned for it to be true. And even though my body had started to tremble, still I began to circle the oak because the natural wilderness of this town was in my blood, and I was unafraid of a dark country night. One heavy snow boot in front of the other, crushing frozen grass beneath me, the hair on the back of my neck standing at attention. One time around, and then two.

I sidestepped rocks and ducked beneath a branch as I slowly circled, thinking about my bedroom filled with ghosts, about my friends and I trailing this very path around the oak, always stopping short of nine times. I passed the plaque that declared the tree’s historical significance for being alive at the time of the signing of the Constitution. I thought of James in that bar, the way his smile went crooked when I started to leave, the way he tilted his beer and locked his gaze on mine. I thought of his friends lined against the shellacked edge of the bar, and then I thought of them bearing the weight of his shellacked casket this morning as they carried it down the aisle in a church that smelled like frankincense and myrrh.

Four times around the tree, then five.

My mind went quiet as my body gathered fury, my long, inky hair growing wild in the wind and my fingertips icy cold. A lone car passed me on Cantitoe Street, and I wondered if anyone saw me, if anyone could ever possibly know what I was doing, what I was hoping for, what I needed to happen. How could they? I was shrouded with darkness, quiet with everything I wanted this moment to be.

Six times around the trunk of the oak, seven, eight.

I didn’t hesitate as I circled the final lap. Nine, nine, nine, I whispered to myself, the same thing we would chant to each other as kids, the very thing we had all been too terrified to do. The word disappeared on the frosty air as I took the final few steps back to the low-hanging branch that marked my start.

Nothing.

The wind quieted and my hair settled in tangles against my coat. I wrapped my arms over my chest and waited. I’d become oddly patient in the days since James died; there weren’t the same things to wait for anymore, and I hadn’t come up with new ones to be antsy about. It was a middle space, a quiet moment between worlds, as if both James and I were transitioning together between our old life together and our new reality of him gone. I wasn’t as lonely as I should have been, and I was nervous that meant James was somehow still here with me, hovering between the earth and Heaven, scared to truly leave me. Maybe that’s what made me so sure the whole outlandish thing with the Bedford Oak would actually work, and maybe that’s why I wasn’t even a little surprised when the outline of something crept from behind the tree.

“James?” I whispered.

The temperature dropped even farther, until the tip of my nose prickled in the cold. I swore I saw something or someone emerge, almost like a watery figure that changed the way the scene looked behind it, making the grasses and meadow blur. It was about my size, and I was pretty sure it looked more human-like than animal, but I wasn’t entirely certain, so I stayed very still.

“Come to me,” I said softly, my heart thrumming.

Closer, closer came the spirit, and in the moonlight, I saw it wasn’t James. It was a woman, barely older than me, transparent like the ghosts from all of those years ago in my bedroom. Her sharp features were visible as she trod carefully over sticks and rocks, a nightdress covering her skinny limbs and catching on the breeze. She reached out her shaking arms and I could see the bones of her hands uncurl. I could tell she wanted something, something she seemed sure I could give her.

She opened her mouth to speak.

…TO BE CONTINUED

THE BEDFORD OAK THE BEDFORD OAK

CLIVE DAVIS

A ‘LIVING LEGEND’

Over the course of a 60+ year career that’s still going strong at age 90, Clive has signed a list of recording artists that most famously includes Janis Joplin, The Grateful Dead, Billy Joel, Bruce Springstein, Barry Manilow, and Notorious B.I.G., among many others; and Clive may still be even better-known for his close association with another list of recording artists who Clive signed and collaborated with to match them with songbooks that made their career, including standouts like Santana, Ella Fitzgerald, Dionne Warwick and, most notably, Whitney Houston. In 2017, Clive was featured in the Netflix documentary ‘Clive Davis : The Soundtrack Of Our Lives’. He’s won 5 Grammy Awards as a Producer and both the Grammy Trustees Award and President’s Merit Award - the theater at the Grammy Museum is even named the Clive Davis Theater. In 2000, Clive was inducted as a Non-Performer into the Rock n’ Roll Hall of Fame. And this year, David Hockney sat with Clive to paint his portrait for the National Portrait Gallery.

As is probably the case with most living legends, Clive earns his accolades, and at the same time also knows how to market, nurture, curate and perpetuate his legend. Selling himself like he’s always sold his artists. He wrote his first auto-biography a half-century ago, and his second, ‘The Soundtrack of My Life’, in 2013, with Simon & Schuster. He checks to make sure you’ve seen the documentary about him, and he’s a little disconcerted if you haven’t. He’s eager to tell about the artists he’s signed and the great stories that go along. He has a regal confidence and a stately manner, and seems to effortlessly command the center of attention. It’s a feeling that’s accentuated by having the public relations team, his personal assistant, and the chef and other staff always at hand. He would only pose in his business attire, and he refused to take off his glasses.

Long-time Pound Ridge resident Clive Davis is most often referred to as in the music industry.

PHOTOGRAPHY: ANDREA CERASO HAIR AND MAKEUP: EVA SCRIVO

He was born in 1932 in the middle of the Great Depression, and grew up in a middle-class Jewish family in Brooklyn. “Let’s just say that from the start, when I was a little kid, I read everything and I got very good grades,” Clive admits about how his obvious exceptional intelligence was identified at an early age. “But, you know, my mother gave me some of the best advice of my life, telling me ‘I didn’t want to be just an ‘ivory tower intellectual’ and that I needed to go out 2 or 3 hours a day, integrate myself with friends in the playground, and play punch ball, stickball, and touch football. I listened. I think that’s something that’s helped me throughout my life. I’ve always tried to avoid being an ivory tower intellectual, and some of the great joy and benefit I’ve gotten from contemporaries has been from friendships involving sports. I was a pretty good tennis player when I could still play. …And I’m a big Yankee fan!”

However moderated by a normal childhood in modest circumstances, Clive graduated Erasmus High School at the top of his class and as a member of the Arista Honor Society - hence his namesake Arista record label - earning admission with a full scholarship at New York University - the first in his family to attend college. His mother and father died, separately, during his freshman year at NYU, and he

finished college living with his older, just-married sister, in Queens, taking the F Train and a bus to commute from Bayside to Washington Square. He nevertheless graduated NYU Phi Beta Kappa with a major in Political Science, and earned admission with a full scholarship to Harvard Law School - where he was Law Review. “When I was a young man,” Clive explains modestly, “the way to rise above the station of your parents was to be a professional, either a doctor or a lawyer. I’ve always known I should be a lawyer.”

He took a job with a small law firm in Manhattan, which dissolved after one year, motivating him to seek the relative security of one of the biggest New York law firms with Jewish partners, Rosenman Colin, run by his Harvard classmate Bob Rosenman. At Rosenman he was one of a few attorneys focused on corporate matters, while the vast majority of the 50-or-so lawyers were strictly litigators. After only a few years, impressed in particular with Clive’s work for Columbia Artists Management doing contracts for touring shows - and having nothing to do with music, Clive was offered the General Counsel position at Columbia Records. “I loved it! Columbia was the giant in the Classical music business, and in the next five years, Columbia bought musical instrument companies including Steinway and Fender and then even signed and released Dylan and Simon & Garfunkel; and as General Counsel I got to put all those kinds of things in place.” Clive tells of his early days at Columbia. “In 1965, CBS acquired Columbia, made my boss, Goddard Liebersohn, the new Group Head for Columbia at CBS, and decided to break-up Columbia into four distinct companies. Goddard offered me the job heading-up the new instruments company to be based in La Jolla,

California, with a raise from $25,000 to $75,000. But I was in the middle of a divorce with my first wife and knew I would have sole responsibility for my two boys, and didn’t want to move them out of their lives in New York, and was planning to turn down the position. When Goddard called at about 6:30 the next morning and, before I could get a word out, he said plans had changed, and that Norman Adler had always wanted to move to La Jolla and was campaigning for the instrument division job, and so I was to remain in New York and become the head of Columbia Records!”

“But I didn’t want to be just an ivory tower lawyer or CEO, so I immersed myself in listening to music - a lot of Miles Davis - and in everything going on in the music industry at that time. Watch, observe, and learn. The folks in A&R [artists and repertoire] who’d grown up with Mitch Miller and Johnny Mathis and were successful for Columbia with My Fair Lady and West Side Story, were not interested in the emerging rock n’ roll. Mitch Miller was quoted as saying that ‘rock n’ roll was short lived’,” Clive recalls with a chuckle. “As head of Columbia, I hadn’t personally signed a new artist for almost two years… and then I found myself at the threeday Monterey Pop Festival. It was the expression of the cultural revolution and musical revolution. People in robes with flowers in their hair…and the amplification of the guitar. I saw Janis Joplin - the most soulful White sister I’d ever seen - breathing fire like the voice of the new generation. …There were no A&R folks with me, and I had no musical background to that point, but I followed my instinct, and the spine tingling sensation Janis had given me, and I paid $200,000 to Mainstream Records, who’d just gotten her under contract but had not produced an album, to buy her contract.”

THE THING WITH CLIVE IS, THAT THE MAN BEHIND THE LEGEND…IS REALLY A LEGEND OF A MAN…

Clive states clearly. “Back in New York a few weeks after Monterey, I signed a heady ensemble of horns playing a rock, blues and jazz mix known as Blood Sweat & Tears. Then Earth Wind & Fire, and Santana…and Springsteen. And as an executive, I was pretty comfortable hiring and managing the best executives and matching the right executives with the right artists. I was not afraid of dissent, and wanted always to get the best of everyone’s different expertise. Although I’d come to music accidentally, I had a love of contemporary music, found I had a good ear, and had the confidence to follow my instincts.”

MUSIC BECAME MY PASSION,

“I was fired in 1973, when CBS cleaned house in the wake of a scandal in the record world involving alleged ‘payola’ going to radio stations, and it was a painful year-and-a-half before I was personally exonerated. I wrote my first book, about the drama of withstanding adversity, during that time. I had to start all over again, and formed Arista. Columbia Pictures put in $10M and gave me the right to pick artists from what had become their music divisionand I chose Barry Manilow and Melissa Manchester among others. I wanted to compete with RCA and Capitol, and eventually we became #1,” Clive says of his years at Arista. “I signed artists who could produce platinum hits and pop albums. The Kinks, Patty Smyth, The Outlaws, The Brecker Brothers, Collin Brown, Lou Reed, Lily Tomlin and Monty Python, and Alicia Keys, to name a few…and of course The Grateful Dead. The Dead had interviewed a half-dozen record company executives - including me - two or three years prior to when I signed them, only to decide to go it on their own with their own label. They called me up and asked me to come to San Francisco, and told me they were frustrated that their albums were only selling to a fraction of their true audience, and that everything I’d predicted about being an independent label had come true and that I’d been the only executive who’d been honest with them.”

“Over the course of my career, some of the artists I’m most proud of are those that didn’t write their own music,” Clive says with a warm smile and somewhat fatherly manner. “I honed my ear to find songs I could match with artists to produce hits. Santana came to me in 1999, thirty years after I’d first signed him to Columbia, and said he missed me, and missed having hits. I told him it was the progressive stuff he was doing, and offered to do an album where I found ‘one side’ of the music for him…that was ‘Supernatural’! Aretha was 40 and wondering if her career was over, when I began to give her the music that made her the Queen of Soul! I convinced Dionne Warwick she had a second career, and then gave her ‘I’ll Never Love This Way Again’, ‘Heartbreaker’, and ‘That’s What Friends Are For’. And it was through Dionne that I met Whitney Houston - and we had 7 worldwide #1 hits!”

“In more recent years, I saw R&B changing and welcomed Hip Hop,” Clive continues. “I financed La Face Records and brought in L.A. Reid and Babyface. I signed Usher, Tony Braxton, Pink, and OutKast. I changed my method of operating…but I was always listening. When I met Puffy Combs, he was only 21 and a middle executive at Uptown Records, and in a two-hour meeting he articulated his vision for a Hip Hop revolution. I told him he had to play me music that could become hits with a wide audience, and he came back the next day and played me four cuts by Notorious B.I.G. I was so impressed, I joined Puffy as a partner and financed Bad Boy Records.”

“And I’m still very active,” Clive says with a hint of nostalgia but no shortage of reality. “I work every day. I listen to every record when it makes the top 20. I don’t really listen for pleasure. During covid, I produced CLIVE DAVIS: MOST ICONIC PERFORMANCES for Paramount+, a four-part series based on interviews I conducted and selected performance clips with guests like Springsteen, Joni Mitchell, Barry Gibb and even Oprah. I produced the NY Philharmonic’s performance for ‘The Homecoming Concert’ in Central Park, in August 2021, to celebrate being able to go out after covid, and CNN broadcast that concert around the world to 16M listeners. And, most recently, I’ve co-produced the biopic on Whitney called ‘I Wanna Dance With Somebody’ being released by Sony Pictures - in which Stanley Tucci plays me…pretty well. And I’m still the Chief Creative Officer of Sony Music Entertainment.”

A star-studded guest list of 550+ attended Clive’s 90th Birthday Party in 2022, and Bruce Springstein and Alicia Keys were among the notables who gave speeches to honor Clive. The greats always seem to be giving tribute to Clive - the living legend. As Monty Lipman, CEO of Republic Records - and another B&NC Mag local - told B&NC Mag: “I’ve been very fortunate to know Clive for many years. I continue to marvel at his impact on popular culture, and I’m truly inspired by his passion for life, and dedication to his family, friends, and community. Clive Davis is one of the most iconic music executives and producers of all time, and his contributions are immeasurable.”

…And that’s just how Clive would have it. Known and admired as a living legend, and “Someone who created a haven for many genius artists - whose music affected mankind and will go on forever,” as Clive puts it. “And I’m proud to be doing philanthropy toward the study of contemporary music at the Clive Davis Institute of Recorded Music at the NYU Tisch School of the Arts, and to have helped to finance the Clive Davis Arts Center at the Bedford Playhouse to benefit local artists and filmmakers. And I’m pleased to be doing a small part environmentally, funding the clean highway program on Route 684, where a plaque - that my friends often kid me about - tributes my contribution.” But then, leaning-in with focus, in his way indicating that it was time to wrap-up, and with the candor and humility of the man behind the legend, Clive revealed, “…But most of all, I want to be remembered as a great father and grandfather. I’m most proud of my four children, Fred and Lauren from my first marriage, and Mitchell and Doug from my second marriage, and of my eight grandchildren, two from each child! We all go away on trips together to Europe, and on boat trips, and every year to the Beverly Hills Hotel. And my greatest pleasure is that they all come visit with me in Pound Ridge. Family is truly most important to me. My parents were exemplary, and I will never forget what it must have been for my sister, who was newly married, to have me living in her small apartment so I could continue in college after our parents died. Family has always been primary.” And finally, back into character as living legend, Clive closed with, “And I’d like it to be remembered that my annual pre-Grammy parties were the greatest parties ever!”

CASAde CAMPO

Fifty years ago, Charles Bluhdorn…

- who, prior to his death in 1983, had a residence in the B&NC Mag area in addition to the family’s apartment in New York City, and who’s children, Paul and Dominique, are still locals - who built Gulf + Western into the first giant conglomerate of diverse interests, including Paramount Pictures, and Madison Square Garden, and Simon & Schuster, and New Jersey Zinc, and the Consolidated Cigar Corporation, and the South Puerto Rico Sugar Company, whose holdings included a 7,000 acre beachfront property, complete with a dramatic tropical gorge where the Chavon River meets the Caribbean, in the eastern province of La Romana in the Dominican Republic - who’s the same guy being played by Burn Gorman in the hit Paramount+ series called The Offer, about the making of The Godfather …determined to develop the 7,000 acre La Romana plantation into what is now Casa de Campo.

From the start, Bluhdorn meant to set Casa de Campo apart! He built hundreds of oceanfront casitas that made every guest feel like a local, and owners feel like Kings; one of the first villa owners was Oscar de la Renta. He built the biggest tennis facility in the Caribbean, a shooting range, and an equestrian facility complete with polo! He had Pete Dye cut his masterpiece Teeth of The Dog golf course into the beachfront! And, high atop the Chavon River gorge, he constructed a 16th-century stone village, named Altos de Chavon - and to herald the opening of the 5,000 seat amphitheater at Altos de Chavon in 1982, Bludhorn had Frank Sinatra perform, and broadcast the celebration worldwide as the ‘Concert for the Americas’.

Today, ‘the resort’, now owned by the Fanjul family - who live on-property, is the mature realization of Bludhorn’s grand vision. Casa de Campo is the integration of a five-star guest hotel, and a tropical enclave that now includes 2,000 homes for wealthy Dominicans, Internationals and Americans - whose spending is a part of why Casa de Campo is able to maintain a scope and grade of amenities greater than any other resort in the Caribbean. …For guests, it’s the ultimate luxury playground, with perfect weather all year long!

Everyone knows the old saw in purchasing real estate that it’s ‘location, location, location’...

WHEN PICKING A VACATION, THERE’S MORE TO CONSIDER…

Of course, is still critical, LOCATION and there’s no better

CLEARER-BLUE

CARIBBEAN BEACHES,

WEATHER, or greater non-stop convenience flying from New York than at CASA DE CAMPO.

PHOTOGRAPHY ANDREA CERASO

But when it comes to having all the elements of a perfect vacation…

Great accommodations are a primary requirement, and the villas at Casa de Campo are exceptional!

Every kind of beachfront, golf course and tropical setting is available, and there are ‘villas’ of every size, ranging from smaller Dominican-styled casitas designed to ideally accommodate a golfers foursome, to grand homes with private pools and hot-tubs, oversized ensuite bedrooms with private hottubs, and large-by-any-standards, airconditioned and open-air, dining, living and sitting rooms and spaces, ample for families or parties of a dozen or more!

The villas come equipped with 4-seat golf carts that are the preferred method of transport around the idyllic neighborhood and for the five or ten minute golf cart trips between hotel, villa, golf, tennis, equestrian, marina, beach and Altos de Chavon; but Casa de Campo also operates a fleet of vans with courteous and punctual operators that are always available, if preferred.

And the villas, which have kitchen and laundry, are staffed with all-day butler, cleaning and cooking staff, as required! Breakfast ordered the night before, ready and served at the appointed hour in the dining room or maybe out by the pool. Daily laundry and linen service. Some cool drinks and fresh fruit in the backyard upon return from the beach.

GREAT ACCOMMO DATIONS

…Casa de Campo will even cater any dinner or party as desired and serve it to the group in your villa, in high style.

Of course, if a villa is not for you, Casa de Campo also has a wide selection of modern, clean and well-appointed hotel rooms and suites, located near the Hotel Center and around the property.

LGPete Dye’s masterpiece, TEETH OF THE DOG, is on everyone’s ‘Best Of’ list, and is perhaps the most enjoyable beachfront course anywhere on the planet. Four holes on the front nine and four holes on the back nine feature tee boxes and greens that protrude into the ocean at only a few feet above sea level, where the beach serves as a natural hazard and a part of the hole. The course is in great shape, and a variety of tee boxes can make the course as difficult as desired.

FDye’s second course at Casa de Campo, called THE LINKS, starts and ends at a fully-stocked pro shop and ‘19th Hole’ shared with Teeth of The Dog - near the golf range and practice facility, and all adjacent to the Lagos Restaurant and near the Hotel Center. It winds through old sugar cane fields, now lined with golf villas, and features some dramatic and tight green complexes with almost no room to miss on either side!

And then there’s TO DYE FORE - aka 2DYE4 - the last of Dye’s gems at Casa de Campo, built years after ‘Teeth’ and located several miles away, on the high bluffs near Altos de Chavon, with it’s own pro shop and dining, and with one nine overlooking Minitas Beach, the Marina and the open ocean, and another nine perched above the Chavon RIver gorge. Wind can be a factor, particularly on the Chavon nine, and this longer, impeccably maintained course, has lots of signature-Dye diabolically undulating fairways and elevated and exciting green complexes. While it’s hard to like anything as much as a round on ‘Teeth of the Dog’...somehow TO DYE FORE should be ranked ‘ALSO #1 BEST OF’!

MINITAS BEACH

The beach at Casa de Campo is a wide, white-sand swath, with a clean-bottom, sparkling clear-water, shallow expanse, protected from open waters by a shallow rock jetty. Casa de Campo’s facilities include two family pools, comfortable chairs and umbrellas out on the beach, and a locker room for all necessities. There are fun food trucks and food and drink service is also available on the beach; there’s gear available for snorkeling, sailing and paddle-boating, and; there are motorboats at the ready for water–skiing and deeper-water snorkeling and scuba.

The Minitas Beach Club & Restaurant is just the combination of casual and elegant that makes for the perfect afternoon repast or a romantic dinner

at the beach. The fare is billed as Mediterranean cuisine with a Dominican twist - which ends up meaning a variety to suit those looking for anything from champagne and shrimp croquettes, or sushi and salad, to those wanting a fried chicken sandwich or a tasty pizza. It’s the perfect place to take in the ocean view, enjoy the warm breeze, and share some special time with family or friends.

And the separate ‘ADULTS ONLY’ area at Minitas Beach is not to be missed! Private shaded cabanas with private food service, surrounding sundecks and a vanishing edge pool, all set right on the western end of Minitas Beach, make for a St. Barth’s vibe and great place to chill…or to find something hot.

DRESS

New Canaan-based and women-owned: NicoBlu

TENNIS

at Casa de Campo is terrific!

With 13 har-tru courts, the tennis center at Casa de Campo is the largest in the Caribbean. It’s a center of Dominican tennis development, and Dominican kids training at Casa de Campo are available to hit or play at any level - or to ball boy.

The tennis center now also boasts 2 pickleball courts and 2 paddle courts.

EQUESTRIAN

THEN

MARINA,

And, quite astoundingly, there’s also

ALTOS DE CHAVON.

The fantastic fort is something of a folly, but hosts restaurants which serve as memorable dinner destination for Casa de Campo guests: LA PIAZZETTA - an upscale restaurant with traditional Italian gourmet cuisine and CHILANGO - a modern taqueria.

which has a grocery store, a pharmacy, a movie theater, an ice cream shop, a bunch of high-end retail stores, and three restaurants: CAUSA - with authentic Peruvian cuisine; LA CASITA - with traditional Spanish cuisine, and; SBG - with what’s described as Mediterranean and International Fusion Cuisine.

For lunch, or all afternoon, to watch the sunset, or for dinner, SBG is the coolest dining experience imaginable - set dockside under a lighthouse, with open-air bar and dining areas, and featuring a glass-walled swimming pool - and is, in B&NC MAG’s opinion, Casa de Campo’s best restaurant. The Pasta prepared tableside in a Cheese Wheel is a must, the ‘special’ charcoal-grilled Lobster dish was delicious, and the tuna sushi on crispy rice was so fresh it might have jumped out of the ocean and onto the plate.

A bevy of yachts and superyachts occupy the MARINA - and a few of these oceangoing giants can even be chartered through Casa de Campo. And the MARINA is also the point of departure for a variety of recreational and fishing boat charters - which can, of course, also be arranged through Casa de Campo - as the waters around La Romana are famous for blue marlin sport fishing.

And Casa de Campo’s facilities - including notably the POLO fields and facilitiesare a magnet for the International jet set.

THERE’S THE

MORE FOOD

In addition to all the delicious choices for all kinds of food served in Casa de Campo’s several different spectacular spaces, LA CANA, the main restaurant in the Hotel Center featuring Mediterranean and International cuisine, and LAGO, between the Hotel Center and Teeth/Links Pro Shop, offer delectable daily fare. The LAGO’s daily buffet breakfast, with omelets, waffles, pancakes, bread pudding, a variety of tropical fruits, meats, cheeses, pastries, breads

and cakes, smoothies-to-order, juices, coffee and tea; served overlooking the Teeth of the Dog’s 18th Hole and the Caribbean; is so good that it’s tough to choose between it, and having a private breakfast made to order and served in the villa!

And, oh yeah, for less than the cost of Uber Eats, Casa de Campo has full-menu room service, to deliver whatever you crave to any room or villa.

CASA

SERVICE

makes a big difference - and that includes: pleasant interaction with each and every driver, server, bartender, and other attendant at each of the facilities around Casa de Campo; a fleet of friendly caddies who really know the courses, and; the ability to contact a dedicated concierge who easily makes and adjusts whatever reservations, plans and arrangements are requested.

STYLE

An intangible mix of quality and elegance that suits you, and fulfills your highest expectations. It’s feeling comfortable. It’s fun. And each day is a forever memory.

Just back from a fun-filled week at Casa de Campo…we’re already planning a trip back next year, and on making a trip to Casa de Campo at least an annual event! Everything about our Casa de Campo vacation was picture perfect… except perhaps a few errant golf shots!

And we’re eager to try the new spa, and play the nine-hole LAGOS course being added to the TO DYE FORE facility.

TRAVEL Notes

Commercial air direct from New York to Punta Cana, with transportation for 1-hour drive or 15-minute helicopter arranged by Casa de Campo, is preferred. The busier Santa Domingo airport, 1-hour drive to Casa de Campo from the West, is second choice. Private and intra-Caribbean air may be arranged to La Romana Airport, only 5 minutes from Casa de Campo. Punta Cana airport (PUH) has a Priority Pass Club - with a small pool!, but there are no other airline clubs.

Touring Consolidated Cigar Corp.’s largest-in-the-world premium hand-made cigar factory, located near the Western entrance of the Casa de Campo property is a worthwhile excursion - particularly for those wishing to acquire fine Dominican cigars.

The Golf balls in the pro shop are expensive, but bags of 20 balls, sorted by brand, and freshly reclaimed from the beach, will be made available for $20 during the course of each round.

There’s an automatic 10% service charge on almost all restaurant bills and other charges.

Cash is only useful for paying caddies and other tipping, and U.S. Dollars are welcomed.

Don’t forget to include barbecued lobster tails on the menu for catered dinner in the villa!

Sam Holandr:

BACK IN BEDFORD

BY MATTHEW DEL NEGRO

PHOTOGRAPHY ANDREA CERASO

It’s hard to believe that I was only introduced to Sam Hollander, via text, in mid-August of this year.

And given that he graduated from my former arch-nemesis high school, Fox Lane - I’m a John Jay grad - it’s shocking that I admitted to liking him so quickly. To say that we hit it off from the first phone call is an understatement. Though vastly different in our approaches to life and career, we discovered several bonds in common, the first of which was that we had both been raised in northern Westchester - Sam in Bedford Hills, while I was born in Mount Kisco Hospital and raised in Pound Ridge.

…Out of the blue, a former lacrosse opponent of mine, Harry Dunne, who was a year behind Sam at Fox Lane, had reached out to me to tell me that he had run into his old buddy Sam, and said that Sam had recently moved back to Bedford. He said that, given Sam’s circuitous route through the music industry on his way to topping the charts with hit songs he’d written, there might be some parallels to my own story of navigating the entertainment industry as an actor at the speed of molasses. In short, he identified two misfits that could commiserate over their shared failures in sibling industries. He couldn’t have been more dead on!

Matthew Del Negro is a popular actor with scores of hit television and film credits; previously featured on the cover of the January/February 2022 issue of B&NC Magavailable on the B&NC Mag website.

Sam Hollander is a Billboard-chart topping, multi platinum songwriter; previously featured in the Holiday 2019/2020 issue of Bedford Magazineavailable on the B&NC Mag website.

After reading Sam’s mile-long Wikipedia page, texted to me by our mutual friend Harry, I was a little intimidated. I play the piano, but Sam’s success in the music biz is a whole different story. Nonetheless, I punched the digits and connected with Sam over the phone. Immediately, as he began to tell me about his new book, 21-Hit-Wonder: Flopping My Way to the Top of the Charts we both recognized the familiar pattern of starts and stops that I had documented in my own book, 10,000 NOs: How to Overcome Rejection on the Way to Your YES, which was published in 2020. …On top of that, we discovered that the same publisher who had championed my book at Wiley Publishing but who’d opened his own shop, Matt Holt Books, before my book was actually published, was the same guy, Matt Holt, who’s now brought Sam’s book to fruition. Sam and I talked about shared themes and other industry connections, and then we talked about our ‘glory days’ and late-80’s Section 1 sports, and we swapped tales of some John Jay and Fox Lane legends and their current whereabouts. Then we got down to his book.

When he began discussing his legendary flops in the music industry, which are welldocumented in the book, I immediately loved his self-deprecating humor. Hearing him tell these stories, in the down-to-earth style and tone he maintains, one would never suspect that the testimonials on his book jacket would be from such superstars as Billy Idol, David Duchovny, and Ringo Starr!

THAT’S THE MAGIC OF SAM HOLLANDER!

And it’s the magic of his book! For anyone raising kids in Westchester County, it’s a mustread from a parenting standpoint alone. He talks about the influence of growing up in the country while being simultaneously adjacent to the greatest city in the world.

Through hysterical stories, and wearing his vulnerability on his sleeve throughout, Sam writes: “Sadly, I was never the first pick in any litter; academically, musically, athletically, even with girls, shit was always an uphill grind. So, at that fragile age, the stacking of all of my collective non-achievements really began to demoralize. I started skipping out of school and sneaking home early for two-hour depression naps on the daily. My folks didn’t know how to deal with me.”

Though we grew up in neighboring towns, our childhoods, and our paths, were quite different. I was a ‘good little boy’ and wasn’t bitten by the acting bug until after I quit Lacrosse at Boston College, and had to unlearn all my ‘color within the lines’ life-lessons in order to explore an artform that traded more in shades of gray than blacks and whites. Sam, on the other hand, was a self-described anarchist and non-conformist from the get-go. Hellbent on learning every little factoid about the one industry he ever wanted to be a part of - the music industry. Sam’s childhood was filled with crazy adventures, often propelled by his artist parents and their famous connections. Like how Sam counts Andy Warhol - yes that Andy Warholamongst the roster of his former babysitters!

Still, Sam and I similarly describe our defining character trait as adults to be:

irrepressible drive.

Sam attributes his drive to a

DESIRE TO ‘GET OUT’, TO ‘BE SOMEONE’,

and it is apparent on every single page of his fascinating book. Unlike my book, which is part memoir, part self-development with takeaways at the end of each chapter, Sam’s is full of wild stories from his young years rubbing elbows with household names while he willed his way to the top. But the beautiful thing about his book is that, amidst the caffeine-filled, late-night grind sessions in the studios, and the failed college stints and near-miss album stories, there are gems of wisdom for emerging artists in the music industry. Actually, there are gems for emerging humans in any industry. The book is, above all else, honest.

For all the hits he’s had and famous people he knows, and all the backstage access he has, Sam exudes a mix of honesty, humility and humor that disarmingly bely his wild success. Whether as a failed rapper, a failed student, failed athlete or failed love-interest, Sam maintained his sense of self, and his hunger to express the music that he created by melding the tunes that he loved as a youngster. Read the book, if not for the wild stories and the laughs, read it to be inspired to go grab your own dream by the horns and wrestle it down to the earth.

After selling his music catalog for a big pile of dough in 2019 - Sam is back in Bedford. He and his wife, Jen, decided to eschew the toodigitally-social environs of Los Angeles in order to raise their daughter, Joey, back in the more wholesome environment of Sam’s childhood. I’m sure there’s a small part of the returning hero, pleased to return - successfully - to the place where the varsity football coach cut you from the team and said you were a ‘loser who wasn’t going anywhere’. But mostly, Sam is thrilled to be able to do things like take a walk with the family on Reservoir Road and that Joey has found a circle of real friends and a great place to go to high school. His book tour is taking most of his time these days - and all of the proceeds from the sale of the book will go to the charity Musicians On Call. But, as always, Sam’s also busy writing, collaborating and recording. Driven as he is, Sam’s got plenty yet to come!

What's on at Heather Gaudio Fine Art

CLARA NARTEY: THE JOY OF LIVING

BY RACHAEL PALACIOS

Color and joy have descended in downtown New Canaan at Heather Gaudio Fine Art PROJECTS. The show features richly saturated portraits and figurative works created with thread and embroidery by Clara Nartey. For the artist, these works are as much emotive expressions of elation as they are a representation of a very personal journey. Nartey’s practice mixes an aesthetic history that explores culture and identity through a traditional medium.

Born in Ghana, Nartey moved to New York, where she earned her MBA, then moved to Massachusetts, before settling permanently in Connecticut. As was the tradition in her family, she’d learned to stitch and embroider from her mother, but for Nartey, the sewing machine represented a respite from the world of finance. Never would she have envisioned becoming a full-time artist with said machine – it took the economic downturn of 2008 to present her with new opportunities. With a change in career, Nartey was able to dedicate more time to artistic investigations, developing collaged explorations of color and abstract patterns that reflected her culture.

Although stitchwork has traditionally been associated with domesticity and has been dismissed as a ‘lesser art’, the medium is enjoying a revival and is justifiably being recognized as a valid fine art form. Nartey’s process combines this traditional medium with new technologies, by starting out with drawing her subjects on an iPad, much like David Hockney adopted in the early aughts. She always begins with a line drawing of the subject’s face, which were originally sourced from stock imagery and today are generated from people she personally knows. Nartey then adds the hairstyle, clothes, symbols, decorative elements, and backgrounds that reveal a story. These images are then printed on a large canvas which the artist dubs her ‘underpainting’.

As she perfected her embroidery techniques and began to expand her lexicon into quilted patchwork designs, the self-taught artist had an experience which was to have a lasting personal and artistic impact. While waiting for an interview at her daughter’s private school, Nartey encountered an African American woman proudly wearing her hair naturally. Centuries of Eurocentric norms have dictated the aesthetic standards for women in society, particularly in a professional setting. African women have had to conform to meet these norms by treating their naturally curly hair with chemicals and straighteners. Nartey realized that years of self-negation and wanting to fit in had denied her from embracing her authenticity. “It took a lot of courage, and it was a very personal journey,” the artist states, for her to allow her hair to regain its natural form. This pivotal moment also saw a shift in her artwork, which turned from abstracted patterned shapes to depicting the figure. Nartey’s visual language shifted to disrupt the societal understanding of beauty to where Black women could see themselves and imagine new possibilities.

The canvas is then backed with three or four other canvases and thicker materials to support the weight of the stitching and fabric collage to follow. Nartey then takes to the sewing machine, stitching layers upon layers of embroidery thread over the underpainting, at times deviating from the original design. While her process is meticulous, she does allow for intuition and improvisation to take place. Nartey never really knows what type of stitching is going to be applied until the moment she is working on the piece. Just as an artist uses pencil or paint to generate a line, add a highlight or deepen a shadow, so does Nartey use thread. Its direction and weight render the desired values, contrasts, and textures.

she states coyly. The artist estimates that each tapestry has over two thousand yards of thread.

Each and every Heather Gaudio installment is a museum exhibit worthy of attention. The Joy of Living is now on view at Heather Gaudio Fine Art PROJECTS, 78 Elm Street, New Canaan.

THE DECORATIVE PATTERNS THAT ENHANCE THE

BACKGROUND AND THE CLOTHING,

with their complex sense of COLOR, are as important in depicting the story of the subject. Nartey creates her own designs, some of which are reminiscent of Gee’s Bend quilts, while others look like constellation motifs seen in Gustav Klimt paintings. Additionally, the artist incorporates symbols, which are closer to home, to reveal the story of the sitter. Known as adinkra, these Ghanaian symbols are a writing system that represent various concepts used by the Akan peoples to mark fabrics and other surfaces. The Akan is an ethnic group living primarily in Ghana and the Ivory Coast, and their symbols are used in various sub-Saharan countries in Africa and have made their way to the Americas. These symbols tell stories, memorialize events and bear wisdoms that are part of the cultural identity. The vibrant interaction of colors, patterns and symbols in the works give the flattened pictorial space a distinctive formal energy.

On view in the exhibition are works from her most recent series called The Joy of Living This grouping reflects a celebration of life after the dark months of isolation during the pandemic. They are dazzling and cheerful depictions of women smiling and laughing. As with the work of Lorna Simpson, which investigates the history of African American hairstyles and conventions of beauty, Nartey reclaims the natural hair of her race, donning her subjects with intricate hairstyles and braids. But instead of politicizing her subjects, Nartey’s works are jubilant and the pure expressions of joy.

One vivid work is the heralded Queen Sissieretta, the portrait of Sissieretta Jones who was the first African American woman to headline Carnegie Hall in 1892. Jones was gifted many medals by her international admirers during her lifetime, which she proudly wore during her performances. The soprano was no stranger to racial strife and broke many barriers during her lifetime. Sadly, the performer became impoverished when she was forced to abandon her career to take care of her ailing mother. Jones died unknown and was buried in an unmarked grave in Rhode Island in 1933. Nartey pays homage to the celebrated performer attiring her in bright colors and festooning her hair with medals, much as an African queen would accessorize a regal headdress with gold. The patterns on the wallpapered background are sourced from Nartey’s research of the actual medals. The artist presents Jones frontally, looking with self-determination at the viewer, assured in her place in history.

A more contemporary subject is Dancing Queen, Nartey’s first full-standing figurative work. In this tapestry, a young woman in colorful streetwear poses against a highly stylized background. The Nike sneakers on her feet are the ones the brand issued to commemorate the Ghanaian population living in the United States. Little Accra is an enclave in the Bronx named after the country’s capital. The shoes are adorned with Sankofa, an adinkra which places importance on learning from the past. The right shoe features Nserewa, a signifier of wealth and abundance.

Nartey uses the symbols the American brand appropriated and stitched on the special editioned shoes, and reclaims them into her own work, a gesture underscoring her explorations and pride in her cultural identity.

...and justice for all

Either of her positions would strain any mortal:

In Westchester, the Legal Aid Society is the primary provider of legal representation for the indigent in felony criminal matters, handling over 4,400 cases in just the first half of 2022. As Deputy Executive Director, based in White Plains, Sherry is responsible for training and managing the legal staff and caseload, and the budget, operations and administration of an overburdened and underfunded organization.

The New York State Bar Association is the largest voluntary Bar association in the United States. As President, Sherry is working on initiatives including improving representation of clients living with mental illness and trauma, modernizing the State’s criminal justice system, enhancing equality for the People of the U.S. Territories, improving ethics of practice for local public sector lawyers, and exploring the legal side of digital currency, Web3 and the Metaverse.. She has an office in Albany, and is also required around the State, and even on a national level, representing the New York State Bar Association.

Sherry manages both positions with aplomb. “I truly believe in ‘equality for all’, and focus my efforts trying to - as the New York State Bar Association motto says - ‘Do the public good’,” Sherry explains. “I went to Westbury High School on Long Island in the ‘80s, when it was one of the communities that was heavily impacted by the illegal drug trade and the problems that come with it. I watched too many good kids make a bad decision - and saw the oftenpermanent negative course that results, and particularly when a person does not have the means to navigate the legal system. Too many people’s lives are destroyed by a system that’s not rehabilitative and often doesn’t allow for a second chance. Did you know, for instance, thatafter serving time - a person convicted of a crime cannot find housing due to the fact that they have a conviction. These experiences helped shape my resolve to do what I can to help make the system work for everyone.”

A resident of Pound Ridge for 21 years, Sherry Levin Wallach is both Deputy Executive Director of the Legal Aid Society of Westchester County, and President of the New York State Bar Association. As the bedrock of her fundamental belief in the rule of law, Sherry is heroically devoted to there being equal access to, and application of, justice.

PHOTOGRAPHY ANDREA CERASO

he describes her path, saying “I went to George Washington University and Hofstra Law School, and then got a whole lot of trial experience working for four years in the Bronx County District Attorney’s Office. I had a stint at a medical malpractice firm in New York City, but shortly after becoming pregnant with my first child, Sebastian, my then husband and I decided to trade a cramped apartment for a nice house in the country. We moved to Pound Ridge right before 9/11 and I started a small private law practice, based out of Mount Kisco, together with my friend Andrea Carrapella Rendo, who I’d met while getting our nails done at a salon in Scotts Corners. I had my second and third kids, Tyler and Riannah…and divorced my now ex-husband… during the early years of that practice. We were Wallach & Rendo LLP for 14 years, and used to call ourselves a ‘family friendly’ practice - mostly because we were both moms raising families and had to fulfill our professional careers in a way that was also friendly to our families. After we closed Wallach & Rendo, LLP, I worked for a short time working Of Counsel to a law firm in White Plains and another based out of Rochester, New York, and doing some work representing the City of New York. In 2019, after working for many years on committees at the New York State Bar Association with my now boss at Legal Aid, Clare Degnan, she offered me the chance to be Deputy Executive Director of the Legal Aid Society of Westchester County- and really have a hand in every facet of the organization’s good works. I jumped at the job! …I’ve been involved with the Bar Association ever since I became a lawyer and have been deeply committed to its work. In my early years, working on a Bar Association Committee to improve New York’s Youth Courts, I got to work with, learn from, and be mentored by the late Former Chief Judge of New York Judith Ann Kaye. She remains a legal and professional icon to me - alongside Ruth Bader Ginsburg. I got elected President of the Bar Association because I’d been on so many committees, developed so many programs, and held so many leadership roles in the organization that I simply couldn’t fairly be denied!”

Her altruism is palpable. She’s confident and determined, serious and forthright. She’s pleasant and personable. …With none of the noxious lawyer-characteristics that serve as fodder when folks tell ‘lawyer’-jokes. As Judge Brandon Sall, the Westchester County Surrogate, whose Court serves as the safeguard of justice for decedents, observed: “Sherry is the kind of lawyer - and the kind of person - who makes the legal system work. Someone working hard to protect the rights of others. Her work with Legal Aid in the last few years has been admirable, and I’m already impressed with her initiative and leadership as the new President of the Bar Association. I’m proud to call her a friend.”

Sherry discloses,

I’ve always wanted to do something where I feel like I’m making a difference - and I feel like I’m making a difference providing access to justice at Westchester Legal Aid and through my years of bar association work. At Legal Aid, I manage over 45 attorneys. I’ve always liked to teach, and to mentor young attorneys, and have coached mock trial teams and mentored at mock trial competitions throughout my career. It’s the ultimate way to invest in the future of our profession. When I graduated from law school, I coached mock trial teams at a high school in the Bronx, and then I taught at Hofstra School of Law’s National Institute of Trial Advocacy.

Most recently, I coached the Pace Law School Team. And I co-founded, chaired, and continue to organize and teach at the New York State Bar Association’s Trial Academy program, which originated at Cornell Law and is currently hosted at Syracuse University’s School of Law. At Legal Aid, my work teaching and guiding the young attorneys really makes a difference for our clients! And I’m proud, among other things, that we instituted a first-of-its-kind Legal Aid Office in the Westchester County Jail which - although currently still interrupted by covid - serves as a model for greater efficiency in - quite literally - bringing access to justice to those who are incarcerated there! And my role as President of the Bar Association allows me to be at the forefront of changes to improve our legal system. I like dealing with the legislative end of things and having a hand in our policy making, and I’m cognizant that the New York Bar Association has a global voice that the international legal community wants to hear.

I understand that I sound idealistic, but I really love the law, love the practice of law, and love the rule of law.

hough Sherry’s twojob schedule is now quite demanding and might not be considered as ‘family friendly’ as her old practice in Mt. Kisco, she still makes time for activities like horseback riding with her daughter Riannah, who’s a junior at Harvey - where all three kids have gone to high school. Her two oldest children, Sebastian and Tyler are in college - Lafayette & DePaul. Sherry is the prototypical ‘Single-SuperMom’. “We’re big equestrians,” she says. “We currently have three horses. I competed in the Junior Hunters when I was a kid, have spent the last 15 years riding in the local Hunter Paces, and have competed in major events like Devon, Harrisburg and the Hampton Classic. And Riannah is a competitive rider and jumper. We rode this morning! My three children and I also all hike, kayak, ski and scuba dive wherever and whenever we can. Sebastian is captain of the Lafayette ski team, cyclist and rescue diver. Tyler is a film student, artist and advanced diver. I love nature, and sharing time in nature with my kids…and I love this area!” And about herself Sherry reveals, “My favorite band is the Grateful Dead - I’ve been to over 75 shows! And I absolutely love to scuba dive - I have over 100 dives! For me it’s the ultimate, and I can’t get enough of it!”

Somewhat uncharacteristically - at least for most attorneys - Sherry says she has no interest in the next position of power or in politics. Though she might make a terrific Judge or Legislator or Public Advocate or Attorney General, she laughed off each suggestion, saying “I really love doing the work I’m doing to make society a better place.” Only in a light moment did Sherry allow, “...Unless I can do something like open the first law school in the U.S. Virgin Islands!?! …I love teaching…and that would mean a lot of diving!”

Matt grew up in Bedford, was known as something of a ‘wiz kid’ at Fox Lane, and went on to graduate from Columbia University. Swetha was born in Hyderabad, India, and immigrated to the United States with her family at age 6. She too excelled academically, graduating from Princeton University with a degree in Molecular Biology.

After college, while the two were living and working in Manhattan, Matt and Swetha became what is now a millennial rarity - a couple that ‘met in the wild’ - not on an app, but in-person and through a happen-stance meetup. Matt was living with a group of his buddies from Pound Ridge and Bedford, and one invited him to come grab drinks with a few of his friends; one of those friends was Swetha’s co-worker, who implored Swetha to join as well. Later that night, each mentioned to their respective friends that they wanted to see the other again… and so a few months later the group went out again and Matt and Swetha again joined - but this time just for a chance to see each other. Matt got Swetha’s number, and later that week, in early 2019, they went on their first date at Balzem in Nolita. The pair have been together ever since.

“We became a couple almost immediately. We were seeing each other every week and just loved being together,” Matt shared. “I don’t know the exact moment

I knew Swetha was the one, but I remember it was sometime around when we went on our first vacation together about six months into the relationship. We spent a really nice long weekend together in Montauk. We went to the beach, and as soon as we sat down together we saw two humpback whales!”

Through covid, the pair spent months together at each of their parents’ homes, and got to spend lots of quality time getting to know each other’s parents. Swetha, an only child, also got to know Matt’s siblings, Ross and Elaina, and the family’s three rambunctious dogs.

In September of 2021, Swetha started her MBA at Harvard Business School, and Matt took an apartment in Manhattan - without the roomies - so the couple would have a place of their own whenever Swetha could get down from Boston. While she was in the City visiting Matt for a weekend, they took a walk to Madison Square Park…and Matt got down on one knee.

The couple decided to have their wedding in Bedford this past summer, and it was a gorgeous and elegant event at Glen Arbor that brought in cultural elements from each of their backgrounds. Swetha astutely said, “An inter-cultural wedding means everything is up for discussion - and the beauty of it is that every single thing at our wedding is something that we chose and wanted. And the venue was an easy choice - Glen Arbor is stunning! The day we toured it together, Matt showed me the house he grew up in on Quarry Lane, took me for a hike at the Ward Pound Ridge Reservation, and then to a late lunch at the Bedford Post. We even toured the Fox Lane campus.”

Swetha walked down the aisle with her Dad, with a string quartet playing, in a traditional Indian lehenga, and wearing jewelry that she’d picked out with her Mom. The couple did a beautiful flower garland exchange at the ceremony, and then exchanged traditional vows. Matt had his Brother, Ross, as his Best Man, and the bestfriends who he’d grown-up with, and roomed with in Manhattan as his groomsmen. Swetha had Matt’s sister, Elaina, as her Maid of Honor and three of her own close friends as bridesmaids.

The Bride and Groom’s Father’s each made heartfelt speeches, and Ross and Elaina toasted with funny stories about the couple. And Matt and Swetha - who changed into a traditional white gown for the festivities - partied the night away with their families and friends.

In the category of ‘you just have to laugh’ - when the couple returned late-night after the wedding to their Manhattan apartment…they realized they’d forgotten their keys…and had to wait two hours for a locksmith to show up!

The newlyweds honeymooned on the Amalfi Coast and in Tuscany, taking cooking classes, visiting wineries, horseback riding, and even taking a hot air balloon ride.

The pair now split their time between Boston, where Swetha is finishing up her MBA, and Chicago, where Matt just moved for a six-month stint for a new job as a Quant Trader. But when Swetha graduates this Spring and starts as a Consultant for BCG in Manhattan, and Matt finishes his training in Chicago, the couple are planning on moving back to the B&NC Mag area to set down roots. Swetha shared, “I really love New Canaan, and the feel of this whole area, and it just makes such natural sense for us.”

David and Darren Beylouni, owners of Colonial Ford in Danbury, CT now bring 30 years of Ford experience to BEDFORD HILLS.