Wag Magazine October 2018

AUDRA McDONALD With a song in her heart MAYA LIN Her (Hudson) river of dreams BOB MADDEN Set in stone SETTING THE STAGE FOR SUCCESS: Janine DiVita and Emily Geller THE QUAKERS Making history in WAG country EDWARD WARD Illustrating White Plains A NEW TUNE Hudson Valley Accordion Ensemble

INSPIRED BY THE

IN KATONAH: Jewelry gets ‘Outrageous’

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MAGAZINE

IN NEW YORK STATE 2014, 2015, 2016

WESTCHESTER & FAIRFIELD LIFE

OCTOBER 2018 | WAGMAG.COM

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A M E M B E R O F T H E M O N T E F I O R E H E A LT H S Y S T E M

CONTENTS OC TOBER 201 8

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52

Politics of art

Illustrating White Plains history

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56

24

58

The twisting tale of ‘Turandot’

A river runs through her Art’s ‘edge effect’

A ‘symphony’ in photographs

26

60

Rock-solid determination

Writing her next chapter

30

62

It’s the squeezebox, baby

Too funny for words

34

66

A mighty mezzo

A little film about Bigfoot

38

76

La dolce DiVita

Spanning artistry

42

80

Keeping ‘Pace’ with Marvin Krislov

Monkee business

44

84

The remains of James Ivory’s days

Purchase’s invitation to the dance

46

Jewelry on the edge

50

Get your Ming vases now

86

Book ’em

72

88

Seeing the light in all

COVER STORY

Audra McDonald sings ‘Happy’ THIS PAGE:

Gijs Bakker, Dewdrop Necklace, 1982. PVC, photo print, and gilded brass, 19.50 x 21.63 x 0.06 inches, The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Helen Williams Druitt Collection, museum purchase funded by the Cyvia and Melvyn Wolff Family Foundation with love and in memory of Leah Grossberg. 2002.3591. © Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York, Beeldrecht, Amsterdam. Courtesy Katonah Museum of Art. See story on page 46.

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FEATURES H I G H LI G HTS

68

WAY Beauty in Greenwich backcountry

92

WHERE ARE THEY NOW? Greenwich Historical Society’s big reveal

94

WARES Break the rules

96

WEAR Enter the (blue) dragon

98

WANDERS Art peeping in New England

100

WANDERS The art of dining on Oahu

102

WANDERS Art and soul

104

WANDERS Going grand on the Grand Canal

108

WANDERS At home in the lodge

114

WONDERFUL DINING Donjito, olé

118

WINE & DINE The catchers in the rye (whiskey)

120

WELL The art of breast reconstruction

122

WELL The not-so-elusive elliptical

124

WELL A wellness bibliography

126

PET OF THE MONTH Darling Donovan

128

PET PORTRAITS P is for precious

130

WHEN & WHERE Upcoming events

134

WATCH We’re out and about

144

WIT Should artists make political statements?

COVER: Audra McDonald.

Photograph ©Allison Michael Orenstein.

AUDRA McDONALD With a song in her heart MAYA LIN Her (Hudson) river of dreams BOB MADDEN Set in stone SETTING THE STAGE FOR SUCCESS: Janine DiVita and Emily Geller THE QUAKERS Making history in WAG country EDWARD WARD Illustrating White Plains A NEW TUNE Hudson Valley Accordion Ensemble

INSPIRED BY THE

IN KATONAH: Jewelry gets ‘Outrageous’

JUDGED A

TOP

MAGAZINE

IN NEW YORK STATE 2014, 2015, 2016

WESTCHESTER & FAIRFIELD LIFE

OCTOBER 2018 | WAGMAG.COM

122 104 120

COVER STORY

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Some readers think WAG stands for “Westchester and Greenwich.”

We certainly cover both. But mostly, a WAG is a wit and that’s how we think of ourselves, serving up piquant stories and photos to set your own tongues wagging.

HEADQUARTERS A division of Westfair Communications Inc., 3 Westchester Park Drive, White Plains, NY 10604 Telephone: 914-694-3600 | Facsimile: 914-694-3699 Website: wagmag.com | Email: ggouveia@westfairinc.com All news, comments, opinions, findings, conclusions or recommendations in WAG are those of the authors and do not constitute opinions, findings, conclusions or recommendations of the publication, its publisher and its editorial staff. No portion of WAG may be reproduced without permission.WAG is distributed at select locations, mailed directly and is available at $24 a year for home or office delivery. To subscribe, call 914-694-3600, ext. 3020. All advertising inquiries should be directed to Anne Jordan at 914694-3600, ext. 3032 or email anne@westfairinc.com. Advertisements are subject to review by the publisher and acceptance for WAG does not constitute an endorsement of the product or service. WAG (Issn: 1931-6364) is published monthly and is owned and published by Westfair Communications Inc. Dee DelBello, CEO, dee@westfairinc.com

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EDITOR’S LETTER G EO RG E T TE GO U VEIA

A glasses/computer cloth from the Met Opera Shop reproduces the Art Nouveau cover for Giacomo Puccini’s “Turandot” score, published by Ricordi. (See story on Page 56.) Photograph by Sebastián Flores.

I

t’s our annual arts issue (“Inspired

By The Arts”) — a month early this year but then, the arts, as you’ll see, are timelier than ever.

As usual, we range over this multifaceted field with stories on opera (Giacomo Puccini’s mysterious, multilayered masterwork “Turandot,” Jena’s profile of Briarcliff Manor mezzo-soprano Emily Geller); world music (Jena’s look at the new Hudson Valley Accordion Ensemble); visual art (Mary’s piece on Dutchess County stone sculptor Bob Madden); dance (the Purchase Dance Corps, consisting of students from Purchase College’s Conservatory of Dance but about as professional an outfit as you’re likely to encounter); books (the new Bronx River Books in Scarsdale and a must for us bibliophiles); and movies (Robin’s piece on the trending documentary “Pick of the Litter,” at The Picture House in Pelham this month, Phil’s take on The Monkees’ 50-yearold cult film, “Head”).

Phil, who has a way with the offbeat, also has a 14

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OCTOBER 2018

new book out, “The Weirdest Movie Ever Made,” about a little and little-known film of Bigfoot. Take a bow, Phil.

Then there are those who transcend artistic category, as in cover subject Audra McDonald (Gregg’s interview) whose Tony and Emmy awards, to name a few, attest to her range, from opera to Broadway to the big and small screens. (If you missed her at the opening night of Caramoor in Katonah this past summer, you can catch her performing for Carnegie Hall’s opening night gala this month.)

Another multiple threat is Broadway mainstay Janine DiVita (Jena’s profile), a singer-actress who in her “spare” time is also a producer, screenwriter and co-developer with the military of a program to help the armed forces confront sexual harassment.

Brava, Janine.

Instead of a subtheme or two this month, we have stories in duet. Mary’s look at the “Outrageous Ornament” exhibit at the Katonah Museum of Art echoes our profile of new KMA executive director Michael Gitlitz. Our Q&A with Maya Lin — creator

of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington D.C. and, now, a group of site-specific works that capture the kaleidoscopic nature of the waterway that defines the Hudson River Museum — pairs nicely with Ryan’s article on Harry Wilks’ photographs of area bridges on view there.

In a month dedicated to breast cancer awareness, our profile of novelist and breast cancer survivor/awareness advocate, Elin Hilderbrand, complements Dr. Constance Chen’s invaluable consideration of the art of breast cancer reconstruction. (As always, we interpret our theme broadly, so we have the art of inn- and bee-keeping in Gina’s visit to Bedford’s Honey Maple Grove Lodge; and her exploration of the local Quakers, a religious group devoted to peace and the light in each individual that has had a profound effect on American culture.)

Our final pairing finds Barbara’s trip to Pablo Picasso haunts in the south of France matched up with our opening essay on the relationship of art and politics, in which Picasso anti-war masterwork “Guernica” has a starring role.

Should the arts be political? It’s a question we bookend the issue with in the opening essay and our closing Wits. There are those who would prefer artists, like athletes, to be seen and not heard.

And, certainly, there is a need now more than ever for the escapism that art provides — a sentiment that resonates in Gregg’s interview with comedian Paula Poundstone and Mary’s profile of Bob Madden. But, as we write in the opening essay, artists are by nature expressive — and, thus, expressive of their opinions. In any event it seems as if they have been thrust into the fray. As Audrey observes in her article on the Chinese tariffs, American art museums and galleries will be adversely affected by the planned $200 billion in tariffs on Chinese imports.

And we’re not just talking about the inability to afford a Ming vase. Businesses and jobs are on the line here.

The arts have a great capacity to take us beyond ourselves. In order to keep doing that, they’re going to have to remain engaged in the here and now.

A 2018 Folio Women in Media Award Winner, Georgette Gouveia is the author of the “The Penalty for Holding” (Less Than Three Press), a 2018 Lambda Literary Award finalist, and “Water Music” (Greenleaf Book Group). They’re part of her series of novels, “The Games Men Play,” also the name of the sports/culture blog she writes at thegamesmenplay.com. Readers may find her novel “Seamless Sky” and “Daimon: A Novel of Alexander the Great” on wattpad.com.

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POLITICS OF

BY GEORGETTE GOUVEIA

IN SIMON SCHAMA’S “POWER OF ART,” THE BBC SERIES PRESENTED ON PBS IN 2007, THE BRIARCLIFF MANORBASED ART HISTORIAN TELLS THE STORY OF PABLO PICASSO IN WARTIME PARIS.

Francisco de Goya’s “The Third of May 1808” — an 1814 oil on canvas in the Museo del Prado in Madrid — captures the brutal Bonapartist response to the uprising against Napoleon’s occupation of Spain.

It was there the Nazis regularly came to the artist’s studio to harass him. One day an officer picked up a postcard of Picasso’s seminal 1937 masterwork, “Guernica.” With its disjointed black, white and gray bulls, horses and humans, “Guernica” was Picasso’s response to the fascist bombing of the Basque village of the same name in northern Spain.

“Did you do this?” the officer asked. “Oh, no,” Picasso replied. “You did.”

Always expressive, artists have never been shy about voicing their opinions and concerns about the issues of the day — either in their work or in their lives.

From Euripides’ “The Trojan Women” — a response to Athens’ subjugation of the island of Melos during the Peloponnesian War (415 B.C.) that particularly resonated in the Vietnam era — to Shakespeare in the Park’s Trumpian 2017 production of “Julius Caesar,” artists have always gone where others fear to tread.

If you think not, consider this: After Charlottesville last year and a presidential reaction that cast Donald J. Trump in a bigoted light, his business advisers resigned in dribs and drabs. The President’s Committee on the Arts and Humanities resigned en masse.

That’s not surprising, you say: Businessmen have more to lose than artists, who aren’t necessarily commercial, so they have to be more conservative.

Nonetheless, the question has never been, Will artists respond, but rather, Should they?

Like athletes, they are, one grudging school of thought goes, well-compensated with money, perks, adulation and, perhaps most important, the knowledge that they are doing what they love — something others never get to pursue. Thus, like the children in

Pablo Picasso’s “Guernica” — a 1937 oil on canvas in the Museo Reina Sofia in Madrid — was the artist’s haunting response to the fascist bombing of a Basque village in northern Spain.

“I DON’T KNOW WHAT IT IS LIKE TO BE BLACK IN AMERICA, BUT I DO KNOW WHAT IT IS LIKE TO BE A MOTHER.” — Dana Schutz

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the adage, artists should be seen and not heard.

But they are human beings first, the counterargument insists, with the same rights, including the right to free speech, as their fellow citizens. They don’t check them at the door when they pick up a paintbrush or a microphone or sit down at a keyboard.

Yet they may have to check the way in which they express themselves, particularly in a politically divisive, 24/7 culture. Many, if not most, of us thought comedians Roseanne Barr and Samantha Bee crossed a line when they disparaged Valerie Jarrett, senior adviser to President Barack Obama, and Ivanka Trump, respectively, in racist, sexist terms. Barr lost her job as star of the eponymous, number one-rated ABC sitcom, while Bee retains hers on TBS’ “Full Frontal With Samantha Bee” — a disparity that wasn’t lost on Trump’s Twitter page, which regularly brands the media and entertainment industry as leftist. Perhaps the racism of Barr’s tweet trumped the sexism of Bee’s comment, but that raises the question: Does outrage at an artist’s no-holds-barred opinion depend on its dissonance with our own political beliefs?

Possibly, just as it is possible that where and when an artist speaks is as important as what he says and how he says it. Think of Eartha Kitt denouncing the Vietnam War and its corrosive effect on minority youth to Lady Bird Johnson at a White House luncheon in 1968; or the cast of “Hamilton” imploring Vice President—elect Mike Pence at a curtain call soon after the 2016 election to remember that “We, sir — we — are the diverse America who are alarmed and anxious that your new administration will not protect us, our planet, our children, our parents or defend us and uphold our inalienable rights, sir. But we truly hope that this show has inspired you to uphold our American values and to work on behalf of all of us.”

Both Kitt and the “Hamilton” cast were criticized as much for the timing and setting of their remarks as for the remarks themselves. Might they have been more effective had they addressed

their concerns privately?

Artists may be on firmer ground when they let their work do the talking. That work — the thinking goes — occupies an alternate reality, allowing for the safe, civil exchange of conflicting ideas between artist and audience. Then again, maybe not. Painter Dana Schutz was castigated for her “Open Casket” — an Expressionistic portrait of the mutilated body of Emmett Till, a 14-year-old black boy lynched by two white men in Mississippi in 1955 — when it appeared at the Whitney Biennial last year. How dare she, a member of the oppressive white majority, appropriate black subject matter?, critics asked.

Schutz replied: “I don’t know what it is like to be black in America, but I do know what it is like to be a mother. Emmett was Mamie Till’s only son.

The thought of anything happening to your child is beyond comprehension. Their pain is your pain.

My engagement with this image was through empathy with his mother….Art can be a space for empathy, a vehicle for connection. I don’t believe that people can ever really know what it is like to be someone else — I will never know the fear that black parents may have — but neither are we all completely unknowable.”

Soprano Renée Fleming echoed the spirit of these remarks recently in her introduction to “Chicago Voices” on PBS’ “Great Performances,” featuring Pelham Manor-based tenor Matthew Polenzani, rapper Lupe Fiasco, folk legend John Prine, Broadway’s Jessie Meuller, pop and gospel artist Michelle Williams, jazz singer Kurt Elling and others.

Fleming, who sang “Summertime” from George Gershwin’s “Porgy and Bess,” said in part: “Lately, it seems all we see are headlines about violence and division and we know…that a concert can’t solve these problems. But amidst the fear and heartbreak, we unite here as artists doing what we do best — lifting up, remembering our history and protecting our vision for the future….”

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A RUNS THROUGH HER

BY GEORGETTE GOUVEIA

IT IS PERHAPS IMPOSSIBLE TO THINK OF ARTIST MAYA LIN WITHOUT THINKING OF THE VIETNAM VETERANS MEMORIAL. She was but a 21-year-old Yale University undergraduate when she was selected in 1981 — out of 1,421 entries in a blind competition — to create the memorial, which quickly became controversial for its black granite wing shape and lack of figural accompaniment.

But yesterday’s controversy has a way of becoming today’s icon, and “The Wall” is now an integral part of American healing, as we saw recently when Cindy McCain placed a wreath there in memory of her late husband, Sen. John McCain.

Lost perhaps in the controversy and time is how rooted that memorial is to the land, not as a gaping or closing wound but as the monument it is, beautiful in its groundedness.

“I think you’re reading it exactly as she intended,” says Miwako Tezuka, a modern and contemporary Asian art specialist who as a Japanese immigrant studying art at New York University in 1989 saw in Lin what she wanted to become — an Asian-American woman in the arts. “She gave me encouragement,” Tezuka says.

So it is not surprising to hear her say, almost 30 years later, that it was “truly my dream” to curate an exhibit of Lin’s work. The result is “Maya Lin: A River Is A Drawing” a multimedia exhibit opening this month at the Hudson River Museum in Yonkers — not far from where Lin and her husband, photographer Daniel Wolf, have an art space — that offers a multifaceted approach not only to the River that Flows Both Ways, as native peoples called the Hudson, but to the museum itself.

“I have never explored the same river in varied mediums at one time the way I plan to at the Hudson River Museum,” Lin says in a statement. “From the 20

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bamboo garden stakes, which will create a drawing you physically interact with, to an interior flood of marbles of the very same river, to a smaller mapping of the entire Hudson River watershed — each one is a unique drawing, and each one offers a different way in which the body will interact with the form.”

Like many of us, perhaps, Tezuka says she thought of Lin first as an artist and only later as the environmentalist she also is.

“Artists are often the first ones to organize for change,” Tezuka says. “(Maya) is leading artists’ concern about climate change and how to make habitats sustainable for all creatures.”

Indeed, part of the exhibit is “What Is Missing?”

— an ongoing digital art project and environmental advocacy movement at whatismissing.net — that explores all we have lost and all that remains.

Lin talks about this in our email interview: While your work has always had such an environmental quality, it is particularly concerned with water. Why the fascination with water and what is your earliest memory of it?

“I think where I grew up in a small town (Athens) in Ohio. My house was surrounded by woods and there were three creeks that ran through the property. I probably spent much of my childhood playing out of doors and in the streams.

“Also being very concerned about the environment. So much of what is critical to improving the environment focuses on our rivers and the watersheds that feed them. And lastly, I think the physical character of water makes it one of the elements that exists in all three states (solid, liquid, gas), and that transmitting ability of water is of great interest to me.”

The exhibit uses many kinds of materials, including recycled marbles. Is that a tribute to the multifaceted nature of the river or is it more a statement about conservation?

“It is more the reflective quality of water that the glass captures.”

Why did you want to collaborate with the Hudson River Museum on this show?

“I think for both the collections at the museum, which contain so many of the Hudson River painters, and the fact that I have always felt much of my work is presenting and representing the natural world and specifically water but in a new way, in a decidedly three-dimensional and sculptural way.

“In this show, I am trying to consciously think of how a drawing for me is a three-dimensional sketch of sorts.”

You have spoken of yourself as a designer and not an architect, but is it possible you’re really a sculptor?

“I am technically not a licensed architect so I cannot refer to myself as one but I have and continue to create works of architecture. It is an equal commitment in my work that parallels my art career.”

The Vietnam Veterans Memorial is so moving, a touchstone for its many visitors. Do you feel vindicated by that?

“I feel fortunate to have been able to create this work. I’m heartened that it has talked to and moved so many and I’m happy that I have been able to see a continuity with my later works while also being able to define my career. My works in both art and architecture are separate from the memorials.”

Maya Lin. Photograph by John Rizzo.

You come from an artistic family. What is your first memory of your own artistic passion?

“I cannot remember when I was not making artworks. Since my father was dean of fine arts (at Ohio University) and a ceramicist, my brother Tan and I would wait after grade school at the ceramic studio. So I played with the clay at the studio every day.”

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How did you and your husband come to turn the former Yonkers City Jail into a studio?

“My husband is an avid collector of art. His art storage was in lower Manhattan in the basement and sub-basement. Hurricane Sandy’s floodwaters came a block away, so he had to find a new place.

The jail was a perfect place for him to create a private collections space that allows him to catalog and view these works.”

What’s next for you?

“I am currently working on art installations for Princeton University and MIT, as well as for a site in Denmark. In architecture, I am working on a library for Smith College and a museum in China.

“And I am also very committed to completing the last phase of “What Is Missing? Greenprint,” which will focus on envisioning macro thinking mappings that show possible ways in which we can both reduce emissions and protect species and biodiversity by protecting and restoring habitats as well as reforming agricultural, ranching and forestry practices.”

“Maya Lin: A River Is A Drawing” is at the Hudson River Museum in Yonkers Oct. 12 through Jan. 20. For more, visit hrm.org.

Maya Lin’s “Folding the Chesapeake” (2015), a glass marbles and adhesive work that’s part of the Smithsonian American Art Museum Permanent Collection, hints at a work she is creating for the Hudson River Museum’s “Maya Lin: A River Is A Drawing.”

Photograph by Ron Blunt. Courtesy Smithsonian American Art Museum.

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ART’S ‘EDGE EFFECT’

BY GEORGETTE GOUVEIA

A

t first glance, Michael Gitlitz would seem to have entered his new position as executive director of the Katonah Museum of Art (KMA) from the other end of the art spectrum.

For a quarter of a century, he has had a distinguished career on the commercial side of the field, at the Hirschl & Adler Galleries, Hirschl & Adler Modern, Marlborough Gallery and Paddle8 auction house — all in Manhattan — where he was known for both an encyclopedic knowledge of art and an array of contacts.

But for Gitlitz — who succeeded Darsie Alexander, now chief curator at The Jewish Museum in Manhattan — helming the Katonah Museum has “felt like coming home.

“After 25 years as an art dealer in New York, the opportunity to lead a museum in my own backyard is a dream come true,” says Gitlitz, who has lived not far from the museum for the last 15 years.

And while he “hasn’t come up through the curatorial ranks,” the way you do in the museum world, he says he has not only worked for nonprofits but also spent a great deal of time in the commercial arena organizing, managing, curating and writing about exhibits, sometimes with a greater rapidity than you’d find in a museum, where the shows are spaced further apart.

Another key difference between the commercial and museum worlds — hierarchy. An art gallery operates from a top-down business model. In the nonprofit world, Gitlitz says, “there’s much more consensus-building. You have to build up support among board members, staff, emeriti.”

But such collegiality has always been a hallmark of the KMA. With an operating budget of $1.5 million, nine and a half full-time staffers and “an army of volunteers,” the museum has regularly sought out “the expertise and assistance of the whole community” to produce a number of provocative, cutting-edge shows yearly with an array of accompanying programs. (Unlike other museums, the KMA has no permanent collection.)

The enthusiastic, articulate Gitlitz is particularly excited about the lineup of upcoming exhibits, led off by “Outrageous Ornament: Extreme Jewelry in the 21st Century” (Oct. 21 through Jan. 27), organized

by Jane Adlin, former curator of modern and con24

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Michael Gitlitz, the new executive director of the Katonah Museum of Art. Courtesy Margaret Fox Photography.

temporary design at The Metropolitan Museum of Art. (See story on Page 46.) This will be followed by a young artists’ show, featuring mainly high school students doing extraordinary work, and then an intriguing exhibit that juxtaposes early-20th century masters with early-21st century ones.

It’s the kind of stuff that inspired Gitlitz as a youth, growing up in Brooklyn in a family “that valued art and culture very highly.” He really fell in love with art in high school, writing a paper his junior year on the awe-inspiring experience of art, nature and spirituality. Gitlitz earned his bachelor of arts from Oberlin College in 1991 while also studying at the Scuola Lorenzo de Medici and Scuola Dante Alighieri in Florence, Italy, the Middlebury Lan-

guage Schools in Middlebury, Vermont, and University College, London. A year later, Gitlitz received a post-graduate diploma in the fine and decorative arts from Sotheby’s Institute of Art, London.

“Art is not only intellectually stimulating and emotionally satisfying but ennobling to the spirit,” he says. “Yo-Yo Ma talks about ‘the edge effect,’” referring to the diverse, creative transitional space in which two habitats meet. “The arts create the edge effect.”

Look for the edge effect as the KMA revives some traditions, including its day and overnight trips.

“We’re going to keep the ball in the air,” Gitlitz says. “We’re going to do it all.”

For more, visit katonahmuseum.org.

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DETERMINATION

BY MARY SHUSTACK

IT’S NOT OFTEN THAT YOU GET TO WRITE ABOUT A WORK OF ART FROM ITS EARLY STAGES OF CREATION, BUT THANKS TO HUDSON VALLEY STONE SCULPTOR BOB MADDEN, WAG HAS BEEN GIVEN A FASCINATING GLIMPSE INTO THE ARTISTIC PROCESS. It was back in early April when Madden, who works out of Rock and A Soft Place Studio in Poughquag, got in touch. We had featured the Dutchess County artist’s work before, having met him through exhibitions at Gallery 66NY in Cold Spring. Last year, we covered “Of the Earth” there, a joint exhibition featuring the work of Madden and his wife, fiber and metal artist Karen Madden.

As Bob Madden told us this spring, “I recently got a commission to do a piece at a local venue.” It was, he said, a sculpture to be created within a 200-acre spread — Crystal Park in Holmes, New York, owned by a New York City business owner. Madden told us he uses the place as a retreat for his employees, and in the past has commissioned several international artists to create works on the site.

Madden said he was asked to go to the property and, “select a boulder, move it to an appropriate site and carve it in situ.”

He added, “There should be some opportunities for interesting pictures. Remember, I’m a stone sculptor, so I might have a different definition of ‘interesting’ than you.”

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With that hint of both the project — and Madden’s sense of humor — WAG was hooked.

We have been following along since, with updates in our WAG Weekly digital newsletter.

At long last, Madden’s massive work will be unveiled this month when Crystal Park participates in the 2018 ArtEast Open Studio Tour.

THE ARTIST AND HIS WAY “Stone was always something that kind of called to me,” Madden says, though it was not his lifelong trade.

Born in Brooklyn and moving to Goshen in Orange County at age 12, Madden would go on to meet his wife of more than 30 years when both worked for IBM in East Fishkill. Today, the Maddens look back on successful careers in the disciplines of science and engineering, both having worked on leading-edge technology and holding U.S. patents for their work.

“I started working in stone before I left IBM,” he told us. “As an engineer, you’re forced to work a certain way.”

Stonework gave him a certain freedom.

“I really believe everybody has the artistic impulse in their heart, in their brain.”

For Madden, it began with patios and walkways, the stone providing a welcome challenge.

“I always liked to work with it because it’s so hard to work with it,” he said.

Next up was creating little icons, which were rewarding.

“It’s all mine, every step,” he says of his art. “It’s my creation every step of the way.”

It came, he says, almost naturally.

“I have no formal training in art,” he said,

Bob Madden at the carving site with his latest stone sculpture, to be unveiled this month during the 2018 ArtEast Open Studio Tour. Courtesy Bob Madden.

though he did take an intensive weekend sculpture course in Vermont.

There was no grand plan, he added.

“Originally, I did it because I liked doing it.”

Then he started to create and sell work for charity, such as decorative dog bones with proceeds going to a dog-rescue cause. And things just grew from there. The Maddens formed Rock and A Soft Place in 2007, each maintaining generous homebased studios.

In his studio, which WAG visited in late August, Madden had several pieces in progress.

“I have the attention span of a rattlesnake,” he said.

“I usually have four or five projects going,” allowing him to focus on a variety of techniques at any time.

Nature and travel have a major impact on his work, with he and his wife having traveled extensively, everywhere from Iceland to South America.

Often, Madden’s presence is marked — he leaves chips of stone around the world.

“My friends accuse me of screwing up the geological history of the world,” he says with a laugh.

Meaningful work is his goal. By example, he describes how a panel of custom-stained glass in his home represents elements of his family’s life.

“I try to build that same level of story in all the pieces I do.”

Madden’s work can be found in private collections across the country, including the AC Hotel

by Marriott New York Times Square in Manhattan, and in Europe.

Themes range from puzzle pieces (“Who gets to decide what fits together?”) to links, rings and chains. There’s also an ongoing series of fish, the Age of Aquarium, each named with a different letter of the alphabet in honor of a real or fictional person (think Edmund Muskie or Zebulon Pike). The inviting moon-and-star themed “Nightsky” adorns the entrance to his studio, while he shows us another textured work, an intricate study in lattice.

The start to all, he says, is not often a sketch.

“Rarely… I just go at it. I prop the stone up on the bench and start working on it.”

And always, it’s about adjustments along the way.

“The ideas just… they just come,” he says. “I might head down a path and just change my mind.”

THE LATEST WORK Our first glimpse into the Crystal Park project was an update from Madden, which included a few photos of the chosen stone.

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“STONE WAS ALWAYS SOMETHING THAT KIND OF CALLED TO ME.” — Bob Madden

“The piece as it sits is 10 feet long by 5 feet deep, and it varies from 2 to 5-feet high. I calculated it to weigh nearly 20 tons.”

It would, he said, eventually stand on its end, reaching nearly 10 feet high, and be carved down to some 9 tons.

“By far, that’s the biggest thing I’ve ever done,” he told us in late August, when the project completion was in sight.

Madden says each project is unique. He might have an idea and choose a stone — or be inspired by the raw material.

“It works both ways,” he says. “Some stones they just have a national coloration or a look to them that they just tell you what they want to be.”

Along the way, Madden has developed his own style — and methods.

“I picked up a lot of little things over the years that people don’t traditionally use for stone sculpture,” he says. Other times, he uses techniques, such as working with “feather and wedges,” a stone-splitting method that has been around for thousands of years.

“One of the fun things about the technique is that instead of making a bunch of small inconsequential chips, it splits open a large rock face and exposes material that hasn’t been seen for hundreds of millions or even billions of years.”

Madden might work with marble or fieldstone, granite or on this latest project, gneiss.

“Granite and gneiss are very high on the stone hardness scale making this an even more challenging, but ironically more fun project for me.”

Throughout the summer, Madden shared updates on the commission.

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Bob Madden at work on his latest sculpture, which will be unveiled during the 2018 ArtEast Open Studio Tour this month. Photograph by Bob Rozycki.

In mid-July, he said, “The project so far has been a little more difficult than I anticipated. “The stone is ‘gneiss’ (pronounced ‘nice’), which is denser than granite and contains quartz deposits or threads running through it, which can make cutting and shaping the stone less predictable. It’s certainly chewing up my tools faster than I’d allowed for.”

The stone itself was also directing things, particular after a discovery of an area once a “puddle of molten quartz” had him weighing a new direction.

“My original design concept eliminated this area, but now I’m considering modifying the design to retain and possibly highlight some features like this in the final piece,” he said. “Surprises like this slow me down sometimes but when you decide to carve stone you know you’re tackling a pretty difficult material and because stone isn’t flexible, I have to be.”

By middle of August we heard this: “Big day yesterday, we lifted the boulder up into position.”

And then it was on to the final stages of finishing details, smoothing, sanding and more.

By press time, Madden declined to share the work’s name, waiting until the unveiling of the

piece that includes a bench-like feature. But it’s a likely bet that will simply be the proverbial cherry on top of a massive undertaking.

“It’s an evolutionary process for each” work, Madden says, preferring to wait until the end to reveal all.

He seems most honored that the commission will likely stay in place for generations, as he’s told the property owner plans to pass the land down through his family.

“A thousand years from now, it’ll be Stonehenge,” Madden says with a smile. “That’s pretty cool.”

The 2018 ArtEast Open Studio Tour, featuring 30 artists, will run from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Oct. 13, 14, 20 and 21 at sites throughout Dutchess and Putnam counties. Bob Madden’s latest work will be featured in the outdoor sculpture show at Crystal Park, 134 S. White Rock Road in Holmes both weekends. Rock and A Soft Place Studio, where visitors can tour the studios of both Bob Madden and Karen Madden, will also be open all four days. Rock and A Soft Place Studio is open by appointment. For more, visit rockandasoftplace.com or arteastdutchess.com.

ITâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;S THE

Front, from left, Bruce Naylor, Suzana Beites, Monique Brooks and Mario Tacca; and back, from left, Bill Jordan, Dario Ebbri, Don Simons, Bob Duffy and Fred Schwinger. (Not pictured, Joseph Ciccone, Don Gerundo and Bruce Nielsen). Photograph by Bob Rozycki.

BY JENA BUTTERFIELD PHOTOGRAPHS BY BOB ROZYCKI

LIKE CRAFT BEER AND ARTISANAL HONEY, THE ACCORDION IS EXPERIENCING SOMETHING OF A RESURGENCE THESE DAYS. And, if Mario Tacca and Mary Mancini have anything to do with it, the bellows-driven winds of change will be blowing from the couple’s home studio in Cortlandt Manor through Hudson Valley venues.

“It’s not about just playing notes,” says Tacca, a professional accordionist who became enthralled with the instrument at age 12. “It’s about presenting the song in the right context. That’s the key for people to enjoy it.”

Depending on who you are and how it’s played, the accordion can transport you to the left bank of Paris or a wedding in southern Italy. (Or to a pop cultural history that ranges from “The Lawrence Welk Show” to Mumford & Sons.)

Slavic in origin, it can evoke the Bohemian polka or Austrian waltz, the Argentinean tango or Dominican merengue. In North America, the TexMex sound of the instrument in the hands of the Tejanos is something altogether different.

It’s folk, it’s ethnic, it’s classical, it’s contemporary, it’s jazz. It’s the squeezebox, baby.

That’s what’s so fantastic,” says Mancini, a singer who is also Tacca’s wife. “It puts you exactly where the music comes from. It’s so legitimate.

We have always been advocates of true, pure music.”

That’s why, this month, the team of Tacca and Mancini are launching The Hudson Valley Accordion Ensemble in response to demands from many of Tacca’s students (ranging in age from 10 to 70), who want a chance to hone their skills playing gigs with a mix of professionals.

“The seed was planted,” Tacca says.

“We’re keeping true to our total commitment to live music,” Mancini says. “And with accordion, there’s just no end to what you can do. I hear different styles of music coming from every stu-

dent. Mario emphasizes each student individually, exposing them to all styles.”

And the styles are vast. There is always something new to learn, even among professionals.

On a recent evening, Mancini and Tacca were at the Bean Runner Café in Peekskill for a night of accordion music. A fellow professional from Rhode Island with a southern Italian influence was blown away by two Peruvian folk songs.

It was a style of music he’d never heard before.

That’s the kind of musical discovery the couple has witnessed many times. It’s part of what drives Tacca and will no doubt drive the new group.

“The Hudson Valley Ensemble will get together once a month,” Mancini says. Tacca envisions it as a combination workshop. “I always input some musical knowledge added to what they’re playing,” he adds.

Plans now are for about a dozen players in the group. “When we started out there were three or four,” Mancini says. “Now there’s a dozen and I know it’s going to grow.”

“When Mario is onstage himself, it’s exciting,” she adds. “But 10 to 12 accordion players at the same time is exhilarating.”

They consist of immediate to advance players with two to 10 years' experience, including someone who travels once a month to be part of the group. The youngest player is in his 40s but, Tacca says, “You should hear the 11-year-old. She could definitely keep up with the group.”

Adds Mancini, “Many of these people want to pass it on to their children. A few students are even taking lessons on Skype because they live too far away.”

Tacca writes all the arrangements and can tailor each performance to a morphing ensemble.

“It’s a mixture of digital accordions mixed with acoustic accordions,” Mancini adds, noting that digital accordions can sound like other instruments. She lists the trumpet as an example.

“Then there’s the purity of the acoustic accordion that doesn’t have any of that.”

Says Tacca, “And we’re going to add Mary’s voice to the mix.” Mancini sings in eight languag-

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31

es so “we have tremendous choices,” she adds.

For a couple who used to tour 200 days out of the year, touring the Hudson Valley is a big change. But Tacca and Mancini have seen the future and that future includes an accordion renaissance. This became evident to them during a five-city tour of China where they witnessed accordion players being treated like rock stars. The duo performed with three different symphony orchestras, taught a workshop to 200 riveted students and visited an organization in Shanghai that was 18,000 to 20,000 members strong. They decided it was time to spur that passion back home in the Hudson Valley.

“We have reached a great place in our lives,” Mancini says. “We feel so committed to pass on our experiences to the next generation.”

Their partnership is key in turning that dream into reality.

“Music is a common denominator,” Mancini says.

“We’ve accomplished so much musically, because we have an understanding of the responsibilities we have, both separately and together.”

That 43-year understanding bodes well for Tacca and Mancini continuing to make beautiful music together.

The Hudson Valley Accordion Ensemble will be performing at Taormina Restaurant in Peekskill on the second Thursday of every month beginning Oct. 11. Dinner reservations are required; call 914-739-4007.

For more, visit manciniandtacca.com.

Mary Mancini and Mario Tacca.

The Rosenberg Bagtas Group at Morgan Stanley Robert J. Rosenberg, CFP® Senior Portfolio Manager Senior Vice President Financial Advisor 914-225-0718 robert.j.rosenberg @morganstanley.com

Mellany Bagtas, CFP,® CRPC® Portfolio Manager Vice President Financial Advisor 914-225-0767 mellany.bagtas @morganstanley.com

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A MIGHTY

BY JENA BUTTERFIELD

At Opera North, Emily Geller sang Ma Moss in “The Tender Land.” Courtesy Emily Geller.

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WHEN OPERA SINGER EMILY GELLER WAS GROWING UP IN MANHASSET ON LONG ISLAND, THE PARTS SHE REALLY WANTED TO PLAY IN THE SCHOOL MUSICAL WEREN’T COMING HER WAY. “I WAS ALWAYS CAST IN THE CHORUS,” SHE SAID. That frustration bolstered her determination to wrest control of her future away from naysayers and forge her own path to center stage. “I wasn’t born with a good voice,” she said. “Teachers didn’t know what to do with me.”

So, she went out and found someone who did.

“Once I had a teacher that really believed in me, things changed,” she said. Then in high school, Geller was accepted into Boston University’s Tanglewood Institute for vocal students, a pivotal program that confirmed her trajectory.

Now, praised by critics as “an effervescent delight,” and “delightfully over the top,” Geller has made her mark as a mezzo-soprano, performing in operas up and down the East Coast.

Lately, Geller, a resident of Briarcliff Manor, has been playing roles coveted by so many aspiring singers, from Annina in “La Traviata” to Mercedes in “Carmen” or Suzuki in “Madama Butterfly.”

In retrospect, her journey to those roles couldn’t have happened any other way.

“Neither of my parents are musical,” she said.

“But I was very involved in theater and chorus.” She knew the stage was where she wanted to be. I started out acting first, then evolved into musicals. You only start learning opera when you’re older. Once you get to college you start training on arias. But musical theater and opera are pretty different.

“The kind of technique you need to sing over a full orchestra with no microphones is completely different. Your body is your instrument,” she said of opera, “Some people are born with larger instruments.” She’s quick to add that weight has nothing to do with the size. What matters are genetic traits like the size of the larynx, vocal folds and the length of vocal tract.

“It’s the technique of voice,” she added. “You can

Emily Geller, left, singing Mercedes in “Carmen” at Tri Cities Opera. Photograph by Randy Cummings.

change your technique. Once I learned the correct technique in how to sing, I got better really quickly.”

For her, opera is an athletic endeavor.

“I would compare singing to any sport,” she said.

“There’s lots of different drills, a lot of things you work on individually and then put it all together.”

Geller stresses the importance of good support, being resonant, being able to tell a good story, singing at dynamic levels and making sure diction is clear.

“Being a professional opera singer is like the Olympics for singing,” she said. “You train for decades. I am still learning to sing.”

That’s one reason she can relate so well to her high school students. She sees her role as a voice teacher as critical to not letting great talent slip between the cracks. She remembers that it was when she changed voice teachers that she got “significantly better.”

What did the teacher do differently?

“It wasn’t just one piece of advice,” she said.

Voice teachers get good results by not giving up on their students. Not in a cheesy, believe in yourself kind of way. But in that initial moment when progress is slow. A lot of teachers give up.

“The ones that had a beneficial effect kept trying different exercises when the first ones didn’t

get results. The teacher she stuck with never gave up on her going to the next plane, even after she didn’t respond or do it right the first time.

Because of her vocal range as well as her acting chops, Geller often plays “pants roles,” that of young male characters. “Those are usually played by lower female voices,” she said of contraltos and mezzos. “I have been cast in a lot of comedy roles,” she added. “People seem to like it so I just keep doing it.”

Geller takes a sensible approach to caring for her voice onstage and off. “If you’re singing technically correctly with low, supported, resonant sound, it’s not necessarily putting a lot of strain on your voice,” she said. “But if you’re singing over a long period of time, your voice can get tired.”

You won’t find her going mute for long stretches or gargling with warm salt water. “Usually, opera singers are pretty hardy,” she said. “I just get a good night’s sleep, stay hydrated and just listen to my body.” She will try not to yell if ever in a loud environment, though. Her trick is to bring earplugs. “They allow me to hear myself speak.”

Any other routines before Geller takes the stage?

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Emily Geller singing Prince Orlofsky in “Die Fledermaus.” Photograph by Randy Cummings.

“I wish I could say something really cool,” she said. “A lot of singers have super-fun routines. I like to drink coffee before I sing…but maybe that’s just because I like coffee.

“I do bring my score with me backstage,” she added, “even though I have everything memorized backwards and forwards.” Directors can always give last-minute notes.

Is there a particular part she would love to play in the future?

“I would love to say something that’s a real standard role,” she said. “I think an obvious answer would be Carmen” — actually a soprano role that’s been a showcase for mezzos because of its darker tessitura. But that’s not the answer she’s leaning toward. “I’m interested in new, modern operas,” she said. “A lot of companies do ‘Rigoletto’ by Verdi,” she said. “Maddalena is a role (in it) I really want to do. So that would be the short answer.”

And which opera has moved her to tears?

“When it’s done really well, ‘Madama Butterfly’ makes me cry,” she said. And earlier this year, she saw “Fellow Travelers,” about a gay love affair set against the backdrop of 1950s Washington, D.C., and the Sen. Joseph McCarthy Communist witch hunt. That, she said, was “the most I’ve ever cried at an opera.”

“But I don’t cry when I’m onstage,” she said. “As a performer, I’ve never cried.”

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LA DOLCE

BY JENA BUTTERFIELD

AS JANINE DIVITA TOOK HER PLACE AT THE MICROPHONE IN A SLEEVELESS BLACK SEQUINED JUMPSUIT LAST NOVEMBER, THE DREAM SHE DREAMED WHILE GROWING UP IN KANSAS CONTINUED TO UNFOLD. What followed was an evening of personal anecdotes and show tunes before a riveted audience that toe-tapped along as she belted the Broadway covers she feels shaped her journey to the stage.

This was DiVita’s one-woman show, “LIT: a #modernbroad,” which she performed at Feinstein’s/54 Below, the midtown supper club and cabaret venue located in the basement of Studio 54. “It’s an homage to all my experiences as an actress,” she said about the show she helped produce.

The impetus for DiVita’s solo gig was to revisit the music that has molded her thus far and to take account of her varied career as a whole. There’s the part of her work that happens under the hot lights of professional theater — from her Broadway debut as Rizzo in the revival of “Grease” to her turn as Elizabeth in the first national tour of Mel Brooks’ “Young Frankenstein” (for which Brooks said, “when (DiVita) sings …. she tears the house down”).

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DiVita’s also played Mary Barrie in “Finding Neverland”; Miss Isabel Yearsley in “The Mystery of Edwin Drood”; Reno in Stephen Sondheim’s “Anything Goes” and, most recently, Anne in “IF/ THEN.” Starting Nov. 29, DiVita will play Claire, the lead role in “Shadows,” a new show opening at the Connelly Theater in the East Village. “It’s this really an eerie show,” she said. The dance musical, directed by two-time Tony nominee Joey McKneely, is about an affair that happens in a haunted pied-à-terre and involves interpretive dance set to a mix of tunes from Icelandic rock band, Sigur Rós.“The music is really great,” she said. “Dancers (will be) interpreting what the spirits are feeling.”

And then there’s her other job — or, rather, jobs.

While on national tour with “IF/THEN,” DiVita co-wrote a screenplay with longtime friend, Eric Holmes (producer and writer for CBS’s “The Good Fight”). “I was feeling so creative during that show,” she said of “IF/THEN.” “Super creatively fulfilled and very inspired to write.”

Her downtime around performances became productive. She penned “To Have and To Hold,” a romantic comedy about a stalled and broke songwriter, Isabel, who takes a gig planning her estranged sister’s wedding. Hilarity ensues. DiVita will be playing the secondary lead, Isabel’s older sister, Alison.

“I spent seven months writing it,” she said about the female-driven screenplay that will be produced by Dolphin Entertainment and Myriad Films. They’re currently in the process of getting a director and plan to begin shooting in 2019.

DiVita has appeared in a supporting role opposite Dustin Hoffman in the feature film “Hear My Song “and on television in both CBS’s modern-day Sherlock Holmes series, “Elementary,”

and FX’s spy drama, “The Americans.” Of late, she’s been sworn to secrecy about her upcoming role in HBO’s second season of “The Deuce.”

“I have a really cool role,” she said about the popular drama series starring James Franco and Maggie Gyllenhaal that depicts Manhattan when porn and prostitution were rampant during the 1970s and ’80s. “And no, I’m not playing a hooker!”

DiVita’s varied interests keep her busy. “Obviously, my schedule requires a lot of juggling,” she said. “It’s a lot of accepting things and praying it will work out.” Somehow, she says, it always does.

But that doesn’t mean she can rest on her laurels.

Success in acting doesn’t assure the next gig. “I audition all the time,” she said. “I go out once or twice a week. It used to be more. I’m a little pickier.”

The constant auditioning is a career hazard that doesn’t bother her, though. “I get excited,” she said. “It’s more of an opportunity to perform.”

Her default point of view comes from advice she received from a friend. “If the character’s meant to flow through you, it will flow through you.”

DiVita is also the co-founder of Empowered Voices, an educational organization that uses theater to try to prevent sexual harassment and assault in the armed forces.

After meeting her mentor, fellow co-founder and prevention specialist Stephanie Brooks, at a stage door while performing in Seattle, DiVita decided to broaden her acting career to enrich lives in another way. “I was fascinated by what (Brooks) did for the military,” she said.

Brooks in turn was looking for new ways to provide the military with the required training that went beyond PowerPoint presentations.

“People are fascinated by actors,” DiVita said.

“The whole point of acting is to step into other people’s shoes. (It’s) really powerful. It helps

39 WAGMAG.COM Janine DiVita. Photograph by Sean Turi.

OCTOBER 2018

people understand other people.” After that meeting at the stage door, “I ended up being invited to (Brooks’) military base (Joint Base Lewis-McChord in Washington state).”

“I am hired by divisions of the Department of Defense to write, direct and produce the Sexual Assault Prevention trainings at U.S. military bases and to consult with military civilian workers on leadership, communication skills and empathy training (through) implementing theatrical exercises and practices.”

DiVita works with volunteer soldier-actors to create an interactive forum. She wrote and produced the curriculum they’ve already implemented on more than half a dozen military bases.

Encouraged by the success of Empowered Voices, DiVita and Brooks are now looking to expand their training services to universities and corporations.

With that prospect on the horizon, pending roles to study for, auditions to prep — and all that jazz — DiVita still isn’t done. When we finished our interview, she was headed out the door to attend a reading of a Broadway-bound show she may be co-producing.

“It never gets old,” she said. “It never gets boring.

There’s always something new to learn, so you’re always growing.”

For more, visit janinedivita.com.

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Janine DiVita. Photograph by Santiago Felipe.

I FEEL SO POWERLESS. WE HAVE TO WATCH HER EVERY MINUTE. FAMILY AND FRIENDS STOPPED COMING AROUND. HE KEEPS SAYING: “THERE’S NOTHING WRONG WITH ME.” IT’S DESTROYING OUR FAMILY. I FEEL SO GUILTY WE HAVE TO MOVE HER INTO A HOME. IT’S SO HARD TO CARE FOR SOMEONE WHO’S MEAN TO YOU. HE HIDES THINGS ALL THE TIME. I’M GRIEVING THE LOSS OF SOMEONE WHO’S STILL ALIVE. WE DON’T EVEN KNOW WHERE TO START.

LIVING WITH FTD IS HARD. LIVING WITHOUT HELP IS HARDER. THERE’S COMFORT IN FINDING OTHERS WHO UNDERSTAND. WE FINALLY FOUND A DOCTOR WHO GETS IT. I GOT SO MUCH ADVICE FROM OTHER CAREGIVERS. UNDERSTANDING MORE HELPS ME DEAL WITH HER SYMPTOMS. SEEING THAT OTHERS MADE IT THROUGH, I KNEW I COULD TOO. WE HONOR HIM BY ADVOCATING FOR A CURE. NOW I’M BETTER AT ASKING FOR HELP. NO MATTER HOW BAD IT GETS, WE KNOW WE’RE NOT ALONE. It can feel so isolating and confusing from the start: Just getting a diagnosis of FTD takes 3.6 years on average. But no family facing FTD should ever have to face it alone, and with your help, we’re working to make sure that no one does.

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KEEPING ‘PACE’ WITH MARVIN KRISLOV

BY LAURA JOSEPH MOGIL

B

alancing his time among the Manhattan, White Plains and Pleasantville campuses, Pace University President Marvin Krislov has been quite busy since he was first inaugurated in August 2017.

Speaking about what his biggest accomplishments have been over the past year, Krislov says, “One of the main things I have been trying to do is getting to know the people here and building a strong team.

“We’re also focusing on our students and student success. This has been a long-term goal, but in the past year we’ve already improved some of our retention numbers and are really doing a good job in keeping our students on track and heading toward graduation.”

In addition, Krislov says he’s been working hard to make connections among Pace students, faculty, staff and alumni. “Pace alumni are spread out and have come from very different backgrounds.

Connecting people to the institution takes some work, but through improving our communications and our efforts to reach out to everyone, we have certainly started to create a stronger sense of community.”

Another important accomplishment is Krislov’s focus on initiatives that have been set up to help launch students into careers. (Pace was recently ranked number one among private, nonprofit, fouryear institutions nationwide for colleges with the highest student mobility rates in a list published by the Chronicle of Higher Education.). “In order to continue to be successful in helping our students start their careers, it’s very important that we understand what employers are searching for. Joining together with our career services and alumni, we’ve been creating and strengthening partnerships with companies in the greater New York region and it has been paying off for our students.”

Krislov says that Pace’s mission of opportunities provides its undergraduates with a powerful combination of knowledge in the professions, real-world experience and a rigorous liberal arts curriculum, giving them the skills and habits of mind to realize their full potential. “It resonates with me because my parents were both first-generation college-goers, and for them it opened up the path of opportunity. For my family, education was the way forward,” he says.

Krislov earned his undergraduate degree from 42

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Yale University, where he graduated summa cum laude and was named a Rhodes scholar. He then received master’s degrees from Oxford and Yale universities and a Juris Doctor degree at Yale Law School.

Before reentering academia, Krislov served in the U.S. Department of Labor as acting solicitor from 1997 to 1998 and for two years before that as deputy solicitor of national operations. He took the position in the department after serving as associate counsel in the Office of Counsel to the President in the Clinton administration.

After being hired by the University of Michigan in 1998, Krislov served as vice president and general counsel. During his tenure there he led the University of Michigan’s legal defense of admission policies that recognize the importance of student diversity, which prevailed in a major 2003 Supreme Court decision.

Prior to his current position, Krislov served as president of Oberlin College in Oberlin, Ohio, for 10 years. During his tenure, he worked to make the college and its Conservatory of Music more rigorous, diverse, inclusive and accessible to students from all socioeconomic backgrounds. In November 2009, he was appointed to the advisory board of the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH). Through his writings, speeches and public appearances and his service to the NEH, Krislov raised Oberlin’s international and national profile while championing the

value of a liberal arts education.

Moving from Oberlin to Pace, Krislov says he had to get used to the larger size, adjusting to a student body of 13,000 instead of 3,000 and also the three campuses compared with one. “At Oberlin I could ride on my bike and get from one side of the campus to the other,” he says. “Clearly that’s not feasible here.”

Also, he adds, “At Oberlin, we primarily had an undergraduate program, with some students in the liberal arts and some in the Conservatory of Music.

Here at Pace, we have six different schools and a range of students from undergraduate to graduate.”

“We also have students at Pace with a broader range of life experiences. Some are older students that have returned to get a degree after being in the work world or raising a family. We have some students who are veterans. And we also have transfer students from our community colleges. Some students live on campus and some commute, and we also have a wide range of international students.”

Krislov notes that what both colleges have in common are thriving arts programs. “The arts program at Oberlin is very strong. In particular, they have the Conservatory of Music and leading programs in theater and dance. At Pace, the arts program is considered one of the very best in the state, particularly in musical theater and dance on an undergraduate level. We also have a leading master’s program in conjunction with The Actors Studio in Manhattan.”

Krislov points out that in Westchester, Pace has

Marvin Krislov. Courtesy Pace University.

an outstanding Media, Communications, and Visual Arts Department. “One of the courses that is taught is documentary filmmaking, and the students travel on spring break to a location where they film a documentary that is ready by the end of the semester.

This year they went to Puerto Rico after the storm and the film they made was screened at the Jacob Burns Film Center,” he says.

“One of the things we’re currently talking about are ways to further engage the community in the arts program here, so we’ve been working in Westchester with some of the community-based arts groups, such as the Jacob Burns. We also worked with Arc Stages in Pleasantville and produced a free performance called ‘Sondheim on Screen,’ which was presented to the public at the Pleasantville campus this past summer.”

Krislov has also joined the board of ArtsWestchester and has begun exploring ways the university can get more involved with the arts in the county.

“We’re talking how we can integrate our students and faculty with what is going on in the broader community,” he says.

“While some of these projects are going to take some time to germinate, my conviction is that the arts are really wonderful educational tools for everybody and we should strive to make them accessible and available to people from all backgrounds. That’s very important for the arts and also for society.”

For more, visit pace.edu.

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THE REMAINS OF JAMES IVORY’S DAYS

BY GEORGETTE GOUVEIA

D

irector James Ivory is a fan of disaster films. His favorite? “San Francisco” (1936), in which Jeannette MacDonald brings down the house — quite literally as the movie ends with the great 1906 earthquake — singing the title song.

This may come as something of a surprise for fans of his own movies — or rather Merchant Ivory films as they were known in part for the last name of his producing and life partner, Ismail Merchant. Their collaboration with screenwriter Ruth Prawer Jhabvala on a number of tony adaptations — mainly of E.M. Forster and Henry James — conjured images of PBS’ “Masterpiece” series. The catastrophes that occurred in their films tended to be psychological rather than physical; the seismic shifts, of the cultural kind as their characters — mainly cosseted, sometimes closeted types — found themselves unmoored from the customs of their countries and their own hearts.

Fans could be forgiven, then, for thinking that the trio — whose 40 films have received 31 Oscar nominations — was “teddibly” “British. But as Merchant, who died in 2005, once noted, “I am an Indian Muslim; Ruth is a German Jew; and Jim is a Protestant American. Someone once described us as a three-headed god. Maybe they should have called us a three-headed monster.”

Not only weren’t they British; they didn’t start out as feature filmmakers either, Ivory said this past summer during a talk at the Greenwich International Film Festival. When it came time for a hesitant Jhabvala to adapt her novel “The Householder” to the big screen in 1963, Ivory recalled, Merchant reassured her by saying, ‘Never mind. Jim never directed a feature, and I’ve never produced one.”

Indeed, Ivory, who was born in Berkeley, California, and raised in Klamath Falls, Oregon, — where there were a lot of movie theaters “going full blast” and where “San Francisco” no doubt left an indelible impression on him as a child — studied architecture at the University of Oregon with the idea of being a set designer. At the University of Southern California, his interests shifted to documentary filmmaking, which in turn led to his meeting Merchant.

Theirs was a prolific partnership — the longest in independent film history — that was conducted with the utmost discretion privately, because of Merchant’s conservative Muslim background. Yet you can’t help but think that the relationship was in a sense up there on the screen in depictions of both

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James Ivory became the oldest Oscar winner to date when he won the Best Adapted Screenplay award for “Call Me By Your Name.”

gay and straight characters who could not or would not express their feelings for others, often until it was too late (“A Room With a View,” “Maurice,” “The Remains of the Day”).

Still, Merchant Ivory never shied away from passion’s full expression either. This isn’t Hollywood’s call, he told WAG after the Greenwich talk, but the director’s. His “Maurice,” based on Forster’s posthumously published novel, is a tale not only of gay love repressed but of gay love fulfilled.

“What is seen is seen,” he told the Greenwich audience. “What is not seen is not seen.”

In “Maurice,” he explained to The Guardian earlier this year, “the two guys have had sex and they get up and you certainly see everything there is to be seen. To me, that’s a more natural way of doing things than to hide them, or to do what Luca did, which is to pan the camera out of the window toward some trees. Well …”

He was referring to Luca Guadagnino, for whom he wrote the screenplay for “Call Me By Your Name.”

Ivory’s screenplay — based on André Aciman’s coming-of-age novel about a teenage boy’s romance with a male grad student — called for nudity, which was nixed by the no-nudity clause in the actors’ contracts. There was something of a he said-he said disparity between Ivory and Guadagnino over whether the director had ever considered a nude scene between stars Armie Hammer and Timothée Chalamet. There’s no disputing the film’s success, however, which earlier this year made Chalamet, as the teen lover, a breakout star and Ivory the oldest Oscar winner to date (at 89 for Best Adapted Screenplay).

But then, Ivory’s work always seems to be associated with breakout stars — Daniel Day-Lewis and Helena Bonham Carter in “A Room With a View,” Hugh Grant in “Maurice.”

“You can’t tell when they’re young if they’re going to go on to big careers,” Ivory told the Greenwich audience. “You had to take it on trust. But you did have a sense of their personalities. Helena Bonham Carter was very young, 19, beautiful, very smart….Daniel Day-Lewis I cast on the spot.”

Another great stage star had a small part in “View” years before she would go on to her own Oscar-winning career — Judi Dench.

“English actors have terrific technique,” he says.

“They’re well-trained, which is not always the case of American actors.”

Nonetheless, he says, “good actors are good actors.” He worked with two of the best — Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward — in “Mr. and Mrs. Bridge” (1990), based on Evan S. Connell’s novel of a 1930s Kansas couple confronting a changing world.

Their fellow Westporter, distributor Harvey Weinstein, didn’t think the screenings were enthusiastic enough and wanted changes. To which, Ivory said, Newman replied that if he wanted him to do press for the film, he wouldn’t mess with what Merchant Ivory had created.

It remains a favorite film of Ivory’s, along with “The Remains of the Day,” which he recently saw in a digitally remastered print at the Bedford Playhouse and was bowled over by. He’d like to see his “Jefferson in Paris” and “Slaves of New York” restored as well.

As for himself, Ivory keeps working on a plan to bring “Richard II” to the screen with Tom Hiddleston and Damian Lewis, and a detective story to tease Day-Lewis out of retirement.

He’s also adapting Jhabvala’s short story “The Judge’s Will” for director Alexander Payne (“Downsizing”).

“All you can do,” Ivory said, “is follow your instincts and make films about things that interest you.”

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Marjorie Schick, Spiraling Over the Line, 2008 Canvas, paint, wood, copper alloy 44.00 inches diameter Collection of the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art Š Marjorie Schick, courtesy of James and Robert Schick. Photograph Gary Pollmiller. Photographs courtesy Katonah 46of Art. WAGMAG.COM OCTOBER 2018 Museum

ON THE EDGE

BY MARY SHUSTACK

JEWELRY DESIGNERS ARE OFTEN CALLED JEWELRY ARTISTS — AND AN EXHIBITION OPENING THIS MONTH AT THE KATONAH MUSEUM OF ART SHOWS JUST WHY. But don’t expect a classic strand of pearls… oh, no.

The highly anticipated “Outrageous Ornament: Extreme Jewelry in the 21st Century” is designed to showcase the bold and the beautiful, the ambitious and the artistic.

Some 45 examples of creations that reimagine what advance materials call “the traditional boundaries that for so many centuries have defined body ornamentation” will be on display starting Oct. 21.

Jane Adlin, former curator of modern and contemporary design at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, has brought it all together.

“Jewelry, in one form or another, has been around since the beginning of time,” Adlin says in advance materials. “From prehistoric evidence of body decoration made from found materials, such as shells and bone, to Egyptian, Grecian and Roman use of newly invented material, such as glass, to Renaissance artisans’ use of vibrant stones and gem-set gold, jewelry has always been a cultural signifier.”

Instead of focusing just on materials and process, “Outrageous Ornament” will explore whether jewelry is even defined by wearability, offering works such as Marjorie Schick’s neckpiece, “Spiraling Over the Line,” as examples.

The show will spotlight creators who include not only traditional jewelers but also interdisciplinary practitioners representing fields such as art, architecture, design, fashion, science and technology.

Intrigued, we turned to Adlin to hear more — and not only gained insight into the exhibition but also learned that she and her husband raised their two children in Scarsdale — and now have, she tells us, “a wonderfully countrified home

in Pound Ridge where we love to entertain extended family and friends.”

This issue is all about art, artists and artistic inspirations. First off, do you consider jewelry a form of art? Do you think most people do? “‘Art’ has always been hierarchically and critically defined.

The ‘decorative or applied arts’ frequently included wearables — fashion, accessories, jewelry — and was considered less than a fine art such as painting or sculpture. I am interested in breaking down those kinds of definitions that can be barriers for the makers and collectors. Many museums and galleries are encouraging their patrons to look at jewelry as art. It’s a growing notion and one that I love.”

How did you select the jewelry that will be featured in the exhibition? What were you looking for in terms of style, materials, meaning?

“I began my search for the outrageous by using this definition from Merriam Webster: ‘outrageous — exceeding the limits of what is usual.’

“It’s a broad concept but worked really well for me in making decisions about what to include in the show as well as what in fact is groundbreaking. Limiting the works to the 21st century was also helpful as there have been periodic technology breakthroughs as well as stylistical innovations in jewelry making throughout history.

“The difference is that in recent history there is an absolute explosion of limitless creativity in this area and there were many, many choices for inclusion. While at The Metropolitan Museum, I curated a number of jewelry shows — historic, modern and contemporary. I have been assessing and appreciating jewelry for many years, so seeing ‘outrageous’ as distinct from new or different was easy, because it is something I have been thinking about a lot.”

Could you share a few details about one particular OCTOBER 2018

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What are some of the themes that you hope visitors will take away with them?

“I believe that the main theme of the show is for the viewer to get past the wearability factor in jewelry (although not to discard it) and to see the many sides of body ornament along with its beauty, its thoughtfulness, its connection to today’s society and its contribution to art.”

Marjorie Schick, Feasting Armlets, 1991 Papier mâché and paint 8.50 x 6.00 x 6.50, 6.13 x 16.25 x 9.13, 6.63 x 11.75 x 8.63, and 13.00 x 11.00 x 8.88 inches.The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Gift of Dr. James B. M. Schick and Robert M. Schick, in honor of the Helen Williams Drutt Collection, courtesy Helen Drutt, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. 2016.200.1-.4 © Marjorie Schick and James B. M. Schick Ph.D.

piece and its creator as an example of what the show is all about? Was there a particular artist you knew had to be included?

“I couldn’t say that there was just one artist I had to include but I can say that I knew there had to be examples of work by sculptors, painters, photographers, fashion designers, architects and conceptualists as well as classically trained jewelers, all of whom work ‘outside the box’ of jewelry as we know it.

“I have included a drawing by Jonathan Wahl

and photographs by Lauren Kalman. Neither of these works are ‘wearable’ but both talk about the meaning of jewelry — who wears it, how it is worn and why. Marjorie Schick is represented in the exhibition by two works. ‘Spiraling Over the Line’ is most important and represents the work that Marjorie began in the 1970s and continued to make until her recent death. She most perfectly defines outrageous — a signifier I hope everyone agrees is one of high praise.”

And, finally, if we may ask — Do you wear much jewelry? Do you have a favorite piece and if so, what makes it so?

“I do wear a lot of jewelry. Excluding my contemporary pieces, I would love to wear earrings by Alexander Calder or a necklace by René Lalique. I don’t own either.”

“Outrageous Ornament: Extreme Jewelry in the 21st Century” will open Oct. 21 and continue through Jan. 27 at the Katonah Museum of Art, at 134 Jay St. Of note, the exhibition is featured as part of the inaugural New York City Jewelry Week (nycjewelryweek.com), dedicated to promoting the world of jewelry with events set for Nov. 12 through 18. For more, including special events such as workshops, discussions, studio visits, family activities and a pop-up shop, visit katonahmuseum.org.

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ANYONE INTERESTED IN COLLECTING CHINESE ANTIQUES OR CONTEMPORARY ARTWORK ORIGINATING IN CHINA SHOULD BUY IT NOW OR YOU MAY WIND UP PAYING UP TO AN ADDITIONAL 25 PERCENT MORE IN AMERICAN TARIFFS. The Trump Administration recently proposed 10 percent tariffs on an additional $200 billion of imported Chinese goods, following two previous proposals to slap 25 percent tariffs on a total of $50 billion in Chinese goods. Then, the administration suggested that 10 percent was too low; 25 percent instead of 10 percent would be more to its liking. Targeted in the latest proposal: China’s 5,000-year-old antiquities as well as contemporary art works.

The latest list of tariff-targeted goods runs 195 pages, part of U.S. Trade Representative Docket USTR-20180026. The bottom of the last page may be of the most interest to art lovers. It includes “paintings, drawings and pastels executed entirely by hand, whether or not framed, as well as sculptures and any antique exceeding 100 years.” In short, any and all artwork.

During Asia Week New York (Sept. 7 through 15), buyers rushed to purchase the more than 1,000 works of art for sale before the tariffs take effect. Sotheby’s, Christie’s and the Asia Week New York Association of dealers also composed a written complaint, claiming that the U.S. — not China — would be affected the most: 50

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“Imposing duties on Chinese original art will not impact the trade practices of China, since the majority of such artwork is imported into U.S. from countries other than China.” (Indeed, according to the Sept. 10 edition of CNBC’s “Nightly Business Report” (NBR), “the U.S. imported about $300 million worth of Chinese art last year, much of that from Europe.)

Thus the American buyer would have to pay the new tariff on a Ming dynasty vase, a Tang horse or a Song scroll, even if they were bought from a British owner and sold at auction in New York.

This will reduce the ability of American museums like The Metropolitan Museum of Art in Manhattan to acquire new works. It also means that the international trade in art will go to London, Paris and Hong Kong. But perhaps the biggest consequence will be suffered by related galleries, which may not survive.

“It would have a very severe impact,” James J. Lally, founder of J.J. Lally & Co., specializing in Chinese art, told “NBR.” “I'd have to question how I could go forward under those circumstances. We cannot make these things.

There`s no one manufacturing it, and it`s going to severely harm my clients and me as we try and continue to do what we do.”

The big winner in all this, ironically, will be — China.

“China will welcome this,” Lally says. “This is a punitive attempt by the Trump Administration, but in fact it would only support the long-standing Chinese government’s effort to monopolize the trade in art and antiquities…. It will quickly reduce the market for Chinese art in America to a backwater.”

Daniel Chen of Chambers Fine Arts adds, “It would be a shame to do this. I really don’t see what it has to do with trade.”

A porcelain Goldfish Vase from the Jiajing Period (1521-67) of the Ming Dynasty in the MusĂŠe Guimet, Paris. Such works may become more precious if American tariffs on Chinese goods hit the art market.

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ILLUSTRATING WHITE PLAINS

STORY AND PHOTOGRAPHS

BY MEGHAN MCSHARRY

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Ward’s oil painting “Battle of White Plains,” above, hangs over the east wing of the White Plains Public Library.

A sheet of the 1926 commemorative stamp illustrated by Ward, left, features the “Battle of White Plains.”

Courtesy of coinsandstamps.com.

EDMUND F. WARD’S WORKS DEPICTING WHITE PLAINS HISTORY CAPTURED A KEY ASPECT OF THE CITY THAT IS THE SEAT OF WESTCHESTER COUNTY GOVERNMENT. In 1926, Ward painted the Revolutionary War “Battle of White Plains” to be used for a commemorative stamp. Selected by White Plains Congressman J. Mayhew Wainwright (of Wainwright House fame), Ward’s design was sent to the United States Treasury and turned into a two-cent stamp (sheets of which can sell for more than $1,000 today). More than 43 million of these stamps were sold (the first of which was purchased by Ward’s wife, Laura).

A few years later, Ward completed a larger oil painting of the “Battle of White Plains,” which was purchased by the city and hung in its post office. In 1984, the painting was moved to the White Plains Public Library and is now on display high on the walls of the east wing.

Born and raised in White Plains, Ward was a 1910 graduate of White Plains High School, where he worked for The Orange, the school’s newspaper, and illustrated for the yearbook. After graduating, he took a job on the railroad before working for a Kensico Dam surveying team. His passion, however, was art.

“I had the idea I wanted to paint pictures,” he once said. “I can’t remember when I didn’t want to make pictures. It was just built in me, nothing else would do.” So, with the money made from his civil engineer-

ing jobs to cover his commuting costs, he enrolled at the Art Students League in Manhattan where he met Rockwell. The two became fast friends and shared a $15-a-month studio which was, unbeknown to them, above a brothel. Before his 20th birthday, Ward had already begun illustrating for The Saturday Evening Post, alongside Rockwell yet again.

Ward spent much of his early career illustrating magazines such as The Post, Harper’s, Woman’s Home Companion, Redbook and Cosmopolitan.

Many of his illustrations, like those of other illustrators of the time, have disappeared since their publication. “The art directors for the advertising agencies would grab off the good stuff,” Ward said.

To his dismay, the painting for which he may be best-known is commonly referred to as “Hamilton at the Cannon,” as many viewers incorrectly identified the man at the cannon as America’s first secretary of the Treasury, Alexander Hamilton. Historians note that although Hamilton, George Washington’s aide de camp, did command artillery on Chatterton Hill during the 1776 Battle of White Plains, none of the figures in Ward’s painting are pictured in the captain’s uniform that Hamilton wore. “I didn’t paint Hamilton. I didn’t want Hamilton,” Ward said, insisting he intended to depict a humble gun crew.

One of his favorite works was his “Hudson Valley Legends,” now also in the east wing of the White Plains Public Library. The painting, which won the Bicentennial Award at the National Art Show of the Hudson Valley Art Association in 1976, combines images of Washington Irving’s “The Legend of the Sleepy Hollow“ and “Rip Van Winkle,” fueling the imagination of each passerby.

Although his works were shown at major galleries and have toured the nation, garnering their share of awards, Ward would observe that Rockwell, “made millions, while I haven’t.”

Nevertheless, Ward never gave up on his passion.

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After moving away from magazine illustrations, he taught art at Westchester County Center and the Art Students League. Ward continued to paint, shifting from illustrations to portraits of prominent men in the White Plains area and other commissioned work. He became active in the local government after illustrating for the Republican Party. Ward claimed he didn’t believe in retirement and spent the majority of his later years working in his studio.

Even when he traveled, he carried a sketchbook, canvas and paints with him. “When you go out looking for a paintable scene, you will seldom find it, for you keep thinking beyond each bend there will be a better picture,” he said. Ward’s passion for art truly carried throughout his whole life.

“Art is a necessary aid to living,” Ward once observed.

“It should inspire enthusiasm and other emotions. The Abstract Expressionist and the like are capable of fine craft and design, but they aren’t dealing in everyday symbols that can be understood. They evoke more bewilderment than enthusiasm. But then, I really can’t express my true feelings about art in words. If I could, I’d be writing, not painting.”

When he died in 1990, just a few days short of his 99th birthday, Ward was hailed for the way he shaped the city that in turn shaped him.

“He was so much a part of White Plains,” said former city historian Renada Hoffman. “He has accomplished so many things other than just painting. He was part of our background and our heritage.”

Ward’s “Hudson Valley Legends” combines images from some of America’s best-known short stories.

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THE TWISTING TALE OF ‘TURANDOT’

BY GEORGETTE GOUVEIA

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T

Yimou Zhang’s production of “Turandot” at the Bird’s Nest of Beijing. Once banned in China as Western propaganda, the opera is now a staple of the country’s culture.

urandot” (1926) — Giacomo Puccini’s last opera — offers what Copland House director Michael Boriskin calls “the fascinating question of legacy.”

When Puccini, who was suffering from throat cancer, died of a heart attack on Nov. 29, 1924, he left the opera unfinished with 36 pages of sketches for the ending and a now-legendary request to his friend and close collaborator, the conductor Arturo Toscanini — “Don’t let my ‘Turandot’ die.”

Not only didn’t his “Turandot” die but it has thrived all over the world, including in China — the place where it is set and where it was once considered decadent Western art. The story of a Tartar prince’s death-defying love for the imperious Chinese princess of the title, “Turandot” is probably best-known in pop culture for Prince Calaf’s heroic aria, “Nessun Dorma,” which became the tenor national anthem after Luciano Pavarotti sang it at the 1990 World Cup. Recently, it has been in the news again with the death of Aretha Franklin, who sang it in place of an ailing Pavarotti at the 1998 Grammy Awards.

Still, the question remains: Is the finished opera that we hear what Puccini intended?

“That’s the mystery,” says Boriskin, the artistic and executive director of Copland House, which presents concerts, programs, workshops and residencies at the former Cortlandt Manor home of composer Aaron Copland. “We can never know for sure.”

If that’s the case, “Turandot” is in great company, Boriskin says: “There are a number of pieces in musical history that were left unfinished, including (Wolfgang Amadeus) Mozart’s ‘Requiem.’ The other most famous instance is (Alban) Berg’s ‘Lulu,’ a 1935 opera. For decades, it was performed in a truncated two-act version with a postlude. The publisher always said there was a third act, the skeleton for which couldn’t be reconstructed.”

But the third act’s skeleton was recovered. It wasn’t, however, until the death of Berg’s wife Helene in 1976 that the opera could be presented in its entirety. (Mrs. Berg had found its story of an amoral woman who becomes a murderous prostitute, murdered in turn by Jack the Ripper, to be “salacious,” Boriskin says.)

What makes “Turandot” particularly fascinating is not only its complex compositional and performance history, which has a Westchester County connection, but its nesting-doll narrative history that stretches all the way back to the time of Alexander the Great. According to Richard Stoneman — the foremost authority on the myths associated with the ancient Greco-Macedonian conqueror of the Persian Empire and author of “Alexander the Great: A Life in Legend” (Yale University Press, 2008) — there is a poem contained in medieval books in the Monastery of Varlaam at Meteora in Greece and at Mount Sinai Monastery in Egypt about Alexander’s romance with the warrior Bab-

ylonian Queen Semiramis (which would’ve been quite a feat as she died some 500 years before he made Babylon his capital). In the poem, Alexander pursues her, but she says she will reject and even kill him unless he answers three riddles that have doomed other would-be suitors. Needless to say, Alexander is up to the challenge.

Which is precisely what happens in “Turandot.”

But can we connect these ancient figures to Puccini’s 20th-century opera? We can, I think, because the opera’s original story is from the “Haft Paykar” (“The Seven Beauties”) by the 12th-century Persian Sunni Muslim poet Nizami, who wrote the “Eskandar-nameh,” or “Book of Alexander,” in which the conqueror ventures to many places, including China.

While the name Turan-Dokht (“daughter of Turan”) is a common one in Persian tales of Central Asian princesses, Puccini — who had already explored Japan in “Madama Butterfly” — chose to set his new opera in China and incorporate Chinese themes, including the country’s national anthem and the “Jasmine Flower” folk melody. He composed and orchestrated everything up to the death of Liù, the slave girl whose devotion to Calaf earns Turandot’s wrath.

When Puccini died, composer Franco Alfano was ultimately chosen to complete the work. But both Toscanini and Puccini publisher Tito Ricordi II found his contribution to be too much Alfano and not enough Puccini and the composer had to create a new ending that adhered more strictly to Puccini’s sketches. Toscanini trimmed this, and it is this ending that audiences usually hear.

But not at its premiere at La Scala in Milan on April 25, 1926. With Polish soprano Rosa Raisa and Spanish tenor Miguel Fleta as the leads, Toscanini conducted the opera up to Liù’s death, laid down his baton and announced: “Here the maestro laid down his pen.”

Over the years, productions have gone back to Alfano’s first ending and sought new ones, particularly in China, where composers have reappropriated Puccini’s appropriation of Sino melodies. (The opera, once rejected as Western propaganda and stereotyping, has been a Chinese mainstay since at least the epic 1998 “Turandot in the Forbidden City” production conducted by Zubin Mehta and featuring a cast of hundreds that included extras from the People’s Liberation Army.)

About 20 years earlier, New Rochelle-reared composer Janet Maguire began work on a new ending that she said was sketched out in a few pages by Puccini. That ending has never been performed but Maguire, now living in Venice, went on to become a 2006 fellow at Copland House where Boriskin remembers her as a “highly literate composer of exquisitely detailed music.”

This past spring, there came word of a Chinese film version of the opera, in which Turandot poses the three riddles to save her own life.

It is the latest twist in what Boriskin calls “an interesting detective story.”

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A ‘SYMPHONY’ IN

BY GEORGETTE GOUVEIA

THOUGH HE’S HAD WHAT HE MODESTLY CALLS “A FAIR NUMBER OF SHOWS” — IN SUCH PLACES AS THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART, THE MUSEUM OF MODERN ART AND THE WHITNEY MUSEUM OF AMERICAN ART — PHOTOGRAPHER JOHN SHEARER HAS ALWAYS WANTED TO DO AN EXHIBIT IN A PLACE LIKE PURCHASE COLLEGE’S NEUBERGER MUSEUM OF ART. “The people at the Neuberger are firstclass,” the Katonah resident says. “They make me feel good about the whole SUNY (State University of New York) system” — for which Purchase College serves in part as a collection of arts conservatories. (See related story on Page 84.)

But it’s not only about working with such professionals. On a recent visit, Shearer noted that “the place was filled with kids” and not just college-age students.

“That’s what’s important to me,” he says.

“If we can tell them about people who make up history, tell them about people like Martin Luther King….”

He doesn’t complete the sentence, but “American Moments: Photographs by John Shearer” (through Dec. 23) should do that for him. In one of two accompanying books, he describes the exhibit as “a symphony of 66 images” in five movements that chronicle a decade of American turbulence, beginning with the death of President John F. Kennedy 58

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in 1963 — captured in an iconic photograph of John F. Kennedy Jr. saluting his father’s casket.

“I wasn’t the only guy who shot that,” he says of the indelible image. “I was a kid then.”

Shearer’s black-and-white photos chronicle black (and white) rage, sociopolitical trailblazers, Muhammad Ali, street gangs and the Attica Prison riot in upstate New York in 1971.

“I would’ve loved to cover Bunker Hill during the American Revolution or the Civil War Battle of Gettysburg,” Shearer writes in the artist statement that opens the booklet “American Moments, A Turbulent Decade: Photographs by John Shearer.” “That was before my time. I was a product of the ’60s, and I am black. My war was the war on poverty and inequality; its battle cry was the call for social justice.”

Shearer was aptly suited to be one of that war’s photographic Homers. Like his idol, the late Greenburgh resident Gordon Parks, whom Shearer met when he was 13, Shearer would become the proverbial Renaissance man as a writer, producer, director, lecturer and professor as well as a photographer. As Parks was the first African-American staff photographer at picture-rich Life magazine, Shearer was the second. A prodigy, he was just 17 when Look magazine came calling.

From 1965 to ’69, he covered the civil rights movement in the South and the brutal response to it. It wasn’t easy for a black man.

One of the most amazing photographs in the show is a close-up of an old white woman’s face — wrinkled, bespectacled and dotted with moles and age spots, her thin lips drawn back in a snarl that bares her uneven teeth.

“A woman, her face twisted in hate, spat on me, then threw a bottle of beer,” the caption reads in part. ‘Go back to Africa,’ she

yelled. ‘I’m glad the (Martin Luther) King n---r is dead.’”

In another photo, Muhammad Ali — a controversial figure for his refusal to serve in Vietnam who became an icon — seems to taunt pensive rival Joe Frazier from behind a chain-link window days before their “Fight of the Century” at Manhattan’s Madison Square Garden in 1971.

Many of the photographs have a pensive quality. There’s ukulele-playing falsetto singer Tiny Tim leaning back in a chair, actor Omar Sharif with two fingers under his raised chin, folk singer Richie Havens with his head bowed and comedian (and onetime Larchmont resident) Joan Rivers — her blond coif swept back, her brow furrowed, her profile refracted in a mirror.

Shearer himself pops up outside Attica Correctional Facility, sporting a considerable afro and wearing at least five Nikon cameras around his neck.

He still loves his Nikons, though they tend to be digital nowadays. “Things are different now,” he says. “You no longer have the 10page picture stories.”

And he’s changed, devoting himself more to fine art photography, in which “I know what I want technically before I get to shoot it.”

He leaves the iPhone photography to wife Marianne, who, he says, likes to snap the bouquets she receives from him each month.

Every once and a while, the photojournalist wells up inside him.

“I loved the notion of going to hot spots, places like Syria,” he says. “But I did that.”

Still, he adds, “it’s something that’s part of my DNA.” For more, visit neuberger.org and johnshearerpicturebook.com.

John Shearer’s “New York Commissioner of Corrections Russell Oswald, Attica” (1971), black-and-white photograph. John Shearer Picturebook.

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WRITING HER NEXT CHAPTER

BY GEORGETTE GOUVEIA

E

lin Hilderbrand has a life anyone would envy. She has written 21 novels — the most recent of which, this past summer’s “The Perfect Couple,” marks her first foray into murder mysteries. Her books, which have led her to be described as “the queen of the beach reads,” are set on the vacation isle of Nantucket, where for a quarter century she’s made a life of writing at the beach; picnics at Eel Point with her three children, now teenagers; running; and singing “Home, Sweet Home” at The Club Car restaurant’s piano bar. Could anything be more idyllic?

But four years ago, she received a diagnosis that shocked her. “I’m still shocked,” she says. Hilderbrand had four tumors in her right breast and one in her left.

“I never thought it was possible I was sick,” says the author, who will tell her story at the Susan G. Komen New England “More Than Pink” Luncheon Nov. 28 in Darien — an event for which WAG is a co-sponsor. “I was a runner I was a healthy eater….I was blindsided.”

It never occurred to her, however, to do anything but go forward. “I was so busy, writing two books a year and raising three children, who were 13, 11 and 8 at the time.”

On June 25, 2014 — 12 days after her double mastectomy at Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center in Boston — she was in Chicago for two events, “with drugs and drains in place.

“I wasn’t going to be too sick to go. The rest of the stuff I just powered through. Fortunately, I didn’t have to have chemo or radiation.”

She did, however, get a MRSA infection in her left reconstructed breast, which necessitated the implant’s removal and a lopsided feel for three months until the breast could be reconstructed again. All told, it was a year out of a life that has since been cancer-free. Hilderbrand credits the team at Mass General, which she says was “so good, so professional, so cultured and educated,” along with her children’s nanny and friends.

And perhaps one thing more — the inexorability of deadlines. “I’d love to say writing is an escape, but this is my job. I wasn’t going to let cancer interfere with my life. I had to get a book done. I had to see that my kids were all right.”

Hilderbrand slowed her running. Otherwise, she went on. Still, she acknowledges, “I look back and say, ‘How did I do that?’”

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Elin Hilderbrand. Photograph by Nina Subin.

Indeed, her life is so full that she doesn’t write at a particular time of day but whenever she can in longhand, later transferring her prose to a computer. When she’s not writing, she’s reading for her writing. Right now, she’s deep into research for her first work of historical fiction — “Summer of ’69” — a coming-of-age tale told in part from the viewpoint of a 13-year-old girl whose brother goes off to the Vietnam War. The story of her breast cancer journey remains a constant. “I feel a responsibility (to share it) since I’m something of a public figure,” she says. So she has appeared at events for Mass General, Susan G. Komen, the Breast Cancer Research Foundation and the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. Hers, she says, is a message of hope.

“As much as cancer takes away, it gives you something and that is a new appreciation for life.”

The Susan G. Komen New England “More Than Pink” Luncheon will be held Nov. 28 at The Water’s Edge at Giovanni’s in Darien. For more, visit komenluncheon.org. And for more on Erin Hilderbrand, visit elinhilderbrand.net.

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Paula Poundstone. Photographs by Michael Schwartz.

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COMEDIAN PAULA POUNDSTONE HAS BEEN MAKING US LAUGH FOR ALMOST 40 YEARS. HER DISTINCTIVE DEADPAN DELIVERY STYLE OF STAND-UP, AS WELL AS HER COLORFUL SUITS AND TIES, HAVE MADE HER A FAVORITE IN COMEDY CLUBS AND THEATERS AND ON TV TALK SHOWS. The author of two books, her comedic persona has also earned her a place as a popular panelist on NPR’s “Wait Wait…

Don’t Tell Me!” In 2017, she debuted her own NPR podcast, “Live From the Poundstone Institute,” which is alternately hilarious and informative. She talked with us before her Oct. 6 gig at the Ridgefield Playhouse: Paula, your second book, “The Totally Unscientific Study Of The Search For Human Happiness,” was published in 2017. Would you say that writing books could be considered a natural progression or extension for someone who writes comedy or is it a different animal?

“I think, to some degree, it is a different animal. For one thing, it just plain requires more discipline, which is why I’ve

it) and then I can’t remember where I got it, and then I’m like, ‘Well, I thought it was mine.’ It’s best that I dam up that stream.

Mostly, as a reader I read nonfiction, not comedy. I’m looking at my stack of books waiting for me here. One is ‘What Happened’ by Hillary Clinton. ‘The Shallows’ by Nicholas Carr about the effects of (computer) screens on the brain. I read a lot about us and screens because it’s affected my family badly.

Another is Phil Klay’s ‘Redeployment,’ although they are short stories, they’re fiction based on fact, about service guys.”

In an NPR interview that you did around the time the book was published, you said that there’s a “difference between enjoying something and something making you happy.” Do you think that that’s the book’s ultimate message?

“Yes, if you just take the example of the Lamborghini and working out. Never in my life have I said to myself, when I’ve seen someone exercising, ‘Boy, I’d like to do that.’ But sometimes you see someone in a fancy sports car and you go, ‘Wow. I wonder what that’s like.’ There’s barely a moment of working out that I could say I ever enjoyed. The guy that I did the get-fit experiment with — it was so f---ing grueling that I can barely describe it. It was like being beaten with sticks. It was one of the most successful experiments in the book in terms of providing happiness.

“The Lamborghini, I think it’s safe to say, was a giant fail in the area of happiness. Not that it wasn’t enjoyable. But I don’t think there’s any great biochemical process taking place. It’s never going to say it in a Hallmark card, but happiness is a biochemical process. I think, from the start, that was the question I was addressing in the book: ‘What could I do that would give me a bounce so that when I returned to my regular life of raising a houseful of kids and animals and struggling with my work, that I’d still feel on an even keel, at least, as I did those things?’”

You could also have the memory of the experience to refer to.

“Yes, but to still have that lift. One of the things about working out is that the effects are ongoing. There’s no question that you don’t feel good while you’re doing it. One could argue that you feel good afterwards, because you’re not doing it anymore, but you still feel good afterwards.”

written two books in my entire life. I don’t have that kind of discipline. In fairness, I’m not a writer for a living. If my research on Dickens is correct, I believe he wrote for two weeks, then didn’t, then did again for two weeks. He went for these great long walks where I’m sure he did most of his writing…. I’m sure those two weeks of writing were secretarial work, that he had notes, at least in his head. I’m sure he crafted those stories while he walked. I don’t have that kind of time to set aside.”

Do you have favorite fellow comedians, who are also writers, that you also possibly looked to for your own process for the book?

“No. There are other comics who are writers. I don’t go see other comics and I don’t read (books by) other comics. The thing is, when you go onstage, you want to know that everything you’re saying comes from you. I’m a parrot. If I hear something one place, I have a tendency to somehow (repeat

The book is a “Totally Unscientific” study. Science also comes into play in your podcast “Live From the Poundstone Institute.” As school subjects go, where did science rank in your education?

“Aw, I sucked. In fact, for my seventh-grade science teacher Mrs. Boatman, we had to pick an element and do a report on it. I picked tin. All the things we thought of as tin, weren’t. Tin cans, tin pie plate — they were all aluminum by that point. I had all of these visual aids. I had a pie plate and I’d say, ‘Well, this isn’t tin, it’s aluminum.’ I’d come to something else and I’d say, ‘Well, this isn’t actually tin either, it’s aluminum.’ It was making my class my laugh. We enjoyed the presentation.

“Afterwards, when Mrs. Boatman announced the grades, which she delighted in doing, she said, ‘Well, if I was giving you a grade for entertainment, it would be an A. But for science…’ I can’t remember if it was a B or C, but my entertainment grade was much higher. Maybe she steered me in the right direction. Maybe I’d be an astronaut now if it wasn’t for Mrs. Boatman leaning heavily on the comedy.”

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Speaking of NPR, before becoming a panelist on “Wait Wait…Don’t Tell Me!” and then having your “Live From the Poundstone Institute” podcast, how much did NPR figure into your daily life?

“For many years, I was a listener to ‘Morning Edition.’ In the car and at home, I didn’t listen to any stations other than public radio. In fact, I used to wear a KCRW jacket because I made a fine donation.

I definitely started most mornings off with (‘Morning Edition’) because I trust their news, although that becomes an issue more and more in current days than it was years ago — the whole idea that some people were telling you sh-- that wasn’t true.

But that comes more from our president and Fox.” I’m glad you mentioned the president, because I was wondering if he has had an effect on your comedy one way or another?

“I talk about him here or there. There are nights when I don’t necessarily. I think it’s had an impact on the audience for sure. People come up to me over and over again and say, ‘Oh, it was so good to go out and laugh.’ He has singlehandedly depressed an entire nation, if not the world. He’s really bummed people out. This idea that the leader lies to you and that we’re being told on a daily basis that we’re closer to nuclear war than we’ve ever been.

“The idea that we ended up with this guy, I think it’s depressed the hell out of everyone. I’ll tell you what

industry it’s been great for is therapists. I have friends who are therapists and they tell me that their offices are filled with people who want to talk about Trump.”

As a parent, do you see it having an effect on your kids?

“They’re all young adults now, but I haven’t seen them gravitating towards watching politics or the news carefully. They will, but they’re not really there yet. I think it puts people off from taking an interest, if it wasn’t already in their veins to begin with. Some young people are fascinated with it from the start. I think that’s the helplessness that you feel — it’s easier not to watch than to watch.

“I was telling my daughter last night that I got involved watching the news during the Iran-Contra scandal. The televised hearings were so interesting that I started watching and following who all the players were. I had a deck of Iran-Contra trading cards. It had cartoon images of the characters on one side and an explanation of who they were on the other. I relied on those as I watched the hearings.”

You have a full schedule of tour dates.

What are the best and worst parts of being on the road for months at a time?

“Luckily, I’m not a band, so I don’t go out in a van and just stay out. I would not do well with that.

But I go out for a few nights and then I come home.

Hopefully, it’s weekly. I like to work as much as I

can, but I wouldn’t enjoy being out for a month at a time. The audience, the audience, the audience.

I live a strange, unbalanced life of being basically by myself in a hotel room for a lot of time, and then I go be with a crowd and then I go back to being ridiculously alone. But I love the audience. I’m out with crowds of people laughing about the things that are difficult. I feel bad for people who don’t have that. They’re going through the same difficult things I’m going through. They just don’t get to laugh about it a few nights a week. It is really healing. It’s the thing that keeps me sane and, dare I say, somewhat happy.”

Paula Poundstone plays the Ridgefield Playhouse Oct. 6. For more, visit ridgefieldplayhouse.org.

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A LITTLE FILM ABOUT BIGFOOT

BY PHIL HALL

(Editor’s note: WAG entertainment writer Phil Hall’s new book, “The Weirdest Movie Ever Made: The Patterson-Gimlin Bigfoot Film,” details the history of the 59-second footage purportedly showing the elusive Sasquatch walking at Bluff Creek in the northern California woods.

This excerpt of the book describes how Roger Patterson and Bob Gimlin — the ex-rodeo riders from Yakima, Washington, who shot the footage — alerted the world of their film.)

The cover of WAG entertainment writer Phil Hall’s new book, out Oct. 1.

Courtesy the author.

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he first public acknowledgement of the Patterson-Gimlin film occurred on Oct. 21, 1967, the day after the Bluff Creek encounter. On that Saturday morning, the Humboldt Times-Standard greeted its readers with a page-one exclusive carrying the headline “Mrs. Bigfoot Is Filmed.”

The newspaper’s coverage did not carry a byline, but Sasquatch researcher Christopher L. Murphy identified the possible author as Al Tostado, a reporter for the newspaper. We do not know if Patterson’s inquiry was a cold call or if he had been in contact with the reporter prior to going into the forest. In any event, the reporter seemed to be familiar with the folklore surrounding the Sasquatch and the XXL-sized footprints that kept turning up in the area.

In retrospect, it seems curious that the newspaper would run the story, let alone put it on its front page. For starters, Patterson and Gimlin had no still photographs or other physical evidence to back

the claim of a Sasquatch encounter. The article also planted many of the seeds of confusion that would baffle and bother scholars trying to make sense of this story. This is obvious from the overexcited first paragraph: “A Yakima, Washington, man and his Indian tracking aide came out of the wilds of northern Humboldt County yesterday to breathlessly report that they had seen and taken motion pictures of ‘a giant hominoid creature.’”

This article established the story that Patterson was the brains, heart and soul of the expedition, with Gimlin relegated to sidekick status. As per the journalistic protocol of that distant era, Gimlin is defined by his race.

The article spends two paragraphs describing Patterson’s authorship of the book “Do Abominable Snowmen of America Really Exist?” along with his “50 tapes of interviews” with people who claimed to have seen Sasquatches and the “eight years on the project” that he devoted to the search. Gimlin’s knowledge of the subject is ignored, and he is only mentioned as having “been associated with Patterson for a year.”

Furthermore, the article stated that Patterson claimed Gimlin released their horses in the commotion of the encounter, although Gimlin would later contradict that. Patterson also affirmed the Sasquatch’s gender by saying, “I could see its breasts hanging down and they flopped when it moved” — but Gimlin would later insist they were unaware of the breasts until they reviewed the film footage. Patterson told the reporter that the film was “already on its way by plane to his hometown for processing,” but there is no record of a chartered flight flying the film to Yakima and no clear evidence that Patterson had funds with him to pay for a last-minute charter flight. Patterson also identified Al DeAtley as a “partner” who “helped finance Patterson’s expeditions,” ignoring the fact that DeAtley was his brother-in-law.

The article also quoted Patterson as claiming the Sasquatch encounter happened at 1:30 p.m., adding that it was eight hours prior to the interview with the reporter. However, there has been uncertainty regarding just when the Sasquatch was seen. Assuming the reporter was called at 9:30 p.m., the turnaround time for writing and editing the article and setting it as a page-one story would have been uncommonly rapid, especially for a Saturday edition of a small daily newspaper.

Gimlin was never quoted in the article. Whether Patterson intentionally kept him off the phone call or whether the reporter chose not to speak with the “Indian tracking aide” is not known. As a result, Patterson was the center of the attention in the first media mention of the footage.

Gimlin drove the pair back to Yakima — he would later claim that Patterson was a terrible driver and he did not trust him to get them home in one piece. Just when they returned, either late Saturday, Oct. 21 or early Sunday, Oct. 22, is not known. But Gimlin, re-

ported to be exhausted from the drive, went straight to his house to collapse into a lengthy sleep.

On Oct. 22, Al DeAtley arrived at Patterson’s home with the film from Bluff Creek. They were joined by Canadians John Green and René Dahinden, respectively a newspaper publisher and a Swiss-born government forestry officer, who shared an enthusiasm for Sasquatch research, along with a Californian Sasquatch researcher named Jim McClarin. In Patterson’s basement, the men viewed the Bigfoot footage and held a lengthy discussion on how to proceed with the film.

Green and Dahinden convinced Patterson that the film should be taken for review before anthropologists at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver. Their argument was solid: The Sasquatch was a more familiar aspect of the British Columbian folklore, and the possibility of documentary evidence would be treated with a greater degree of respect than if the footage was taken to an East Coast university where the Sasquatch was an unknown entity. Joining this cause was Don Abbott, who was able to arrange for his institution to study the film.

Starting on Oct. 23, Abbott helped to stir publicity for the film by alerting the media in British Co-

lumbia about the existence of the film. A Vancouver radio show host named Jack Webster agreed to interview Patterson and Gimlin when they arrived in the city. During this interview, Webster was the first person to publicly question why Patterson shot the Sasquatch with his camera and not with a gun. “I don’t think you would have if you had seen the humanness of it,” Patterson responded.

“I think it would take a person with a little bit of murder in his heart to shoot something like this.”

On Oct. 26, a screening was arranged at the University of British Columbia. For all of the hoopla that was generated about the presentation, the audience turnout was rather scant. Historian Christopher L. Murphy noted there were only two university professors, three museum scientists, including Abbott, along with Patterson, Gimlin, Green, Dahinden and another Sasquatch researcher named Bob Titmus. Patterson provided the plaster casts of the footprints collected from the Bluff Creek site for review.

The screening, to be charitable, was a disaster.

Frank Beebe, a museum scientist, would recall the presentation in a December 1967 interview by dismissing the creature in the film as “a phony and a fake.” Ian McTaggart-Cowan, one of the university

scientists who was also present, looked back at the screening in a 1983 interview by stating no one present “thought they were looking at a species of creature unknown to modern science.”

Returning home from Vancouver, Patterson loaned a copy of the footage to the news department at KIMA, the television station serving the Yakima market. The station broadcast a news item on the alleged encounter and offered a glimpse of the Bluff Creek Sasquatch footage. This represented the first telecast of the Patterson-Gimlin film.

The Yakima Herald, the local daily newspaper, ran a brief item on the Bluff Creek Sasquatch with an Oct. 27, 1967, dateline. The article mentioned “25 feet of motion picture film” but offered no imagery.

However, a photo of Patterson and Gimlin admiring the plaster casts of the Sasquatch’s footprints ran with the story, which was picked up by the Associated Press news wire. It is not certain how many newspapers reran the story via the Associated Press, but this would have been the first wide scale U.S. media acknowledgment of what transpired.

Phil Hall’s “The Weirdest Movie Ever Made: The Patterson-Gimlin Bigfoot Film” is available Oct. 1 from BearManor Media. For more, visit bearmanormedia.com.

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half-baths — filled with natural light. A grand, double-height reception hall features an impressive curved staircase, setting the mood. The living room is graced by a wood-burning fireplace and French doors opening to a large stone terrace. There’s another fireplace and a floor-to-ceiling bay window in the formal dining room, which accommodates both large parties and intimate dinners. A stunning paneled library has a distinctive coffered ceiling as well as another wood-burning fireplace. The marvelous chef’s kitchen opens onto a comfortable family room, which also offers a wood-burning fireplace and French doors to the stone terrace. A lovely double bedroom and en suite bathroom is perfect for guests and completes the first floor.

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SINGS ‘HAPPY’

BY GREGG SHAPIRO

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Audra McDonald. Photograph Š Allison Michael Orestein.

WITH A POWERFUL AND IMPRESSIVE VOCAL RANGE THAT ENCOMPASSES OPERA, MUSICAL THEATER AND BILLIE HOLIDAY, AUDRA MCDONALD IS THE SINGER’S SINGER. A certified star of stage (a recipient of multiple awards, including six Tonys); large and small screen (she won an Emmy Award in 2015 for “Sweeney Todd Live From Lincoln Center”); and recorded music (McDonald also has a pair of Grammys for “Weill: The Rise And Fall Of The City Of Mahagonny”), McDonald has demonstrated that there isn’t anything she can’t do. She is as comfortable in a comedic setting as she in a dramatic one. McDonald’s first concert recording recently was released, “Sing Happy” (Decca Gold). She was kind enough to take time out of her busy schedule — which includes opening Carnegie Hall’s season this month — to answer a few questions: “Sing Happy,” is your first live album with a symphony orchestra. What does such a recording mean to you?

“Just the fact that I got the opportunity to sing with the New York Philharmonic and that it’s been recorded for posterity — that for me is a dream come true. These are a lot of classic Broadway tunes that I’m doing. A lot of times they were orchestrated for larger orchestras than what we have on Broadway now. But I don’t think they were ever orchestrated for as huge an orchestra as we had with the New York Phil. It was a dream come true to do an album with the incredible institution that is the New York Philharmonic.”

When you perform a concert, as you did opening night at Caramoor in Katonah this past June, what percentage of the material is drawn from your stage work and from your recordings?

“Really a small percentage of the roles that I’ve actually played. Maybe one or two songs from the roles that I played. For the rest, I try to let myself have a wide berth in terms of singing songs of the roles that I might not get the chance to play 74

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or roles that I’ve always wanted to play. More of it is just from the incredible songbook of the great American musical theater. But mainly it’s as if I could play any role that I wanted — even with the live recording. A lot of the songs were songs that were written for men and male characters.”

Earlier this year, you were a guest judge on “RuPaul’s Drag Race.” What was that experience like for you?

“It was so much fun. I’ve known Ru for a long time. I’ve obviously been a fan of the show. Ever since I’ve been in New York, when I was in college (Juilliard), a couple of my friends were

Audra McDonald with the New York Philharmonic.

Photograph by Chris Lee.

"JUST THE FACT THAT I GOT THE OPPORTUNITY TO SING WITH THE NEW YORK PHILHARMONIC AND THAT IT’S BEEN RECORDED FOR POSTERITY — THAT FOR ME IS A DREAM COME TRUE." — Audra McDonald

ing it into a film and Michael John asked me if I wanted to do it, I said, ‘Heck, yeah.’ I didn’t have to think about it for a millisecond. Once they told me I was working with Cheyenne Jackson and Martha Plimpton, I was over the moon. I’ve known them both and loved them for years. To get the opportunity to finally work with both of them was great and a ball. We had a blast.” doing drag and performing in clubs when we were in school to make a little extra cash. I grew to have not only an appreciation but also a love of the art form very early on. I consider it to be an incredible art form. For me, it was a joy to be a part of it.”

Have you ever seen a drag queen doing you in an act?

“Have I seen one? No. But there is a very talented actor in New York who sounds like me, so he’ll sing like me from time to time. He’ll do Audra McDonald imitations. He’s amazing. I’ve never seen one do me in their act.”

You were in two very different movie musicals in 2017, “Beauty and the Beast” and “Hello Again.” In “Hello Again” you played Sally, a character who shared love scenes with Cheyenne Jackson’s and Martha Plimpton’s characters. What was it about Sally that made you want to play her?

“I auditioned for ‘Hello Again’ when it was first done off-Broadway a million years ago. That’s where I first met (playwright) Michael John LaChiusa and (director) Graciela Daniele. They said, ‘You’re not quite right, not quite old enough for the role.’ I’ve had my eye on Sally since then. (laughs) When I was contacted about them mak-

Speaking of movies, you have an Emmy, a Grammy and a Tony. What would it mean to you to win an Oscar and complete the EGOT package?

“Oh, my goodness! I don’t know that that’s something that will ever happen, but I’d be blown away if that were to happen. I don’t think I could come up with that in my wildest dreams. If that were to happen I’d probably lie down and float right up to heaven. I don’t know what else would be left to do.”

Audra McDonald performs at Carnegie Hall’s 2018-2019 season opening-night gala Oct. 3 in Manhattan. For more, visit carnegiehall.org.

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SPANNING

BY RYAN DEFFENBAUGH

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THE HUDSON RIVER VALLEY’S PALISADES, MOUNTAINS AND AUTUMN LEAVES HAVE INSPIRED GENERATIONS OF ARTISTS, BUT WHAT ABOUT ITS MANMADE ELEMENTS?

New York City-based photographer Harry Wilks has spent decades capturing the steel and concrete bridges, as well as railroad tracks, that helped connect and grow both New York City and the Hudson Valley. Through his lens — with photographs spanning the George Washington Bridge up north to Poughkeepsie’s Mid-Hudson Bridge — Wilks aims to catalogue the “interaction between the natural world and manmade structure,” as he describes in his artist statement.

A number of these photographs are on display

Harry Wilks’ “Bear Mountain Bridge” (1997), silver print. Collection of the Hudson River Museum.

at the Hudson River Museum in Yonkers in “Harry Wilks: Hudson River Bridges” (through Oct. 14). The photographs frame the bridges’ often stunning natural surroundings with the structure’s girders, rails and cables.

“The Hudson,” Wilks writes, “becomes something more than just a beautiful river because of the bridges that cross over it, and the roads and train tracks along its banks. By emphasizing the manmade elements, which sometimes loom large in the foreground, as well as by moving in close with a wide-angle lens, I alter the scene and create a sense of place that is realistic but also personal and strange.”

Wilks first started photographing the bridges in 1992. Before that, he spent decades photographing New York City from its rooftops. As described on his website, his photos explore “the quirky rhythms of urban and manmade rural environments.”

Security concerns following the terrorist attacks on Manhattan on 9/11 made the city’s roofs inaccessible, so Wilks concentrated his work on the ground. He’d hop in the car and “go to places I enjoy being, which is often where there’s water, railroad tracks and bridges.”

Speaking with WAG about the series, he points to a photograph he took from Bear Mountain Bridge in 2008. The bridge, as any driver can note, has stunning views of Bear Mountain State Park to the south and the start of the Hudson Highlands to the north.

“The Hudson Valley is a beautiful landscape,” Wilks tells WAG. “But I have to find something that’s made by man. Man’s presence has to be in the picture.”

In this photograph, Wilks uses the whole bottom third of the frame for a pattern of rivets on one of the suspension bridge’s steel plates.

“That’s how important the structures are to me, that I put that much of it against the landscape,” Wilks says.

Bear Mountain Bridge is a particular favorite. He praised its classic design from more than 90 years ago, its majestic view and the pedestrian walkways that make it easily traversable by foot.

Wilks shot much of the series on a Widelux camera, which captures a full panoramic view through a pivoting lens. The series includes color and blackand-white photography. He shifted to digital in the mid-aughts but shot only in black and white before then. Still, some more recent photos are in black and white. He says he uses color only if it adds to the photograph.

The collection includes shots of the Tappan Zee Bridge, as well. As for it’s replacement, the Mario Cuomo Bridge, Wilks says he hasn’t had a chance to explore it just yet. He’s waiting on pedestrian pathways for the bridge to open. After that “you’ll find me there.”

For more, visit hrm.org and harrywilks.com.

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IN NOVEMBER 1968, COLUMBIA PICTURES RELEASED “HEAD,” A FEATURE FILM STARRING THE MONKEES. The film was produced on a low budget of approximately $750,000 and, after a wave of withering reviews from the New York and Hollywood media, it was quickly withdrawn, grossing a mere $16,111 during its brief theatrical run. Fast-forward a half-century and “Head” is now considered to be among the most innovative works of the late 1960s.

“The film was ahead of its time in its technique and editing and visual sampling,” observes Peter Mills, author of the book “The Monkees, Head and the 60s.” “It was just not what people were expecting from a pop group.”

But, then again, The Monkees were not a typical pop group. Conceived as a television comedy series about an aspiring band, The Monkees were assembled by producers Bob Rafelson and Bert Schneider and featured British stage actor Davy Jones, former child actor Micky Dolenz, Greenwich Village folk music singer Peter Tork and Texas singer/songwriter Michael Nesmith. The series “The Monkees” debuted on NBC in September 1966 and followed the pattern of absurdist humor found in The Beatles’ movies “A Hard Day’s Night” and “Help!,” complete with zany sequences tied to the band’s songs.

The obvious emulation of the Fab Four led to the Monkees’ being dubbed the “Pre-Fab Four” by the entertainment press, which curtly reported that the band only provided vocals and did not play instruments on their first two studio albums.

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Davy Jones, Peter Tork, Micky Dolenz and Michael Nesmith of The Monkees in the cult film “Head.” Courtesy The Criterion Collection.

with the quartet required to spend the majority of its time on the set of the show. A group of studio musicians known as The Wrecking Crew, featured in a recent PBS documentary, supplied the instrumentals, as it did for hundreds of other recordings.)

To almost everyone’s surprise, including the group’s members, The Monkees became a major musical force, with chart-topping albums and hit tunes including “I’m a Believer” and “Last Train to Clarksville.” “The Monkees” won the Emmy Award as Best Comedy Series and the cast was invited by The Beatles to sit in on the recording sessions for “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.”

More surprising, The Monkees congealed into a single unit and started to agitate for greater control over its music, successfully getting producer Don Kirshner removed from oversight of their albums. But when The Monkees demanded the series change into a variety show format, NBC cancelled the show in February 1968 after two seasons.

Rafelson and Schneider then opted to transition The Monkees from small screen to big screen, with Schneider serving as executive producer and Rafelson directing while co-producing and co-writing with Jack Nicholson, who at the time was wallowing in B-grade films and was eager to do more behind-the-camera work. The film project, which began without a title and was even called “Untitled” before “Head” was selected, was positioned as an attack on the entertainment industry in general and on the artificial roots of The Monkees phenomenon in particular.

“The movie is essentially about us being victims, always the victim of circumstance,” Dolenz recalled in a 2010 interview. “It was about the whole zeitgeist, and deconstruction of, not only The Monkees, but also a lot to do with the deconstruction of Hollywood.”

Framed in a surreal, stream-of-consciousness flow of jolting sequences rich with social and political commentary, the film was a seismic shift from the jollity of “The Monkees” television series in both spirit and style. Viewed today, “Head” is closer in personality to contemporary comedy cynicism against authority and social protocol and the antithesis of the too-safe humor of 1968 Hollywood.

The opening segment, with Dolenz leaping from a bridge and being rescued from a watery grave by two mermaids, is stunning for both the initial violence of his death spiral and the visual shock when the underwater sequence glows with kaleidoscopic solarization effects that are mirrored on

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the soundtrack by “Porpoise Song,” an intoxicating composition by Gerry Goffin and Carole King.

Music historian Mark Arnold, co-author of “Long Title: Looking for the Good Times; Examining The Monkees' Songs, One by One,” states that “Porpoise Song” is “possibly the best song The Monkees ever did. It is sung with passion by both Micky Dolenz and Davy Jones, and you’d be hard-pressed to find another song of the era that evokes so much psychedelia.”

The film offers startling emotional shifts, most notably when newsreel footage of the execution of Viet Cong fighter Nguyen Văn Lém by a fatal shot to his head is echoed by a woman screaming — not at the horror of the wartime killing, but in excitement that The Monkees are in concert. The performance footage of the Nesmith-penned “Circle Sky” is intercut with Vietnam War footage — “Head” was the rare film in 1968 to voice unapologetic opposition to the war — and ends with fans rushing the stage to tear apart The Monkees, who are revealed to be mannequins.

But “Head” is also rich in taking sharp jabs at hoary Hollywood staples, including Arabian fantasies, gangster flicks and dum-dum commercials.

The latter is particularly bizarre with the Monkees playing dandruff flakes in Victor Mature’s scalp.

Throughout the film, The Monkees keep breaking

the proverbial fourth wall to comment on the film’s progression and even fight with Rafelson on what they’re doing. A zany mix of cameo appearances from icons at different corners of the cultural scene — Annette Funicello, Frank Zappa (walking a steer), cult movie star Timothy Carey, boxing champ Sonny Liston and A-list stripper Carol Doda — add to the unpredictability of “Head.”

Dolenz would later claim, “We didn't want to make a 90-minute version of the TV show,” but The Monkees’ fans were probably expecting that and were baffled at what they found in “Head.” It didn’t help that Columbia Pictures gave the greenlight on a marketing effort that, incredibly, made no mention of The Monkees’ involvement in the film.

Another marketing effort offered quickie clips from the film’s wild sequences, but strangely ignored The Monkees’ music, which ranged in style from the jaunty show-tune vibe of the Harry Nilsson-penned “Daddy’s Song” to Nesmith’s full-rock assault “Circle Sky” to the Carole King-Toni Stern ethereal meditation “As We Go Along.” The last turned up on the soundtrack of last year’s indie film hit “Lady Bird.”

“The main thing that struck me overall after hearing the soundtrack and watching the film is how good the songs are,” observes music historian Mark Arnold. “The six songs are virtually the best in The Monkees’ canon. Unfortunately, the film

and accompanying soundtrack album died quick deaths. Although the soundtrack did peak at number 45 on the charts, it was a far cry from the Monkeemania a year earlier.”

For years, “Head” was kept out of circulation because of its poor initial reception and its perceived role in speeding the demise of the beloved band.

Monkees historian Peter Mills notes the film never played in Great Britain until 1977 and only then at a single British Film Institute screening as part of a Rafelson retrospective.

Most Americans got their first glimpse of “Head” when it played in an edited version on Dec. 30, 1974, on the “CBS Late Movie.” Into the 1980s, the rise of cable television and a new interest in The Monkees helped give “Head” more visibility. Today, the film is part of The Criterion Collection, the home entertainment label, and Film Comment columnist Chuck Stephens offered a cogent tribute via an essay in the film’s Blu-ray release. “‘Head’ is 1968 in an acid tab,” Stephens writes.

“Lost somewhere between wartime agonies and freewheeling love-in, it’s time in capsule form, history as hop-headed high jinks and hilarious popcult aggression, a fearless exposé — and a perverse sort of celebration — of the commodification of The Monkees, the ‘Ulysses’ of a hip New Hollywood about to be born.”

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PURCHASE’S INVITATION TO THE DANCE

BY GEORGETTE GOUVEIA

Members of the Purchase Dance Company.

Photograph by Christopher Duggan.

I

n a crossover world in which dancers may do ballet one season and ballroom or Broadway the next, the Purchase Dance Company is ready for anything.

The company, formerly the Purchase Dance Corps, is made up of students whose skill in performance belies their status as apprentices. Many go on to major dance companies like Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater and the Martha Graham Dance Company as well as Broadway and Hollywood. Among its most acclaimed graduates is Terese Capucilli, a Graham principal dancer who was one of the last to be coached by Graham herself and who is now artistic director laureate of the company.

“The dancers are versatile and strong technically so that they can do contemporary dance or ballet,” says Nelly Van Bommel, acting director of The Conservatory of Dance at Purchase College, the company’s home.

That versatility will be on display Dec. 6 through 9 when the company performs at the college’s Dance Theatre Lab. The program will include a piece by Anna Sokolow (1910-2000), an early Graham dancer who went on to create sociopolitical works and help found The Actors Studio in Man-

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hattan. Also on the bill are two contemporary dance works — one by Rena Butler, a 2011 alumna who is now a choreographic fellow with Hubbard Street Dance Chicago, assisted by Ailey dancer Chalvar Monteiro; and one by Romanian ballerina Ana Maria Lucaciu, most recently of Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet.

“So works by three women, and I insisted on that as many choreographers are male,” Van Bommel says. “We try to shine a spotlight on female choreographers as much as we can.”

Rounding out the program will be a contemporary ballet by Norbert De La Cruz III, who danced with the Joffrey Ballet.

Students audition for the fall and spring concerts and, typically, about half (90 to 100) wind up performing in them. (There are 180 women in the program and 35 to 40 men.)

“Last spring, there were nine guest artists and every single student performed,” Van Bommel says.

The company takes advantage of other performance opportunities as well. This past May, Purchase was part of New York Live Arts, described on its website as a Manhattan “center of diverse artists devoted to body-based investigation that

transcends barriers between and within communities.” It’s led by Rockland County-based choreographer Bill T. Jones, co-founder of the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company. In the fall of 2017, 10 dancers from the Purchase Dance Company were selected to perform at the Kuandu Arts Festival at the Taipei National University of the Arts, which has an exchange program with Purchase College. In Taiwan, Purchase Dance Company members attended lectures, participated in and led workshops and performed two works, including Conservatory of Dance alumnus Doug Varone’s “Lux.” Van Bommel describes Purchase dance students as “academically strong and driven.” They have to be. Given that this is a professional training program, the emphasis is on dance but not exclusively. So the day may begin with academics, two technique classes then rehearsals and more academics and choreography in the evening.

“Many go on to performing, choreographing and directing,” Van Bommel says. “They’re extremely entrepreneurial. We give them the best possible tools to be the best, because today you have to create your own opportunities.”

For more, visit purchase.edu/dance.

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BOOK ’EM

BY GEORGETTE GOUVEIA

M

ark Fowler and Jessica Kaplan are bucking a tide. Or perhaps they are really riding a wave.

For years, we have heard how first, bookstore chains like Barnes & Noble and, then, Amazon would sound the death knell of the independent bookstore. While several shuffled off their mortal coil in the Great Recession of 2008, Fowler says, “I think they’re making something of a comeback.”

“There are some good ones in Westchester,” adds Kaplan, who with Fowler, her husband, has visited some 62 from New Jersey to Washington state.

Now the Scarsdale couple hope they’ve added one more to the places you’d like to cozy up in. Bronx River Books opened last month in a 1,200-square-foot space on their hometown’s Spencer Place with the motto “Shop the village. Read the world.”

Surely, if there were ever a place to read the world, it is Scarsdale. You need only visit its packed public library — particularly on the late-summer weekend of its annual book sale, when you can’t get into the parking lot — to realize that this is a most literary community. Indeed, during the interview, shortly before the bookstore launched, passersby couldn’t resist peeking in, hoping against hope that maybe, just maybe the new shop was already open. While it wasn’t, Fowler and Kaplan paused graciously to greet them briefly and answer eager questions. Might the new store have some wrapping paper and greeting cards in the manner of the late, lamented Reading, Writing and Wrapping? (It might.) Might a new author leave his contact information? (Certainly.)

New authors are just part of the plans for the shop — a most contemporary space in black, white and a pop of red with enough shelves in oak veneer with a fruitwood stain to hold 8,000 to 10,000 books. Many of the bookcases are on casters so that they can be rolled away to accommodate 40 chairs for events, such as authors’ readings and story hours. A table in front will support local book clubs, while nooks allow for individual readers/browsers.

(Seating was one of the tips the couple picked up in doing due diligence in bookstores across the nation, Kaplan says, adding “I think it’s a great idea.”)

Seated or standing, patrons are apt to conclude that this is not your average bookstore. Volumes

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Mark Fowler and Jessica Kaplan, the couple behind the new Bronx River Books in Scarsdale.

Photograph by Sebastián Flores.

are organized in an interesting way, with “The Human Condition” replacing the old philosophy and religion sections and romance giving way to “Passion.” While the titles are mostly contemporary, some are classic, so that the shop has both Homer’s “The Odyssey,” and Daniel Mendelsohn’s “An Odyssey: A Father, A Son and an Epic,” about an octogenarian who enrolls in his son’s classics class at Bard College before they embark on an odyssey of their own. And while the books range across subject matter, Fowler says they are probably “overrepresented with fiction.” That’s because he is a writer and lawyer who has spent his career in the publishing industry, poring over cases involving libel or freedom of information.

(He’s still associated with the Manhattan firm of Satterlee Stephens LLP.) She is a retired middle school English teacher who taught at Rye Country Day School, Greenwich Academy and the

French-American School of New York.

Both have been involved in The Center for Fiction, which is moving to its new home in Brooklyn in December — he as a board member and she as a reader/rater for the center’s First Novel Prize.

In addition to their three grown sons, Fowler and Kaplan are the pet parents of Virginia Woolf, an English Springer Spaniel who may become the bookshop dog. (The writer Virginia Woolf counted a Cocker Spaniel, Pinka, among her dogs and wrote a book from the viewpoint of the poet Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s Cocker Spaniel, “Flush: A Biography.”)

Now Virginia Woolf, Fowler and Kaplan have set sail on their own odyssey, for as the poet Emily Dickinson wrote, “There is no Frigate like a Book.”

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BY GINA GOUVEIA

ON A WARM AND BREEZY SUNDAY MORNING IN LATE AUGUST, I MADE SOME NEW FRIENDS, OF THE QUAKER VARIETY. LET ME SET THE STAGE FOR YOU. I’ve driven up into the hills and woods of Wilton to observe the worship of the Wilton Friends Society. The sounds of nature — chirping birds and humming insects — drift through the open doors and windows of a modest wooden meetinghouse.

The peaceful space with Quaker-style benches and plain cushions arranged facing each other is simply adorned with pillows and throws randomly placed throughout the room for the cooler days to come.

The furnishings form a circular pattern around a central and simple hearth.

This “meeting” in Wilton, like those of other meetings of worship for "unprogrammed" Quakers, as they refer to their branch of Quakerism, consists of one hour of silent worship. I knew of this format in advance — no deacon, pastor or other officiant, no prayers, no songs — just silence. Now, for those of you who are unfamiliar with these peaceful folks or their doctrine, as I was, there is more meaning to this hour than just silence and observance. The Religious Society of Friends — whose early members included Pennsylvania founder William Penn — believes not in one God, but rather that the divine spirit inhabits everyone. Through a contemplative state, described not as meditation but as letting go of distracting thoughts and external forces, it is possible to be receptive to a thought or message compelling enough to relay to those assembled.

As the hour progresses, attendees become much more self-aware — I know I did — which is one of the goals, as explained to me by Pete McCaughan, the clerk of the Wilton Quaker Meeting. “It’s a method to set all aside, come into your center and an expectant state of worship or receive a message and find the spirit.” Welcoming and hospitable, my new friends host a social hour and reception following announcements, introductions and news. Intentions by members or loved ones of members who may be facing challenges in their lives are spoken, too, and those individuals are then “held in the light” by the meeting.

Afterward, it’s an opportunity to glean more insight and information from Pete and his wife, Renda, the archivist for the meeting, who compiled and wrote a history of the Wilton meeting on the occasion of its 75th anniversary in June of this year. I learn of the commonality among the various meetings — this noun, “meeting,” referring to the members of one worship location in its entirety. Most meetings of the Religious Society of Friends are in the Friends General Conference (FGC), which meets periodically by region and annually for week-long sessions.

Learning more about the Quakers and their commitment to education through the Friends schools’ compelling mission, I can understand why pres-

ent-day, nontheists may be drawn in. The core beliefs of the religious doctrine correspond to an acronym, SPICES, representing simplicity, peace, integrity, community, equality and stewardship. Pete chooses to focus on two — a commitment to peace and stewardship, or preservation of natural resources and the planet. (Quakers are generally though not exclusively pacifists, a subject addressed in Jessamyn West’s novel and its subsequent 1956 film, “Friendly Persuasion.”)

The Wilton Meeting has a Peace and Service Committee that seeks, in a noncombative way, to eliminate the causes of conflict, mostly by participation in marches and peaceful protests. Other meetings that uphold these doctrines have their own versions of action committees with similar purposes. And there is a national endeavor, the Friends Committee on National Legislation, actively engaged in formal lobbying on public policy and legislation on behalf of the Society of Friends’ peace-promoting agenda.

I take away some publications and later learn more about Quaker thought and life in the Friends Journal from May 2018. Its cover article is “What are Quaker Values anyway?” Within its pages, winning stories from an annual competition for middle and high school students, representing six Friends Schools across the United States, tell the story of how Quaker testimonies are manifested in a real way in their lives.

Many of the children who attend Friends Schools started as early as nursery school — Wilton Meeting has a preschool on its campus — attending worship with their parents and participating in religious education programs. Known for their commitment to quality education and those core-guiding principles, the Friends Schools have also attracted others drawn to their values who discovered the doctrine in the process. A moment of clarity occurred as I recalled the Washington, D.C.-based Sidwell Friends School, whose alumni include several children of U.S. Presidents.

The Quakers have a long and storied history dating from 17th-century England and then settlements throughout New England, originally Rhode Island and Massachusetts. During colonization, Nantucket Island in Massachusetts had a record 1,700 Quakers.

However, throughout the 20th century, Quakers saw their numbers decline. According to a 2012 census, Pete says, there are under 400,000 worldwide, with about 80,000 in the U.S. and roughly 50 percent on the continent of Africa, including a large concentration in Kenya.

I spoke, also, with the clerk of the Purchase Quaker Meeting, Deb Wood. Their Meeting and historic cemetery, located at the corner of Purchase and Lake streets in Harrison, has a 275-year history and was founded by John Harrison and four partners, the original settlers of the Harrison area in Westchester. Their members had a long history of opposing slavery, supporting troops during the Revolutionary War’s Battle of White Plains and providing relief to others in times of strife. Today, members of the Purchase Meeting continue their own active work on the American Friends Service Committee, which provides relief and educational programs

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around the world.

As with other meetings — like those in Chappaqua, Scarsdale and other New York state localities — the Purchase Meeting cuts a wide swath, drawing members from as far as City Island, New Rochelle, Peekskill and Connecticut. Though their ranks have seen some decline, the Purchase Meeting is not actively conducting outreach or marketing activities for members as I learned the Wilton Meeting had recently undertaken via Facebook.

There have been many notable Quakers. Both Pete and Deb mention the name Henry Cadbury of Pennsylvania, who was related to the famous chocolatiers. An educator and scholar, Cadbury co-founded the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) following the draft instituted in 1917, as a way for the Society to help the country during wartime, without participating in combat. It was Cadbury who ultimately traveled to Oslo, Norway, in 1947 to accept the Nobel Peace Prize awarded jointly to the AFSC and the Friends Service Council of London, recognizing their enormous efforts providing relief and refugee intervention during both world wars.

With a long reputation for being ethical in business, Quakers are known for setting good and fair prices. So much so, in fact, that historically many businesses with no association to the Society — Quaker Oats and Quaker State Motor Oil are examples — have traded off this reputation by using the word “Quaker” in their titles and associating their

Connecticut Friends School in Wilton. Photograph by Gina Gouveia.

identity with Quaker values.

In a separate article appearing in that same Friends Journal, “Selling Quakerism: the mission-market tension inherent in ‘Quaker values,’” Tom Hoopes — a member of the Valley Meeting, in Valley Forge, Pennsylvania, and head of the religious department at George School, a Quaker School in Bucks County, Pennsylvania — says, “It is understandable that ‘Quak-

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For more on the Quakers, visit fgcquaker.org/ cloud/wilton-monthly-meeting, purchasemeeting. org, afsc.org and fcnl.org.

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WHERE ARE THEY NOW?

GREENWICH HISTORICAL SOCIETY’S BIG REVEAL

BY MARY SHUSTACK

B

ack in our garden-themed May issue, we shared how the Bush-Holley Historic Site in Cos Cob — the Strickland Road headquarters of the Greenwich Historical Society — was in the midst of a massive campaign to reinvent its campus.

Now, the site synonymous with the Cos Cob art colony and the birth of American Impressionism is ready for its big reveal.

As Debra Mecky, the society’s executive director and CEO told us in the spring, “It’s just going to change our game.”

This month, visitors will see just how, as the society, founded in 1931, unveils the campus that ties together both the town and its own storied history with ambitious plans for the future.

The site, with roots dating from the 18th century, is perhaps best known for the time when it served as a boarding house for artists and writers. The Cos Cob Art Colony that flourished there from 1890 to 1920 helped nurture American Impressionism, a later, bolder form of Impressionism than its French counterpart, led by such artists as Childe Hassam, John Henry Twachtman and J. Alden Weir.

The project, which features a new $12 million building created by the award-winning historic preservation architectural firm David Scott Parker Architects as its centerpiece, was designed to allow the society to welcome more visitors, exhibit more of its collections, expand its programs and further share the stories — and establish the place in history — of both the Cos Cob art colony and Greenwich.

In announcing the completion of the project, Mecky said, “The historical society’s grand opening will usher in an exciting new phase in our 87-year history and the proud 378-year history of Greenwich. Our larger, more accessible campus enables us to showcase a much broader collection of art, archival materials and digital collec-

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A close-up of the newly reimagined Toby’s Tavern, left, and Storehouse, right, on the grounds of the renovated Greenwich Historical Society campus in Cos Cob. Rendering by David Scott Parker Architects. Courtesy Greenwich Historical Society.

tions to give visitors a better understanding of how Greenwich was, and continues to be, intertwined with the nation’s larger narrative.”

Added Peter Malkin, chairman of the Reimagine the Campus Capital Campaign, in the announcement, “Our dramatically reimagined and expanded campus is a dream come true.

The unwavering generosity of the community throughout our three-year capital campaign has made it possible for the historical society to enter the national stage and take its place as one of America’s great historical institutions.”

Among the highlights: • Exhibition galleries: The onetime railroad hotel, which would become Toby’s Tavern, has been meticulously restored to its early 20th-century appearance to complement its new use housing stateof-the-art museum galleries. The inaugural exhibition in the new museum will be “History Is...,” while other exhibits will include “The Cos Cob Art Colony,” “Highlights of Greenwich History,” “Treasures from the Collections” and a film, “Our Place in History.”

• Store and café: The museum building features a Museum Store, as well as an Artists’ Café in which exhibitions will feature Greenwich artists.

• Library: There is an accessible library and archives for researchers, journalists, homeowners, ge-

nealogists and others to discover more than 40,000 items that document Greenwich’s cultural heritage.

• Gardens: Impressionist-era flower and fruit and vegetable gardens are being restored according to historical documentation. The new campus provides more green space for outdoor events and children’s programming.

• Programming: New offerings have been designed to make Greenwich’s history even more engaging, relevant and participatory and will continue to include tours, lectures, educational programs and events for all ages.

• Access: Improved access includes double the parking, an elevator and a leveling of the terrain for accessibility and maximum efficiency.

The Greenwich Historical Society will officially celebrate the opening of its new campus from noon to 4 p.m. Oct. 6, with free museum admission plus a family friendly Opening Day Party featuring scarecrow making, children’s crafts and games, live music and campus tours.

Refreshments will be available for sale. Online registration is requested. The festivities will continue from noon to 4 p.m. Oct. 7 with free museum admission and tours. The campus is at 47 Strickland Road. For more, or to register, visit greenwichhistory.org.

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BREAK THE RULES

BY CAMI WEINSTEIN

A

re there rules to break in decorating? Yes and no. Following design rules may get the job done but it doesn’t create particularly inspiring rooms. The typical layout of a sofa, two chairs, a rug, matching end tables and lamps is so over. Create your own personal vision when you decorate. Don’t be afraid to add color, pattern, artwork or treasures that mean something to you. Forget about the “in” color palette of the moment but do use more current shades of your favorite colors.

To keep rooms personal, unique but updated, choose your color combinations carefully. You want your rooms to still feel fresh and not stale or like you are walking into a time warp.

Mix both traditional and modern pieces throughout your home. Walking into an individually themed room in each room of your house creates a disjointed feeling. Mix a modern table with traditional chairs or try a classic Chesterfield sofa and mix in more modern armchairs. A European look that breaks the rules juxtaposes modern artwork with traditional furniture. The tension created is timeless and your rooms will feel less static and more interesting.

Wallpaper is not just for walls. Wallpaper the ceiling instead of the walls. Using wallpaper on the ceiling gives your room a fresh spin. A subtle pattern looks wonderful or go bold and really create some energy in the room. Another great way of using wallpaper is to take interesting panels or fragments of wallpaper and frame them — instant artwork.

Another rule to break is one involving rugs, specifically that your furniture should be all on or all off the rug. Many times I like pieces of furniture half on and half off the rug. If you have a small beautiful rug but it’s clearly too small for the room try layering it on a larger sisal or jute rug. The larger rug will ground the rest of the room but you will still get to use your small beautiful rug. The smaller unusual rug will go far in giving your room that special personal look.

I find the often touted recipe of using only three colors in each room too confining. I prefer layered variations of colors. Sometimes I select them from artwork, a rug or a client’s favorite color, but I almost never use only three colors in a room. I often use many shades of one color or several colors

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Pair modern furnishings with a rustic fireplace.

mixed together. I don’t love the feeling of walking into a one-color room. An example would be a room of all gray. These one-color rooms tend to look dated quickly.

Lighting can create personality in a room. A mix of lamps in a room creates visual interest. Use different lamps in the same room. I do, however, like pairs of lamps often using them on end tables that don’t match but are the same height.

Don’t mix different metals in the same room is another rule to break. Use antique silver pieces on top of a white lacquered Parsons table or gilt frames on modern paintings to create a chic look.

I also love creating gallery walls using all the same frames or all different ones mixed in — silver and gold leaf or lacquered black.

Books belong on bookshelves: Break this rule.

Books should be read and looked at. Keep art books stacked on a coffee table or keep a few stacked under a chair. Make them part of the décor of a room and within easy reach, not just left to collect dust on a shelf. Once you have read them and no longer want them then share them with friends or donate them so that someone else can enjoy them. The

feeling of having a physical object to look at and read from cannot be stressed enough.

Hide your televisions — another outdated rule.

Televisions and technology related objects are a part of our lives. I don’t find the need to hide the TV behind closed doors or armoires. It’s fine to have it visible in our homes. Today, TV stands keep televisions visible. I do object, though, to TVs in every room. I also object to having television on all day every day. Take a break, get off your sofa and enjoy interacting with people.

Entertaining today is more informal. Formal entertaining was an important part of designing and decorating homes. Storage for china, silverware and crystal were important things to consider. Now homes are more fluid with open-concept living and more casual entertaining. Although it‘s always nice to have a formal dinner party, don’t wait until you have enough space, china, crystal and silverware.

Have more casual parties. Buffets are a great way to entertain if you are tight on space or have to work the next day.

That’s one rule you’ll want to keep.

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ENTER THE (BLUE) DRAGON

BY GEORGETTE GOUVEIA

I

t was two years ago that Didier Guillon, president and artistic director of Valmont Group, launched the Dragon Trilogy in tribute to wife Sophie, Valmont Group’s fiery CEO, who was born in the year of the dragon.

Next month, Valmont will release the final piece in the Dragon Trilogy — the Blue Dragon Edition. The jewelry box — which Didier Guillon designed out of cobalt blue Murano glass in collaboration with glassmaker Leonardo Cimolin — is inspired by the stately, protective dragons of Ming Dynasty porcelain and contains the luxe Swiss skincare line’s Elixir des Glaciers Votre Visage (50 ml), whose scent and radiance are heavenly.

Even heaven has a price tag, which in this case is $775 for the limited-edition creation. Only 100 have been made and they’ll be available at the Spa Valmont for Hôtel Plaza Athénée New York.

In the meantime, Valmont lovers can indulge in its new Anti-Wrinkle Firmness (AWF5) skincare collection, which consists of the V-Line Lifting and the V-Line Filling products. Each comes in a concentrate or face serum, a face cream and an eye cream or balm. The lifting products ($230-$295) are designed to smooth out those wrinkles and fine lines while firming. The filling products ($235 to $320) tighten, adding density and volume to those creases that frame the nose (the nasolabial folds) and sink the eyes.

The Anti-Wrinkle Firmness (AWF5) skincare collection is available at saksfifthavenue.com, valmontcosmetics.com, SPA Valmont at Hôtel Plaza Athénée New York and the Hotel Bel-Air spa in Los Angeles.

The Dragon Trilogy – the Blue Dragon Edition.

Image courtesy Valmont Group.

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WANDERS

ART PEEPING IN NEW ENGLAND STORY AND PHOTOGRAPH BY ROBIN COSTELLO

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I

s anything more breathtaking than the sight of changing autumn leaves in the Berkshires? If you are lucky, an easy drive on a sunny autumn afternoon will bring you to the postcard- perfect town of Shelburne Falls, Massachusetts. After a stroll on its Bridge of Flowers (where tens of thousands of flowers bloom sequentially in a bucolic answer to Manhattan’s High Line), be sure to make your way over to the Shelburne Arts Cooperative at 26 Bridge St. Voted Editor’s Choice “Best of New England” by Yankee magazine, the co-op features a wide array of works by skilled artists and artisans in the area. Most recently the gallery has showcased multimedia artist Candace Silver’s “Inspired by Nature.” Save room in your car for some affordable art treasures — and some room in your tummy for a quick bite in one of Shelburne Falls’ charming cafés.

A perfect fall day in New England.

For more, visit bridgeofflowersmass.org and shelburneartscoop.com.

Top, Shelburne, Massachusetts’ Bridge of Flowers is a bucolic answer to Manhattan’s High Line. Bottom, a peony photograph by Candace Silver.

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WANDERS

THE ART OF DINING ON OAHU

BY DEBBI KICKHAM

O

ahu, Hawaii, is a truly extraordinary place, where the beach scene and city life happily co-exist. I'll never forget, for example, walking on the city streets, where you typically see someone crossing the avenue wearing nothing but a bikini (and carrying a surfboard).

Oahu has a lot to love — including the impressive Royal Hawaiian Hotel. The "Pink Palace" is where I got married, and it's de rigueur for any visitor. At this writing, Azure Restaurant at The Royal Hawaiian welcomes Shingo Katsura as the new chef de cuisine. He is introducing many new and exciting dishes, including chilled lobster, white truffle gnocchi and pan-seared scallops. AzureWaikiki.com But there are other places that I like just as much.

Here's my “biting” commentary about Oahu's vibrant restaurant scene: When I first visited Oahu — that was 30 years ago — I didn't know much about the island. But I got an eyeful when I went to dinner at Duke's, located at the Outrigger Hotel right on Waikiki Beach, with spectacular views of Diamond Head. Duke's is the embodiment of Duke Kahanamoku, the father of surfing and an Olympic swimming champion. The restaurant is filled with Duke memorabilia, and everything there relates to surfing. I have now, at this point in my life, dined at Duke's so many times that I feel that I personally know Duke himself. The restaurant has great food and you can't beat its location — just a stone's throw from the water. Start with a legendary Mai Tai and the coconut shrimp, then top them off with the baked fresh fish Duke's style — in a lemon-garlic-basil glaze with black rice. The spicy sesame-ginger roasted fish is excellent, too.

By the time you leave, you'll be inspired to hang 10. dukeswaikiki.com I make it a point to dine at Alan Wong's every time I visit Oahu. This acclaimed restaurant — which won awards in 2018 for Best Farm-To-Table and Best Tasting Menu from Honolulu Magazine — is always an extraordinary experience. Start with the lobster, shrimp and crab cakes with caper mayonnaise and follow with ginger-crusted onaga in a miso sesame vinaigrette. For dessert, the Iced Mocha is divine — Waialua chocolate with Cowboy Coffee ice cream and condensed milk granite — or perhaps you prefer the

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The Royal Hawaiian Hotel, affectionately known as the "Pink Palace," is a must-see on any trip to Oahu, as it was one of the first hotels built on Waikiki Beach. Photograph by Tor Johnson. Courtesy Hawaiian Tourism Authority.

Chocolate Crunch Bars with bittersweet chocolate mousse and Hawaiian vanilla ice cream. You must also try one of the Hawaiian coffees. Trust me, when you're done with dinner here, you'll be counting the time until you can return. alanwongs.com If you've ever flown first-class on Hawaiian Airlines, you have undoubtedly enjoyed the fine cuisine of chef Chai Chaowasaree, who has masterminded the menus at the airline for the past several years.

“I've cooked chicken 34 different ways in the past eight years,” Chef Chai says with a laugh. When I'm on Oahu, a visit to Chef Chai the restaurant is always on the menu. We started with a chicken satay, followed by a squash soup with duck tacos and smoked salmon and crabmeat. The pièce de résistance is the deep-fried shrimp in a coconut “nest” made of phyllo dough. For dessert, try the heartshaped white chocolate gelato filled with raspberry sorbetto, served with raspberry guava purée, savored with a glass of sweet dessert wine. Chef Chai is a winner, any way you slice it. chefchai.com Melissa Bow began Via Gelato with the idea of bringing local flavors to Italian-style gelato. She nailed it at her neighborhood gelateria in Kaimuki, where she churns out an ever-changing mix of gelato and sorbetto in flavors such as green tea Oreo, lilikoi (passion fruit), guava and the lava flow, a piña colada sorbet swirled with a fresh strawberry sauce. instagram.com/viagelatohawaii Winner of 23 chocolate awards, Madre Chocolate is one of the island’s premier bean-to-bar makers, sourcing cacao beans from Hawaii and

working directly with farmers around the world to ensure quality beans and fair prices to support their communities. In addition to 70 percent chocolate bars, Madre Chocolate also makes a tangy lilikoi chocolate bar and a smooth coconut milk and caramelized ginger chocolate. madrechocolate.com For a sensational sampling of local brews — and dynamite entrées — visit Cheeseburger in Paradise for the $14 burger served on a Hawaii-baked bun with Thousand Island dressing, and seasoned fries.

It's the delicacy that started the entire chain. I'll also take the shrimp burger or the island fish tacos along with a piña colada. Or maybe you just want to try a craft draft such as the award-winning Blackstrap Molasses porter from Waikiki Brewing Company featuring chocolate and coffee flavors. Cheeseburgerinparadise.com Honorable Mention: We saw the Trip-Advisor-recommended “Rock-a-Hula” show, and we were blown away by it. It's Oahu's best-kept secret — a performance featuring dynamic, true-to-life Elvis Presley and Michael Jackson impersonators, along with energy-packed tributes to surfboards, movies featuring Hawaii and a look at Waikiki through the years. It also showcases elements that you'd find at most luaus — fabulous hula dancers, gorgeous costumes and a fire-knife dancer. We can't recommend it highly enough. Go for the dinner show (featuring lobster and salmon) and you'll have an unforgettable night. Cue the “Hawaii 5-0” and “Magnum P.I.” music. rockahulahawaii.com

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WANDERS

ART AND SOUL

BY BARBARA BARTON SLOANE

“I don’t paint what I see but what I feel.” — Pablo Picasso

T

he light shimmers bright and golden on a cerulean sea. The soft, warm breeze stirs the palm trees and threatens to take my napkin off into the blue. I’m sitting at a terrace café on the Côte d'Azur, drinking a cappuccino and asking my friend Karen to pinch me to prove I’m not dreaming. Since the beginning of the 20th century, many of the world’s greatest artists have made this the birthplace of modern art. Painters have long celebrated the sensational light, the sensual climate, the diversity of the landscape and the beauty of the Mediterranean.

Both on the Riviera and in Provence, my group of five women have the lucky opportunity to view the exhibits, studios and homes of Pablo Picasso, as well as those of Henri Matisse and Paul Cézanne — two painters who had a profound effect on the artist.

Southern France played an essential role in Picasso’s life and the soul of this great Spanish artist continues to be felt here, so we began our sojourn in Nice, a city that has been a muse for centuries.

Indeed, it prompted Matisse to exclaim: “When I realized I would see this light every morning, I could not believe my good fortune and I decided to live here for the rest of my life.” Nice is elegant and trendy, cheerful and bustling, and when the sea spray meets the fragrance of the tall Aleppo pines, this town is downright bewitching.

Nice is a particular delight in winter, as there are small, sweet pleasures such as experiencing Old Nice filled with locals, not tourists. Museums are uncrowded and markets serve hot spiced wine and hot chocolate so thick you’ll need a spoon. The grand winter-only Ferris wheel on Place Massena is guaranteed to thrill and Sunday afternoon winter orchestra concerts will charm. Nice hosts one of the world’s major carnival events. It takes place again next year from Feb. 16 through March 2.

We visited the Musée Matisse de Nice, a Genovese-style villa filled with his masterpieces and personal possessions. After the museum, walking around the town, we experienced a deeper sense

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Pablo Picasso’s “The Smoker,” glicée print on canvas.

Courtesy French Tourist Bureau.

of appreciation for Nice as we saw it now through the eyes of Matisse. Our hotel, the Beau Rivage, just happens to be where Matisse himself lived until the end of his life. Sadly, my room there is not the one he occupied, but from my window the view of the sea and the special niçoise light is exactly what the artist saw and that alone suffices.

Next, we went to the Riviera town of Vence.

There’s an Old Town of quirky houses showing the patina of time and a walk through its colorful market captivated us with the scent of delicious herbs and bouquets of lavender. Here we found the Villa Le Reve where Matisse lived and worked from 1943 to ’49. Today it’s a charming house that can be rented by groups of artists. After touring the studio, we descended upon the garden where a small gathering of Swedish women were working at their easels on the vast sloping lawn, all the while taking their inspiration from the grand master. Matisse named this place “The Dream,” a name that is spot-on.

The enchanting Musée Picasso, formerly the Château Grimaldi at Antibes, lies amid the calm beauty of pine groves. This is the first museum to be dedicated to the painter, and it is home to some 245 of his works. This exceptional space includes his lyrical work “La Joie de Vivre” — the joy of living — with flute-playing fauns, dancing goats and a female nude modeled on his then love, Françoise Gilot. Antibes has grand estates, dense vegetation and park-like settings. A visiting F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote of it: “We’ve found a splendid location — a big house, the seaside and the casino is not far away.” Apparently the Fitzgeralds were enchanted by Antibes, as were we.

Vallauris is known for Picasso as well as glass and ceramics. The town dates from 1501, though

there’s been a settlement here since Celtic times.

Picasso came in 1948 where he discovered the art of ceramics. From then until 1955 when he left, he created 4,000 ceramic works — and his mural “War and Peace,” his last great political composition. It is a powerful work that takes the viewer from the horrors of war to peaceful times. Picasso depicts his belief that all is possible through peace with images of a boy plowing the sea, fish swimming in a bird cage and birds happily existing in a fish tank. In the town square we come upon Picasso’s rarely exhibited bronze, “Man With a Sheep” that the artist gave the town in 1950 when he was made an honorary citizen. We then stroll to the bottom of the Avenue Georges Clémenceau, finding an area awash with fun shops selling pots, glass and, of course, ceramics. Vallauris — an altogether delightful place to visit.

Leaving the Riviera and driving to Provence, we notice the landscape begins to change dramatically, from exotic plants and palm trees to purple mountains and fields filled with yellow rape flowers.

In Aix-en-Provence at the Musée Granet we view an exhibit that brings together a hundred works by Cézanne and Picasso and see the significant influence Cézanne had on Picasso throughout his life.

Of Cézanne, Picasso said, “He was my one and only master.” I discover firsthand how the paint colors Cézanne favored were used again and again in Picasso’s works. It was interesting to compare the artists’ works. Two in particular were most revealing — Cézanne’s “Man with a Pipe” and Picasso’s “The Smoker.” In these two paintings, Picasso, inspired by the Cézanne work, painted essentially the same subject but in abstract form. We also visited the Château of Vauvenargues that lies at the foot of the Sainte-Victoire Mountain, where Picasso worked and died. In this austere castle he now rests alongside his wife, Jacqueline.

Picasso was deeply attracted to the city of Arles, whose extravagant atmosphere, climate and bullfights reminded him of his birthplace, Spain. The town is known as “the daughter of the South” and cultivates a way of life that cries out to be sampled — on terraces, in shaded alleyways or beneath trees in tiny village squares — and boasts seven UNESCO-ranked World Heritage monuments. We visited the Musée Réattu, which houses 57 drawings and two paintings by Picasso, including the charming “Portrait of Maria,” Picasso’s mother.

As Picasso said, he did not paint what he saw but what he felt. “We need to get to the bottom of the story,” he said, “and see all the pictures underneath a picture. I have tried, by destructuring, to illustrate and help reveal the hidden picture.” On this magical journey through Picasso’s landscape, I feel what he felt and, as his feelings were revealed through his work, I gain a profound and lasting insight into his world.

For more, visit francetourism.com.

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WANDERS

GOING GRAND ON THE GRAND CANAL

BY JEREMY WAYNE

I

n Venice for the annual Architecture Biennale earlier this summer, I was fortunate enough to spend a couple of nights at two of my favorite hotels, going all out grand on the Grand Canal. After long days spent taking in the show, which this year is styled “FREESPACE”— 71 international participants presenting everything from the highbrow and avant-garde to the nonsensical and downright unintelligible — what a pleasure it was to return to the air-conditioned comfort of my hotel room each evening, there to muse on the shock of the new along with the enduring appeal of theatrical Baroque.

The grandest hotel in Venice by a mile has the least assuming front door of any hotel I know, and that is almost reason enough to love the Gritti Palace. On the day of my arrival, in a small salon behind the jewel-like entrance lobby, a young Italian receptionist, whose sleeveless yellow dress seemed entirely made for the first few days of summer, smiled warmly and welcomed me. “So lovely to have you back,” she said, without a hint of irony, even though the last time I had stayed at The Gritti, Marco Polo was still in primary school. When I instinctively reached for my credit card and placed it on the desk, it was abruptly waved away. “Not at all, Mr. Wayne, not at all,” said the young lady, as if I had suggested something quite absurd, or even not quite decent. “Please feel free simply to settle your account on departure.” The innate elegance of the Italians is legendary of course, but Venetians can outclass even the classiest of their fellow Italians.

My suite at the Gritti was small and perfectly formed, with sumptuous Murano chandeliers and wall sconces, heavy brocades and Rubelli fabrics so rich and glorious I almost wanted to wrap myself up in the drapes and roll around. From the small bar complete with glorious Murano highball and martini glasses and an exquisite glass ice-bucket full of 104

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Hotel Danieli, Bar Dandolo. Images courtesy Marriott / Brandon Barré Studio.

The façade of The Gritti Palace.

clear ice cubes the size of shoeboxes, I poured myself a Campari soda and opened the French doors to the miniature stone terrace, on which two people can stand at a pinch. There, below me, in all its glory, was the oh-so-Grand Canal, with its ceaseless procession of water traffic, its cacophony of sounds echoing off the water and the insanely beautiful Baroque church of Santa Maria della Salute as a backdrop, directly opposite. Talk about “in your face.”

You could stand here all day, all night, all vacation, drinking Campari sodas, drinking in the view and never ever once get bored.

Back indoors, the bathrobes in the closet had such a line to them — such pizzazz ¬— you could go to a Venetian ball dressed in one of them and get away with it. Even the clothes hangers at The Gritti are things of beauty, the sculpted, burnished oak mimicking the gentle slope of the shoulders, the hangers so heavy you could wield them as clubs and conquer an army. In the veined-white-marble bathroom, delicious Acqua di Parma products are scattered around with almost profligate abandon.

At the cocktail hour, which comes early in Venice, I headed downstairs to the hotel’s Longhi bar — that “divine terrace,” as Somerset Maugham called it, right on the Grand Canal, where Maugham would sit for hours on end attending

to his needlework, admiring the view of the Canal and the Salute church, doubtless passing mordant comment on the occupants of every passing gondola, motoscafo or vaporetto.

After one more negroni than was probably good for one, I drifted across the terrace to dine outside at Club del Doge, the Gritti’s famed restaurant, situated on the adjoining deck, which is a mirror image to the bar and which also overlooks the Grand Canal. Here, we feasted on vitello tonnato, bigoli pasta with ribbons of cuttlefish and classic liver alla Veneziana, the pinkest of pink’s calf’s liver prepared with caramelized onions. The food of the gods and a starlit, velvety Venetian night to remember.

On the far side of San Marco, The Gritti’s equally renowned sibling, Hotel Danieli (both are now Marriott Luxury Collection properties), is a horse of a very different color. For one thing there is its location, a stone’s throw from bustling Piazza and the so-called Bridge of Sighs, right opposite the enormously busy San Zaccaria vaporetto stop. For another, where The Gritti is intimate, exquisite, small of scale, almost diffident — more akin to a private residence than a “grande dame” city hotel — Hotel Danieli, itself a former Doge’s residence, is big and bustling, with 204 rooms and suites compared with the Gritti’s 82.

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Bar Longhi at The Gritti Palace, above, which Somerset Maugham referred to as a “divine terrace,” and, left, the Doge Dandolo Royal Suite at Hotel Danieli.

Composed of three houses connected by a mezzanine, the Danieli’s pride and joy are its three signature suites, the Grace, the Garbo and the Callas, known affectionately as the Princess, the Diva and the Soprano respectively (all one-time guests of the hotel. Maria Callas actually met Aristotle Onassis at a ball at the Danieli in 1957.) Another suite to mention, my personal fave, is the Peggy Guggenheim, decorated with great panache, while the royal suite, the Doge Dandolo, on the first piano nobile 106

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surely takes the biscuit for excess. It boasts rich gold decorations, period gilt furniture, 18th-century paintings, Venetian blackamoors, Murano glass galore and ceilings painted by the late-Baroque artist Jacopo Guarana while the marble bathroom with its gold taps and monogrammed towels is the size of a tennis court.

If you love history, if a touch of drama is up your alley, if you enjoy a hotel lobby which hums day and night and if you have a weakness for grand

— and I do mean very grand staircases — then the Danieli is definitely for you. For me, I can never tire of Vodka Rogers (vodka and peach juice, the thinking man’s or woman’s answer to the Bellini, if you will) in the hotel’s Bar Dandolo, where a pianist tinkles the ivories every evening of the year. Nor can I get enough of the lavish buffet breakfast served in fine weather on the Danieli’s magnificent rooftop terrace, where the jaw-dropping view of the Venetian lagoon and the bacino (basin) of San Marco, at the entrance to the Grand Canal — a view essentially unchanged in 500 years — will melt even a heart of stone.

If you’re headed to the Biennale, by the way, the Danieli is within walking distance of the show’s two sites, the Arsenale and the Giardini. From Mexico’s cleverly conceived and witty “Transmuting a Barrier into a Territory” exhibit, where the main wall has been tellingly torn down, to Switzerland’s award-winning quirky, perspective-altering “House Tour,” this is widely considered to be one of the best Architecture Biennales in years. The Biennale runs through Nov. 25, with fall being a period when Venice hotel rates are at their lowest. So what better time to go grand on the Grand Canal?

For more, visit marriott.com and labiennale.org.

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AT HOME IN THE LODGE

BY GINA GOUVEIA

W

hen two kindred souls come together, they have double the power to forge something wonderful. Such was the case with Christina and Abbott Fleur, the proprietors of Honey Maple Grove Lodge, a tranquil and natural retreat hidden in the hills of Bedford. The Lodge is located not far off Route 22 in town, but it’s the approach and the last few turns down bucolic country roads that take you to another place, so carefully calculated by Christina during development of the land.

It was Christina who conceptualized and designed the original home for her extended family — husband Abbott and four grown children — thoughtfully considering its effect on the 20-acre property, once owned by the singer and actor Robert Goulet. Taking care to employ sustainable forestry practices and utilize native stone found on the site for a massive central fireplace, she was involved in every aspect of the structure’s log-home construction, with its airy ceilings and oversize casement windows that flood its interiors with beautiful light at every turn.

With two distinct wings on either side of the core living space, the innkeepers live on one side of the home with three accommodations for guests on the other. One is a large suite on the lower level with access to a shaded stone terrace on which to dine, read and observe nature. The other two are nicely sized bedrooms sharing a luxurious bathroom. There is radiant heating throughout the home, providing a clean, energy-efficient and allergy-free climate in winter and central air and ceiling fans for the hot summer days.

Nature and comfort blending in harmony are what make this bed and breakfast a welcome destination, for guests traveling the mid-Atlantic and Northeast regions of the United States stopping over for a respite, or those seeking to get away from the city for a breath of country air. Christina tells me that is was the smell of that air, noticeable as soon as they exited from Interstate 684, that drew her and Abbott to the property. They took occupancy after their spacious Manhattan apartment had already become an empty nest, so it was only on select occasions that they needed all the space for family.

This phenomenon is what led to their idea to

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Honey Maple Grove Lodge offers a tranquil – and natural – retreat in the hills of Bedford.

Images courtesy Honey Maple Grove Lodge.

offer the accommodations to travelers, first on Airbnb four years ago, and now only through their own website and other travel sites, such as bedandbreakfast.com, for the past year and a half. Pricing is kept at a consistent, competitive rate throughout the year and occupancy is robust. Christina proudly displays the calendar for me, showing only two days without reservations and a few well-filled guest books complete with photos of their guests, a practice they have kept since inception.

Indeed, she says, they have enjoyed playing hosts to travelers from every continent, including Antarctica. Interaction with the couple can be as much or little as guests desire, with ample private space inside the inn or out, via the draw of the plentiful nearby attractions such as Caramoor Center for the Arts, Ward Pound Ridge Reservation and several historical and art museums. Active and proud members of the Bedford Village Business Association, the B&B offers a space for gatherings. There is a conference table and library for meetings or relaxation and a small gym downstairs as well as numerous local horse stables, yoga studios and hiking trails for

those seeking recreation.

Normally breakfast is served and eaten en famille at the farmhouse table that’s the centerpiece of the kitchen, a welcoming, large wood and stone affair that’s the main hub of the first floor. The morning meal includes an array of treats, all quality ingredients either crafted on the property or by hand, as is the case with the scrumptious, crusty rye bread that Abbott bakes in a heavy Le Creuset stock pot.

With a bit of the wildflower honey produced on the property, it’s a slice of heaven and I’m grateful for my sample. There are fresh pastries, too, from neighboring producers and homemade pancakes with the lodge’s own delectable maple syrup, tapped on-site each winter.

So, that’s where the Honey Maple Grove comes in. There are five apiaries on the property producing naturally organic, wildflower honey for guests to enjoy. The flavor and color will change with the seasons, Christina tells me, but the smooth and noncloying taste will remain in place. The one I sampled was from the fall season and it had a rich dark color and delightful texture. They also offer a “Beekeeping Getaway” package that includes a lecture and introduction to this marvel by Abbott, the resident tender.

During the traditional sapping season for the Northeast from January to March, 100 maple trees on the property provide sap that’s boiled down to make the couple’s own maple syrup, also attractively jarred and labeled like the honey. There are plans to tap an additional 50 trees on the property this winter. The two products evolved mostly for their own consumption and that of their lodgers but are also offered for sale to guests and at local gourmet shops in town.

I ask about the tribulations of being homeowners and innkeepers and wonder if there are trying visitors from time to time. Christina tells me that only with rare exceptions have there been petulant guests. There was one night that, despite signage leading to the inn, a couple took an errant turn and walked right through the unlocked door of a neighboring home at about 11 p.m. That did not go well.

By and large the experience has all been good, save for the hard work. But then, the innkeepers are the peaceful sort of co-working couple. Gentle reminders were traded back and forth between the operational duo during our informal interview at that lovely kitchen table, while their two rescue Plott Hounds lazed in the living room.

"In nature and in harmony" should be their mantra. The setting, the hospitality and the “positive aura,” as Christina describes it, provide the inn with good energy. Clearly their labor is one of love. In parting, both express how much they enjoy coming to know the many fine folk who have enjoyed the Fleurs’ home as their own. Says Abbott, “We treat them like family, well, the ones we talk to.”

For more, visit honeymaplegrove.com.

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WONDERFUL DINING

An order of emolacha y jicama, or beets three ways.

DONJITO, OLÉ STORY AND PHOTOGRAPHS

BY ALEESIA FORNI

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I

t’s been only a few short months since Donjito opened its doors at 122 Mamaroneck Ave., in Mamaroneck, but the new eatery has quickly become a local hotspot.

Serving up “Nuevo Latino” dishes influenced by Spanish, Mexican and South American cuisine, Donjito is helmed by the same owners of taco place Popojito in Scarsdale. At the new restaurant, the owners aim to create an eatery that “celebrates Mediterranean classics melded with Mexican sensibility.”

Owners describe Donjito’s aesthetic as a Spanish wine cellar and it’s easy to see why. Exposed brick lines one wall of the restaurant, while faux-wooden panels on a black background dot the other. Wired shelving units play host to a range of wines and li-

quors, including the local Still The One gin, distilled in nearby Port Chester. With soft lighting, dark wood tables and leather chairs, the interior seats 60, while an outdoor patio has seating for another 30 diners.

The menu by chef Carlos Rodríguez, who has worked behind the scenes at restaurants that included Mezcla in Gramercy Park and Bistro Versailles in Greenwich, features seasonal vegetables and locally sourced proteins.

A full bar gives general manager and cocktail guru Sue Vitiello room to experiment. The Mamaroneck Thai is a crowd favorite, she tells me, with coconut rum, pineapple and blood orange juice. The popular drink is deliciously sweet and served in a tall, tiki-themed glass. For the fall, a new range of drinks will be rolled out, including a chipotle mango margarita, which packs both a slight smoky flavor and a serious

A poblano pepper is stuffed with Mexican cheese and salsa ranchera, top; and below, a trio of salmon tacos are drizzled with mango habanero salsa.

spicy kick.

The food menu, a majority of which is gluten-free, offers food to share, from chorizo flatbread with queso cotija to signature Donjito wings with pickled jalapeños and red chile tzatziki sauce.

Mussels are served with charred tomatoes and roasted garlic, while blistered shishito peppers are dusted with chili powder and sea salt.

An order of tuna tostadas piles seared big eye tuna on a crunchy tostada with roasted red peppers, coulis and avocado corn pico de gallo. Other small-plate options include crisp octopus with balsamic onion jam and red chili salsa; gazpacho with heirloom tomato, cucumber and queso fresca; and seared garlic shrimp with a corn mousseline and guajillo salsa. An eye-catching beet salad is fresh and flavorful, featuring beets prepared

three ways with spiced jicamas, pearl onions, jalapeño goat cheese and green pepper vinegar.

Loaded yucca fries are another favorite of ours, piled with smoky chorizo, jalapeños, tomatoes and sour cream in one of the few menu items that Rodríguez transferred over from sister restaurant Popojito.

Tacos can be ordered with chicken, slow roasted pork, wild mushrooms or Mexican Cokebraised short rib. If you have trouble deciding, a 10-piece taco platter lets guests select a range of options for the table.

We recommend the trio of grilled salmon tacos, topped with marinated cabbage, a mango habanero salsa and sprouts.

“You never see salmon tacos,” Rodríguez tells me, adding that he hoped to give a unique spin to the traditional fish taco.

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For the entrées, a poblano pepper is stuffed with Mexican cheese and salsa ranchera in one of our favorite sampled dishes, somehow managing to be both light and filling. In another dish, Paella Barcelona brings together a medley of chicken, chorizo, shrimp, mussels, octopus and saffron bomba rice.

Dessert lovers won’t be disappointed by the molten chocolate lava cake, pleasantly rich and served alongside fresh berries.

Beyond the flavors, Donjito gives diners a true feast for the eyes. Each dish is colorful, expertly presented and completely cohesive.

Now open for lunch, the eatery also expects to expand into brunch territory later this year. Vitiello, a veteran of the Westchester restaurant scene, says Donjito is open for corporate dinners or private parties. Later this month, it plans to host a Halloween party, one of the first of what Vitiello hopes will become a series of public events.

Though the restaurant launched in July, the menu has already seen some changes. Gone are the duck enchiladas and a red snapper entrée. Rodríguez says the menu could continue to see changes in the future.

“We’re feeling it out,” he says. “We’re seeing what works.”

So far, we think the food at Donjito seems to work just fine.

For more, visit Donjito.com.

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WINE&DINE

THE CATCHERS IN THE RYE (WHISKEY) STORY AND PHOTOGRAPH BY DOUG PAULDING

W

hiskey drinkers are a loyal group. Wine drinkers might drink a Cabernet one night, a Sangiovese the next and a Chardonnay the third. But a whiskey drinker knows what he or she likes and tends to stick with it. There are the Irish whiskey drinkers, there are the bourbon whiskey drinkers and there are the Scotch whiskey drinkers. And Scotch drinkers either move toward pure highland flavors or the more peaty and smoky lowland tastes. Well, here’s a class of whiskey that your great grandparents might have enjoyed but then was crushed by Prohibition, fell out of favor and never properly recovered — until now.

Sales of rye whiskey have been on a massive upward trend. Since 2009, American rye sales have increased from 88,000 cases to 775,000 cases (in 2016), an increase of 778 percent. And sales have grown in that same time period from $15 million to $160 million. As if guided by the rye gurus of yesteryear, WhistlePig Farmstock Rye Whiskey came to be in 2009; the brainchild of Raj Bhakta. He wanted to capitalize on two big trends — rye whiskey consumption and the farm-to-table movement.

Searching for an appropriate and beautiful location, Bhakta decided Shoreham, Vermont, not far from Lake Champlain, would be perfect. He purchased a 500-acre dairy farm and quickly converted it to whiskey production. He bought some aged rye whiskeys from Canada, began some blending, bottling and labeling, and he was in business.

I was in Vermont recently, gave WhistlePig a call and set up a meeting with CEO Jeff Kozak for a tour and tasting at the farm, which are not available to the public. A tasting room in Middlebury, however, and another in Waterbury, near Stowe, will give the curious and the sophisticated a wonderful experience.

WhistlePig Farm is rustic yet elegant in its repurposing from milk to rye whiskey production. A Canadian, Kozak was a commodities broker, hooking up buyers

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WhistlePig Farmstock Rye Whiskey CEO Jeff Kozak at the WhistlePig Farm in Shoreham, Vermont.

and sellers of large quantities of products, like soybeans, milk or pork bellies. Bhakti called Kozak and structured a deal for delivery of many tons of rye from Canada. He then hired Dave Pickerell, with 14 years at Maker’s Mark Bourbon house in Kentucky as master distiller, and Peter Lynch as master blender.

So they went to work and test marketed their rye whiskey in the New York marketplace where it was well-received WhistlePig now has 300 acres dedicated to growing rye, making it one of Vermont’s biggest grain producers. WhistlePig employs 60 people nationwide with 25 working in various operations on location at the farm. And WhistlePig continues to expand at 40 to 50 percent per year, with sales in the $35 million range per year.

By the way, “whistlepig” is a word Bhakti heard someone say on a hike in the hills one day. A whistlepig is a marmot, a black and mountain dwelling woodchuck, which gives a clear and distinct whistle when it needs to communicate. Bhakti thought to himself, “One day I will use that name, for something.”

Kozak told me, “We are not corporate owned. We are not part of a distilling empire. Our team makes all our fermentation, distillation, blending and aging decisions, in house, on location. And we are confident rye is the new cool kid on the block.”

Several of Whistlepig whiskeys are aged and finished from white oak wood harvested from the prop-

erty. Some of the other whiskeys are blends of products aged in used Port, Sauternes and Madeira barrels.

Each of these barrels will contribute an accent to the final flavor. Kozak asked me if I ever find an interesting used barrel flavor in my travels to let them know, please. He and his team are always looking for exciting new concepts. WhistlePig rye whiskies have won several national competitions and have received top praise from national spirits magazines.

My first impressions of the tasting were of relief. I was expecting flavors of bakery rye bread, of which I’m not a big fan. The flavors were pure and wonderful whiskey flavors. The alcohol levels in all of them were well-integrated and not hot, astringent or biting.

The oak influence and then the wine and/or fortified wine-impregnated wood gave unique flavors to each bottle. But throughout the line in varying degrees I found caramel, some dark chocolate, vanilla and hints of dark and dense coffee, held together by a backbone of sweet white oak. This is a brilliant mixer that would do justice to any cocktail calling for whiskey. But I would taste it in a nice round glass with a small cube and drink it as a pre-dinner experience or for dessert.

This is a savoring whiskey. Swirl, smell, swirl and smell again. And taste. Thank you, Whistlepig , for purity and velvety smoothness in the glass.

For more, visit whistlepigwhiskey.com. And write me at doug@dougpaulding.com.

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WELL

THE ART OF BREAST RECONSTRUCTION

BY CONSTANCE M. CHEN, MD

I

n the United States, more than 250,000 new diagnoses of invasive breast cancer are made every year, with more than 3.1 million breast cancer survivors living today. Although the quality of life and psychosocial benefits of breast reconstruction after mastectomy and partial mastectomy (for example lumpectomy) has been well-established, less than half of women who require mastectomy are currently offered breast reconstruction. Even though more than 100,000 breast reconstruction procedures are performed every year, fewer than 20 percent of women undergoing mastectomy elect to undergo immediate reconstruction at the same time as their mastectomy. For women who did not undergo immediate breast reconstruction or who are unhappy with their breast reconstruction, many may not realize that they may be candidates for delayed breast reconstruction long after their mastectomy or revisions of prior breast reconstruction.

Both primary and secondary breast reconstruction is covered by health insurance.

After mastectomy, there are two main categories of breast reconstruction. The first category is implant-based breast reconstruction. More than 80 percent of women in the United States who undergo breast reconstruction will have some type of implant-based reconstruction. Usually, this involves a tissue expander that is placed underneath the pectoralis muscle on the chest wall and filled with saline to expand the pectoralis muscle and the breast skin. The tissue expander is then changed to a permanent breast implant, which can be filled with saline or silicone. A newer technique involves placing the tissue expander over the pectoralis muscle, where the breast tissue used to be.

When the tissue expander is exchanged, a permanent breast implant, a shaped cohesive gel (or “gummy bear”) silicone implant, is usually chosen for the best results. Placing the implant over the muscle, or “prepectoral” breast implants, significantly reduces the pain and discomfort of breast implants. Many women also feel that prepectoral breast implants look and feel more natural.

The second category of breast reconstruction is natural tissue breast reconstruction. In natural tis-

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Venus de Milo. Musée du Louvre.

sue breast reconstruction, the surgeon will transfer the patient’s own tissue to her chest wall to reconstruct the breast. Most commonly, excess tissue from the lower abdomen is used to reconstruct the breast, leaving a scar similar to that of a tummy tuck.

An older technique used the patient’s skin, fat and muscle to reconstruct the breast, as in the TRAM (transverse rectus abdominis muscle) flap or latissimus dorsi flap, which uses tissue from the lower abdomen or back. The problem with the TRAM and latissimus dorsi flaps is that it sacrifices the muscle in the donor site to reconstruct the breast, which not only weakens the abdomen or back but can also cause excessive pain.

The gold standard for natural tissue breast reconstruction is “perforator flap” breast reconstruction, in which the patient’s skin and fat is transferred to reconstruct the breast, but her muscles are completely preserved. The most common type of perforator flap breast reconstruction is the DIEP (deep inferior epigastric perforator) flap breast reconstruction, in which the skin and fat of the lower abdomen are used to reconstruct the breast. The result is similar to a tummy tuck, except the tissue removed from the abdomen is used to reconstruct the breasts. The result is soft, warm and natural breasts and a flat abdomen.

For very thin women or for women who have already had tummy tucks, another type of perforator flap breast reconstruction is the PAP (profunda artery perforator) flap breast reconstruction. The

PAP flap breast reconstruction uses excess skin and fat from the upper inner thigh to reconstruct the breasts. Not only does the PAP flap create soft, warm and perky breasts, but the patient has the equivalent of a thigh lift as well. Furthermore, the scar from the PAP flap is hidden in the buttock crease so that women can wear bikinis after surgery without visible scars.

By far, the best results in breast reconstruction come when patients have nipple-sparing mastectomies and natural tissue breast reconstruction.

Furthermore, in natural tissue breast reconstruction, it is possible to reconnect the nerves, so that the women will have sensation in her breasts after mastectomy. In the best surgeries, it can be almost impossible to tell that a patient has had a mastectomy at all.

Many of the more innovative types of mastectomy and breast reconstruction, however, such as nipple-sparing mastectomies, prepectoral breast implants, DIEP flaps, PAP flaps and sensory restoration of the breast, are not standard. It may take extra research and effort to find a team of surgeons that is capable of offering the most advanced procedures. At the end of the day, however, asking questions and refusing to settle can make a lifetime of difference. Sometimes, it can even turn a potentially traumatic experience such as breast cancer surgery into a life-transforming experience where a woman feels like she is actually living her best and most beautiful life.

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WELL

THE NOT-SO-ELUSIVE ELLIPITCAL

BY MEGHAN MCSHARRY While an elliptical workout is upright, Elliptica uses different positions to work different muscles. Courtesy Elliptica.

T

he elliptical is one of our favorites for many reasons: It gets the heart rate up, provides us with a low-impact workout that’s easy on the knees and, after enough time, leaves us just as sweaty as running outside in the middle of a summer heat wave.

The machine can be tricky, though. What incline do we set it at, and what’s the right resistance for our desired workout? Not to mention the repetitiveness of the elliptical workout can be a bore and, on our less-than-motivated days, that leads to hopping off and calling it quits after 30 minutes at best.

We’re also big fans of fitness classes. Group fitness, personal training sessions, anything, really.

As long as there’s someone tailoring the workout to our personal needs and convincing us to keep going, we’re in. But many fitness classes have grown to have such huge followings that being a beginner is extremely intimidating.

That’s why we decided to give Elliptica a try. A product of Laura Laboissonniere (one of Westfair Communication’s 2018 40 Under Forty winners)

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and Clair Mason, Elliptica is the new workout spot in Fairfield County, with locations in Fairfield and Greenwich. Laboissonniere, who already owned two Pure Barre locations in Fairfield and Westport, craved a new challenge.

“I wanted to bring my passion and expertise into town,” she says, noting that elliptical-based group fitness is relatively new to the United States but the equivalent of the “spin class of Europe.” So Elliptica Greenwich opened its doors in January 2018.

After arriving and checking in at the desk, we entered the studio filled with ellipticals like we had never seen before — less bulky and without a giant screen like the ones at our usual gyms.

Around the room, there were women of all ages, from high school to middle age and beyond, and a handful of men, too. Already we felt more confident, as the range of people and experience levels made us feel right at home.

Instructor Dante Rocco dimmed the lights and instructed us to pick up a set of both 2- and 3-pound weights. We were a bit confused by the low weight levels, but he assured us even he used low weights — and we’re glad we didn’t go for anything heavier.

Rocco first taught us the various hand positions and warmed us up thoroughly, eventually pushing us to sprint at over 100 rpm. The addition of even 2-pound weights had our arms feeling like Jello. After a much more challenging 45-minute class than we had anticipated, we were left feeling somehow simultaneously ready for a nap and yet more energized than we’d been in weeks.

Elliptica is an ideal workout for those looking to try a new type of group fitness in a judgment-free environment. It offers an atmosphere that welcomes people of all fitness and experience levels, and our instructor kept us motivated even when we felt like we couldn’t bear to keep going. But don’t expect it to be easy. We certainly did not anticipate just how hard it would be, or how much soreness we’d experience in the following days.

The Greenwich studio, on the second floor at 1345 E. Putnam Ave., is complete with a small apparel boutique and children’s play area for busy parents. Classes may be purchased online, through the Elliptica app or at the studio. In Fairfield, find Elliptica at 85 Mill Plain Road.

For more, visit ellipticastudios.com.

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WELL

A WELLNESS BIBLIOGRAPHY

BY GIOVANNI ROSELLI

I

’m often asked from both fitness professionals and enthusiasts alike about my recommendations for books, shows, documentaries and apps regarding the health and fitness industry. Below are some of my top picks:

TV SHOW — “BRAIN GAMES,” NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC CHANNEL I may be a little bit biased since I have appeared on several episodes. However, it was my exposure to this show that made me realize just how educational the program is. This Emmy Award-nominated series is something that both children and adults can enjoy, appreciate and learn from.

Your brain is an incredibly powerful and efficient supercomputer that helps you make sense out of the world. Host Jason Silva reveals how brains process information related to topics like stress, addiction, competition, food, trust and language. It is full of interactive illusions, games, challenges and hidden-camera experiments that capture hilarious and shocking results, showcasing the extraordinary way we see, process and think about the world around us. Viewers get real-world takeaways to use in everyday situations such as how to improve memory, get a better night's sleep, and make more money.

BOOK — ‘CLEANSE YOUR BODY, CLEAR YOUR MIND’ BY DR. JEFFREY MORRISON This New York City holistic doctor may sound familiar, as I have featured him in past WAG magazine columns. Several years ago he wrote this book, which provides solutions to allergies, fatigue, stomach pains, headaches, eczema, asthma, joint stiffness and mood swings.

He explains exactly how modern life has turned toxic. The average person accumulates more than 700 harmful chemicals in his or her body, making us obese, sick and tired. This book provides a safe, simple solution that starts to bring results in as little as 10 days.

Debunking the myth that you have to drink

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Giovanni Rosell with “Brain Games” host Jason Silva. Courtesy National Geographic Channel.

odd concoctions or eat weird food to jump-start your body's natural detoxification, the clinically proven plan in this book eases symptoms from some of the most common chronic ailments that I have listed above. Even better, the suggestions and recommendations do not require you to restrict your diet or lifestyle.

Complete with a symptom-specific quiz that helps target specific areas for improvement, Morrison's customizable program is designed to help you reverse the symptoms of toxicity, drop excess weight and keep your body healthy.

APP — INSTITUTE OF MOTION — VIPR PRO This is more of a recommendation for my fellow fitness coaches and community. There is an endless amount of apps available today, all bidding for our attention, but this is a must for anyone who teaches or instructs fitness training.

Most fitness apps will provide general bodyweight exercises. This app provides educational lessons, exercises and the explanation behind it, as well as best-cueing techniques for these particular exercises. They use several different educators and consultants, all with amazing amounts of knowledge and experience to share.

To go along with this, they always find a way to take deep, scientific topics and describe them in a way for everyone to understand.

The educators also provide you with another channel in their app that revolves around one of the best pieces of fitness equipment in the world today — ViPR Pro. This versatile tool helps keep the body resilient while offering conditioning, flexibility and strength all in one. You can take a mobile certification course complete with continuing education credits and receive video footage of more than 100 exercises.

DO YOUR HOMEWORK There are obviously many more recommendations that I can make, so please feel free to send me a message for anything specific that you may be looking for.

Always do your research, especially before committing to something that has a price tag on it, and, as the saying goes, if something sounds too good to be true then it just might be.

I get emails and private messages every day throughout my social media, giving me information about the next best product, supplement, technique, etc. In the end, the basics still work. Lastly, be weary of those who promote “It’s my way or the highway.” There are many ways to keep your body healthy and strong. You just need to find the right formula for you.

Reach Giovanni on Twitter @GiovanniRoselli and at his website, GiovanniRoselli.com.

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PET OF THE MONTH

DARLING DONOVAN

BY GEORGETTE GOUVEIA

W

e don’t always get a chance to meet our Pets of the Month, but we were fortunate to meet this one.

Donovan is an 8-year-old Pomeranian, rescued from a backyard breeder. He’s a “super-handsome, super-sweet, shy” guy, SPCA officials say — all of which we can attest to.

The affectionate, loyal pooch is just looking for a quiet, patient forever parent or family to show him how wonderful life can be.

Aren’t we all, Donovan. Aren’t we all.

To meet Donovan, visit the SPCA of Westchester at 590 N. State Road in Briarcliff Manor.

Founded in 1883, the SPCA is a nokill shelter and is not affiliated with the ASPCA. The SPCA is open 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Mondays through Saturdays and 1 to 4 p.m. Sundays. To learn more, call 914- 941-2896 or visit spca914.org.

Photograph by Bob Rozycki.

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InSiDe, He’S A WoLf

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PET PORTRAITS

P IS FOR PRECIOUS

BY ROBIN COSTELLO

P

is for puppy — protector, pal and partner.

It’s also for Potomac, Primrose, Poppett, Phil and Patriot — the adorable canine stars of the new “service dogumentary” film “Pick of the Litter.”

Written by Dana Nachman and co-produced and co-directed with Don Hardy, the documentary premiered to rave reviews at the Slamdance Film Festival in Park City, Utah, earlier this year. (It will be screened at The Picture House in Pelham Oct. 5.)

Nachman, who grew up in Rye Brook, is an award-winning filmmaker of both feature and documentary films. Her honors include three regional Emmy Awards, The Edward R. Murrow Award and 128

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dozens of jury and audience Awards at film festivals.

She and Hardy, friends and former colleagues at NBC’s San Francisco affiliate, had written about guide dogs and knew there was so much more of a story that needed to be told. Their film documents a twoyear journey of a litter of five Labrador puppies, “The P Litter,” born on June 2, 2015. The pups were all on the quest to see if they had the right stuff to become an official guide dog for the blind. Only the cream of the crop makes it through the rigorous, three-step program to become a trained guide dog, for whom getting it right is often a matter of life and death.

The filmmakers received unprecedented access to handlers, staff and clients in order to capture the puppies’ journey. In a recent interview, Nachman said “the film is so much more than puppies. It’s about people coming together to help other people.

The dogs are simply amazing. They are responsible for their humans 100 percent of the time.”

Among the surprising things Nachman learned, a true guide dog will possess “intelligent disobedience” whereby it will disobey a direct order (normally a big no-no) if the dog perceives a threat to its owner. He or she will keep the owner safe, in spite of the command, a remarkable ability and sign of a

truly gifted dog.

The film takes us on an emotional journey to learn who will make the grade. Who will become, as they say, “career-redirected”? Who will become the “pick of the litter?”

For more, visit pickofthelittermovie.com and thepicturehouse.org.

WHEN & WHERE

Through Oct. 14 Arc Stages presents the musical comedy “Forbidden Broadway,” directed by William Selby. This Tony Award-winning production, written by Gerard Alessandrini, is a satire on 30 Broadway musicals, featuring oneof-a-kind costumes, spoofs of well-known songs and impersonations of stars. Dates and times vary, 147 Wheeler Ave., Pleasantville; 914-747-6206, arcstages.org

Through Nov. 17 OSilas Gallery at Concordia College presents “Our Rights, Our Freedoms, Always,” an exhibit that features the work of photojournalists from the European Press Agency, who illustrate freedoms at the core of the International Bill of Human Rights. Times vary, 171 White Plains Road, Bronxville; 914-395-4520, osilasgallery.org

Through Nov. 24 Historic Hudson Valley presents “The Great Jack-O’Lantern Blaze,” with more than 7,000 illuminated handcarved lantern sculptures. The annual event features large-scale installations, including a giant Sea Serpent and a new Pumpkin Zee Bridge, complete with sound effects, synchronized lighting and original music. Times vary, Van Cortlandt Manor, 525 S. Riverside Ave., Croton-on-Hudson; 914-631-8200, hudsonvalley.org

Oct. 1 “GoForPink” brings the local community together for a special day of shopping, dining and educational forums in Greenwich to raise awareness and critical funds for eradicating breast cancer through the mission of the Breast Cancer Alliance. The activities start at 9 a.m. with a flag raising at Greenwich Town Hall. 203-861-0014, BCAgoforpink.org

Oct. 2 through Jan. 19 ArtsWestchester presents “Brick by Brick: The Erie Canal & the Building Boom,” an exhibit of contemporary art that is inspired by the shared story of the Erie Canal and Hudson Valley brickyards. Large-scale installations and commissioned photographs are juxtaposed with historical materials and personal narratives related to the once-vital brick industry. Noon to 5 p.m. Tuesdays through Fridays, noon to 6 p.m. Saturdays, 31 Mamaroneck Ave., White Plains; 914-428-4220, artsw.org

Oct. 4 The opening reception for “Migrant’s Alphabet,” an exhibition inspired by the 1846 “Anti-Slavery Alphabet,” published by the Quaker sisters Mary and Hannah Townsend.

5:30 p.m., City Lights Gallery, 265 Golden Hill St., Bridgeport; 203-334-7748, bridgeport-art-trail.org/portfolio/city-lights

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“Brick by Brick: The Erie Canal & the Building Boom” opens Oct. 2 at ArtsWestchester in White Plains. Here, “Brickhead Please Stop” by James Tyler. Courtesy ArtsWestchester.

Oct. 4

Oct. 8

GoodWorks Entertainment presents singer-songwriter Anders Osborne. This concert benefits SpreadMusicNow!, a nonprofit supporting music programs in schools.7 p.m., The Warehouse at Fairfield Theatre Company, 70 Sanford St.; 203-259-1036, fairfieldtheatre.org

Keir Dullea, the star of “2001: A Space Odyssey,” hosts a 50th Anniversary screening of this classic film, featuring a newly remastered version of the film. Dullea will be available before and after the film to answer questions.

7 p.m., The Warehouse at Fairfield Theatre Company, 70 Sanford St.; 203-259-1036, fairfieldtheatre.org

Oct. 6 The Larchmont Mamaroneck Lions join Guiding Eyes for the Blind, a leading provider of guide dogs, for a Community Meet and Greet at the Farmers Market at the Larchmont train station parking lot. Guiding Eyes will bring some puppies in training, along with their trainers, for the public to meet and learn all about their programs.

8:30 a.m. to 1 p.m., Metro North upper lot — Chatsworth Avenue/Myrtle Boulevard, Larchmont; 914-834-0677

Oct. 6 and 7

Oct. 10 New Rochelle High School and the Women’s Enterprise Development Center (WEDC) presents “An Evening with Alice Walker.” In a rare appearance, the Pulitzer-prize winning author of “The Color Purple” offers an intimate lecture and conversation about her upcoming bilingual collection of poems, “Taking the Arrow Out of the Heart.” 7 p.m., New Rochelle High School, Whitney Young Auditorium, 265 Clove Road; 914-948-6098 ext.

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More than 85 new and returning artists from across the country will showcase their work on the grounds of the Bruce Museum for its 37th Outdoor Arts Festival, recognized as one of the top fine arts festivals nationally.

10 a.m., The Bruce Museum, 1 Museum Drive, Greenwich; 203-869-0376, brucemuseum.org

Oct. 7 Vento Trio, formed by musicians Janet Grice, Kevin Willois and Sarah Bednarcik, will perform original and Latin-American chamber music that reflects the theme of wind, water and motion. The performance will take place during Groundwork Hudson Valley‘s Art and Science Sundays. 2 p.m., Science Barge, 99 Dock St., Yonkers; 914-375-2151, ventotrio.com

Alice Walker will appear Oct. 10 in New Rochelle.

experience something real #PAC1819 October 6 An Evening with Jimmy Webb 13 American String Quartet and Salman Rushdie 20 Lea DeLaria 21 Westchester Philharmonic Season Opener 26 Black Violin & Purchase Symphony Orchestra 27 Velvet Caravan November 2 NW Dance Project 4 Aida Cuevas 18 Circa Carnival of the Animals December 1 CMS of Lincoln Center Windstorm 1 Jazz at The Center: Joe Lovano plays Bernstein 2 Mermaid Theatre of Nova Scotia The Rainbow Fish 8 Orpheus Chamber Orchestra | Steven Isserlis, cello 9 Boston Brass Christmas Bells Are Swingin’ 14 The Rob Mathes Holiday Concert (also on Dec 15) 16 Westchester Philharmonic Winter Pops!

February 2 DIAVOLO: Architecture in Motion® 10 Westchester Philharmonic Friends and Family 16 Robin Spielberg March 2 CMS of Lincoln Center Hungarian Fire 10 Trusty Sidekick Theatre Company Shadow Play 16 Aspen Santa Fe Ballet 23 Portland Cello Project Homage to Radiohead April 7 Tiempo Libre 7 Westchester Philharmonic All-Beethoven Season Finale 20 The Triplets of Belleville 25 BODYTRAFFIC May 4 CMS of Lincoln Center Deeply Inspired 5 Daniel Kelly’s Rakonto: Student Voices

January 19 Gina Chavez 26 CMS of Lincoln Center Esteemed Ensemble

Pictured: Jimmy Webb © Sasa Tkalcan

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LUCILLE WERLINICH, Chair of Purchase College Foundation

Oct. 20 Award-winning composer, saxophonist and vocalist Camille Thurman and the Darrell Green Trio offer jazz at the Caramoor Center for Music and the Arts. 8 p.m., 149 Girdle Ridge Road, Katonah; 914-232-1252, caramoor.org

The opening reception for “Helena Hernmarck: Weaving in Progress” will be held Oct. 20 at The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum in Ridgefield. Courtesy the museum.

Oct. 11

Oct. 13-14 and 20-21

Greenwich Arts Council’s Arts Alive! Benefit Art Happening features chef Rui of Douro, New York graffiti artist EPIC UNO, DJ April Larkin, magician Tom Pesce, as well as artworks that include a limited-edition print by local artist Betty Ball. Proceeds directly benefit the arts council’s exhibits and art outreach educational programs. 6:30 p.m., Greenwich Arts Council, 299 Greenwich Ave.; 203-8626750, greenwichartscouncil.org

The “2018 ArtEast Open Studio Tour” will feature 30 artists showing ceramics, sculpture, painting, drawing, fiber, digital art and photography. 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. each day. Various sites throughout Dutchess and Putnam counties. Arteastdutchess.com.

Oct. 12 The SPCA of Westchester’s “Top Hat and Cocktails Gala” — Bring your beloved canine companion to celebrate the accomplishments of the SPCA and to raise funds for the nearly 4,200 rescue animals cared for and adopted each year. The special event includes music, food and drink, an auction, a canine ice cream bar and professional pet portraits. 7 p.m., The Ritz-Carlton New York, Westchester, 3 Renaissance Square, White Plains; 914-941-2896, SPCA914.org

Oct. 12-14 The inaugural Saugatuck StoryFest produced by Westport Library and Westport Public Schools, is a three-day celebration of writing, combining a townwide multidisciplinary literary festival with a craft-focused, workshop-based writers’ conference. The festival kicks off Oct. 12 with Emmy Award-winning producer Sheila Nevins delivering a keynote about her life as a storyteller. The festival includes the Connecticut Book Awards, Sunday at 2p.m. Various times and locations in Westport; 203-2914800, westportlibrary.org/events/saugatuck-storyfest

Oct. 13 Stepping Stones Museum for Children hosts a “Sustainable Living Expo,” in partnership with Sustainne. The “We Love Planet Earth”-themed expo features interactive attractions showing attendees how to live an environmentally sound life. 10 a.m., Mathews Park, 299 West Ave., Norwalk; 203-520-3451, sustainne.com

The Lockwood-Mathews Mansion Museum’s “Travel with the Victorians Gala” will feature silent and live auctions, a black-tie dinner, an exhibition preview of Cynthia Mullins’ paintings, “The Artist’s View: Traveling the Merritt Parkway” and a special presentation

by Tony Perrottet, all while honoring trustee Mimi Findlay. 7 p.m., Lockwood-Mathews Mansion Museum, 295 West Ave., Norwalk; 203-838-9799, lockwoodmathewsmansion.com

Oct. 14 Untermyer Performing Arts Council presents a live performance by These Three Tenors, featuring opera, Broadway and a combination of popular and ethnic selections. 3 p.m., Saunders Trade High School, 183 Palmer Road, Yonkers; 914-375-3435, untermyergardens.org

Oct. 12-21

Oct. 19 through Nov. 3

The Clocktower Players presents “The Laramie Project,“ a play by Moises Kaufman and members of the Tectonic Theater Project about the public reaction to the 1988 murder of gay University of Wyoming student Matthew Shepard in Laramie, Wyoming. Times vary, Irvington Town Hall Theater, 85 Main St.; 914-400-7428, clocktowerplayers.com

Hudson Stage Company will bring Nick Payne’s drama “Constellations” to the stage. Science and romance collide in this unusual love story about a couple’s relationship that unfolds across time and space. Times vary, Whippoorwill Hall Theatre at the North Castle Library, 19 Whippoorwill Road East, Armonk; 914-2712811, hudsonstage.com

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The opening reception for “Helena Hernmarck: Weaving in Progress,” at The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum marks the master weaver’s first solo museum exhibit in 20 years. During the exhibit (through Jan.19) Hernmarck and her apprentice, Mae Colburn, will be working three days a week at a 5-foot-wide Glimåkra countermarch loom in the museum. 5:30 p.m., 258 Main St., Ridgefield; 203-438-4519, aldrichart.org

Oct. 24 The Mental Health Association of Westchester partners with Modern Warrior Live for a theatrical musical performance that aims to destigmatize veterans' experiences.

6 p.m., Chappaqua Performing Arts Center, 480 Bedford Road; 914-265-7511, mhawestchester.org

Oct. 25 Fairfield University Art Museum presents an opening lecture and reception for “Collateral Damage,” the art of Syrian artist and architect Mohamad Hafez. A lecture by the artist begins at 5 p.m., the reception at 6. Quick Center for the Arts, 1073 N. Benson Road; 203-254-4046, fairfield.edu/museum

Oct. 26 and 27 Fairfield Center Stage time warps to 1973 with “The Rocky Horror Picture Show Floor Show.” A screening of the film is accompanied by an ensemble of performers onstage, audience participation and the use of props and costumes. 7:30 p.m., Trevi Lounge, 548 Kings Hwy Cutoff; 203-416-6446, fairfieldcenterstage.org

Oct. 30 The Breast Cancer Alliance’s 23rd annual Luncheon and Fashion Show features live and silent auctions and a luncheon with guest speaker Patty Steele, WCBS FM radio cohost in conversation with Elisa Port, MD, of the Dubin Breast Center, Mount Sinai. Also featuring two runway shows, the AKRIS resort and spring collection preview and the Survivor Celebration Fashion Show. 11 a.m., Hyatt Regency Greenwich, 1800 E. Putnam Ave., Old Greenwich: 203-861-0014, breastcanceralliance.org

Presented by ArtsWestchester (artswestchester. org) and the Cultural Alliance of Fairfield County (fcbuzz.org)

WORLD CLASS. RIGHT HERE. ANNOUNCING THE 2018-19 SEASON

LEO KOTTKE | FOLK/ROOTS | OCT 6

JOSH RITTER (SOLO) | ROCK | NOV 2

LOUDON WAINWRIGHT III, SUZZY ROCHE & LUCY WAINWRIGHT-ROCHE “ALL IN A FAMILY” | DEC 1

POCO | ROCK | OCT 12

PARKER QUARTET | CLASSICAL | NOV 4

ANN HAMPTON CALLAWAY | JAZZ | NOV 16

JOHN MCEUEN | ROCK | NOV 17

LOUIE ANDERSON | COMEDY | DEC 14

CHRISTOPHER JACKSON | BROADWAY | DEC 15

WESTCHESTER’S HOME FOR MUSIC, COMEDY, DANCE, FILM, FAMILY AND MORE! SEE THE FULL SCHEDULE OF EVENTS | EMELIN.ORG 914-698-0098 | 153 LIBRARY LANE, MAMARONECK, NY

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HOT OPEN

This year’s US Open was marked by searing heat and searing controversy in the women’s final between Naomi Osaka and Serena Williams, in which Osaka prevailed. By contrast, the men’s final between Juan Del Potro and Novak Djokovic, which Djokovic won, was smooth sailing but anticlimactic.

1. Naomi Osaka. Courtesy USTA/Garrett Ellwood.

2. Novak Djokovic. Courtesy USTA/Pete Staples.

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FUN WITH FASHION

New York Fashion Week came to Bloomingdale’s White Plains in the store’s “Remix & Mingle” runway show. Hosted by Simone Piliero of the Westchester fashion blog Simply by Simone, the event celebrated the fall’s newest looks. Immediately following the show there was mix-and-mingle networking, in which fellow entrepreneurs, bloggers, students and business professionals in Westchester enjoyed refreshments, accessory offerings and beauty services from the local sponsors — Baked in Color, BLVD Salon, Harrison Wine Vault, Sugarfina, Chanel Beauty, La Provence Restaurant, Shame on Jane Jewelry and Godiva.

3. Fashion merchandising students from SUNY Westchester Community College modeling.

4. Models in Max Mara 5. Model Raevan wearing Gerard Darel 6. Model Natalia wearing HOBBS 7. A SUNY WCC student model wearing a Polo sweatshirt and G-Star camo pants 8. Kendra Porter and Simone Piliero

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L’CHAIM!

More than 1,200 attended the 44th annual Westchester Jewish Music and Arts Festival, held recently at the Kensico Dam Plaza in Valhalla. The event featured a wide variety of musical performances, including headliner Divahn, the Westchester Klezmer Band and Israeli singer and composer Sandy Shmuely. There was dancing, face painting and juggling throughout the day. Delicious food, including ice cream and kosher snacks, was available for attendees as they strolled through a vendor exhibition area featuring Jewish art, Judaica, jewelry and more. The festival was presented by The Westchester Jewish Council and The Westchester Klezmer Program in cooperation with Westchester County Parks.

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Val Keating and Samantha Klipstein Matty Mozzer and Chuck Lesnick Sandy Shmuely Benjamin Boykin II, George Latimer and Gary Trachten 5. David Buchwald, Tom Roach, Damon Maher and Andrea Stewart-Cousins

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STRAIGHT SHOOTING

The Mental Health Association recently partnered with the New York Liberty for a community-wide evening of conversation about mental illness and a basketball game at Westchester County Center in White Plains. The association and the team explored the challenges facing youth today and the need to reach out for support. Michael Orth, Westchester County Department of Community Mental Health commissioner, moderated the panel discussion with the department’s Stephen M. Smith and Patricia D. White and former Liberty star Sue Wicks.

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6. Michael Orth, Stephen M. Smith, Patricia D. White and Sue Wicks

Call (914) 849 - MyMD to find the right doctor for your personalized needs.

OCTOBER 2018

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REALTOR PRESENTATIONS • The Hudson Gateway REALTOR Foundation, the charitable arm of the Hudson Gateway Association of REALTORS, recently presented a check for $2,500 to Furniture Sharehouse in White Plains. The Sharehouse provides free furniture to economically disadvantaged individuals and families living in Westchester County, giving them the basic household furnishings that enable them to rebuild their lives and live with dignity. Since opening in 2007, the organization has served more than 4,500 households and 13,000 individuals, distributing more than 71,000 items with a total value of $4.1 million.

1. Sander Koudijs, Anil Soman, Kathy Kane, Gail Fattizzi, Kate Bialo, Meg Callaci, Bonnie Koff, Cathleen Stack, Alison Paul and Harding Mason

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• The Hudson Gateway REALTOR Foundation recently presented a check for $5,000 to The Bridge Fund of Westchester, based in White Plains. Its mission is to ensure housing stability for vulnerable individuals and families who are threatened with the loss of their housing but often don’t qualify for emergency government assistance. Established in 2004 and relaunched in 2013, the foundation has donated thousands of dollars to charities and nonprofits throughout the Hudson Valley. As concerned members of the communities it works in, the foundation participates in qualified community-based charities that serve the housing, hunger, health, happiness and humane needs of citizens everywhere 2. Jacqueline Melendez, Sharon Whyte, Sander Koudijs, Carol Aloia, Gail Fattizzi, Anthony Sabia, Grace Perry, Krissy DiFrancesco and Stephanie Liggio

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HOT FINISH

The rain that plagued this summer did not deter the East Coast Open at Greenwich Polo Club, which took advantage of an early start time to ensure the final match between Iconica and Audi would be played. Despite Iconica’s perfect record leading up to the final, a fiery and determined Audi never relinquished the lead, taking home the Perry Trophy with a final score of 11-9. Joaquin Panelo was the MVP and his 7-year-old Argentine Thoroughbred mare, Penelope, who played in the first and fifth chukkers, took the blanket for Best Playing Pony.

3. The coveted East Coast Open Championship Trophy.

4. The duo Mojo gets its mojo on.

5. Maya Boggacz, Mariana Castro and Paulina Burns

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BIG TICKETS

BTIG LLC — the global financial services firm specializing in institutional trading, investment banking, research and related brokerage services — recently held its annual BTIG Charity Day in Manhattan. The firm hosted 80 all-star athletes, models, actors, actresses, musicians, journalists, politicians, business leaders and other cultural icons, who acted as guest traders at the event. Each celebrity was an ambassador for a charity of his choice. More than 300 nonprofits were the beneficiaries of the $5 million dollars that was raised. Since its inception, BTIG’s charity day events have donated more than $45 million to worthy causes.

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Ernie Anastos Denis Leary Didi Gregorius Steve Buscemi Beth Ostrosky Stern Brian Cashman Eli Manning Walt Frazier and Charles Oakley Joe Namath and Joe Girardi

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Eager Beaver Tree Service INTELLIGENT TREE CARE ARTISTIC DESIGN DETAIL ORIENTED LONG TERM PLANNING-IMMEDIATE RESULTS SATISFACTION GUARANTEED!

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‘FLYING’ WITH PEGASUS

Pegasus Therapeutic Riding students enjoyed five days of equestrian fun at the nonprofit’s Equine Experience day camp in Brewster. Campers from the neighboring counties of Fairfield, Westchester and Dutchess learned how to ride bareback; gave the horses a refreshing bath; enjoyed a trail ride around the farm; designed, built and navigated an obstacle course; and had fun with games and races.

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Mr. Blue, Sophia Rosenbloom and Kevin Barbosa Allison Schuberg, KoKo and Susha Fiebach Evlon Nunes Susha Fiebach, Sherman, Emma Biles, Sophia Rosenbloom and Emily Burr Grace LaBarre and Bo Michele Mira, Rachel Horesh, Mr. Blue and Alyssa Schofield Giovanna Costa, Buttercup, Ali Vassilou, and Julienne Nunes Nicholas Witkowich, Kevin Barbosa and KoKo Liz Fortes (center) and campers

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VIP Country Club in New Rochelle With beautiful water views, exquisite food and impeccable service, VIP Country Club is the perfect setting for your dream wedding or special event.

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WE WONDER: SHOU LD ARTISTS MAKE POLITICAL STATEMENTS?

Gary Clarkson

Candice Frankel

Luis Gonzalez

Evan Matthews

Tracy O’Conner

“No, you’re an artist. Your job is to make art. If you’re lucky enough to make a living from something like that, then it’s best to stick to what you know. Leave politics to the professionals.”

“Of course, they should. An artist’s job is to interpret the world. That means constantly being political, whether it’s overt or not. I don’t know how one would comment on the world without being political.”

“I guess it depends on the artist. I guess that sounds selective, but I think that one has to prove that they can be responsible with their platform before getting the ability to be openly political.”

“I think an artist deserves room to breathe. They should be able to be political in their work, because that’s their domain.

Outside of the art world, I’m not sure an artist should be doing too much commentary. I feel like most of the job of an artist is to listen and internalize what’s going on and then reflect it back in their creativity.”

“I think anyone should have the right to speak out politically. That’s part of the gift of the First Amendment, but especially artists. Artists seem more in touch with the pulse of the world. We should trust their observations, because they’re going to see things with a little more clarity than the rest of us.”

Nimesh Patel

Karen Phillipe

Chip Schumacher Actuary Scarsdale resident

Janice Silva

Receptionist White Plains resident

Kirsten Smith-Wooster

“I don’t know if artists should be talking about politics.

We have more than enough people thinking they know exactly what’s wrong with the world and how to fix it.

I don’t think artists have a better answer than anyone else. I think everyone should simmer down for a little while and really think hard about how important what they have to say is.”

“I think artists occupy an important space in society.

They may not always be right, and they may not always even be smart, but typically they have a unique opinion that’s worth putting out into the world.”

“Yes, absolutely. What good is being an artist if you can’t be open and honest about the state of the world? An artist has the ability to think about things differently than the rest of us, so that’s a valuable perspective that’s worth listening to.”

“As an artist I’m certainly biased, but I think artists need to be political.

Especially now. I think it’s more important than ever to be politically motivated if your platform allows it.”

Retired Hartsdale resident

Civil engineer Bronx resident

“I don’t think there’s anything wrong with an artist getting political, but I feel that at its heart, art is more personal than political. I know there are times when the two overlap, but I think artists should be political out of necessity, not recreationally. If something needs to be addressed, then they should speak their truth.

But otherwise, I think it’s best to keep your opinions to yourself.”

EMT White Plains resident

Mother Yonkers resident

Deliveryman Bronx resident

Student Greenburgh resident

*Asked throughout central and northern Westchester County at various businesses.

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Model New York City resident

Mixed-media artist Greenwich resident