An international musical experience in Lakeville

LAKEVILLE —After the students return home and the campus becomes quiet, about 40 young men and women take over The Hotchkiss School campmus as the Portals Chamber Music summer program gets underway.

For three weeks during the summer, talented young instrumentalists and vocalists fill the school’s new music wing with chamber music.

“They come from all over the world,†said Noel Sloan, chairman of the Portals Town Committee, the group responsible for raising money for the program. “They are selected purely on ability. All of the instrumentalists are on a full scholarship, so we really can make sure we attract the very best. No one has to worry about money.â€

This summer, 18 intrumentalists (strings and piano) between the ages of 12 and 15, and 17 vocalists between the ages of 15 and 18 participated in the program.

They studied under resident muscians Melvin Chen, a member of the music faculty at Bard College Conservatory of Music, and Christopher Shepard, a graduate of Hartt Music School who now lives and teaches music in Sidney, Australia.

Visiting artists also take part in the students’ instruction. Three string quartets, the Shanghai Quartet, the Miami String Quartet and the Brentano Quartet, each spent a week performing and teaching at the school.

“They are absolutely world-class musicians,†Sloan said.

Students, faculty and visiting artists all performed concerts that were open to the public, giving the students performance experience while including the outside community in the program.

One of the distinguishing characteristics of Portals is that two-thirds of its costs are underwritten by donations. All of the instrumentalists and about half of the vocalists received scholarships to attend. The Portals Town Committee, which is comprised of people who live in the nearby towns, hosted two events this summer, raising enough to fund a total of six instrumental scholarships.

“The support from the community — committee members helping and people attending the benefits — has been absolutely astounding,†said Sloan, who works in New York City but has a weekend house in Salisbury.

Another aspect that makes the program stand out is its ability to attract international students. Sloan, a native of Great Britain who attended Hotchkiss as part of its English Speaking Union program in the late 1970s, said that the international quality of the program attracted him.

“I feel very strongly about this program because my introduction to the United States was winning an ESU scholarship to study at Hotchkiss,†he said. “I feel strongly about giving other students around the world the opportunity to come to America, particularly to a place as nice as Hotchkiss.â€

For more information about Portals, visit hotchkiss.org/summer.

Latest News

South Kent School’s unofficial March reunion

Elmarko Jackson was named a 2023 McDonald’s All American in his senior year at South Kent School. He helped lead the Cardinals to a New England Prep School Athletic Conference (NEPSAC) AAA title victory and was recruited to play at the University of Kansas. This March he will play point guard for the Jayhawks when they enter the tournament as a No. 4 seed against (13) Samford University.

Riley Klein

SOUTH KENT — March Madness will feature seven former South Kent Cardinals who now play on Division 1 NCAA teams.

The top-tier high school basketball program will be well represented with graduates from each of the past three years heading to “The Big Dance.”

Keep ReadingShow less
Hotchkiss grads dancing with Yale

Nick Townsend helped Yale win the Ivy League.

Screenshot from ESPN+ Broadcast

LAKEVILLE — Yale University advanced to the NCAA men’s basketball tournament after a buzzer-beater win over Brown University in the Ivy League championship game Sunday, March 17.

On Yale’s roster this year are two graduates of The Hotchkiss School: Nick Townsend, class of ‘22, and Jack Molloy, class of ‘21. Townsend wears No. 42 and Molloy wears No. 33.

Keep ReadingShow less
Handbells of St. Andrew’s to ring out Easter morning

Anne Everett and Bonnie Rosborough wait their turn to sound notes as bell ringers practicing to take part in the Easter morning service at St. Andrew’s Church.

Kathryn Boughton

KENT—There will be a joyful noise in St. Andrew’s Church Easter morning when a set of handbells donated to the church some 40 years ago are used for the first time by a choir currently rehearsing with music director Susan Guse.

Guse said that the church got the valuable three-octave set when Harlem Valley Psychiatric Center closed in the late 1980s and the bells were donated to the church. “The center used the bells for music therapy for younger patients. Our priest then was chaplain there and when the center closed, he brought the bells here,” she explained.

Keep ReadingShow less
Picasso’s American debut was a financial flop
Picasso’s American debut was a financial flop
Penguin Random House

‘Picasso’s War” by Foreign Affairs senior editor Hugh Eakin, who has written about the art world for publications like The New York Review of Books, Vanity Fair, The New Yorker and The New York Times, is not about Pablo Picasso’s time in Nazi-occupied Paris and being harassed by the Gestapo, nor about his 1937 oil painting “Guernica,” in response to the aerial bombing of civilians in the Basque town during the Spanish Civil War.

Instead, the Penguin Random House book’s subtitle makes a clearer statement of intent: “How Modern Art Came To America.” This war was not between military forces but a cultural war combating America’s distaste for the emerging modernism that had flourished in Europe in the early decades of the 20th century.

Keep ReadingShow less