Cultural correspondent Bess J.M. Hochstein reports from Lenox: As the daylight hours diminish with winter’s approach, the concept of an afternoon benefit becomes much more appealing than venturing out in the cold, dark night. It’s hard to think of a more perfect place to spend a chilly afternoon than Blantyre, the Gilded-Age mansion turned Relais et Chateaux resort, where Close Encounters with Music supporters were greeted by a roaring fire and treated to a sparkling chamber music recital, followed by an elegant luncheon on Sunday, October 31. There were no Halloween tricks among the many treats in store for guests, including the typically witty and illuminating opening remarks by artistic director Yehudi Hanani, who introduced his fellow performers— Venezuelan cellist Carmine Miranda and Ukrainian pianist Pavel Gintov (left)—and Close Encounters with Music’s first composer-in-residence, Jorge Martin, whose solo piece for cello, Recuerda, Hanani performed in the acoustically perfect music room, sandwiched between three preludes for piano by George Gershwin and Menotti’s Suite for Two Cellos and Piano.
Sarah Finn, president of the Catskill Mountain Foundation, and Peter Finn, co-CEO of Ruder Finn, the privately-owned New York public relations firm; Georgeanne & Jean Rousseau.
Yehuda & Hannah Hanani with Jorge Martin and Jungian analyst Beverly Zabriskie, a founding member of the Jungian Psychoanalytic Association.
Evan Hughes and Kathy Crisman; Dr. Robert Crowell, president of Eve's Fund, with Mary Carswell, a member of the board of the MacDowell Colony.
Blantyre proprietor Ann Fitzpatrick Brown with her mother, Jane Fitzpatrick.
Artists Werner & Lise Pfeiffer; Marcie Setlow, president of Close Encounters With Music, CEWM board member Jerome Rosenberg, and composer Jorge Martin.
R.O. & Moisha Blechman with Judy Grunberg, president of the board of PS 21 in Chatham; Penny Pincus and Joshua Sherman.
Marcie Setlow, Carmine Miranda, Pavel Gintov, and Claudio Pincus, who's on the Boston Symphony's Board of Overseers.
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Matteline deVries-Dilling, founder of Lite Brite Neon, one of the evening's honoree of this year's Upstate Benefit adresses the gala from the Caboose's caboose.
- Karen Pearson. Courtesy Art Omi.
Olana senior vice president and landscape curatorMark Prezorski, president Sean Sawyer, The evenings honoree Kristin Gamble and New York State Assemblymember Didi Barrett.
- Oxygen House Photo
