Scott Baldinger reports from Hudson. In 1868, Hudson Valley master painter Frederic Church and wife Isabel went to Constantinople, and they just couldn’t get it out their heads after they left. The couple went on to build their Hudson manse, Olana, in a Moorish style, and at the center of it is a large parlor with a proscenium where they entertained guests with the melismatic music most likely heard on that Ottoman trip. This experience was recreated Friday, April 5, (in that very same parlor) with members of the Dünya Ensemble (Robert Labaree, Cem Mutlu, and Mehmet Ali Shanhkhol) playing dulcet Turkish pieces representative of what the Church’s no doubt were entranced by, charming a packed audience of Olana supporters and visitors, who were then fed Turkish-ish tidbits courtesy of Tivoli's Panzur Restaurant.
Olana community relations director Paula Rickborn and Olana site director Kimberly Flook; Owen Davidson and Olana board member Margaret Davidson .
Green Farms Academy's upper school principal Russel Hatch and Michael Morrissey; Lisa Vahradian and John Tillotson of Claverack.
Photographer David Hamilton with event organizers Andrew Appel of Four Nations Ensemble and Olana education coordinator Shelly Ley.
Members of the Olana Partnership Patricia and Jim Wann; Eileen Ordu with Laurie Hafner and Ralph Hafner.
Visiting Brooklynites John Rutigliana and Eric Salas; Olana President Sara Johns Griffen, Janet Schnitzer, and Martha McMasters .
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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
