The Inside Press

Magazines serving the communities of Northern Westchester

music

Northern Westchester Hospital Suggests Ways to Keep a Cool Head Amidst Coronavirus Fears

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Mount Kisco, NY – The Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic is affecting virtually every aspect of our lives, including how we work, learn and connect with one another. You cannot watch, listen or read the news without hearing the latest coronavirus news.

“All of this has many of us feeling scared, nervous or anxious, which can make things worse and take a toll on our mental health,” says Rachel Merchan, LCSW, a social worker a Northern Westchester Hospital (NWH). “However, there are simple steps people can take to lower their fear level, reduce anxiety and keep calm.”

Here are Merchan’s tips to support your emotional health and wellbeing, and help you, and those you love, cope:

Consider a news detox

A never-ending stream of information and misinformation from a variety of sources may contribute to the rising sense of panic we feel when thinking about coronavirus.

  • Consider taking a break from, or reducing, the number of updates you consume.
  • See how you feel after taking a pause from the news for a few hours, or a day, and go from there.
  • If you must search, seek trustworthy sources – the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) gov, or your local health department.

 Make decreasing stress a priority

Find ways to de-stress, such as listening to music, a deep breathing exercise or guided meditation, stretching, or a walk outside.

Understand the root of your concerns

Ask yourself: What am I most worried about? Fear often stems from the unknown. Try to understand why you are afraid, and then seek reliable sources of information to address your concerns, such as the CDC, or your healthcare provider. This can also be an important starting point when discussing the coronavirus with loved ones who are afraid. Open and honest communication can go a long way in helping us feel heard and understood.

Ask for support

If you’re feeling overwhelmed, unable to manage your emotions or struggling to function, it’s time to seek help. Let friends and family members know you’re having a hard time and seek professional support.

Acknowledge what you can control

There’s still a lot we don’t know about coronavirus. It’s okay, normal and expected to feel uncertain and scared. However, staying in that scary, uncertain space long-term isn’t good for us.

Think about taking action in a safe way:

  • Learn the facts
  • Share your knowledge with others
  • Let loved ones know you are available for support
  • Treat others with respect, whether you are a patient, care provider or community member
  • Acknowledge that we’re all in this together

“We will get through this as a community and become stronger, together,” says Merchan. “Take care of each other, take care of yourself, and wash your hands.”

Information in this post is courtesy of Northern Westchester Hospital.  For more information, please visit www.nwhc.net 

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The Hudson Valley Electric Jazz Band at ChappPac on Saturday, December 7

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The Hudson Valley Electric Jazz Band is a jazz pop and fusion instrumental and vocal group covering artists such as George Benson, Chick Corea, Pat Metheny, Chaka Kahn, Stevie Wonder, John Scofield, Michael Brecker and many more.  The band’s music has accessible, strong melodies, both as instrumentals and vocal tunes with a feature of at least one of the soloists showing their virtuosity at some point during each piece. We will show that we have tight arrangements with an expressive moody side as well.

“We want to make sure that there are at least a few songs that the audience is familiar with so we mix in some Motown and R&B vocal numbers so the audience isn’t just listening to a group of performers playing complicated riffs and soloing all night long,” said Jeff Weiner, the band’s drummer who is also helping produce the event.

The Hudson Valley Electric Jazz Band will perform LIVE on Saturday, December 7th from 8 pm to 9:30, at the Chappaqua Performing Arts Center.

General seating, first come first serve.

Two sets. Each set is 60 minutes in length. 15 minute intermission.

For tickets: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/83000373351

New courtesy of the Hudson Valley Electric Jazz Band; to learn more, visit www.hvejb.com

 

Artists Share their Passion via ‘Art Around Town’

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The Northern Westchester Artists Guild is a nonprofit organization of artists whose mission it is to share art by the community for the community. This was the genesis of Art Around Town.

Art Around Town has become an annual tradition in the hamlet of Chappaqua. It is “a vibrant celebration of art, music and community” per Julia Bialek of the Inside Press.

Merchants and artists are matched and the anticipation of the event begins. The annual art festival opening night celebration is held at the end of May/early June during the golden hours of spring. Food and libations abound. The town becomes alive with activity. There is singing in the streets. Work stays exhibited for the month of June at the host shops and restaurants. Downtown Chappaqua miraculously morphs into a strolling art gallery! Art invigorates our communities, our town and our merchants.

Art Around Town inspires the imagination of every community member, from child to senior. It brings the community together in charming downtown Chappaqua. nwartistsguild.org.

 

Courtesy of the Northern Westchester Artists Guild

Why Westchester Dancers Have Thrived at Logrea Dance Academy for More Than Three Decades

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Talented faculty member Vivian Freking instructs students

A child’s first foray into the world of dance is a big milestone. Choosing the right studio is an important decision, depending on what type of training they wish to receive. Logrea Dance Academy in Ossining teaches not only dance skills, but also skills that will help children as they navigate their way through life.

Founded in 1986 by Beth Fritz-Logrea and Jean Logrea, the academy provides training in ballet, tap, jazz and modern dance. The two came about opening the studio in a serendipitous way. While home in NYC on vacation from dancing with the Graz Opera House in Austria, they noticed the name of Jean’s former ballet teacher on a building marquee. Stopping in to see her, she told the pair that a company and school in Westchester was in danger of closing unless it could find new directors. After much discussion, Beth and Jean decided to stay, become Artistic Directors of the Westchester Ballet Company (WBC) and open their own dance school – Logrea Dance Academy, which is the school of the WBC.

Classes Tailored to Each Student’s Strengths

Logrea offers classes to students as young as 3, with its Pre-Ballet program. Students 8 years and older are offered a brief evaluation to ensure proper class placement – with or without prior dance training. Private instruction is also available for new students so that they may be brought up to the level of their age group. As was the case for the daughter of Tara Bernzweig who said, “We had private lessons from Jean Logrea over the summer. He was kind enough to do this so she could catch up to girls closer to her age group. My daughter is now signed up for three classes this fall. Jean was amazingly patient and sees potential in her.”

Having danced her whole life, Fritz-Logrea always strives to instill the love of dance in her students. “In dance, you have to express emotion through the body without words. You have to interpret and tell the story through the music and choreography alone. Our students carry this kind of creativity and imagination into their own lives, no matter what the forum,” she states.

Training with Talented Faculty

The academy has a superb faculty of 19 including the Logrea’s son Nick. In the spring, Logrea Dance Academy presents a series of performances at SUNY Purchase Performing Arts Center. In addition, WBC performances of the Nutcracker take place at the Westchester County Center each year (December 14 and 15, 2019). These in particular are a wonderful way to bring dance to children. “The audience is filled with many students who have never been exposed to the arts, or seen a live show before. You could hear a pin drop in the audience filled with well over 1,500 students – they are so enthralled. Especially in this age of technology and social media, it’s important to expose our children to the arts. Not just as participants, but as supporters and audience members. The impact of both is enormous,” says Fritz-Logrea.

Studies have shown that dance lessons have a positive impact on many facets of a child’s life including their confidence, discipline, creativity and development. As Fritz-Logrea says, “They acquire so many skills that greatly impact their academic school success — and make them into more well-rounded adults. As we tell our parents, whether your child wants a career in dance, or just wants to dance for the joy of it, he or she will learn life-skills at Logrea that will last a lifetime.” 

When speaking with Fritz-Logrea, you really feel that she and Jean share a passion of teaching dance to children and watching them succeed in dance and in life. As she reflects on the decision to open the academy on that day in 1986 she says, “That one moment totally changed our lives in extraordinary ways – and, hopefully, the lives of our many students, who have walked through our doors for the last 33 years.”

Concert Introduces Westchester Residents to the Music of Viennese Composer Viktor Ullmann Who Perished During the Holocaust

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Dominique Hellsten
Photo BY Ben Livengood

More than twenty years ago, dramatic soprano and Chappaqua resident Dominique Hellsten first heard the music of composer Viktor Ullmann who ultimately perished in Auschwitz. “It had a profound impact and it never left me,” said Hellsten, whose eyes teared up during our interview as she shares why she is so enamored with his music and passionate about bringing it to a wider audience. At the time, the Swedish-born Hellsten was living in London and performing at such venues as the Royal Albert Hall, the Purcell Room, Southwark Cathedral and Westminster Abbey.

She was first introduced to Vienna-born composer Viktor Ullmann’s music through her UK-based publicist at the time, Diana Hirst. Hellsten has always had a special affinity for art song (also known as lieder in German) specifically music of this genre composed in the 20th and 21st century. Ullmann was a prolific composer of this particular genre who wrote more than 20 pieces while imprisoned in Theresienstadt, a concentration camp located in Czechoslovakia that served as a transport point specifically designed by Hitler to deceive International Red Cross workers and other inspectors.

Much has been written of the incredibly diverse group of artists who were interned at the camp from opera composers, to choral directors to chamber musicians. The camp was a hotbed of musical activity notes author Joza Terezin in the book “Music of Terezin”. In fact, the prisoners gave several concerts and performances for the Nazis as well as fellow prisoners. Ullmann known for his talent was assigned to the Administration of Free Time Activities (Freizeitgestaltung in German) in the camp as a music critic and organizer of musical rehearsals.

Craig Ketter
PHOTO BY Jonathan Levin

Concert Explores Ullmann’s Music

Hellsten, who today offers private voice and piano coaching to students throughout Westchester, was delighted to share Ullmann’s music in a recent musical concert featuring much of Ullmann’s work as well as other deceased composers of the art song genre to audience members. The lunchtime concert was held at Temple Beth El of Northern Westchester in Chappaqua held on October 17th, a day prior to Ullmann’s death in Auschwitz 75 years ago. The concert, funded by the Ullmann Project, is part of a Lunch N’ Learn series in which seven Northern Westchester synagogues offer cultural and educational programming to their congregants. She appeared alongside pianist Craig Ketter, a sought after pianist and accompanist in the Greater New York area including a favorite of the Metropolitan Opera during auditions for their opera company.

Hellsten not only performed a repertoire of Ullmann’s works and his Viennese contemporaries such as Erich Wolfgang Korngold and Alexander Zemlinsky who both survive the war, but also interspersed between the pieces, she tells the fate of Ullmann, his contemporaries and how Ullmann’s music which the Nazis deemed “degenerate” was ultimately discovered. To the uninitiated ear, Ullmann’s work can be somewhat challenging. She finds it very rewarding when audience members appreciate his bold music.

Why Hellsten Performs Ullmann’s Music

Hellsten feels a special obligation to bring Ullmann’s music and story to light. “I’m not Jewish but my parents were in Helsinki and experienced war as children because Stalin invaded Finland during the Winter War,” explains Hellsten. Her parents were put on a train wearing white outfits with thousands of Finnish children bound for Sweden which was a safe zone. They had identification tags around their necks stating their name and where they came from. The Soviets were bombing cities along the coast of Finland her parents were forced to disembark the train and hide in the snow.

“The Winter War only lasted three months but I recall talking about it a lot with my parents. I also remember seeing a documentary on TV when I was about 10 or 11 about prisoners in Auschwitz being gassed and I never forgot it. We talked about these things a lot as a family,” recalls Hellsten. Just as the number of Holocaust survivors is dwindling, Hellsten’s parents were the last generation from Finland that remembers the horrors of the Winter War.  Hellsten is deeply concerned about the rise of anti-Semitism. “It is so upsetting and the fact that 65% of American high schoolers don’t know anything about Auschwitz is very disturbing,” she says.

The Rediscovery of Ullmann’s Works

Ullmann often said that “music can diminish evil”. While imprisoned at Theresienstadt, Ullmann was able to concentrate on writing music and he even composed an opera titled “The Emperor of Atlantis.” The protagonist is believed to be a pastiche of Hitler and the Nazis refuse to let this piece be performed. Still Ullmann continues to write music and in October 1944 he gets word that he is going to be transported to Auschwitz. He packs up his music and is preparing to take it with him but at the last second decides to give it to his fellow prisoner, Dr. Emil Utitz. Utitz is instructed by Ullmann to give the music to his friend Dr. H.G. Adler if Utitz survives. Both men miraculously survive while Ullmann is sent to the gas chambers at Auschwitz.

Dr. H.G. Adler was a poet and philosopher and Ullmann had set many of Adler’s poems to music. After the war Dr. Utitz and Dr. Adler meet and he is given Ullmann’s music for safekeeping. Dr. Adler eventually emigrates to London.

One day a family friend, the British conductor Kerry Woodward visits Adler and he asks him to view the music stored in his attic. The conductor looks at the music and is particularly impressed with the “Emperor of Atlantis” score. So much so that he ultimately helps secures its worldwide debut in 1975 with the Netherlands Opera in Amsterdam with Woodward conducting. Additional works by Ullmann are also rediscovered due to this chance encounter.

“The story is touching and I want him to finally get his voice heard,” sums up Hellsten. She hopes to bring Ullmann’s bold and dramatic music to a larger audience and would love to stage his opera, “Emperor of the Atlantis”. But for now, she is glad that residents in her hometown had the opportunity to hear his music and his story.