In music circles, Rebecca Angel has long been known as a talented singer. But now, the 25-year-old can add “award-winning” to that descriptor:…
The River’s Edge Theatre Co., founded in August 2019, isn’t letting the COVID-19 pandemic obstruct its mission of using theater “to reflect the human experience, spark conversation, and inspire social change” while raising funds for nonprofit organizations.
Luminaries Steven Spielberg, Barbara Corcoran and Albert Einstein are among the scores of smart, creative, out-of-the-box thinkers who have struggled with dyslexia, a disorder that distorts a person’s perception of letters and numbers, making word recognition and math equations a formidable …
The present, as we know all too well, is a scary time to be living in. But what will the future be like? Gish Jen, a Cambridge, Massachusetts-based author and Scarsdale High School distinguished alumnae, Class of ’74, explores the possibilities in her latest novel, “The Resisters.” The paper…
Caramoor has announced two special holiday programs, the latest in the Katonah-based arts center’s ongoing efforts to remain connected with its audience and offer inspiration to the community during the COVID-19 health crisis.
Leslie Kimmelman’s latest book, “The Eight Knights of Hanukkah,” tells the story of a diverse group of children — mounted on steeds and clad in armor — who save the Jewish holiday that marks a miracle: a menorah burning for eight days and nights on a single night’s worth of lamp oil.
Maria Ciampi’s birthday is Dec. 25 so it’s no coincidence, said the Hartsdale resident, that someday she’d write the original book for “Kris Kringle, the Musical,” an off-Broadway show about Christmas.
The Scarsdale rec department held a Sketch the ’Dale contest for all artists in the village, whether a beginner, advanced or professional, to sketch a favorite building or location, view or image, and submit it for all to see. The winners were announced via Zoom Nov. 24. There were 19 submis…
The award-winning New Choral Society, under the direction of Dr. John T. King, opens its 27th season with a virtual production of the beloved holiday favorite, Handel’s Messiah, Friday, Dec. 4 at 7 p.m. This audience favorite was recorded live in early November under strict safety protocols …
Hour by hour, day by day, note by note, the painstakingly tedious process dragged on for months.
When you think of Fox Meadow, what comes to mind? Probably stately, leafy streets graced by Tudors and Colonial-style homes. A hundred years ago, though, you’d have conjured very different mental images: of peacocks, for example, and sprawling tennis courts. Not to mention asparagus.
The Westchester Broadway Theatre (WBT) will close its doors after 45 years of business due to COVID-19, according to a statement released Oct. 26.
Singer Mariah Carey is known and loved the world over. But whom does the idol herself idolize? Fans learned the answer when the diva’s bestselling memoir, “The Meaning of Mariah Carey,” was published last month. In it, she gives a shout-out to Carole Demas and Paula Janis from “The Magic Gar…
Writers, it’s often said, draw inspiration from the most random of sources. For Scarsdale’s Brooke Lea Foster, lightning struck while she was vacationing on Martha’s Vineyard and saw a magazine ad for a rental property called The Swindle. Something about the charming three-bedroom cottage, s…
Festivity in the Hudson Valley usually shifts into high gear around Halloween, with local historic sites such as Washington Irving’s Sunnyside and Van Cortlandt Manor hosting themed events. But this year, owing to pandemic-related restrictions, many of this region’s beloved seasonal attracti…
She didn’t get the bird she was looking for, but Scarsdale High School senior Anastasia Stefanou made the most of her time standing out in the cold on a blustery day at Jones Beach. The result was an award-winning photograph that Stefanou entered in the Audubon national photography contest. …
Given everything 2020 has thrown at us so far, who among us wouldn’t like to escape — if not from the year itself, at least from the monotony of staying home? A getaway is, sadly, rather difficult to arrange right now. But crack open “The Bluebell Girls,” the third novel by Scarsdale residen…
On March 11, life as we knew it in Westchester changed abruptly. A cluster of cases of the novel coronavirus erupted in New Rochelle, which led state officials to set up a containment zone in which residents could move about, but not leave.
Before COVID-19 became 2020’s boldface shocker, Americans were fixated on another story: the college admissions scandal. The public first got wind of the tawdry tale in the spring of 2019, when U.S. federal prosecutors announced their investigation into the matter, code-named Operation Varsi…
This year has brought us a terrifying pandemic along with devastating fires. Did anyone have an alien invasion on their 2020 Bingo card, too?
Scarsdale High School graduate Sam Friedman (’20) and SHS junior Jake Lubin are the recipients of the 2020 Best Shorts Film Competition Award of Merit for their production, “Boy on the Moon,” a 10-minute dramatic vignette about three teenagers in a dicey situation and facing feelings of frie…
“The show must go on” may sound trite, but it has never been more true than it is now, as performing artists face unprecedented challenges practicing their craft in the age of COVID and shape-shifting to adapt to new media.
Scarsdale resident Jill Krutick, a contemporary abstract expressionist who uses texture, form and color to suggest the intense beauty and constant flux of nature — galaxies, skies, blossoms and tides — was one of the artists selected for the MvVO Ad Art Show taking place in New York City dur…
When St. George’s Choral Society kicks off its first performance on Nov. 21, choir members — anywhere from 25 to 250 of them — will sing their hearts out individually and remotely. Joining their prerecorded portions will be four soloists and a seven-member chamber ensemble performing live. W…
For music lovers eager to put live performances back into their datebooks, Caramoor in Katonah is offering “Beginner’s Ear,” a unique series designed to bring mindfulness to the concert experience. Caramoor’s Sunken Garden provides a fitting setting to clear the mind and nourish the spirit w…
Donna Rubin cried the day American Legends was forced to close its doors in March due to growing concerns over COVID-19. From the time the cards, comics and collectibles store on Central Avenue reopened June 9 through Topps National Baseball Card Day (NBCD) on Saturday, Aug. 8, she hasn’t st…
The Hudson River Museum reopened to the public Saturday, July 25, four and a half months after COVID-19 shut it down on March 13.
An annual exhibition of sound art marks the continuing expansion of Caramoor’s programming. For the current exhibition, artists have worked with sonic materials outside the traditions of concert music, and each artist draws inspiration from their chosen location.
While writing a story from the point of view of a quirky 12-year-old boy with learning differences, Edgemont resident Diana Harmon Asher approached the task by summoning her own inner child.
Early on in the pandemic, Quaker Ridge resident Lauren Kessler took a walk around town. Meandering through Heathcote, she happened upon something unusual. “I saw a bunch of painted rocks on Lincoln Road. They looked like they were done by kids,” she said.
Like all cultural institutions, the Katonah Museum of Art has struggled to continue to function during the coronavirus crisis. But even being unable to allow visitors into the building or to hold its big annual spring fundraiser, KMA has managed to remain a vital community resource through a…
Historic Hudson River Towns’ new app-guided audio tour series is a timely solution to the question of what to do during this summer’s “staycation.”
There’s probably not a soul in America unfamiliar with the refrain, “We Shall Overcome,” but it’s doubtful anyone has heard the wealth of songs RiverArts is offering in a three-part series, “Songs of Protest: a Survey from the Mid-Twentieth Century to the Black Lives Matter Movement.”
Clocktower Players, the resident theater company of the Irvington Theater, can’t stage productions in its historic auditorium anytime soon. But the pandemic isn’t stopping the company from engaging the community through online acting classes, dance and vocal lessons and improvisation worksho…
When Jordan Cascade, Jake Lubin and Will Reed set out to document the COVID-19 pandemic through the “lens” of Scarsdale, their hometown, little did they know what they would come away with.
While most of us have found little more than monotony in quarantine, some have discovered opportunity — a chance to clean out a long-neglected attic, for example, or start a new exercise routine. For Hanna Eisenstein, 20, of Quaker Ridge, the pandemic has given her a chance to achieve a drea…
Dr. John Boockvar is used to making big decisions. While many involve life and death, others have been less dire, but equally impactful.
Growing up in Edgemont and Scarsdale (class of ’87) Christina Chiu said she “didn’t fit the Asian nerd stereotype at all.”
Moving from the city to the suburbs can be a big adjustment — and not always a smooth one. It’s something psychologist and writer Stephanie Newman, Ph.D., understands extremely well. She’s captured this major life event, in all its pain and hilarity, in a new novel, “Barbarians at the PTA.”
Caramoor has had to pivot quickly from the full summer season that was originally planned to finding new ways of inspiring audiences safely in light of pandemic restrictions. The Katonah cultural arts destination, with more than 80 acres of woodlands, gardens, sound art and outdoor performan…
Kids can let their imaginations flow with Written Out Loud, a storytelling school for young adults that’s adapted its courses to offer online summer classes for creative teens stuck at home this summer.
The mission set forth by Virginia Hoff and Joyce Barthelson, founders of Hoff-Barthelson Music School, in 1944 was to spread the joy of music and make available education access to reach as wide an audience as possible. In looking back during its 75th anniversary year, Hoff-Barthelson decide…
The Scarsdale High School Drama Club (SHSDC) is breathing new life into the classic theater idiom, “The show must go on.”
At a Scarsdale Adult School board meeting March 2, Executive Director Jill Serling reported the best year ever, with an enrollment of 6,000 students, “the size of a small liberal arts college.” But the distant rumblings of a highly contagious coronavirus outbreak worried her. She told the bo…
When we check in with friends these days, there’s so much ground to cover: Are they healthy? Feeling stir crazy? Doing okay with the whole remote-work thing?
Billy Collins found his voice while living and writing in a little cottage on a larger estate on Old Army Road in Edgemont in the late 1980s. When he moved to Somers in 1989, Collins took the voice that has been the most recognized among American poets of the last 30 years with him.
Jared Diamond had two goals when he began his career as a professional sportswriter at age 22: 1) To become a beat writer covering a Major League Baseball team and 2) to write a book.
Updated March 21: This exhibit is postponed due to the mandated closure of the venue in Scarsdale.
From heart pounding thrillers to heartwarming rom-coms, movie scores can set the tone for an entire cinematic experience, transporting us to another time and place.
Art. Science. While generally thought of as separate, some might even say opposing disciplines, others refute this dichotomy to point out that both stem from a common quest: to discover ways to improve the human condition.
