Fall Arts Field Trips: New York City Edition

It’s hard to imagine a better place than Millbrook for artistically inclined students to attend high school. With the 34,000-square-foot Holbrook Arts Center, a beautiful 800-acre countryside campus (with a zoo!), and working-artist faculty, inspiration is all around. But campus isn’t the only place where Millbrook artists find their muses. Each semester arts classes go on field trips to take advantage of the myriad arts resources not far from our Mid-Hudson Valley digs.

This year the various class groups enjoyed a full day of gallery hopping, performing arts, museum exhibits, and street photography in New York City. Here are some highlights:

Director of Instrumental Music Brian Coughlin gave his instrumental ensemble students an experience they’ll never forget. The group went to Carnegie Hall to see chamber orchestra The Knights perform a concert featuring three pieces: a world premiere by J. Mae Barizo, Philip Glass’s third symphony, and Robert Schumann’s fourth symphony.

“I was excited to have the students see this group, as they are one of the more interesting orchestras and have a gently innovative approach to classical music,” he explained, noting that he also has personal connections with the ensemble directors and several of the orchestra members. Serendipitously, the experience even included a sighting of one of the most influential composers of the 20^th century. Philip Glass himself was in the audience, sitting just a few rows away from the Millbrook contingent as the ensemble played his third symphony.

According to Coughlin, the Schumann piece was the first symphony designed to be played without breaks, and The Knights used that technique for their entire performance to great effect. Furthermore, Coughlin said that the backstory of Schumann’s fourth symphony, which the composer reworked after it was overshadowed by a famous performer at its premier in 1841, was especially impactful. “I’d played the piece and knew it well, but only in the later version. The Knights played the original version, and it was far better—much lighter, livelier, and more dance-like than the commonly known version,” he said. “This engendered an interesting conversation about the pitfalls of relying on popular opinion to make artistic decisions.”

Many of the students had never been to an orchestra concert before, and they were impressed by the performance. “I was surprised to hear all the violin players playing in unison and sounding like one big violin,” one student commented, per Coughlin. Another student found inspiration for upcoming Millbrook performances: “I like the way they used the lighting changes to transition between pieces—maybe we could do something like that in our concert!”

Owen Moon’s Honors Ceramics class and Kiernan Pazdar’s Honors Drawing & Painting class spent their day gallery hopping in Manhattan. Pazdar’s crew spent their time in Chelsea and Tribeca, while Moon took his trio of ceramists to the West Village before also heading to Chelsea.

The ceramic group’s stops included Greenwich House Pottery, Jane Hartsook Gallery, MacKenzie-Childs, and Matthew Marks Gallery. They viewed a wide variety of ceramic work, but one show in particular stood out. “The highlight of the day for us was the visit to Matthew Marks gallery in Chelsea,” Moon said. “The show on display was a solo show of the work of Ken Price, arguably one of the most important ceramic artists of the past hundred years. His surfaces and forms are divine.”

Sarah MacWright took her Honors Photography class to the Museum of Metropolitan Art in the morning. They viewed three exhibits on photography and fashion, a subject they’ve been studying in class in October.

In the afternoon, they went to Central Park to practice street photography.

By far the largest group of field trippers was made up of Millbrook Singers and theater and dance classes. They headed to Broadway to see a performance of the hit musical Beetlejuice.

"We had a great time after the show talking about the amazing sets, wild characters, fun plot twists, and the innovative staging," said Theater Director Elaine Lifter. "A great time was had by all!"

The show was a source of inspiration to Millbrook’s thespians, set designers, and vocalists as they prepare for the upcoming fall play, Antigone, and the spring musical, Big Fish.

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